Starting Out

Okay, so blogging is so popular now. Everyone has a blog, I thought I'd try it. At least for the surrogacy. Its a nice way to keep my thoughts in order, and remember how it all went.

I'm beginning my first journey as a surrogate. I'm 27, a stay at home mom of 2 beautiful children, Erik 3 and Morgan Grace 1. My husband (first and only) has always been a wonderful provider, so I decided to stay home with the kids when we got pregnant. We bought our first home last year, its very exciting being a home owner. We're very stable people, no excitement here, which is a good thing to us.
I decided when I was younger that I wanted to be a surrogate when the time was right. I knew a childless couple that struggled with infertility for many years, and I always felt that it was unfair that such a wonderful set of people couldn't have children, when so many people who don't even want children find it so easy to get pregnant. Now that I have two of my own, it seems like a good time to be a surrogate. I have good health insurance and feel ready to be pregnant again. (Every two years seems to be right for me.) Despite enjoying pregnancy, I really don't want any more children, so surrogacy here we come!

When I first started looking into it, I wasn't sure I would be chosen to be a surrogate. Both my children were born via c-section due to high blood pressure in my third trimester, and although they were both healthy happy babies, this disqualified me from many agencies. Also, my BMI is 30, which was another issue agencies had. I was kind of shocked when these things came up. I always thought there would be parents out there that wanted me, regardless of being a size 14. I mean, I've always been big, but I'm not huge and I happily carried my own children. Its a weird requirement. . . So I was ready to give up, but a couple of people I asked insisted I would be able to find a match, so I posted some ads on the typical sites and waited.
My ads went up Monday morning, by Monday evening I had over 20 replies. It was a lot to wade through. If a surrogate tells you she's been looking for a long time, be wary! She's either got a lot of tough requirements, is charging a ton, or is unsuitable. Finding a couple to work with is not hard at all if you're anywhere near stable and have a reasonable price in mind. I decided I wanted a local match, so that helped me choose. Some people were expecting me to work for close to free, so that cut it down further. After that I had it down to 2 couples, one about 3 miles from me and one in Charlotte, just a couple of hours from me. The couple closer just happened to respond quicker, and so I found my match!
I was so happy to have found Lori so quickly, and she's just so easy to talk to, I was very content. On to testing. Picking a match was quick. Working with a reproductive center takes much longer.