How this all started...

I bet a lot of you are wondering what went through my head to become a surrogate. Well... lots, really. Infertility is something that is very close to me (because of people who are close to me who unfortunately suffer from it), and I like to help when I can. My husband and I have four wonderful children together, and the more I looked at them, I knew I wanted to try to give that gift to a couple who couldn't conceive.

In the begining I wasn't quite sure where to start, and spent many hours (yay for nap time!) searching google for surrogacy related articles. I found a local Houston surrogacy agency and wrote to them for more information. They asked that I fill out their forms to request information, and then without sending any, denied me for weight. Really? All I wanted was information. Sure, I was still a bit overweight from having my 4th child just a few months earlier, and it sent a blow and bad feeling. Discouraged, I walked away from the idea for a few months.

The desire to help just never went away, and I returned to my search. I found a new agency that was more than willing to provide information and talk with me about the process. Extraordinary Conceptions, based in Southern California, is the agency I chose to work with. They staff friendly people and are easy to work with. The paperwork was easy to fill out, as well as the applications and soon enough I found myself as a searchable surrogate on their website. It took only 4 months to be matched with the Intended Parents I am now carrying triplets for.

Everything just seemed meant to be from the start of meeting them. I really don't know another way to put it. I've always believed everything happens for a reason, and we were brought together for a reason.

The screening process, matching process, medications, injections, many invasive ultrasounds to measure how things were coming along finally brought us to San Diego, California for the transfer in mid November. The doctor transferred two healthy looking 5 day old embryos and sent me home for 3 days strict bedrest. No walking around, no getting up, no showering, no bending, nothing other than getting up to use the bathroom for three whole days. It felt like an eternity and I was so grateful for that warm shower on the third day!

Back down to San Diego the day I was let off bedrest for bloodwork and to spend the day down at the beach before having to return home to Houston. (Side Note: Southern California is my home... where I was raised, Houston, is temporary haha).

I knew I was pregnant right away. I craved spicy and meat and had to have Mexican food. Gladly my husband indulged and we ate Colimas in Oceanside twice on that visit - best carne asada burritos on earth, hands down! I drank spicy V8 juice as a treat and savored it. Still, we had to wait until a doctors blood test a few weeks later to determine if the pregnancy was successful.

At home I was nauseaus, tired and just knew. The 1st beta had numbers in the 6,000's to which the doctors were happy and suspected both embryos took. My 2nd beta doubled just as they wanted. The IPs were on Cloud 9. I was beyond thrilled to have sucessfully gotten pregnant on the first attempt. Still, more injections followed. Two shots in the rear on Mondays and Thursdays, every other day was a single shot, along with all the pill form medication. The shots lasted through the entire first trimester and let me tell you it wasn't easy. There were days when I was so sick and ready to throw up I didn't even want to stand up, but knew it had to be done.

Seven weeks pregnant the IPs, myself, and my two youngest children went to the OB to see how things were going. After the initial appointment they decided to do an ultrasound to see how many babies we had. First shot showed two sacs and two babies... fraternal twins! Oh wait... what's that?? One sac had two babies in it! Identical twins! So that day I found myself not pregnant with one or two... but three babies! You should have seen the tears of joy in that room!