Big Sis Carries Little Sis’s Baby in Minnesota
Siblings don’t just fight, they help each other too. However, the extent to which Andrea Janney helped her little sister, Allison O’Keefe, have a child probably goes in the “above and beyond” category.
Allison says the day she gave birth to her son Nolan, now two, was both the “best and worst day of my life.” On one hand, she was a new mom to a beautiful, healthy baby boy. The answer to a dream she and her husband, Aaron, had nurtured for a long time. On the other hand, due to severe hemoraging during her baby’s delivery, Allison’s doctors were forced to do an emergency hysterectomy meaning she would never deliver another child.
“I just saw what they were going through and I knew how devastated and heart-broken they were about everything,” Andrea told television station FOX9 in Minneapolis. “I wanted to help however I could.”
Allison joked about her sister’s amazing generosity. “Andrea has had to share every toy she ever had with me, and now she is sharing her uterus with me,” explained before her new healthy baby, Levi, was born on July 8.
The sisters were supported by Dr. April Batcheller, Medical Director at CCRM Minneapolis. “Medically we are looking for a (surrogate) who is a healthy woman who has a great uterus and is a good person,” Dr. Batcheller said. Andrea was a “10” in all categories. “My job is to vet the surrogate medically and make sure they are a good candidate for pregnancy. From a psychological prospective, we want to make sure their heart’s in the right place.”
Today, Allison and Aaron are loving having two kids.”My husband and I say there really aren’t words,” said Allison. “You can’t describe a gift of this magnitude. It’s unlike anything anyone can expect. It is the ultimate act of selfless sacrifice and love for us.”
