On the 17th of January, 2012, two of the six embryos that had been made were transferred into her. It was what I had dreamed of for as long as I could remember, and yet I also knew that it might not work. The next day, my surrogate flew home to Arizona.On the 20th of January, a nurse called. I remember exactly what she said.  Don't get too excited, the blood hormone level is 199. Which is a very early indicator that you might be pregnant. We will do another test in 7 days to confirm the new levels. I burst into tears, I was stunned and thrilled. It seemed to have worked, And yet a little voice in my head asked. Why did she say not to get too excited? The level she was talking about was to do with HCG. Or human chorionic gonadotropin, which is a hormone released by the body when the embryo implants. And if the number increases, it shows that the embryo is growing and the transfer has worked.  A week later, I received another call and the HCG had risen and it continued to rise, and before I knew it, the six week scan was upon us. This was the real test as this is an ultrasound where the nurses look for a heartbeat.  By this stage, I was back home in London, and then at This is the anatomy scan to check to see if the babies were growing correctly, and where I could find out the sex of the twins. When we entered this scan room, the technician asked if we wanted to know the sex of the twins, which was answered very quickly, yes, please. And very excited, she said, You're having a boy and a girl. More tears. How incredibly exciting the dream was coming true.For my twins, I randomly had a friend who is an obstetrician in Phoenix, and we agreed to work with her. Why did I want to work with my friend?  I had an inherent feeling of not being accepted as I was gay, and therefore I was concerned that we would be treated differently because -gay dads, in Arizona, having a surrogate birth. I voiced this to my friend, she said there would be no issues at all and she gave me comfort that it was all going to be okay.  The surrogacy agency is also involved in making sure that the team around the babies who deliver, register and deal with all of the hospital finances know that this is a surrogacy arrangement, which ensures no additional worries. The agency arranged a private room for us. That was next to where the surrogate would be, so that we could be just us as a new family in our room, and to be there for our surrogate, for whatever she needed in her room.  What a weight lifted from my shoulders.  Living in the UK and not seeing the weekly changes as the babies were growing was hard. Sometimes it felt like it wasn't happening, and it was only on paper that someone somewhere was pregnant with my children.Finally at 37 weeks on the 12th of September, 2012, we were all in the hospital in Phoenix. And after a scheduled C-section. At Five questions to ask.  1. Is your contact with the surrogate too little, too much or Okay.  Find out if she thinks the same.  2. If you have an experienced surrogate, find out what she liked. And didn't like from her previous surrogacy pregnancy and follow her lead on this.  3. Does the hospital where your baby is going to be born, have a history of dealing with surrogacy cases. 4. Is your agency in touch with the hospital to make sure that everyone is aware of the surrogacy arrangement. 5. Does the hospital have a private room for you? For before and after the birth.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ivfdaddies/message