How I got started in surrogacy

My love of pregnancy and all things 'baby' started back in 1992 when I discovered that I was pregnant with my first child. I felt so special, like I was the first person ever to have a baby growing inside them and I was amazed every day during the pregnancy.
My son, Jacob was born in the April of 1993 and he was a textbook baby. He ate when he was supposed to, slept through the night at just six weeks old. He was perfect in every way!
Things were a little different two years later when I had my daughter,Amii. She was born in the March of 1995 and when she came out,her head was turning around. That in itself should have been a sign!!!!! She was very demanding but nevertheless a fantastic child. I'd always found pregnancy and childbirth relatively easy so when I discovered that I was pregnant again in 1999, I was overjoyed.
I did not know then that that pregnancy would change my life and outlook forever. I had problems from week 14 with heavy bleeding and was on total bed rest for 7 weeks. That was until my membranes ruptured, they tried to keep baby in there until 25 weeks but she had other ideas, at 21 weeks her heart stopped beating and I had to carry her for a further 3 days before naturally going into labour. She was born weighing just 265 grams at 9 pm on the 9th of September,1999. She was absolutely perfect in every way and I had never felt so much love in my life. But, it also made me very determined and quite hard! I knew that pregnancy didn't always mean a baby. I could carry a baby and not take it home with me at the end.
I had a couple of friends who were having trouble conceiving due to her having cancer. She had had her eggs frozen and after her treatment, she would be looking for a surrogate. I just offered, the words just came out of my mouth. We talked long and hard about it and we decided that we would give it a go. Unfortunately, my friend did not make it through her treatment and she died at the tender age of 34.
Surrogacy was set aside again and I discovered I was pregnant with another child, my miracle baby, Elliott. His pregnancy was fraught with anguish and after an emergency c section, he was diagnosed with Critical Aortic Stenosis and was only given days to live.
How wrong we're they, he had open heart surgery at 25 days old and has never looked back. He has just had his 11th birthday.
Then came Harry three years later. He's a real live wire!!!!! I thought my family was complete.
But,when Harry was just six months old his father left me for another woman. I thought my world would fall apart, not that we'd had a great marriage, quite the opposite, but I was afraid to be on my own for four children. I knew that that was probably it for the rest of my life. A single mum with four young children, no job, no prospects and no hope.
That was when Paul came into my life, he was the total opposite of my first husband, he was kind, thoughtful and of course it didn't hurt that he was extremely easy on the eye. We fell in live immediately and were married on a Caribbean island 3 years later.
During our dating, surrogacy had come up due to his brother having fertility issues and I'd said to Paul that I would happily carry a child for them. We decided to have a child of our own and then see what happens.
Isabel was born just 18 months after our wedding, she is the most wonderful little girl you could ever wish to meet. A right little character.
It was April 2010 that I decided on my surrogacy path, Paul's brother and his wife had separated but it was still something that I felt strongly about. I joined an agency and they sent me 5 profiles to look through.
We short listed it down to two, the final decision was made by the ages of my IP's, they were older and I could see that they had been waiting an awfully long time.
We met and seemed to hit it off, we had an agreement meeting, then contracts were drawn up and then the treatment started. The first two attempts didn't work but here we are, pregnant third time lucky!!!!
Ebverything's on target for an August delivery. I hope I haven't bored you too much. Thanks for reading

First midwife appointment

Well, here I am at 8 weeks and 3 days. I had my first midwife appointment today and when she said on the phone that it wouldn't be straight forward, she wasn't lying. My appointment was scheduled for 12 and I finally got out of her office at 2.45! Boy, that woman could talk but we had a laugh. She said that I'm a very interesting person ( due to my five live deliveries, one stillbirth and four miscarriages. That was before we even spoke about the surrogacy journey that I have now embarked upon. I have bloodwork booked for next Friday, the 13th of all days.
The nausea seemed a little better today but it did leave me with a headache in it's place!!!! I shouldn't complain though, I feel very honoured to be in the position that I'm in right now, surrogacy is something that I have wanted to do for about 10 years now, the timing just wasn't right before. My IP's have been waiting for 30 years to become parents and I feel very privileged that they trusted me enough to carry their child for them.
Well, off to get my little one ready for bed and change the nappy that is wafting from her direction!