Surrogate Babies
Anyone who has followed my blog for any amount of time knows that I am not a totally normal person. I am okay with this and what's better is Peter is okay with this too. As you may recall I carried triplets as a surrogate mother back in 2006/2007. The journey with that surrogacy wasn't the greatest but in the end God blessed me beyond belief and I finally had closure after three years of struggling to forgive the intended parents and accepting I would never meet or see the babies. Anyhow, back in mid 2009 after our son was born I decided that I would like to be a surrogate again (for a different couple) so I started the process of filling out applications and submitting them to various agencies. Some wouldn't accept me because I refused to waver on my stance of not killing a baby because he/she may have down syndrome. There were a couple agencies that were interested in bringing me on but there was one that stood out as being more friendly and I decided to activate a profile with "Open Arms." In my profile I specified who I was willing to carry for and what I was looking for in a couple and of course added information about me, my family, and my previous pregnancies. Pretty soon I had a call from the agency telling me about a couple who lived in Tampa and had been trying for several years to get pregnant with no success. They didn't have any other children and had been married for 11 years. We set up a conference call in September 2009 and then after meeting a couple times in person we decided to draw up some contracts. They had a donor in mind but she wouldn't be available until the spring of 2010. We waited patiently but unfortunately she fell through and so did the next 3 donors. Finally, in the summer of last year a wonderful experienced donor was found and things got underway. The contracts took a bit longer than usual to finish but they were ready just in time for my mock trial to start with all the meds and appointments to follow. In November of 2010 we transferred two embryos via IVF but two weeks later we found out that neither of them took.
After a week of total devastation and lots and lots of tears I called the new IPs to see if they wanted to go again. After so many years of disappointment I wasn't sure what their stance would be but they eventually called me to tell me they wanted to try again. Our clinic in Tampa is closed each December so we waited until mid January and started the cycle again. Following up to three shots every day for months as well as several medications and weekly doctors appointments we were ready to try the transfer again on March 12. Again we transferred two embryos and after two of the longest weeks of my life I went in for my first Beta Blood test to check my hormone levels. Hours after my test the clinic finally called to tell me that we were pregnant!! After many more tears (this time of joy) we followed up with two more Beta test to confirm that the pregnancy was still strong. Two weeks later we had our first ultrasound and found out that both of the embryos had taken. Twins. Not really what I was hoping for but I was very thankful it wasn't triplets this time because last we only transferred two and one split after they both took. The following week we had another ultrasound and confirmed that both hearts were still beating strong. The fertility clinic released me to a normal OB/GYN and I was eventually weaned off all the painful shots that left me in tears many nights. Today I am a day shy of being 19 weeks along. This past Wednesday we went in for another ultrasound and found out that both of the twins are girls. I am so excited for the IPs, after trying for so long God has blessed them with two strong and growing babies at once. He is so good. My expected due date is November 6th (a little earlier than 40 weeks since they are twins). The photo here is my new addition to the back of my van. Three fish for the triplets (the one with the cross is for baby Isabella) and two for the twins.
posted by We are the Taylors @ 3:48 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
You are one of the kindest persons I know. How wonderful that you are helping the IP to become parents. You are a gift to so many.
Post a Comment
<< Home