Leanne, American Surrogate Mother in Power, Montana, USA

Why I want to be a surrogate mother:

The only thing I really wanted when I was little was to grow up and get married and have a kid of my own.Growing up, many of my aunts had endometriosis.Many of them only got to have 1 child (at a young ate) and one never got to have any children of her own.Going into it, I was already worried that I might not be able to.Then, when I was a teenager I had some cysts rupture on my ovaries.The ER doc told me that I might not be able to have children when I got older.Fast-forward, as soon as I turned 18 I was ready to have a kid.My husband however was not.He made me wait until I was 27! Luckily we were able to conceive after 3-4 months! My OB later advised me that most women have cysts on their ovaries that don't interfere with conception.I always said that if I was lucky enough to get to have a child that I wanted so badly, that I wanted to help someone that couldn't.I want to be the best role-model for my daughter that I can be as well.

Description of myself:

I'm a pretty laid-back, quiet mom & wife.I love reading, learning new things (currently working on learning to speak German), working on remodeling/decorating our house to make it feel like home more and more, camping, hiking, road-trips, playing games, watching movies/TV, doing touristy things whenever we're on vacation or just going to a new city (especially love visiting old, historical districts & antique stores), I love music (tool, ghost, manson, in this moment, one-eyed doll, the doors, rasputina, the dresden dolls, MSI, alice in chains, nirvana, live, dr.hook, evanescence, nico vega, flyleaf to name a few) & concerts (we've taken our daughter to 3 to date), I love my job in law enforcement and more than anything, I love hanging out with my daughter making memories.My husband and I are pretty non-traditional.I am not religious; I'd consider myself more spiritual.I'd have no issues being a surrogate for someone that is religious as long as the intended parents don't try converting me.We have some relatives that are pretty heavy into their religion & that's great for them but it's not for us.I was raised Southern Baptist so you could say that I've already converted - away from it! I am an ex-smoker of over 6 years now, I don't drink, I even buy grass-fed/free-range & I do my best to avoid anything with MSG in it & try to stay away from processed "foods".I was addicted to caffeine years ago but now I keep it to less than 1 serving a day.My BMI is under 30. My beautiful daughter is 6 years old; she was born *** is currently my life - I love my husband but I know my time with her is counting down.I'm trying to enjoy her while she's little & likes us & wants to be around us! She is so smart, funny, sweet & responsible.She LOVES cats.Schools in Montana do a state-wide assessment & she tested above average! My husband and I will be celebrating our 20th year together next month.We've been together since I was 14 & he was 16! He's my best friend.I couldn't imagine my life without him now since we've been together for more than half my life! He is my perfect guy - I'd hope so since we finished growing up together; I got to have a hand in making him who he is today.We were talking the other day about how long we've been together and he said that when one of us dies, the other will probably die not long after - I believe it! I'm all about sharing experiences with my family.

My letter to intended parents:

I've heard every pregnancy is different but I can't confirm that since I've only had the one.I'd like to experience another pregnancy or 2 without having the lifelong responsibility of raising the child! My pregnancy with my daughter wasn't like anything I expected.It's hard to describe but I never really felt pregnant, especially in the beginning I just felt nauseous & tired.There would be times where I totally forgot that I was pregnant.Mostly the only time I ever felt what I thought pregnancy would feel like was when I went to the OB appointments - I really enjoyed those.I did enjoy having the big, pregnant belly once it popped out there but really, that's just a small fraction of the time - or at least it was for me because I delivered my daughter at 35 weeks.I did smoke during my pregnancy.It's not something that I'm proud of at all but I worked on cutting back & then once my daughter was born & it became real, I haven't smoked since! I had lower levels of amniotic fluid than my doctor would have liked due to the smoking and then towards the end, my daughter flipped up to where she was breech.My doctor did not want my water breaking on it's own, especially since my husband and I live about 45 minutes from the hospital, and since my daughter's measurements were good, she decided to deliver early, which we were good with - we were excited to meet her & hold her! The hospital where my daughter was born said that they had a policy to keep babies born at 35 weeks in the NICU for at least 4 hours but as soon as I was brought out of recovery from my c-section (which was about 2 hours) they brought her to me saying she was fiesty! She was perfect, just small.She got to stay in my hospital room with me for the 2 days we were there, then came home with us when I was released! She was such a good baby! She literally only spit up twice, she only cried when she was hungry or wet, she'd sleep in good stretches.To date, she's only had 2 ear infections ever.She's had fewer colds than I've had! She's still tiny but extremely healthy.Most agencies want you to have delivered no earlier than 37 weeks.They consider my 35 week delivery a complication though technically it was more of a cause & effect.My OB said that there was no reason to think that I couldn't have a full-term pregnancy since I've quit smoking & thinks that it's great that I want to become a surrogate. After having looked at several agencies sites I've noticed that many of them have a base compensation of around *** they can tack on all these other fees.I sat down & figured out that the compensation I'd like to walk away with would be *** to me would include lost wages for me while I'm recovering & my husband for those first few days.I don't need anything along the lines of childcare fees, pedicure fees, housekeeping fees, etc.I would say however that I think the compensation should be increased some if more than one baby ends up in there, which we wouldn't know until later! And then if there's any traveling I'd need to do, like if I need to fly to you for the IF that you guys would cover travel.