I thought many of my readers would be wondering about the basic to-do list for a GC, so I put together this quick overview.

1. Decide to become a surrogate (husband thinks you’re a bit crazy, but the idea grows on him)
2. Make a choice to go independent or use an agency (I chose Independent because I found an amazing match really quickly)
3. Medical Screenings
4. Obtain Live Birth Records (difficult when each of your kids was born in a different place and a long time ago)
5. Make a match
   1. Independent journey: Matches can be made via family members, surrogate Facebook groups, or other networks
   2. Agency Journey: Matches are made through agency profiles
6. Legal Contracts
   1. Time to discuss all of the nitty gritty details of each party’s expectations: Financial compensation, birth plans, breastmilk, food habits and more!
7. Begin Birth control: To control the cycle of hormones
8. Begin Lupron injections: Builds s fluffy uterine lining (yes this is the term they use).  Done daily, into the abdomen
9. Get checked by the fertility clinic.  If all is well: Begin next round of hormone medications. The purpose is to trick your body into thinking it is already pregnant so that when the embryo is implanted, your body is ready to go.
   1. Progesterone Oil injections
   2. Daily Estrogen pill
   3. Daily Aspirin

10. If Uterine lining is fluffy, then time for EMBRYO IMPLANTATION (Side note: This moment in time was the third week of March 2020.  Our journey got immediately halted, all medicine stopped and we had to wait for “in-patient procedures” to be allowed in Texas again.  Steps 7 – 10 were repeated starting in May 2020, for a scheduled implantation date of June 24.)
11. 10 days & again 14 days later – back to fertility clinic to check for pregnancy (already 3 weeks along if the embryo stuck). At 10 days HCG levels should be 80 – 150: mine were 300.  At 14 days HCG levels should be ~300: mine were 1100 (I’m an overachiever, what can I say?)
12. 12 weeks along: If all goes well, the fertility clinic transfers the Gestational Carrier to the OBGYN who will monitor the pregnancy
13. My job now: Carry the baby in my safe little incubator body and let the Intended Parent prepare for their little bundle of joy to arrive