Earlier this month, a 51-year old woman gave birth to her first grandchild, her daughter’s baby.
Our family is our safe place, the only spot in the world where we can always find love, comfort, understanding, and help. Yet, life often requires sacrifices, and the one this mother made has changed the lives of her entire family.
Earlier this month, on November 2, Julie Loving, 51, gave birth to her granddaughter and made her daughter, Breanna Lockwood, 29, happy beyond belief.
Breanna wrote an Instagram post:
“My mom was an absolute rockstar through a difficult delivery. The sacrifices she took to bring this little slice of heaven into our world takes my breath away. Holding my daughter in my arms my heart is bursting. The feeling of how I would do absolutely anything needed for this child is radiating through me when I look at her and reflects back on what my mom did for me.”
The amazing grandma, Julie, said it has been “a textbook pregnancy”.
In loving homage to the incredible woman, Breanna named the baby Briar Juliette Lockwood. This marvelous story was not always this happy.
Namely, Breanna and her husband Aaron had been trying to have a child for a long time.
It had been a long and incredibly difficult emotional struggle. Lockwood admits that “struggling with infertility was the hardest thing” she has ever had to do.
She had gone through 476 injections, 64 blood draws, 4 unsuccessful embryo transfers out of 8 IVF frozen embryo transfers, 7 surgeries, 1 miscarriage, 1 twin miscarriage, as well as an ectopic pregnancy.
Moreover, a pregnancy removal procedure left her with damaged scar tissue in her uterus, so she no longer had other options but to find a gestational carrier.
At this point, her mother came to the rescue.
Breanna was initially skeptical:
“My mama came to me multiple times offering to carry for us. My response? I laughed. “you crazy!?” lol… I did not think that was even possible. My mom, Julie, is 51 years old and had already been through menopause! But she was persistent. One thing about my mom is when she sets her mind to something, she goes for it. She’s a hardcore athlete, who’s completed multiple Boston marathons and super into health and fitness. She sets a goal and she goes for it.”
Breanna’s fertility specialist, Dr. Brian Kaplan of Fertility Centers of Illinois explained that the entire procedure is unavailable for most Americans, as it costs over $100,000.
He added:
“My immediate reaction was, ‘This is not a good thing. Normally, a gestational carrier should be under 40 years, but in medicine, you have to look at an individual and personalize it.”
Yet, the numerous tests showed that Julie was fit to be a surrogate mother, and she got pregnant the “very first time with the very first embryo.” In the update, Breanna explained that both, her mother, and her baby, are “fantastic and healthy”.
She said that she and her husband can’t wait to tell their daughter that she was “wanted so much that we did everything we could to bring you into the world.” Loving added that she also looks forward to the day that she can tell her granddaughter about how she carried her for nine months.
What an incredible story of love!
