baby

Trystan Reese always dreamed of having a baby. Now he's 34 weeks pregnant.

 

Trystan Reese has always dreamed of having a baby.

“You kind of want someone to turn around and start to cry and pick you up and say, ‘Of course, I would love to make a baby with you’,” he told podcast The Longest Shortest Time.

Reese, who transitioned about 15 years ago, is 34 weeks pregnant.

He and his partner, Biff Chaplow, became overnight dads after a US court battle to save Chaplow’s niece and nephew from an abusive household.

The gay Portland dads went on to adopt the pair and shared their story on the podcast, The Longest Shortest Time.

In the latest installation of their parenting journey, Reese describes what it’s like to be a man and pregnant.

“I’ve been having a blast being pregnant,” he said, speaking on the podcast.

“Feeling the movements has been so cool. The kids every night will read stories to my belly. You know, it’s just been really awesome.”

Reese been pregnant before and lost the baby, but now he’s hopeful and full of wonder about the experience.

The Portland dad stopped taking testosterone –  which had helped him transition to a man – his periods returned and the couple were trying for a baby for about six months.

“One morning I woke up and I felt really really bad,” he told the podcast.

“Like I had a fever bad, lying on the tiles of the bathroom floor.”

Next thing he took a pregnancy test and it came back positive.

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“Each week it was something new and exciting… every single week something really really new and exciting is happening,” he said.

Reese, somewhat cautious about another miscarriage, made enquires if his clinic would be able to deal with a pregnant man.

His worries were eased when he arrived for his six-week check-up to well wishes and congratulations.

“There just hasn’t been an ounce of trans-phobia from anybody that I’ve been in contact with [at the clinic].”

32 weeks today!!!

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Reese expected to show extra ID, or for staff to look search for his “remnants of womanhood” and de-transition him in their heads.

Instead he was shocked at the response.

“Just completely shocked that every person would not even bat an eye that there’s a dude with a beard, claiming to be pregnant, who’s here to get blood work done and I have been trans long enough to know that doesn’t happen magically,”  said Reese.

“It happens when someone has put a lot of effort into educating themselves and educating their peers and shifting the medical establishment so that it’s going to give excellent care to people like me coming through,” he added.

“So it has been really shockingly wonderful.”

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