Hiroshi2
04-28-2004, 09:47 PM
Woman gives birth to her own grandchildren
Family has Charlotte connections
HOWIE PAUL HARTNETT
Staff Writer
Talk of being a surrogate started while Tom and Barbara Brennan were driving home to Hendersonville, Tenn., from their daughter's Knoxville house six years ago.
After a difficult delivery, doctors had to perform an emergency hysterectomy on daughter Lynne Bevins.
She and her son, Parker, survived. But the procedure left Bevins unable to have more children.
The thought bothered Bevins and her parents.
So Tom, 52, and Barbara, 53, came up with another option -- Barbara could carry her daughter's eggs and son-in-law's sperm.
The families talked about it and talked about it.
Monday, they started talking about the new additions to the family.
Barbara gave birth to Pryce Daly Bevins and Meredith Taylor Bevins at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., just before 3 p.m.
Slightly premature, the fraternal twins and their grandmother are doing fine, said Tom Brennan, a Charlotte native who has lived in Tennessee since 1986.
"It's unreal. It's just amazing," he said Tuesday night.
The babies, born by Caesarean section because of Barbara's age, are expected to go home within the week. Barbara Brennan may go home as early as Thursday.
Tuesday night she was walking a bit, her husband said.
The pregnancy was hard on the second-time grandmother. She started getting nauseated within days of learning she was pregnant last fall. It started about mid-afternoon and lasted all night, her husband said.
The smell of meat cooking just made matters worse, so Tom switched to more odorless meals.
"I ate a lot of sushi myself so she couldn't smell it," he said.
Throughout the pregnancy, Barbara visited doctors every two weeks and got ultrasounds every four weeks.
Besides the nausea, Barbara remained in good shape until last month. She began to retain fluid and her blood pressure rose, her husband said.
But the delivery went fine. Lynne and her husband Phil were in the delivery room when their new babies were born.
Back in Charlotte, Tom's family was ecstatic to hear the news about the babies. Five of the eight children Tom's parents raised still live in the Queen City.
"You can't imagine," said Colleen Ross, Tom's sister. "It was a huge risk (for Barbara). But it was not a surprise to us that she would do something like this. She's a very unique lady."
The Bevinses plan on telling their children how they came into the world one day. Their big brother Parker, 6, already knows.
He's been telling his teachers for months that his new brother and sister were inside his Mimi -- his nickname for Barbara.
Now the twins are out, and ready for their close-up. The Brennan and Bevins families are scheduled to appear on the "Today Show" this morning, Tom Brennan said Tuesday night.
************
One question - why??????? She's 53 years old, why does she need kids?
Family has Charlotte connections
HOWIE PAUL HARTNETT
Staff Writer
Talk of being a surrogate started while Tom and Barbara Brennan were driving home to Hendersonville, Tenn., from their daughter's Knoxville house six years ago.
After a difficult delivery, doctors had to perform an emergency hysterectomy on daughter Lynne Bevins.
She and her son, Parker, survived. But the procedure left Bevins unable to have more children.
The thought bothered Bevins and her parents.
So Tom, 52, and Barbara, 53, came up with another option -- Barbara could carry her daughter's eggs and son-in-law's sperm.
The families talked about it and talked about it.
Monday, they started talking about the new additions to the family.
Barbara gave birth to Pryce Daly Bevins and Meredith Taylor Bevins at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., just before 3 p.m.
Slightly premature, the fraternal twins and their grandmother are doing fine, said Tom Brennan, a Charlotte native who has lived in Tennessee since 1986.
"It's unreal. It's just amazing," he said Tuesday night.
The babies, born by Caesarean section because of Barbara's age, are expected to go home within the week. Barbara Brennan may go home as early as Thursday.
Tuesday night she was walking a bit, her husband said.
The pregnancy was hard on the second-time grandmother. She started getting nauseated within days of learning she was pregnant last fall. It started about mid-afternoon and lasted all night, her husband said.
The smell of meat cooking just made matters worse, so Tom switched to more odorless meals.
"I ate a lot of sushi myself so she couldn't smell it," he said.
Throughout the pregnancy, Barbara visited doctors every two weeks and got ultrasounds every four weeks.
Besides the nausea, Barbara remained in good shape until last month. She began to retain fluid and her blood pressure rose, her husband said.
But the delivery went fine. Lynne and her husband Phil were in the delivery room when their new babies were born.
Back in Charlotte, Tom's family was ecstatic to hear the news about the babies. Five of the eight children Tom's parents raised still live in the Queen City.
"You can't imagine," said Colleen Ross, Tom's sister. "It was a huge risk (for Barbara). But it was not a surprise to us that she would do something like this. She's a very unique lady."
The Bevinses plan on telling their children how they came into the world one day. Their big brother Parker, 6, already knows.
He's been telling his teachers for months that his new brother and sister were inside his Mimi -- his nickname for Barbara.
Now the twins are out, and ready for their close-up. The Brennan and Bevins families are scheduled to appear on the "Today Show" this morning, Tom Brennan said Tuesday night.
************
One question - why??????? She's 53 years old, why does she need kids?