It’s fun to share this journey and we hope it continues to educate, inspire, bring hope, and build awareness. A question I have been asked several times is, “Will you be attached to the baby?” I love this question because it’s not something I ever really thought about until people started asking. For me, the whole process and relationship has been crystal clear from the very beginning. But for those of you wondering and trying to understand, I did a video recording to better explain.

I finally edited the names out of some of my video updates (I had forgotten and said the IP's names or the doctor's name in LA). I'll use Part 7 as our VLOG (video blog) update station and keep it all in the same place. It's fun to look back and see the virtual documentary of parts of the process. You'll notice a huge gap in video updates between pregnancy confirmation at the end of February all the way through 24/25 week update in July.

We're nearly to the end of the second trimester now. In the part 3 post, I shared the products and treatments I used to prepare my body for the IVF process and getting pregnant. In part 6, I want to share with you the supplements, treatments and self-care that I’ve been using during pregnancy.

So up to this stage in the pregnancy, the girls hadn’t really noticed my growing belly. But around 21 weeks, Maia did make three separate comments like, “Oh wow, look at your big belly - are you pregnant or something?” The reason we did not tell them until after the amniocentesis results were back is because if anything happened with the pregnancy, we didn’t want to have a conversation about termination or miscarriage (because this decision is 100% up to the IPs). But now that all looked great, it was time.

Picking up where we left off - the blood test confirmed I was pregnant. Now we had to confirm heartbeat with a 6-week ultrasound with the reproductive endocrinologist here on O’ahu. I had to continue daily progesterone shots and estrogen medication- still managed to do them myself most days, but did have some bruising and soreness.

I wanted to tell you about the products I used to prepare my body for the IVF process and getting pregnant. As you know, I am a health & wellness educator and birth & postpartum doula. Over the past 4 years, I’ve educated dozens and dozens and dozens of mommas on how to prepare their body for conception, use natural solutions during pregnancy, and support their birth and postpartum experience with essential oils and other holistic supplements & treatments.

Alright so next stop, Los Angeles. I was already booked to attend a DONA birth doula training in Seattle, so it was convenient to add the California portion of the trip. We scheduled our medical screening with the IVF doctor for the week of Thanksgiving. Brad, the girls and my Mom met me in LA, and we went to D*I*S*N*E*Y*L*A*N*D and Thanksgiving dinner with our extended family (my Momma is from Orange County). At this stage, not even my Mom knew we were going through this process. We kept it very discreet.

We have news! I’m 27 weeks (6 months) pregnant with a baby girl. Yay! But the baby is not ours. I’m a gestational carrier for a wonderful family based in LA. The baby is not genetically related to me or Brad. She is her parent’s daughter and I have the privilege of carrying her until she arrives earth side. We are thrilled for them, and excited to share our journey with you. We have been keeping this news to a small group of friends and family for so long, and now we are making it internet public.