Michael’s Birth

On May 8th at 1:42 am, we received a phone call from our surrogacy agency telling us today was the day we would meet our son! We had already had our bags packed since week 30 when we originally thought he would make his entrance into the world. So, we quickly packed up Michael’s bags, our bags, and the pups to start our journey to Fort Worth, Texas, about a 3-hour drive.

Full of anxiety, we called my mother who left Texas just a few hours earlier to tell her she should have stayed and to be close to her phone the whole day! Then, I called his first set of Godparents who live in Dallas to see if they could meet us to grab the pups at the hospital! Luckily, Chris hadn’t fallen asleep for the night yet.

We drove in silence in Sam’s bright blue charger through the dark of the night on highways that are normally filled with cars but were completely empty. Sam in utter excitement talking about how he is going to meet his son! We made calls and texted the family the whole drive to let them know what was happening. I was terrified. For the last few weeks everything that could go wrong, went wrong. We were told Michael had a hole in his heart, our surrogate did not want us in the delivery room, and we were under the impression that we may miss Michael’s birth. Sam his happy self was only speaking of the positives as I flew in like a dark cloud to share my stress and anxiety over this day. I was having a very hard time thinking of the positives. My mind was racing with the what if’s and the future of this little boy's life if he was born safely. I was already feeling like a failure for letting the last weeks of this surrogacy journey drain me and choosing a surrogate who I no longer trusted. I felt I had ruined Michael’s chance at life already.

An hour in, 3 am, we finally put on music while I read of historical facts about May 8th and the famous people who were born on the day trying to distract myself from the fact that this little boy may not make it and I may not get to love him. Or worse, we may die on the drive to Fort Worth and never get to meet him. I was spiraling with anxiety.

We arrived at the hospital at 4:45 am, embracing Janelle and Chris in the parking lot as we shuffled the dogs in their car. Today, we were having a baby, but it still didn’t feel real. Sam was beaming, and we smelt of sweat and stress as we barreled through the emergency room doors up to labor and delivery. We did not know what to do, so we rang the labor and delivery doorbell to be met by a nurse, angry at our existence. She said we were breaking hospital protocol and could not be there. Luckily, we had an exception from the hospital and the wonderful manager had documented everything via email. I was able to produce the email and we stayed in the bleak waiting room rotating between the couch and the two chairs in the corner by the doors. We watched four families enter to have their babies as we begged nurses for updates on what was happening. Finally, a nurse came out to talk to us about what was transpiring behind those doors. Our surrogate had tested positive for GBS so they started her on antibiotics and needed to slow down the delivery. There needed to be a four-hour window from starting antibiotics to giving birth. The first of two doses started at 11 am. At 2:45 pm, her OB came to sit with us and give us an update. He was going to be breaking her water and starting some medication to induce labor again. Neither Sam nor I had eaten at this point so Sam decided to run out and grab food, a turkey sandwich for me and Burger King for him. At 3:30, Sam was nowhere to be found and the doctor had just told me we were close. I was able to watch that bright blue charger speed into the empty hospital parking lot just in time to scarf down his burger and fries before the nurse came and got us.

We ushered into the delivery room to stand behind a curtain in the far corner of the room to not see our surrogate’s vagina during delivery. They finally opened up the curtain and the doctor was talking to us as our surrogate screamed “he is coming!” The doctor looked back at her and in a second caught our son as he sped into this world. Sam was able to cut the umbilical cord and we got to hear our baby scream as his water park adventure was coming to an end.

He was whisked to us by the NICU nurses as we watched them work on him for about three minutes before we were all transported to the NICU. Michael was on oxygen, had wires coming out of everywhere, his bed was warmed and the nurses were inspecting every inch of him. After what felt like an eternity but was more like an hour, I got to hold our son. He was finally here and healthy as far as we could tell. We didn’t know that for the next 15 days, the NICU would become our home.