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Her surrogate got pregnant and so did she.

When Lara Beth Levy took a pregnancy test in July, she was bowled over by the results. Ive taken quite a few and none showed positive so quickly, said the 34-year-old, who had suffered miscarriages and dealt with fertility issues for years.

But the craziest part wasnt just that she was pregnant: It was that she was already expecting a biological daughter in mere months, via surrogate.

Levy and her husband, Fritz, welcomed 3-month-old Cora in November, and theyre expecting baby No. 2 another girl later this month.

Theyll be roughly 15 weeks apart, said Levy, who lives in Dallas. Its still very hard to believe. Its crazy Im excited and nervous, but so grateful.

She added: We knew my pregnancy would blow peoples minds.

With news swirling around the circumstances of Hilaria Baldwins newborn daughter, Lucia, born just about five months after her son Eduardo, a confused public armed with a basic understanding of biology is left wondering how it happened.

Although Baldwin has not directly addressed how little Lucia made it Earth-side, sources confirmed to Page Six that her sixth child was indeed born via surrogate. The phenomenon has come to be known as twinblings or same-age siblings from different pregnancies.

Levy never imagined that after trying to conceive for three years, having resigned from her demanding marketing job just to focus on her fertility and in vitro fertilization treatments, shed have a baby on her own. (To add to the complications, Levy underwent a prophylactic double mastectomy early in 2020, having discovered she was a gene carrier for the BRCA1 gene mutation.)

The Levys worked with agency ConceiveAbilities to help pair her with a Dallas-area surrogate, Celeste Remediz, who eventually had a successful embryo transplant on the second try in March 2020.

Hearing that was exciting enough: So many times we doubted if were going to have biological children for years, especially after a failed transfer, Levy said. But to find out she got pregnant naturally only a few months later after so much heartache was a feeling of pure euphoria, if not disbelief.

I wouldve never assumed we would get this lucky, Levy said. I didnt think Id be able to experience this.

Her husband processed the news with uncommon calm.

He said, This is amazing, well make this work, recalls Levy. It wasnt always easy for her, though. She was plagued with fear of losing the baby based on her past experiences. It took me three months sometimes Im still processing it.

Levy and Fritz were in the delivery room as gestational surrogate Remediz, a mom of three herself, delivered Cora on Nov. 29. Remediz asked Levy, then 23 weeks along, if she was ready to do this herself in a few months. It didnt scare me, she said.

The hard part was telling friends and family.

It was such different reactions to the pregnancies, said Levy, who said that while she waited until well into the second trimester to share the good news of the surrogates successful embryo transfer of Cora, revealing her own natural pregnancy took even more care.

It took my in-laws five minutes to comprehend, said the new mom. Everyone knows how hard we worked for Cora. Everyone said, Youre kidding, right?'

Dean Hutchison, vice president of legal services at Circle Surrogacy & Egg Donation, a surrogacy agency headquartered in Boston, told The Post that the twinbling phenomenon is rare, but magical when it does happen.

On a handful of occasions, suddenly the surrogate finds out shes pregnant and the IP [intended parent] finds out shes pregnant, said Hutchison, who recalls that in July 2018, his agency had biological siblings born about two weeks apart, with the surrogate delivering before the mother.

Theres probably no medical reason why, he said. People suggest that the stress related to their own fertility issues goes away [with a surrogate], and that stress relief itself helps them. Its a cool experience when it happens.

As for Levy, shes basking in Coras newborn phase while awaiting the arrival of her little sister later this month.

We went from thinking we might not have biological children to now having two, she said, taking stock of her blessings. Its going to be a really loud house for quite some time, and thats OK with us. I think of it as a beautiful story.

Original post:
Hilaria Baldwin isn't the only one with surrogate 'twinblings' babies - New York Post