Olympian Tara Lipinski Reflects on "Isolating" Journey With Pregnancy Loss, IVF Before Welcoming Daughter
Tara Lipinski is gliding through the early months of motherhood.
After all, the Olympic gold medalist and husband Todd Kapostasy are basking in life with their newborn daughter, Georgie, whom they welcomed via surrogate in October. But it's an experience Tara admitted they weren't sure they would ever have.
"We went through a long, five-year journey and it was so difficult as I experienced so much pregnancy loss along the way," she shared on the Nov. 20 episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show. "Going through IVF and trying to get back more embryos to try pregnancy again. It really was like this mystery that never ended."
But after enduring this "long road," Tara is savoring every moment with her baby girl. "She's so precious, I can't believe it," she added. "It's shocking. Every day, I wake up to this surreal feeling that it's actually happened."
In fact, it was that difficult road to parenthood that inspired her and Todd's podcast, Unexpecting.
"I had all of these feelings," she explained. "I didn't know if they were normal or if other people were experiencing it ‘cause you just don't hear these stories as much. You hear about IVF or infertility, but you don't really know what the day-to-day life is—especially when it goes on for half a decade."
Now, with her baby girl, Tara is embracing all the milestones with Georgie to come. As for whether she hopes her little one will follow in her triple-looping skates?
"I feel like that's a lot of pressure! I feel like that's a lot," the 41-year-old noted. "Maybe I'll take her to the rink and then if she wants to skate, then I guess I'll have to skate with her. But hopefully, she finds something of her own that doesn't have to follow in mom's footsteps."
Tara and Todd, who wed in 2017, announced they were expecting their baby girl just a few weeks before confirming her arrival. At the time, the filmmaker recalled their reaction to learning they were finally about to be parents.
"We're on the deck of this house looking at the Pacific Ocean, and the sun is setting and we're like, 'We're pregnant with a kid after the heartbeat scan,'" he reflected on the Oct. 5 episode of Unexpecting. "It felt like this crazy—almost cliché end of a movie—where the sun was finally setting on our horrific fertility journey."
That same month, Tara spoke about her and Todd's decision to choose surrogacy. Calling her surrogate a "match made in heaven," she expressed hope that being vocal about their struggles would help those in similar situations.
"For me, as someone who has experienced pregnancy 4 times, I've felt more connected through this surrogacy pregnancy than any other," she wrote in an Oct. 19 Instagram post. "These positive stories should be spoken about and I hope more of these conversations happen because the amount of messages I've received from women feeling relieved or now optimistic about potential surrogacy has been overwhelming.
Keep reading to see other stars who've also shared their experiences with surrogacy.
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