Surrogacy, My Second Time Around
My surrogacy journey the second time around was totally different than the first time. Even though I knew what to expect things were still different. I had a new clinic that had a different protocol. My first Intended Parents were local and the second set lived in Florida. The labor process and delivery room were very different. Even though each journey was very different, the outcome was still the same, a healthy baby/babies.
When starting a first surrogacy journey everything is new and you don’t know what to expect. On the second journey, I had an idea of what was to come and what was next, so I thought. The first time I went through surrogacy everything was pretty much perfect. My second journey, not so much! My second journey started in November 2019 (that was the date of our match meeting). A slow-moving clinic brought us into March 2020 and we all know what happened in March 2020. Covid. Covid halted everything so that meant our process of making a baby was put on hold, which changed everything. Mask, testing, and making sure we were all covid free added to the stress of appointments. Being alone at all of the appointments was not the way I had imagined this going. My intended parents were by my side every step of the way during my first journey and this time, they weren't allowed. I also had to transfer alone as well as be alone for the two first heartbeat confirmations. This was hard. Sharing these key milestones with the intended parents made great memories during my last journey, but we had no choice the second time around.
My first intended parents were local so we got to see each other a lot and they got to see their babies (twin journey) grow. As to my second journey traveling was still risky and they couldn’t come out to every appointment to see the baby grow, so there were just text messages and facetime whenever we could. So, by the time we did see each other the baby was already big in my belly.
With all my babies I went into natural labor, even with the twin delivery. So for sure, I thought with my fourth pregnancy I would go into natural labor. NOPE. I had to be induced to get that baby out. Being induced is not for the weak. It hit hard and fast, with no time for getting used to the contractions.
I would not take any of my pregnancies back or even change anything, because each family got healthy, happy babies. Each family is still extremely happy. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.