MamaMalone

Pumping in the wild, Mama Bear🐻 style

We went camping last weekend, for my son’s 8th birthday. SO fun! Hopefully the milk doesn’t taste smoky 🔥

😍 OBSESSED
🤩 In awe!
😮 Downright shooketh (in the best way)… that my beloved St Mary’s Hospital - yes, of the historically Catholic Bon Secours organization started by Nuns - blew up this GORGEOUS photo of my IPs, Faraz and Jason, with their firstborn daughter, whom I carried 🤰

Also featured is one of St Mary’s FINEST L&D Nurses, the extraordinary, talented, oh so amazing Love her to pieces and we were so very lucky to have Laura take care of us during BOTH deliveries of their daughters 💗

This is part of an awesome initiative by the hospital to put some personalized cheer and warmth on our Labor & Delivery hallway walls (perhaps the postpartum unit as well). Employees who had a baby there in the past 5 years could submit their Bella Baby professional photos for consideration.

Families come in many different varieties and they have created a beautiful one, along with their loving support system. 🌈

Big 📣 SHOUTOUT ⭐️ to this hard working little powerhouse of a portable pump! This happened in the 30 minutes leading up to my 10 year old’s softball practice, including driving (ok, hubby drove and I was the passenger princess 👑)

Not an ad, I just wanna show some love to the Ameda Mya, which I’ve had since my FIRST surro-babe, 5 years ago 😮
As you’ve probably heard, this type of breast pump is not intended to serve as your primary pump! However, lately it’s been giving me better results than my Willow Go (I feel traitorous admitting that 😬). The downside? It’s less discreet. Hey, all my equipment has its time and place, ha! is my fave for driving and flying ✈️ 🚙

- My main gal is the S2 or S3 (yes, I have both bc my cousin gave me hers… one needs to be plugged in to turn on, and the other holds a great charge 👏 I’ll comment which is which, can’t remember).

Anyhoo, full disclosure: I got this nice amount BECAUSE I am at a stage where I can go about 6 hours between pumps, for convenience. I started doing so around 5 weeks postpartum, after working diligently to establish a strong supply. It hasn’t affected my total daily ounces, but everyone is different. I’ll do anything to avoid tons of pump parts to wash 😆

Multitasking at its finest 😆 (I promise the stovetop is OFF!)

Healthy meal-prepping (I’ll share this high protein GF lasagna roll-up recipe to my stories, after I post this) while pumping/storing the milk.

A week or two ago, I was tracking everything I ate (increasing protein and decreasing carbs) and exercising more, trying to look my best for our cruise 🚢 in a couple months… well, I did that for literally 3 days and felt like my milk supply took a hit/pumping was more difficult. So I backed off. Trying to strike a happy balance!

Who can relate to the postpartum struggle of wanting a healthy breastmilk supply but also wanting your wardrobe to fit better? It’s only been 2 months, so I’m trying to give myself grace and prioritize the milk-making 🐄

Last date night with my 🌟Super Supportive🌟 husband before pregnancy number 5 and surrogacy journey number 3 comes to a close!

Heading to another satisfied repeat customer, a busy new Mom of two. She requested
THANK YOU, Ana!

Don’t worry, this really was NOT as dangerous as we made it look, for the photo op 😂
I’m just reminiscing on how wonderful the BFF time and nature exploration was for my soul, last week 💖 Scroll through for more pics!
We hiked the Donut Falls trail, about 3 miles (30 minutes outside of Salt Lake City). It didn’t cause me to contract and I made sure to HYDRATE 💧

Where are my fellow hiking Mamas/pregnant people??

I guess we could call this a Babymoon 😄 I treated myself to a little vacay with my BFF, the week after my birthday. Whew, 41 years old and 31 weeks preggo… my 5th pregnancy, and the 3rd one as a proud surrogate!

I still think it sounds crazy to say it’s my 5th pregnancy, since I only have 2 sweet kiddos of my own, so it just feels different, you know?

I am officially a “grand multip” as we say in the Labor & Delivery medical lingo 😆 So wild. And I think I already qualified as a “geriatric” OB patient last pregnancy, at 38-ish years old. So I’m ancient this time around 😜

However, I have never had hypertension or diabetes. Knock on wood, I’ve stayed complication-free. The only “high risk” part of my surrogate pregnancies has been the mere fact that they were the result of IVF.

That said, I definitely feel the strain a little more with each pregnancy. I am SO grateful for my healthy body and what it is capable of… but I do feel a little guilty for not working out more intentionally, this time around. I took on a 2nd part time job, teaching nursing students. I had a horrible bout of flu early in my first trimester, which took a lot out of me. And then, I’ve just been tired and mildly uncomfy! I do my best to get 10k+ steps per day and not be sedentary.

Cheers and mad props to all my fellow preggos, getting through Summer with me! 💓 xoxo

🎵 SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS-SHOTS-SHOTS-SHOTS 🎵
- LMFAO and Lil Jon

Or another possible caption:
“Guests caught Injecting (IVF) drugs in the parking deck at the Atlanta Botanical Garden” 😱

Ok, not really funny… but a necessary and very time-dependent thing we had to do, back in December! My friends/surro-Baby-Daddies and their toddler (my former belly buddy) and I were having so much fun at the Botanical Garden that we were an hour late injecting my Progesterone, FOR THAT DAY’S EMBRYO TRANSFER! No biggie, we got it done and headed to our very special appointment a short while later…

What’s the craziest place you had to do your PIO shot?

WE MADE IT TO TRANSFER DAYYYYY!!!

Knowing that there are often bumps along the arduous, rarely smooth IVF road, we felt so fortunate to make it to this monumental occasion.

We also want to acknowledge that the happy, upbeat vibes we were feeling are not the case for all who join us in the fertility world 💔❤️‍🩹 We see your struggles and heartbreak, and also your perseverance.

With that said, I cannot overstate what a wonderful 2+ days I had with my friends, while getting ready to add to their family, and hopefully make them parents of TWO! 🤞🤞 Just like last time, a little over two years ago, we had “arts and crafts time” in their kitchen, the night before transfer day. The next morning, we had free time to kill, so they took me to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, which Blew. My. Mind 🤯 SUCH a sensory feast, just incredible!

Anyway… now we wait. And hope. And keep taking Estrogen pills 3x/day and a big ass progesterone-in-oil intramuscular shot daily 😖

Thank you for all the well wishes and enthusiasm! 💓
watson.1981

IPs (surrogacy lingo for Intended Parents) often wonder “what can I do to help my gestational carrier feel more comfortable or know that we are appreciative and thinking of her? What would be helpful?”

Well, my oh so thoughtful IPs (friends!) hit this gift basket out of the park, when I arrived in their hometown for our highly anticipated embryo transfer visit, in 2021!

I don’t know how they chose so well, but I used almost Every. Single. Item. while I was in a hotel room for 2 days (one of those days being post-transfer, enjoying binge watching “Call the Midwife” in bed and eating these snacks 😆). A steroid - methylprednisolone or Prednisone for short - was prescribed as part of the medication protocol, and it made me super hungry 🐷
Whatever I didn’t use was much appreciated once I was home. Even the decorative basket itself still sits on my dresser 😊

OH! And just tonight I remembered when Jason took me to 🎯 to get a heating pad, because I forgot to pack mine and they are super beneficial when it comes to the soreness created by the Progesterone in oil shots 😬 I’m definitely packing that same heating pad when I go visit for transfer number 2

I hope this gratitude post helps someone else with ideas. Thank you, Jason and Faraz 💗💗

First progesterone shot of this journey! Progesterone is NECESSARY to maintain an IVF pregnancy, until the placenta is established enough to take over (roughly 10 weeks of pregnancy)