Looking Back on the Pregnancy and IPs
When I got pregnant with my biological children, it was easy. I just started out with trying and buying a million pregnancy test to pee on to confirm I was pregnant. I realize now how fortunate I was to do this without any help, unlike my intended parents, that I helped bring twins into their lives. Looking back, that pregnancy started much differently than my biological children. It started with testing my body and the first of many, many (many!) blood draws. It cannot go without pointing out that my intended parents had a long road of egg retrieval and failed tries of their own IVF before making the choice to find a surrogate. Surrogacy has so many blood draws and tests, not to mention the big injections that you have to do all by yourself, and this is all before you get pregnant! And in the back of your mind the entire time is that fact that it might not happen and you just might not end up pregnant. Luckily it did for me and my intended parents. They were so happy and supportive every second of my journey.
Through all my blood draws and the ups and downs of the pregnancy, I never saw or heard a negative word or action out of my intended parents. They were with me at almost all of my OB appointments and always making sure I felt ok. To be honest, without them I would not be doing this. To hear their story and countless years of struggle they had in their life? It made every struggle or pain I had during the pregnancy all worth it. There were times that I would complain to my husband about being so tired or so sick, but I promised myself that I would not complain to my intended parents about all the pregnancy symptoms because I knew in a heartbeat my intended mother would trade places with me any day and be pregnant with her own babies. My intended parents were always so very grateful. They always shared their excitement with me. At transfer day, they were so excited, because as any past surrogate will know, there are so many steps and tests that you have to get thorough before getting to transferring embryos. They loved sharing their excitement with me every step of the way and they were, and still are to this day, supportive of me.
Like every pregnancy, there were lots of ups and some downs, but the one thing I learned was to stay positive. Stay positive for yourself, stay positive for your intended parents and stay positive for your own family. Surrogacy is not just a journey for you, it’s a journey for two families; and both families will be so blessed at the end of your journey.