Nancy Hauck, 56, welcomed her newest grandchild in an unusual way.
The Utah grandmother gave birth to her granddaughter, Hannah, on Wednesday afternoon.
Nancy offered to be a surrogate for her son, Jeff, 33, and his wife Cambria, 30, after her daughter-in-law had a life-saving hysterectomy following the traumatic birth of their second set of twins.
“Every thing went perfectly, and we’re feeling so blessed to have her in our family,” Nancy told People mag after the birth.
She was in labor for nine hours, which she described as “a remarkable and spiritual experience,” but noted she is feeling “some sadness from the separation.”
“Though I do know that the newborn’s going to my son, I do know there’ll be a little bit little bit of that vacant feeling,” she said. Nancy plans to take some day without work work and write a book concerning the experience.
Jeff and Cambria met before Cambria’s senior 12 months of highschool and at all times knew they wanted a giant family. “From the time I used to be a youngster, I knew that if I could only be one thing, I desired to be a dad,” Jeff told People.
The young couple struggled for six years before welcoming twins, Vera and Ayva, now 4; and Diesel and Luca, now 13 months, through IVF. The couple was disheartened to learn that Cambria couldn’t safely carry any more children after she was advised to undergo a hysterectomy in September 2021.
That’s when Nancy stepped in to play a special role in her son’s family.
She began hormone treatments in January 2022 and injected herself day-after-day for 12 weeks with the assistance of her husband and Jeff’s dad, Jason, 59.
In February 2022, Hauck had a fertilized embryo Jeff and Cambria created through IVF transferred. It immediately stuck. Hauck was pregnant together with her grandchild.
Hannah’s name is a tribute to her selfless grandmother.
“Six days after the transfer, when she got the positive pregnancy test,” Jeff explained, his mother was “woken up in the midst of the night, and he or she heard a little bit voice that said, ‘My name is Hannah.’”
Jeff and Cambria looked up the name and were shocked and full of joy to learn that each Nancy and Hannah mean “grace.”
“I knew immediately that that was her name,” Cambria, a social media influencer, told People.
The family is pleased to expand, and while Hannah isn’t Nancy or Jason’s first grandchild, they do wonder what it’ll be wish to be her grandparents.
“I hope that we won’t treat Hannah any in a different way,” Jason said to People. “But we’ll at all times have that connection — that Nancy carried her for nine months. Just the magic of the entire experience will at all times be unique in our eyes.”
“In my heart I would like all of my grandkids to know that they’re equally as loved,” adds Nancy, “and I might’ve done it for any of them.”