This is terrific; all the best to each of you. Keep us posted!
That’s pretty great of you guys. I thought about doing that myself, but then got pregnant with our own. Now I’m probably too old for it.
I could see that, actually - my first pregnancy was a very easy one, all in all.
But way cool, Hal!
I’ve got friends who have a child by the grace of a surrogate (mom had cervical cancer and hysterectomy but saved the ovaries) and they are tremendously grateful for the surrogate’s gift to them.
Easy is one thing, but that just means it wasn’t horrible. I can’t really wrap my head around the concept of pregnancy actually being pleasant.
Way to go Hal and Mama Briston! That’s an incredible experience to get to take part in and such an awesome gift to the happy couple.
Here’s hoping she enjoys this pregnancy as much as the Shayna’s.
My mother glowed and looked happy as can be whenever she was pregnant. In fact, as the oldest of 10 children, I was even able to guess that she was pregnant before she announced it.
One of my sisters is like her, the rest of us suffered through it all.
ETA what I meant to write in the first place. Hal Briston I am impressed by your, and your wife’s generosity.
So…the baby isn’t hers either, then?
Nope, not at all. Donor eggs, M&M’s sperm. My wife is the walking incubator – no genetic ties to the child.
M&M bought eggs from an egg donor. My wife spent a few weeks getting shots in order to get her cycle in line with the egg donor’s. Once everything was set, they went in and harvested eggs from the donor (this is, I believe, her third time doing this). They then mixed sperm from one of the guys with some of the eggs, and sperm from the other guy with some of the eggs. These incubated for a few days, and then the clinic examined the embryos. They took the strongest-looking one from each of the guy’s batches, and transferred them into my wife. The rest were frozen in case neither one took and we had to try again next month.
Since then, it’s just been a matter of “sit and wait”. Except, of course, for the 22-gauge 1.5" needle that I have to inject all the way into the muscle of my wife’s butt cheek every day. :eek:
Congrats to both of you! I’m really happy for you guys and for M&M. What a terrific gift you’re giving them!
I’m another one who doesn’t grok “enjoys being pregnant,” but I’ve known women who do so I can believe it. And even though I didn’t enjoy it one bit, I did actually offer to surrogate at one point for a dear friend who was having infertility problems. She eventually had two kids of her own so I didn’t have to do it, but I can definitely understand the impulse. Doing it for two complete strangers, though? Even way cooler!
I loved being pregnant. Every pukey, headachey, spasmy, kicky, icky, sicky moment of it. I’m not sure I can explain what I liked about it so much without getting all woo-woo and mushy. I would surrogate in a minute if I wasn’t now classified high-risk. “Regular” dangers of pregnancy and childbirth I’d gladly take on - ruptured uterus I’ll not. 
I have to ask, she is getting paid right?
YAY for your wife being an incubator!
I enjoyed being pregnant too.
Yes, she is. It’s not the primary reason she’s doing this, or even the secondary one. But yes, she is getting paid.
Nothing life-changing, but a nice amount – she works for a non-profit organization, so her salary is on the low side. Doing this will come close to doubling her income for the time of her pregnancy.
I thought this bit was interesting – from a legal standpoint, she has to get her compensation in monthly payments, not a lump sum. According to all the documentation, these payments are to compensate for her pain, suffering and hardship. They are not for the baby itself. Selling a baby is illegal, you see…
I enjoyed being pregnant very much. I could have worked all day and dance all night, I felt that good.
I don’t seem to be able to swing delivery without medical intervention, though. So if I could just carry them and somebody else actually deliver them, I’d be good to go.
Seriously, were I not too old I would be a surrogate, I found being pregnant to be quite enjoyable.
Congratulations to you all. I hope your lovely wife also has a work all day and dance all night pregnancy and if not, ginger is a great thing.
She isn’t drinking alcohol, which is a major deal-breaker for me.
Well, the fact that I don’t have a uterus is the biggest deal-breaker, but you know what I mean. 
OK, that’s what I figured. Good for her, honestly, but I think we can set aside all the “wow, what a selfless thing to do!” comments. I don’t even doubt that she gets a genuine fuzzy warm “I’m helping the other humans!” satisfaction from giving this couple a baby, and that’s fine. But would she do it if she wasn’t getting paid? OK, then. Just wanted all the cards to be laid out.
That said, I wish you and her the best.
I just wanted to pop in and echo everyone else: you guys (both of you, since you’re dealing with a pregnant woman and having to stab her 
) are doing such an amazing thing! What a wonderful, life changing, meaningful gift to give a total stranger!
Do you guys have any intention of maintaining any sort of relationship with the dads after the baby/babies are born? Or is your relationship strictly professional, as it were? I’d imagine this would be an experience that would bond people like no other.
Can you fill us in on what sort of steps one goes through when one decides to become a surrogate? What sort of psychological testing? health checks? How does a surrogate go about getting “on the books” somewhere? Etc. etc. etc.
Note: I’m asking out of curiosity, not with any intention of doing such a thing. What with being too old, and the whole “life-threatening pregnancy complications” putting such a damper on my second pregnancy…
I strongly disagree with you, Rigamarole – getting paid or not really doesn’t change the fact that she’s undergoing a highly emotional process for other people. Having a baby isn’t just being a mechanical incubator; when there’s a child in there, kicking your ribs and doing somersaults all night and changing your food preferences, not to mention totally changing your entire hormonal balance, it becomes a whole lot more than something to just do for money. And then to go through labor and deliver the child, and hand it over to other people? Truly, I don’t believe any amount of money can compensate for the emotional component of that, in spite of the fact that the child isn’t biologically hers.
So I do indeed think it’s a lovely and very selfless thing to be doing.
Well of course. If it was easy, they wouldn’t pay people to do it. That’s why man invented “jobs”. Nobody’s a saint for doing a job they get paid for, no matter how difficult it is. It doesn’t make anyone a bad person either. It’s just the way it is, and like I said, that’s fine.