Throughout 2019 and 2020, Breanna Lockwood documented her infertility journey on social media. By the time of her initial post on March 3, 2019, the Chicago-area couple had been married for three years and were trying to have a baby.
Her Instagram readers have seen Lockwood and her husband Aaron go through several IVF injections, egg retrievals, and losses since then, with over 170,000 followers.
The pair then revealed on January 23, 2020 that they were considering surrogacy. Her surrogate got pregnant by March 20 using an embryo with genetic components from both Breanna and Aaron. But the wild ride was just getting started.
Surprise!
The Lockwoods shared a photo of their kind surrogate at 11 weeks pregnant, and fans were blown away when they learned that the lady bearing their baby was Breanna’s mother, Julie Loving!
She writes on the unexpected news:
‘My mother, who is 51 years old, went through a series of medical exams to see if she might be my surrogate. Multiple REs told me ‘no’ when I first started this company because the normal retirement age is 45.
I could see my doctor’s wheels spinning after he met my mother at one of my appointments. My mother is a two-time Boston marathon runner and triathlete who resembles my sister in appearance. She’s in great shape, in greater health than she was when she gave birth to me in her twenties!’
Their happiness was tempered by anxiety after so much stress. Is Julie capable of carrying the child to term?
Breanna told Good Morning America, ‘We couldn’t jump for joy yet because we’d experienced so many loses and so much trauma.’ Everything started to fall into place quickly, and the pregnancy went fine. The Lockwoods were expecting a child.
It’s a female!
The actual birth was a little more difficult after that pretty simple pregnancy.
After Julie’s emergency C-section, Breanna sent her followers an update:
‘Mom is doing a much better!” With her C-section delivery, which was never in the thoughts but was best for baby at the moment, we definitely turned a corner! More about that later…!! One day after birth, here’s my gorgeous mama, looking like a ten! ‘A true rockstar!’
On November 2, 2020, Briar Juliette Lockwood was born.
Despite the COVID situation, the majority of the family was able to attend the hospital to participate in the excitement and meet Briar.
Changes
The Lockwoods were overjoyed to bring home their healthy and happy baby girl. While Julie handled everything admirably, she did experience some postpartum difficulties (as would practically any 50-year-old who had just given birth!).
Breanna posted on Instagram, ‘When our baby girl was born and we went home from the hospital, we didn’t expect postpartum to be as painful as it was for my mom.’
The Lockwoods had been honest about their fertility issues, and Julie felt it was equally necessary to address hers.
Breanna wrote on her mother’s postpartum troubles, ‘There’s no way to make this post short.’ ‘We were overjoyed, and she was overjoyed, to have this lovely new life with us.’
We were quite grateful. My mother makes me very proud. I’m still in awe of her. But it wasn’t all plain sailing… My mother suffered from severe postpartum anxiety and possibly postpartum depression…’
They hadn’t anticipated the reality of Julie’s transition from prenatal hormones to menopausal hormones.
‘It was probably 2-4 weeks after the birth,’ she says. PPD/PPA, infant blues, whatever it was… IT WAS HARD. It’s been difficult for my mother, and it’s been difficult for me to watch her suffer.’
A cheerful conclusion
While the family’s happiness was briefly disrupted, things appeared to have returned to normal. Briar is now a social media starlet after doing many interviews with local and national news.
Breanna is posting about IVF again because the Lockwoods have decided to try to expand their family. This time, though, she intends to carry her own child.
Scroll down to watch an interview with the new parents and their incredible surrogate!