From a salsa jar conception to the hospital birth we wanted
Three months before the baby was due, my partner Patty and I took the birth class. I’m so glad we took the class together — the yoga teacher taught us a lot about exercises we could do during labor, breathing to help through the contractions, the benefits of avoiding interventions, and how a labor doula could really support our decisions to have the birth we wanted.
All about one queer family’s experience with IVF and making babies
The Story of Sadie sits on the mantle in Shannon, Allison, and Sadie’s home. The book tells the tale of two adventurous queer women who wanted to make a baby together. It’s far from a love story about one getting pregnant with anonymous donor sperm while the other massages feet and masters the art of Lamaze. They opted for a difficult yet decidedly more magical route: Allison carried Shannon’s egg.
Our queer family ditched fertility treatments to foster-to-adopt
We are a queer family of two (for now). My husband is transgender and I identify as queer. Obviously, any baby-making to be had wasn’t needed some outside help. We’ve been together for ten years, and I’ve been baby-crazy for all ten of them.
Two lesbian moms, one gay dad, and the bringing together of six grandparents
This weekend our son Mac met some of his dad’s family… who are also Mac’s family. And I guess are now our family, too. How strange it is to have a second set of in-laws — in-laws who aren’t actually related by law at all. Out-law in-laws.
Our lesbian conception story – how a salsa jar helped us get pregnant!
We always knew we wanted to have a baby, but having two sets of ovaries doesn’t really help with that. Patty’s best friend has always talked about helping her conceive by donating sperm, but Patty didn’t want to carry the baby herself. I, on the other hand, was happy to get pregnant. We did consider adoption, and I in fact always thought that would be the way I’d have a child, but since we had a willing known donor… we figured we should at least give conceiving a biological child a shot!
Two lesbians raised a baby and this is what they got
Several of you have sent in this video of nineteen-year-old Zach Wahls, who was raised by two women alongside his biological sister (they share the same donor). Zach addressed the Iowa House of Representatives in February 2011. While we linked to the video last May, it’s definitely worth a repeat mention.
Would you call my daughters “black and white twins?”
My own daughters, whose in-utero nicknames were Roomba and Scooba, were born late in September that same year. But it didn’t occur to me until a few months ago that they, too, could be considered “black and white twins.” Scooba is as pale as I am, while Roomba is perhaps only a shade lighter than her father.
Kate and Zach’s blissful baby-on-the-way maternity session
I love love love when photographers and couples connect and form a relationship that lasts over years. Amy Ann (of Amy Ann Photography) shot Kate and Zach’s queer Jewish wedding last year, and then recently shot their maternity session a few weeks ago.