Q: Why did you choose to carry someone else's baby before having your own?

Oh hey! Thanks for asking!

This is a pretty big deal because I haven't run into any other surrogates on the internet who are having their first kid (I know you're out there!!! contact meeeee!). One big reason for this is that in order to work for a surrogacy agency you MUST have already had your own kids. I haven't seen any reasons given explicitly, but I assume it's because a) they want to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into and b) in theory this should lessen the chance you become attached to the kid? (Any pro surrogates want to chime in here?)

So, I guess you're assuming that I want my own kids... and you'd be very RIGHT. I've always wanted kids, and not for a moment -- in the midst of screaming children or bratty teenagers -- have I doubted that desire (despite being a member of a yuppie demographic that rejects the idea that a normal life trajectory requires kids).

BUTTTT - here's the thing: I really don't want them now. Or anytime soon. Or, really, anytime sooner than biologically necessary. I think this is partially induced by the fact that my mother had me, her only child, late-ish (at 36). I grew up with this vague belief that 36 was baby-making time, so at 27 my biological clock hasn't even been wound yet.

When I told Wolfram and Winchester I wanted to do this for them, I told them the sooner the better. Being a grad student sucks in many ways, but it's kind of an awesome time to be pregnant. I'm in the dissertation-writing phase, so I don't have a set schedule. I can basically work whenever and wherever I want, leaving plenty of flexibility to be sick, moody, bitchy and whatever else pregnant chicks are supposed to be (though I am still too good for all that shit ;). And this leaves me free to put off having my own kids for as long as I want/can, without saving up any fertile years for others!