Story time with Mateo

Erika: 

So in my mind, my formal announcement about the pregnancy happened on our Anniversary, on our August 25th post Maybe Baby, but apparently, it was not.

 The other day I posted to my social media an updated picture of Lil Perales and a link to the last post, and that (unintentionally) ended up being the actual official announcement. Surprise! 

Regardless of when people have found out about our news, the enthusiasm, love, and support has been much more than I had anticipated, SO unexpected and SO appreciated.  

Another announcement we made this past week was to the big brother.

About two years ago, maybe longer, Mateo and I started reading Grown in Another Garden by Crystal Falk, who also wrote Sophia's Broken Crayons (the book I gave to Tina's children several years ago.) The first time I read it, he was a little over two. 

The book is great and compares pregnancy to gardening and having room for things to grow. However, it also jumps from gardening to pregnancy pretty abruptly and during that first read, Mateo's little face was stunned. I realized though, it wasn't at the fact that he didn't grow in my belly, but the fact that babies grow in bellies. Period. Lol. I had never explained that part to him and so it took some time for him to wrap his head around that idea, let alone the idea of surrogacy.  But over the last couple of years, we've continually read that book and more recently began looking at his baby album which shows photos leading up to his birth and then through his the first year of life. 

We also recently purchased Wanted by Carolina Robbiano, which explains the process of surrogacy in a bit more length and detail. Although I do think it's a bit long for Mateo, the illustrations are cute and the fact that it's bilingual is a huge plus. 

 

     So he has really started to grasp the idea of surrogacy and fully understands now who Tina is and the love that she was able to give him during that time and continues to give him now.

Since about the age of two, Mateo has continually found interest in playing with the baby doll that we used in our baby classes before he arrived. He has always played with this doll, who he typically calls his baby sister (but on occasion is his baby brother), feeding it, burping it, singing to it... all the things. 

This is Mateo with his doll at two. 

Last Fall, Mateo really started asking about a sibling. He would talk to his preschool teacher, his Nana, his Abuelita, and us about having a sibling. He's told us his plans about what he would like to teach his baby sibling: how to walk, talk, sing, and all about Star Wars. 

His other plan is to have at least two siblings.  He wants them to be twins. A boy and a girl. (You can guess what he wants to name them.) He will not back down, but I've told him repeatedly how lucky he would be to just have one.

And though the sibling dream has been on-going for the last couple of years, over the last few months, Mateo has started asking more about babies and bodies. He's asked:

How do babies get in the belly?

Why can't your body grow a baby?

How does a baby get out of the belly?

Can I make a baby?

What are testicles? (This has its own very special story that I will gladly tell you if you ask.)

So here comes the best baby book I have ever read, ever. I had actually found it years ago when I had only just started to think about what it would take to have a baby. I'd seen a little preview about 7 or 8 years ago and knew that one day I would buy that book for our kid. 

It's called What Makes a Baby by Cory Silverberg and it explains it all, without saying too much, and has been the perfect book to answer Mateo's most pressing questions in a way that he understands. It's totally age-appropriate and the illustrations by Fiona Smyth are my absolute FAVORITE.

We've been reading this book for the last couple of weeks and Mateo LOVES it. This past weekend I decided to add a surprise ending. Wait for it... It is so worth it. It's not the entire book, but I clipped together bits and pieces.

Click this link to watch the video.

"Baby,

I feel excited about being a big brother because it’s very very nice because I get to treat you nicely. I will show you how to do grown up stuff. I will teach you to talk and to walk. I will hold you when you cry and I will make funny jokes to make you laugh.

Baby, I love you so. Baby, have a good time in Florencia’s belly. Baby, I’m gonna hold you when you’re out. Come soon. Be a good baby."

Your Big Brother, Mateo

We graduated, again!

Erika:

So we recently graduated from our fertility clinic and have moved onto an official OB. It’s so exciting to finally be at this point!

This was at the last appointment at 9wks.

Not a ton of movement on this one. The assistant in the room made us miss the one tiny lil hiccup the baby had at the very beginning. It’s fine. I’m fine. But if you look closely and obsessively, right at the beginning you can spot a little head nod, like, “Sup.” Cuteness!

You can also catch the tiny lil heartbeat flicker.

There are some definite differences between Mateo’s journey and this new one. And though we’ve mentioned before that we are really trying not to compare, it happens. 

One big difference this time around has been Covid precautions. Though we were limited at some of the appointments with the RE, for the most part we could all be at every appointment. However, the OB is different and so we weren’t able to be at this first one. We were totally fine with that. Luis and I had already assumed that would be a precaution put into place. We also figured that most of the upcoming appointments would be simple labs, blood pressure and measuring, no ultrasounds. 

Well, during Florencia’s first appointment we found out they’d be doing an ultrasound! And so thankfully she was able to FaceTime us for a bit and we were able to see baby! And even though we were at home that day, the equipment they had made everything SO clear! Baby was moving and you could see the little toes and fingers. So freaking adorable.

10 weeks here.

The equipment was SO clear, in fact, that the ultrasound tech SWORE that she could tell the gender. Don’t worry guys. It’s too soon to tell. Baby was only 10weeks at that appointment. Too soon. Trust me, we tried.

Watch the video though. Florencia’s reaction is the best. 

One other celebration is Florencia is done with her med protocol! No more shots! You are brave and amazing!!! 

Thank you for enduring all this for Lil Perales!

That’s all we have for today. 

Next up... telling Mateo!

Wish us luck!

“Hey there, Lil P. You are growing healthy and strong and every time we get to see you, we get more and more excited to meet you! I have a feeling this is going to start going by quickly.”

-excerpt from a letter to our new baby