It was a warm day in June when my husband and I walked into a little restaurant between San Antonio and Austin. We nervously awaited the arrival of T&S, and their son, H, as this was to be my first face-to-face meeting with a couple that I had been matched with through my agency, PrimaVita Surrogacy. We grabbed a seat and began the conversation that was part interview, part first date and all smiles. We hit it off with this couple and I thought, “I’m going to carry their baby!” It’s a meeting unlike most first meetings, but that is the way of things with surrogacy. After weeks of medical clearance, testing, psychological visits, legal contracts and background checks, we finally arrived at our transfer date. We transferred T&S’s last embryo, which we dubbed, “Baby CC” as it was a CC grade embryo, and we prayed for the best. A couple of weeks later, we were elated to hear the news that the transfer had been successful and we were pregnant.

T&S are big fans of surprises, so we did not know the gender of this baby. My husband and I chose to be surprised by the gender of our own child (our third…that baby ended up being a she), so we were no strangers to this waiting game. The pregnancy progressed normally and I experienced my first real bout of morning sickness out of 6 pregnancies total. The first trimester was a little rough on me with the fatigue and sickness, but nothing terrible. We coasted into the 2nd trimester and with the arrival of Christmas morning came the relief from morning sickness. Hooray! I enjoyed the holidays and my growing belly as my relationship with T&S (and H) grew with it. Every kick reminded me that their baby was growing big and strong inside me and that we were nearing my favorite day of all, delivery day.

Spring came and went and the hot days of the Texas summer brought with it the aches and pains of the third trimester. I was really beginning to round out and T&S were able to feel the kicks of their baby from the outside.

Finally, our planned induction date was nearing and we went in for our weekly checkup with my OB. Baby CC had been breech the week before, but we were happy to hear that he/she had turned head-down again. However, my cervix was not favorable for an induction, so I called S and gave her the news that we would need to wait a week. While we were bummed, we knew that the safest course of action was in everyone’s best interest, so we made ourselves busy for another week. At our 39 week, 5 day checkup, we discovered that baby CC was breech again. We scheduled an external version and successfully turned the baby from the outside. I was sent home to wait out the weekend and we scheduled an “eviction” date for Monday, July 17th. Baby CC would need to come out, one way or another.

Sunday night, my husband and I checked into a Houston hotel so we could be a few miles from the hospital. We attempted to get some sleep, but at 5AM, I began calling the hospital, as instructed, to see if there was an available bed for my induction. Sadly, they did not anticipate having a room until 8AM. I dozed on the couch and set a timer for 8AM.

After calling back at 8AM, 9AM, 11AM and 12PM, I still had no instructions to head to the hospital. T&S were anxiously awaiting my call to head in, and it was time for us to check out of the hotel, so my husband and I headed over to T&S’ hotel room to hang out and wait for the call. At 1:45PM, we finally got our call to come on into the hospital. S, my husband and I headed out and my IF waited with H at the hotel until it was closer to delivery time.

There was more waiting to be had when we arrived at the hospital, but we finally got checked in only to suspect the baby might be breech again. Around 3:30, the doctor came in and my belly was completely different than it had been a couple of hours before. A quick ultrasound peek confirmed that baby was head-down, so we started pitocin. Around 10:15pm, I ordered my epidural, but I was still at a 1. At 3:45AM, I finally made some progress and was at a 4 and 50% effaced. We broke my bag of waters and waited for some more progress. 5:30AM and we were at a 5. Everyone was anxious to meet this baby! The doctor came in again around 7:30AM and I was complete and ready to push. S called T and said, “it’s time! Come now. Carmela’s waiting on you to push!” When T arrived, he and S gathered at the head of my bed and we were ready to push. A few seconds later, they met their beautiful baby girl and the delivery room was filled with tears. The look on my IP’s faces was something every surrogate longs to see.To know that you helped put that look on their face is a feeling like no other. It was a beautiful end to an amazing journey.