Breanna Lockwood chronicled her infertility journey on social media throughout 2019 and 2020. The Chicago-area couple had been married and trying to have a baby for three years by the time of her first post on March 3, 2019.
Amassing over 170,000 followers since then, her Instagram followers have watched Lockwood and her husband Aaron go through countless IVF injections, egg retrievals, and disappointments.
Then, on January 23, 2020, the couple announced they would be exploring surrogacy. By March 20, her surrogate was pregnant using an embryo with genetic material from both Breanna and Aaron. But the wild adventure had only just begun.
The Lockwoods posted a photo of their generous surrogate at 11 weeks pregnant and followers were wowed by the news that the woman carrying their baby was Breanna’s own mother, Julie Loving!
“My mom is 51 years old and went through the ringer of heath tests to see if she could qualify to be my surrogate. Starting this venture I was told “no” by multiple REs as the standard age cut off is 45. Once my doctor met my mom at one of my appointments I could see his wheels start turning. My mom is a double Boston marathon runner, and triathlete, and looks more like my sister. She is in tip top shape, better health than she was in her 20s when she gave birth to me!”
After so much turmoil, their joy was tempered by anxiety. Would Julie be able to carry the baby to term?
“We couldn’t jump for joy yet because we’d had so many losses and so much trauma,” Breanna told Good Morning America.
Soon, everything started to go their way, and the pregnancy was uneventful. The Lockwoods were about to have a baby.
After that relatively easy pregnancy, the actual birth was a bit more of a challenge.
Breanna updated her followers after Julie’s emergency C-section:
“Mom is recovering much better! We definitely rounded a corner with her C-section delivery, which was never in the plans, but what was best for baby at the time! More on that later…!! Here’s my gorgeous mama, looking like a 10, one day after birth! An actual rockstar!”
On November 2, 2020, Briar Juliette Lockwood was born.
Even with the drama of COVID, most of the family was able to come to the hospital to share in the joy and meet Briar.
The Lockwoods were over the moon to bring home their baby girl, who was happy and healthy. And while Julie came through it all like a champ, she did have some postpartum issues (as nearly any 50-year-old would if they had just given birth!).
“Our baby girl was born and we got home from the hospital, we didn’t expect postpartum to be as difficult as it was for my mom,” Breanna wrote on Instagram.
The Lockwoods had been open about their fertility struggles and found it just as important to let Julie express her struggle as well.
“There’s no way to make this post short,” Breanna wrote of her mother’s postpartum issues. “We were so happy, she was so happy to have this precious little life here with us. We were so thankful. I am so proud of my mom. I still look at her in awe. But it wasn’t all just smooth sailing… My mom had waves of heavy postpartum anxiety, maybe also some slight postpartum depression…”
They hadn’t prepared for the reality of what it would be like for Julie to go from pregnancy-level hormones back down to menopausal levels.
“It was about 2-4 weeks, Immediately following the birth. Whatever it was, baby blues, PPD/PPA… IT WAS ROUGH. Rough for my mama, and rough on my heart watching her struggle.”
While the family’s joy was temporarily interrupted, things did appear to return to normal. The family did multiple interviews with local and national news, and Briar is now a social media starlet herself.
The Lockwoods have decided to try and expand their family, so Breanna is posting about IVF once again. But this time she’s hoping to carry her own baby.