I Carried 2 Sets of Twins as a Surrogate, Here’s My Story!
I hate to say it but I feel pretty well qualified to bore you to death on the subject of carrying twins. Having carried 2 sets of twins and giving birth to them consecutively in 2000 and 2005, I never thought that I would be sitting here today reliving each and every painful memory of the 34 1/2 weeks and 37 weeks of pregnancy. (how many years is that?)
How did this HAPPEN??? Two sets of TWINS! Well...that's IVF for you. Transfer over 1 embryo and you have a chance of twins...which is not to say you can't have identical twins from one embryo but let's not get into semantics! I agreed to 3 embryos. Yes, THREE. EACH TIME...you would have thought that I would have learned my lesson after my first successful transfer, which, by the way, started out as a triplet pregnancy. That first UltraSound just blew everyone out of the water. It left me with my head spinning. After the shock, the only choice was to move forward and pray that we all "came out" ok.
Now is the time I give you a little background on my reproductive life. (Feel free to speed read.) I have two children of my own. A son born in 1986 and a daughter born in 1996. Same marriage, same father. (I was diagnosed with secondary infertility due to hormone imbalance but we conceived naturally). I had "natural childbirth" with both of my babies. Never did I think that I would EVER go under the knife....for myself, my kids, or anybody else, for that matter.
So here I am pregnant with TWINS for the first time and thinking I am going to have natural childbirth...why would I think anything different? Because I was stupid! That's why!! Ok...maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part because I was healthy and I knew no different. At about 32 weeks I had a horrible gallbladder attack. I was sure it was a heart attack. I was rushed to the hospital where the emergency room was convinced that I was in early labor. A night of IVs and I was sent home to a lovely homemade breakfast prepared by my main man...fried eggs, fried blueberry bread and bacon, whole chocolate milk...yum (Everything a gallbladder, I mean pregnant woman, could love) That afternoon I was back in the emergency room with a new doc on the floor who looked at me and asked if I had a Bilirubin test MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Bilirubin and sure enough, when the results came back the consensus was that I had a gallbladder issue...later the ultrasound confirmed it.
To make a long story short, I was on the next plane from Rochester, NY to Tampa, FL. Although the symptoms were under control I stayed close to the hospital until one night...after a Surrogate get-together at my condo (Thank you again IP's!) I started to see black spots...a little dizzy and uncomfortable but I was only 34 weeks...and my husband was due to be in town at 36 weeks...our goal. My IM came with her stethoscope and low and behold my blood pressure was so high she wouldn't let me even start dinner...I have whisked away to the hospital and before I knew what was happening the OBGYN, Dr. Joy had my tests back and said: "we are getting the hell out of Dodge". Why? I'm in the hospital...I will rest...I will be good...but it was too late...my kidneys were shutting down and worse things were to come the longer we waited. I had no one there...I was alone facing my first ever surgery. My IF was trying everything he could to get my husband even in the state but we needed to get those babies out of me. I felt out of control and vulnerable. But there was nothing else that could be done. I had an emergency C-Section on March 14th at 7 PM which resulted in 2 baby girls weighing 5 lbs 1 oz and 4 lbs 12 oz. (I hope my memory is right at the time...it was a little foggy for me...)
These girls are now almost 21 years old! Healthy and full of life. Was it worth it...YES...because THEY ARE healthy and full of life....and continuing to give their parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends the benefit of their love, their smiles, their laughter. And that was the whole reason for being a surrogate in the first place!
**By the way, I had my gallbladder removed a couple of months later which resulted in a 7-day hospital stay.