Bringing New Life

“A friend of mine's daughter was a surrogate for someone and told me about it. I thought it was interesting and something I could “easily” do to help a family grow. I did some research on my own and decided I wanted and could do it. 
I learned a lot throughout the journey. The amount of paperwork, doctors appointments and lawyer appointments were something I never thought we would finish. The first baby was a boy named Eli. He is almost 2 years old now. His whole pregnancy was fairly simple other than a lot of morning sickness. He was born at 40 weeks and perfectly healthy. I get pictures of him once a year around his birthday with an update on how he is doing. I look forward to getting his 2 year update here very soon. 

The second baby was a girl. Her parents do not want her name out on any forum so I call her Baby A when talking about her. My pregnancy with her was easy as well, minus some passing out and morning sickness. She also was born at 40 weeks and perfectly healthy. I have had constant contact and photos of her. Giving her to her parents was not hard on me but telling her sweet parents and her goodbye were hard. We clicked and bonded a lot over our 16 month journey. I feel like with them I gained not just an experience but a whole new family. I look forward to every picture and every text from her mom and dad! To start each journey I took a trip to the respected fertility clinic. During these trips I was given a psych evaluation, labs, a sonogram and an interview with the parents. Once these appointments were done and results from testing came back, I started hormone treatments including giving myself up to three shots a day. I also had Weekly lab work and sonograms to make sure meds were doing their job and that my body was handling everything well. 

With every journey the carrier's health and well being is also put first. Once my levels were where they needed them to be I was flown back to the fertility clinics where an embryo transfer was performed. After being on bed rest for 24 hours I flew back home. These trips were quick after the transfer. I continued to give myself shots and take hormone meds for three months. My doctor visits for labs and sonos went from weekly to every two days. Two weeks after each transfer they ran a pregnancy test. My appointments then went back to weekly up until the 12-week mark. Then the appointments changed to a normal pregnancy schedule and I was released from the fertility clinic into my OB’s care. With each journey one parent was able to be in the operating room with me. Both babies were born via c-section on a date picked between the parents and myself. Once the babies were born they and the parents were taken to their own rooms and I had my own as well. During our hospital stays we had as much contact as the parents wished. I did meet and hold each baby. 

With Baby A each of my kids, mom and a few friends were able to meet her. Every journey is different depending on the amount of contact and info I am allowed to share. I would love to have this experience again but unfortunately I am unable to. This last journey was my 4th c-section. After 3 the agency I went through would like you to be done. This is to protect the carrier. These journeys are something I am very proud of and love to share.”