Utah mom, 50, gives birth to her granddaughter as a surrogate

As Kaitlyn Munoz held her daughter in her arms for the incredibly very first time, she seemed at her mother with tears streaming down her encounter, comprehensive of gratitude.

Her mom, Chalise Smith, was in the clinic shipping mattress and looked again at her daughter with matching tears filled with really like that has no bounds.

Smith — a 50-year-previous mother of eight from Pleasant Grove — gave start to her own granddaughter on Could 17 as a surrogate for Munoz, who was unable to have her very own youngster.

The selection to be a surrogate for her daughter came with a lot of prayer and consideration, Smith mentioned, and as a mom it was tricky to look at her daughter encounter infertility.

“When Kaitlyn bought married, she required so terribly to have a relatives, and attempted unsuccessfully for a few many years,” Smith reported. “She has constantly experienced that nurturing and selfless loving character about her, remaining the third of eight young children. When I had my eighth little one, she was just 13, and liked becoming a portion of that. Viewing her struggle to start her have family members was seriously challenging.”

Munoz was diagnosed with endometriosis, generating it difficult for her to get expecting. She was, nevertheless, able to harvest 4 embryos in 2019. Just one of all those embryos took, and she was equipped to give start to a healthy baby boy named Callahan.

That shipping, nonetheless, had some troubles, as Munoz was only in a position to make it to 33 weeks. She was then identified with an autoimmune sickness known as Sjögren’s syndrome, in which the body’s immune program assaults its have healthy cells that develop saliva and tears, and affects the kidneys. For the protection of her life, health professionals suggested that she ought to not try one more pregnancy.

With two embryos left and a solid desire to have a further boy or girl, Munoz failed to know what to do. So she arrived at out to her mom.

“The working day that Kaitlyn discovered out that she would not be in a position to have a different kid, she despatched me a video clip that documented her emotions,” Smith claimed. “She explained to me that she was sensation peace and gratitude that she could be here for her son, and that she was pondering about possessing a surrogate or adopting to grow her family.”

A thoughtful approach

Immediately after that dialogue, Smith said that she had the feeling that possibly she could be the surrogate for her daughter, but didn’t convey to her for various months. She also stated that she required to make positive that the ideas she was owning weren’t just emotionally driven.

“As a mother, we get so concerned in our children’s life, emotionally,” Smith explained. “You can find just these distinct ties we have with our youngsters and so I questioned myself. ‘Do I actually know what I am saying?’ I wanted to make sure this wasn’t just leaping into this emotionally due to the fact I was seeking to do this for her. I needed it to be the correct selection. I was likely to be 50. I am enduring this other phase of existence. I essential to make certain this is the ideal issue, and that I experienced support.”

Smith explained she retained these views to herself for 3 months ahead of telling her daughter.

“In my possess prayer and feelings and trying to find my have answers, I retained it to myself I did not even explain to my spouse,” Smith said. “A few months later, I was folding laundry and I had this perception that I needed to get in touch with and let Kaitlyn know that I would be keen to do this. So I named her, and she was just sitting in the parking whole lot of a grocery retailer waiting around for her son to wake up. We just chatted — just some compact chat — and then I experienced the considered to just notify her.

“My heart was beating definitely fast. I informed her that I would like to carry these two embryos. She was silent, and I could hear the emotion making up on the mobile phone. She mentioned, ‘Do you comprehend what you are indicating?'”

Smith discussed that she realized whole properly that her daughter experienced worry for her due to the fact she had experienced the in vitro fertilization course of action, and didn’t want to place her as a result of it — specially at her age.

“I noticed Kaitlyn go by way of the IVF process, and I know what it entails,” Smith mentioned. “You will find all the shots and so lots of emotions that are concerned with it, and I informed her that I understood the hazards, and that I experienced been praying about it for 3 weeks. Then she informed me, ‘I was just sitting right here wondering about who could I have carry my embryos, and you termed me up.'”

Smith discussed that not only did the final decision to become a surrogate call for thoughts and prayers, but there had been a ton of logistical things involved to be certain that her body was healthy ample to carry yet another little one. She also said she required the aid of each her husband and her son-in-law.

With all these bins checked, Smith went by means of the IVF course of action, and was productively ready to develop into expecting with her granddaughter.

The reward of daily life again

After a comprehensive-term pregnancy, which Smith claimed went definitely effectively, she gave birth to a 7-pound, 13-ounce lady named Alayna Kait-Chalise Munoz right after mom and grandmother.

“Kaitlyn, her spouse and my husband ended up all there in the shipping and delivery home,” Smith stated. “It was an astounding experience, and there wasn’t a dry eye in there.

“There have been several during the pregnancy who tell me how challenging it was going to be to hand the child about just after I carried her for nine months, but that was not the situation. I knew from the commencing that this was not my newborn. This was a reward for my daughter that she couldn’t do for herself. I would do nearly anything for any of my young children.”

For Smith, the child woman is one more grandchild.

“From the really moment that toddler came and was placed in her mom’s arms … to see the pleasure of her and her partner, it filled my heart,” she stated. “It did almost everything I assumed it would. I have never after appeared at Alayna and thought it was my little one. I search at that newborn and say, ‘That’s my granddaughter.'”

Munoz, who was on her way household to Texas when KSL.com connected with her, expressed her gratitude for her mother’s present, and for her son’s younger sister.

“My mother and I have always experienced a close romance she is my finest close friend,” Munoz claimed. “My mom did a whole lot of issues for me, rising up, that I could not do for myself, and 25 many years later on she did something I could not do for myself once more. She introduced me the best present: Alayna.”

As for Smith, she mentioned she is not only recovering nicely, but feeling good. Munoz mentioned she is completely having fun with her relatives of 4, and that Callahan is normally read saying, “Me and Alayna are greatest good friends.”

To follow additional of Munoz’s journey, she is documenting it on her Instagram account @creatingourfam.