NO KIDDING
My kids were born 24 days apart but I’m raising them as twins… it confuses people but makes perfect sense to us
She has now welcomed the surrogate mum into the family as well
A WOMAN has revealed she had babies born 24 days apart and will raise them as twins.
Jenna Herrera, 32, fell pregnant at the same time as her surrogate - leading her to have two new tots in less than a month.
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The delighted now mum-of-six endured five heartbreaking miscarriages in 10 years before she and her partner, Joe, 39, a financial business owner, decided to have a child using a surrogate.
They were delighted when their surrogate, 32, fell pregnant with the couple's biological child - using Jenna's egg and Joe's sperm - in February 2023.
But to their utter disbelief, just four weeks into her surrogate's pregnancy, Jenna discovered she was pregnant herself too.
Both women have become new mums within the space of a month - and Jenna has decided to raise them as 'twins'.
Jenna had a baby boy, Joseph, on October 1 in California, the surrogate gave birth to a little boy, Alexander Jason, in Colombia, 24 days later.
They're double the joy, but five times the work!
Jenna Herrera
The mum says their surrogate is now "part of the family" and helped in the babies early days - including sorting out each of their documents.
Jenna, who co-owns a finance group with Joe, from Anaheim, Southern California, US, said: “Now we've got the twins - they're double the joy, but five times the work!
"My surrogate and I had been talking every day - and, at 12 weeks, I decided to tell my surrogate I was pregnant too.
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"She was so happy for me.
“We just instantly felt really comfortable with being pregnant at the same time - because she’s good friends with our good friends.
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“I didn’t want to tell her until we were a good way into the pregnancy - we didn’t want her feeling stressed or worried.
"They're a lot of work, but absolutely worth it."
Jenna has two daughters, Sophia, nine, and Isabella, seven, from a previous relationship.
She revealed she had her first three miscarriages back-to-back in 2013, at the age of 23, but doctors couldn't say why they happened.
Not satisfied with the answer her doctor in the US was giving her, Jenna travelled to a doctor in Mexico, who said she had a hormone deficiency.
But he said her chances of getting pregnant - and staying pregnant - were mostly down to “luck”.
She said: “The miscarriages were just explained to me as being 'unlucky' - like sometimes life isn’t fair.
“I wasn’t really getting much help in the US - but we live near California, which is really close to Mexico, so we saw a fertility doctor there.
“He said I’m lacking a specific hormone - but couldn’t give me any more detail than that.”
Between 2014 and 2021, Jenna carried two pregnancies to term - and is stepmum to husband Joe’s children from a previous relationship - Jamie, 17 and Jasmine, 20.
But in January 2022, Jenna and Joe decided they wanted to have a baby of their own - and began trying naturally to conceive.
Within the space of nine months - Jenna had two more miscarriages, and the pair decided in October 2022 that they’d be unlikely to have a baby without help.
Jenna said: “I had two more miscarriages last year - I was taking hormone supplements but they didn’t seem to work.
“I’ve struggled with staying pregnant my entire life - there’s never been any clear explanation, they just haven’t stuck.
“My doctor told me I didn’t actually need IVF - I was getting pregnant, I didn’t need any help there. So in October, we decided we’d explore surrogacy.”
While researching surrogacy in the US, Jenna found the average waiting time for a “match” was 18 months - and she didn’t want to wait that long.
She spoke to a family friend in Colombia - who’d had a baby via surrogacy in the same month - and her surrogate agreed to set Jenna up with one of her friends, who does not want to be named.
They had a Zoom call and Jenna was “happy” to discover they clicked.
In November, Jenna headed to Colombia to offer moral support to her surrogate while she had physical tests - and once she passed, was implanted with one of Jenna’s three healthy embryos.
The following month, Jenna’s surrogate found the retrieval had been successful.
But just four weeks later, Jenna discovered she was pregnant too.
"Our surrogate's pregnancy took," Jenna said.
"She was really excited, we were really excited.
"And then we were pregnant this entire time.
“I didn’t want to tell her about my pregnancy until she was coming to the end of her first trimester. She was 12 weeks and I was 16.
“Joe and I are obviously raising our two newborns - but at the start, we saw our surrogate every day.
"She had to be a part of the exit process - like civil registration and signing up for their US and Colombian passports.
"Every day we'd have to be somewhere all together - and we'd always go for lunch, dinner or ice cream together."
Now she is raising them as twins the mum is thrilled to be able to breastfeed both and has lots of family trips planned with their surrogate too.
It’s so easy with one baby - I’m a little nervous with two
Jenna Herrera
“We talk every single day and check in with each other - we’re very close," adds the mum.
Jenna and Joe headed to Colombia to be with their surrogate while she gave birth.
They are planning to raise the boys as 'twins' and want them to join all the same athletic clubs and church groups.
Jenna added: “I think they came from the same batch of eggs - I didn’t have a cycle between each retrieval - so I don’t know whether they’ll look like twins.
"I’m very curious to see.
“My husband’s a musician - he’ll want them to play the drums.
“My family is more athletic and competitive - we just want them to do the same things.
“It’s so easy with one baby - I’m a little nervous with two.”
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Jenna, her surrogate and the two baby boys will be reuniting for their first birthdays, in Mexico.
She added: "We plan to see each other every October - for the rest of our lives!"
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