Pregnancy History
I have been so very blessed to be able to get pregnant easily, have fantastic pregnancies and as far as labor and delivery go, they have all gone smoothly. I gave birth to my first son in 1998. He was two weeks to the day early, but perfectly healthy. Labor and delivery were fine. I had my first and only epidural (with no issues), but due to the epidural, I couldn't tell how hard I was/wasn't pushing and they had to use the vacuum to assist him out. There were no issues with the birth, but about a year later, I saw a 60 Minutes or 20/20 about how many babies were injured by the use of vacuum assisted births. I made the decision at that point, that I would not have an epidural in the future unless absolutely necessary. I think I could've delivered my first without it too, but I was young and figured "why not have one?". My next pregnancy was in 2006 and our middle son was born in Jan, 2007. I was sick the entire first 3 months with him (morning, noon and night). Other than that, the pregnancy was smooth. We decided to induce with him 3 days prior to his due date since I was already dilated to a 2 and my Dr. was on call that Saturday. That way, all of our family could be there for the big event. I did not have an epidural and just had some Demerol. My 3rd pregnancy, I had almost no morning sickness and went into labor on my own 1 day before her due date. I had the same meds with her as our middle son. Just some Demerol. She definitely seems to be the balance to our family.
Surrogacy History
In late 2009, I really started researching surrogacy since we decided that we were done building our own family. In March of 2010, I made the decision to pursue surrogacy. I had signed up with an agency shortly after making the decision, but I really wasn't getting what I thought I needed from them, so in August, I signed up with a 2nd agency, Surrogate Solutions and everything went quickly from there. I was matched with "A" in November of 2010 and we had our first transfer in May of 2011. "A" was AMA (Advanced Maternal Age) and due to that, the embryos were not great quality. In June of 2011, we found out that 2 embryos had implanted, but that only one had a heartbeat. Sadly, in July, we discovered that we had lost the heartbeat of that baby. I miscarried in mid-July. It was definitely the toughest part of the journey. "A" wanted to try again, so she went through another retrieval and in November 2011, we had our 2nd transfer with a new clinic in CA. This clinic had it together and it made the biggest difference. With only a 34% chance of a singleton pregnancy and a 6-7% chance of twins, we remained optimistic and were both determined to make this one work too. In December 2011, we had our first ultrasound appointment and saw one strong heartbeat. I didn't have any morning sickness with the pregnancy and aside from being pregnant in the peak heat of summer in Texas, it was great. I delivered Baby "E" into his mommies arms on July 17, 2012 at 38 weeks and 5 days. It was everything I had hoped it would be and thanks to my wonderful doula Gina, had a completely natural delivery. I am even more blessed that "A" and I have stayed in touch and I get to see a new picture of him every few weeks. I also pumped milk for 3 months, some of which "A" used for Baby "E", but the remaining I was able to donate to 6 different families and a milk bank.
I absolutely love being pregnant and this is the perfect opportunity for me to experience all the enjoyment of pregnancy and help someone start or even complete their family at the same time, as the baby will join his/her parents immediately after birth.
I just can't imagine our lives without our children and our family feeling incomplete. I feel so grateful and blessed that someone would allow me to share in this journey with them and give such a FANTASTIC gift. I think it will be the ultimate lesson in compassion for my children as well. Especially my oldest, who is now a teenager. With all of the negative things in the world today and all the people that choose to hurt others, this will be everything opposite. The best thing that we are able to contribute to this earth.....a new human life.
I truly feel that I'm called to this journey and when people ask me why I do it, although I know why, my response is typically, "Why not?"
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