One mama, three dads, and a baby (eventually)!

Episode 31 • 11th May 2023 • Barnyard Language • Caite Palmer and Arlene Hunter

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:00:00

I'm sorry.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:00:08

You're fine. Jungling. J-U-M-G-G.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:10

Jungling.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:00:11

Yep.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:11

Okay got it. Today we are very excited to be talking to Hannah Jungling and

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:17

a few guests who will be popping in and out of the interview. So currently she's

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:22

in Georgia but we're gonna get more context on where she is and what's

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:27

happening. So before we even get into our usual first question I'm gonna

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:31

ask where you are and what you're up to at this very moment.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:00:38

So we're hanging out in Georgia at the university hospital waiting on a cute

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:00:43

little baby to show up.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:45

Very exciting. So we're gonna get more info on that, but we'll start with

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:48

our inner usual way so that people don't get confused. So we always start

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:52

out with our first question, which is what are you growing? So we know a

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:00:55

baby, but that can also cover crops, livestock, careers, businesses, all

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:01:01

kinds of other stuff. So Hannah, what else are you growing?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:05

So we have a horse farm here in Aiken, South Carolina. And so we breed a

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:09

few horses a year. We do a little bit of selling, a little bit of training,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:13

lots of showing. We also are currently growing a couple baby goats.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:18

And there's a bunch of turkeys in the incubator and a couple of eggs sitting

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:24

under a hen. So we're just all sorts of things.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:01:27

That's a lot of stuff. What kinds of horses and what kinds of showing?

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:01:31

I'm not a horse person, but I'm sure there are people out there who are

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:01:34

curious.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:36

No, you're fine. So we do mostly Connemara Crosses. So they're an Irish

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:39

bred, smaller horse. And we cross those with warm bloods and sport horses

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:44

at home to do three day eventing and dressage is our main competing style. So

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:01:51

Very

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:51

it's a lot of

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:01:52

cool.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:01:52

fun.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:01:53

Yeah. And so are the turkeys and chickens for your own use? You're selling

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:01:57

them? Are you, what's?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:00

The turkey we normally name sometime in the summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:05

and New Year's.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:02:06

Yeah.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:07

And then the chickens are, we have all laying hens right now. At some

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:10

point we'd like to get doing some meat hens. And then we just got into,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:14

we got two baby goats and the female will be a dairy goat and the male

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:20

is her little companion. He loses his nut nuts here next month.

[Caite]: 00:02:30

And Hannah, you have one other child, right?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:33

We do, we have a six year old, almost seven, Tempe.

[Caite]: 00:02:39

So, I was wondering, I put this in here. I figured out that we've known each other

[Caite]: 00:02:44

for 23 years.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:46

That's insane.

[Caite]: 00:02:47

Were you younger than Tempy when we met?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:51

No, I probably would have been about the same age. I would probably have

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:02:55

been seven or eight. So about the same age. Isn't that crazy?

[Caite]: 00:02:59

For like our super scandalous moment for the week, my mom dated Hannah's dad for

[Caite]: 00:03:04

a while and that's how we know each other. So Hannah, other question, are you any

[Caite]: 00:03:10

taller than you were

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:11

Nope.

[Caite]: 00:03:12

at seven?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:13

Yeah, nope.

[Caite]: 00:03:13

No, I didn't think

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:14

[Caite]: 00:03:14

so.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:14

just all stopped, Katie, I'm telling you.

[Caite]: 00:03:16

You can't tell from the video, but Hannah is, I don't know, like a foot shorter

[Caite]: 00:03:20

than I am.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:22

I barely hit five foot and all my brothers are over six. I'm not sure

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:25

where the bullshit happened, but it did.

[Caite]: 00:03:28

I think they knew that that much attitude in a bigger body would be dangerous.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:32

that,

[Caite]: 00:03:32

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:32

I'll

[Caite]: 00:03:32

they,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:32

leave out.

[Caite]: 00:03:32

you know, like a golf handicap or a racing handicap, you know, handicapper a little

[Caite]: 00:03:38

for everybody's safety.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:40

I love it.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:03:42

So Hannah, did you grow up on a farm or do you have a background in egg?

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:03:45

What's your farm story?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:49

We grew up in town, but I grew up on the horse like I was on the horse

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:03:53

farm all the time. So I grew up at a farm out in Stone City, Iowa, that

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:00

I was at daily, constantly. I mean, I've always been just completely horse

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:04

obsessed. So starting the time I was about six, I was out there constantly.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:10

But now I

[Caite]: 00:04:10

So, Hannah.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:11

grew up in town.

[Caite]: 00:04:13

that leads in real well to how did you manage to make being a horse girl, like,

[Caite]: 00:04:19

a real job? You know, for anyone else who's wondering how to make

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:22

Oh,

[Caite]: 00:04:22

this

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:22

that's

[Caite]: 00:04:22

transition.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:23

good. That's good. You don't make money on horses. So you make money other

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:27

ways. So I was a massage therapist for 15 years and then I taught riding

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:31

lessons on the side for 15 years and trained horses. And you had a great

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:37

time doing it. And when we moved to South Carolina, we just decided we

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:40

wanted to take a step back and have more family time. And so we built

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:45

out our farm ourselves. And like I said, we breed a little bit on the side.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:49

We sell a little bit. Do a tiny bit of training, but I actually do a

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:53

lot more braiding now So I braid horses at night for the hunter jumper

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:04:57

shows which is extraordinarily lucrative like embarrassingly lucrative and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:04

You know you're in the with the horses at night and they're quiet and they're

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:07

happy and they know the job and it's just it's really nice and then I have

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:11

my whole week to do my normal life at home with my family and The barn is

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:16

you know our farm is just lovely and quiet and serene. It's just it's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:19

perfect. So I mean, do I make a living necessarily off the horses? No,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:24

because that's impossible. They're way too expensive. But we incorporate

[Caite]: 00:05:28

So,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:28

life.

[Caite]: 00:05:30

you're like really living the horse girl dream by getting paid to play with your

[Caite]: 00:05:36

horse's hair.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:37

Literally, Katie, it's ridiculous. We finished

[Caite]: 00:05:39

That's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:40

the weekend.

[Caite]: 00:05:40

amazing.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:41

I finished the weekend, and it's just ridiculous. I mean, it's wild. So

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:45

it's super fun. We absolutely love it.

[Caite]: 00:05:48

That's bonkers.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:49

Yeah,

[Caite]: 00:05:49

I love it.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:50

right.

[Caite]: 00:05:50

I'm so here for this.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:52

Right.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:05:54

And

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:54

And

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:05:54

Hannah.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:05:54

Tempe practices braiding all the time.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:05:57

Does she have the best hairstyles for crazy hair day?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:02

No, because I'm terrible at doing human hair. Like terrible.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:05

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:05

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:05

yeah?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:05

mine's short, can't

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:06

Yeah.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:07

cut all that pass together. And so I'm terrible at doing hair. So I can

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:12

braid hers a little bit and stuff, but not a whole lot.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:17

There's just not quite enough of it. Like there needs to, she

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:20

No,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:20

needs to grow it for

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:21

so,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:21

years.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:21

you know, the funny things to complain about, you know, hers is so soft

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:26

and silky and horses are much more horse

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:29

Yeah.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:29

and they don't complain.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:31

Yeah, that's true. And your husband's in the room with you as well. Does

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:37

he work on farm or in egg or what's your story?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:42

So I have a normal job, project manager for a consumer firm. Normal.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:47

A normal

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:47

And then

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:47

job.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:47

I come home and I get to work to the bone fixing all the things that

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:06:50

the horse girls break through today. So yeah, that's what we do.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:06:55

That sounds about right. So, yeah. So Hannah, we talk a lot on this podcast

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:07:03

about, I mean, Katie and I end up going back to this a lot about becoming

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:07:07

parents for the first time and that transition from

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:10

Absolutely.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:07:11

being a human unto yourself and then, you know, the transition to being

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:07:17

a parent. What was that like for you with your daughter?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:24

It was, a lot of it was good and a lot of it was challenging. I think it's,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:28

I think the evolution of becoming a parent is challenging in every fact

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:33

of the matter. We had, we had complications with our, not complications,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:37

but just things we had to adapt to. Bryce was working full time and going

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:40

to school full time and I'm self-employed. So Tempe was with me 24 seven

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:45

and, you know, we just had to work through figuring those things out.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:48

And I was so fortunate that I was able to, I was a very good milk cow.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:52

And so I produced a lot of milk. It was very simple to just have her attach

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:07:56

to me all the time. She lived, I mean, she literally lived attached to my

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:00

body for the first two years and was with us at the barn all the time. I

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:06

taught with her constantly. She traveled. She was 10 days old at her first

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:08

tour show, three states away. You know, she just she had to kind of jump

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:14

and just roll with the punches like the rest of us. But it definitely was

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:18

an adaptation. to figure out and then moving down here and figuring

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:23

out school and everything. Our schools aren't as exceptional. And so just

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:29

figuring out the processes of everything. And I think as moms, parents

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:33

in general, we take on the role of you want to produce a kind and gentle

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:38

human to give back to the world because we have to give them back to

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:40

the world. And so Bryce and I have really taken a lot of responsibility

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:45

over that, that we want to make sure we're producing a good little human.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:49

that will hopefully go on and do good little human things someday in

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:52

the world. But it's, yeah, it's a challenge. I think people that don't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:08:55

think it's a challenge are definitely toying with themselves.

[Caite]: 00:09:01

And Hannah, before we get any further, how many horses does Tempe have now?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:05

Oh, well, let's see. So she's got her hot sauce pony, who is the cutest pony

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:09

in the entire world that's ever existed. Arlene, Katie will have to send

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:12

you pictures on Facebook. It is like literally cutest pony. And then

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:16

she recently hijacked my husband's horse. And then she's got her eyes

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:22

set on one of my yearlings that she seems to think is going to be hers.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:26

So, but she's, you know, going back to that, you know, raising children,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:30

I think it's so important to raise them around animals. And I always

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:34

tell Bryce, my favorite thing in the whole world is when she doesn't hear

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:37

me behind her or see me and you hear her talking to the animals. She's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:42

so sweet and gentle and she's at the fence and the babies have their head

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:45

over the fence and she's smooching them and telling them how beautiful

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:48

they are and talking in baby voices to them and snuggling the cats and all

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:09:53

of that. It's really special to see that relationship growing.

[Caite]: 00:10:02

So part of why we're talking to so many of you today and in the hospital, do you

[Caite]: 00:10:11

wanna just tell us why there are so many people in this room with you, Hannah?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:16

So we've got a bit of a party going on right now. We only ever wanted one

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:21

child, and we felt very fortunate that we had a very healthy pregnancy and a

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:26

very healthy birth, and we have a wonderful little girl. And we always

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:31

talked about being surrogates and that it would be a really cool experience,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:35

and it just kinda never panned out for us, and we've talked about it for about

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:39

six years. And so then we just, life was a bit crazy and busy, and we

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:42

thought maybe it just wasn't in the cards. And I don't know, it was over

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:47

a year ago now, about a year and a half ago, I started thinking about it

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:51

again, but I didn't really wanna say anything to Bryce until I'd sat with

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:54

it for a bit. So I kinda sat with it for like three or four months.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:10:59

And then poor Bryce, I like just dumped it on him one day. I was like,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:01

so I really wanna be a surrogate. And I, if you're in for this, then let's do

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:05

it. If you don't, then like we won't. But like, I really wanna do this.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:07

And being the ever supportive guy that he is, he was like, well, hell yeah,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:11

let's do it. So. we found an agency, which is a bit of a challenge. I

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:17

live a very active life, obviously, and a lot of the agencies want you

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:21

to be very, yeah, very sedentary. I mean, it's crazy. They just, they don't want

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:27

you doing anything. And so I finally found an agency that was okay with

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:31

me riding through the pregnancy and living our normal active life, running

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:35

a busy farm. And they immediately set us up with a couple from Australia. and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:43

they didn't realize our parameters and our parameters were that we weren't gonna

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:46

carry for anyone that was straight. So they set us up with this lovely

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:49

couple from Australia and I wish I could have been a fly on the wall

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:51

when they had to call them back and say, actually the surrogate won't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:11:54

carry for you because you're not gay. But the very next couple they paired

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:01

us with was Chris and Jose who were here with us and we absolutely fell

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:05

in love with them the moment we talked to them on the phone and immediately

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:08

became friends on Facebook and got each other's numbers. It's a very long

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:12

process. We met in January last year, and the transfer actually wasn't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:17

until September? September. And so through that time, you know, I had to

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:22

make lots of trips up to Indianapolis, and we got to spend a lot of

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:25

time together and get to know each other really well. And it was like

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:29

icing on the cake when we first met them, and we, Bryce immediately started

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:33

stalking them, and they had an Airdale on their website, their dog groomers.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:38

And as Katie knows, we love Airdales. We lost our beloved Airedale two

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:42

years ago. And so Bryce called me the moment he saw it on their website and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:46

he was like, it's them, it's gotta be them. Like it's meant to be, we need

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:50

to stick with them. So it's just been, it's been really fun. We've had

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:53

a blast. They've become some of our very best friends. We talk every day.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:12:58

And now we're at the point where little Emma has decided to come a week

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:13:02

or two early, but she's good and cooked and she's ready. So we're just hanging

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:13:07

out in the hospital.

[Caite]: 00:13:09

Yeah, for our listeners, we did not schedule this interview anticipating quite

[Caite]: 00:13:14

this level of excitement. But, you know, Hannah's a... She's a trooper, and she

[Caite]: 00:13:20

makes me look really low-key and calm. So, you know, she said, well, I'm, you know,

[Caite]: 00:13:27

I'm at the hospital, but we can still do the interview. And I was like, hey, are

[Caite]: 00:13:31

you sure? Yeah, fine. That's really cool, though, that you got to have this...

[Caite]: 00:13:37

love it for sight connection with the parents of your child in such a different way

[Caite]: 00:13:43

than we normally think of.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:13:46

Yeah, it's been super awesome and it's been really exciting. It's been really

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:13:51

exciting and we were thrilled. They only had Chris' biological to this child

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:13:55

and he only had one little girl embryo. And so it was very exciting that

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:00

little Emma took because they really wanted a little girl. So it's been

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:04

super fun.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:14:06

That is really neat. How have you explained it to your daughter and how does

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:14:10

she understand the process of what's been going on?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:17

So that's actually hysterical. We, depending on how much people do with breeding,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:23

they're familiar or not with the term, but we do a lot of breeding with

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:26

horses, right? And we had three Ixie babies last year. Well, Ixie is

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:31

the exact same process. So although my daughter has zero idea about natural

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:36

birds and the bees, artificial insemination and Ixie and embryos are like

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:42

right up her alley. So she has been fortunate enough to be at the vet

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:45

clinic when we've done a lot of the processes. And so she's gotten to

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:48

see the eggs, the sperm, all of it under the microscope, and then see

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:52

the embryos before we insert them into the mares and then follow the ultrasounds

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:14:56

in the process. And eventually she's there when we birth out the foals. So

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:00

for her, it was a no brainer. I mean, I just told her, we talked about with

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:05

her with her to make sure she was comfortable with it. And we just told

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:09

her that it's the exact same process, that we're caring for some very dear

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:13

friends that aren't able to carry for themselves. And our family's gonna

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:16

help make another family. And as soon as we said icksy, she was like,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:20

oh, so we're making petri dish babies. I was like, yup, that's what we're

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:24

doing. So it was easy peasy explaining it to her.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:15:27

Yeah, that's a good point. We live on a dairy farm and so, you know, one

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:15:32

of my kids' first jobs when they're out in the barn with my husband is,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:15:35

you know, like carrying the lube for him to do artificial insemination

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:15:37

on cows. So, yeah, breeding and talking about semen and all those kinds

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:15:42

of things are, you know, pretty typical for our kids. So, it probably is easier

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:15:46

for them to understand than kids who aren't in agriculture or used to dealing

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:15:51

with livestock.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:53

Absolutely. Well, now that being said, there has been a time or two where

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:56

she's asked like, so is this how I was made? And Bryce and I very politely

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:15:58

are like,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:16:02

It's a little different.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:16:05

conversation for a bit.

[Caite]: 00:16:12

So... I just totally lost track of where I was, sorry. What's the going forward,

[Caite]: 00:16:20

what are you anticipating your relationship being like with this family? Because I mean,

[Caite]: 00:16:26

obviously, rather than like an open adoption or something, like, you came at this

[Caite]: 00:16:33

whole situation very differently than a lot of families who end up... mixing two

[Caite]: 00:16:40

families together like this.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:16:43

I don't think we anticipated, I don't think Chris and Jose or Bryce and I

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:16:47

anticipated having such a close relationship. I think this was a hope.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:16:52

I had told Chris when we initially talked that I thought it'd be really

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:16:55

cool if maybe like, we'd get a picture once a year of her as she grows,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:16:59

because she's not biologically related to me at all. She's a donor egg and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:03

Chris is sperm. But, you know, we've... just we've become so close and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:09

they're literally a part of our family. After Emma's born we'll actually

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:12

all go back to the farm for a week, a few days to a week to settle and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:17

get milk supply up and in so we should milk off to them and help them

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:21

get their feed under them with a newborn baby and just spend time together

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:25

and enjoy time together. But no, I know it's definitely not the norm

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:31

and I'm still not quite sure how we got so fortunate to. have the relationship

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:35

that we do, but I'm incredibly thankful for it because we definitely want

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:38

to watch Emma grow up. And Tempe calls her her little cousin and she's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:43

been sleeping with a little stuffy for the past month because she wants

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:46

the stuffy to smell like her so that Emma can take it home and remember

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:17:50

her smell. So it's been really sweet. It's been really, really sweet.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:17:55

That is so cute.

[Caite]: 00:17:58

I love talking to families that come together more intentionally or with more luck

[Caite]: 00:18:07

and less.

[Caite]: 00:18:10

normal, I guess. I don't know

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:18:12

Yeah.

[Caite]: 00:18:12

what to... You know, there's a lot of folks who do things kind of the boy meets

[Caite]: 00:18:18

girl, boy and girl get drunk, boy and girl have a baby kind of way. You know, but

[Caite]: 00:18:26

it's so cool to think about all the ways that families are made and how many people

[Caite]: 00:18:31

that can involve and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:18:34

Absolutely.

[Caite]: 00:18:36

what a gift to be able to give someone.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:18:38

Absolutely, and they've waited far, I mean, how old were these embryos? Four

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:18:43

years? Well, we started this process, sorry to talk about it. Talk loud.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:18:47

Hi, this is Jose.

[Caite]: 00:18:51

I was gonna say I can only see the ceiling, but

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:18:52

Hahaha

[Caite]: 00:18:52

okay. Hahahaha.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:18:55

So, technically we started this whole process like around four years ago.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:03

And it wasn't until the end of the, I would say probably 2018, beginning

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:10

2019, that we decided to go forward cause we weren't really sure if

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:16

this is what we really wanted to do. We were not sure if we were ready for

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:20

kids, but then like most of our close friends started having kids throughout

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:25

COVID and then we were like, we looked at each other and they were like,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:28

yep. This is the path. I mean, all of our friends are having babies.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:32

So I think it's just, I don't know what it is, the universe. whatever you

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:37

want to call it. But I think it doesn't. And then, so yeah, we started the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:42

whole process at Midwest Fertility. We called our, an agency close to

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:49

where we live by, and which by the way, we still on their waiting list,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:53

waiting for a surrogate. They don't even know that we're actually having

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:19:57

a baby. But we, we created embryos and we, like Hannah mentioned, that

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:05

we, they were frozen for a while. because we were still looking for

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:08

a surrogate. And then Chris called Andrea, a wonderful person from Midwest

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:14

that was helping us throughout the process and desperately called her and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:20

asked if she knew anything or of any agencies that we can call. So she

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:26

mentioned one from Texas, that's based in Texas. And what's it called

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:31

Chris? Newborn. Newborn. Newborn, yeah. Newborn advantage. Newborn advantage.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:35

And then we called to... Mindy who is

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:43

the coordinator. Yeah, you call it. And then we talked to her and that

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:46

was like in around 20 towards the end of 2021, November around that time.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:20:57

We talked to them and we're just like, pretty much we're just like looking

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:01

for someone that can help us and guide us the right way. And then January

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:07

of 2022, that's when She was like, I think I found the right person.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:11

And that's when we met Hannah. We had a phone interview with them. No, a video

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:15

call. We met on a video call. And then it was kind of like, it was kind of

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:19

like meant to be. And then, yeah, everything just went great since then.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:21:27

That's really neat.

[Caite]: 00:21:28

I think. Sorry, you're never ready for babies. Like, it seems a little rude to

[Caite]: 00:21:33

tell you that now, like a little, you know, closing the door after the horses are

[Caite]: 00:21:37

out, but you'll never be ready. But it's the best thing I've ever done.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:44

Yeah,

[Caite]: 00:21:44

And

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:44

we have

[Caite]: 00:21:44

hopefully

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:44

[Caite]: 00:21:45

it'll.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:45

I mean, I can, that is true because we're not really ready, but I think

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:51

we have a lot. Well, we're really not ready for her to come yet.

[Caite]: 00:21:55

I'm

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:55

But

[Caite]: 00:21:55

sorry.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:21:55

I mean, we have a lot of help back at home and a lot of help. I mean,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:01

Bryce and Hannah and even Hannah's family have been just wonderful and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:05

we know we'll be okay. We'll make it through.

[Caite]: 00:22:10

I think it's really cool, too, that you can start your time with this baby without

[Caite]: 00:22:16

one of you being, um, dealing with the physical after effects of having just produced

[Caite]: 00:22:22

another human too,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:24

this.

[Caite]: 00:22:24

because

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:24

Yeah.

[Caite]: 00:22:24

that was, I think, the hardest part is trying to heal and deal with the new baby

[Caite]: 00:22:29

who doesn't sleep. I

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:31

That

[Caite]: 00:22:31

mean,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:31

[Caite]: 00:22:31

your

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:31

so.

[Caite]: 00:22:31

baby will totally sleep and cause absolutely no problems ever, but...

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:37

Katie, I made it. Feral. It is feral.

[Caite]: 00:22:40

Yeah, I feel okay about saying this because my kids are totally feral and I've

[Caite]: 00:22:45

known you for a long time, Hannah. Feral is an accurate description.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:49

I have told them from the beginning. I was like, I don't know what it

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:52

is. It's me, it's me. It's something I do. This thing is wild all the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:22:55

time. I, I'm sorry guys.

[Caite]: 00:22:59

My daughter asked last night if she ever kicked me while I was pregnant with her.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:04

No,

[Caite]: 00:23:04

And this

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:04

never

[Caite]: 00:23:04

is,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:04

honey.

[Caite]: 00:23:05

I have five hernias down the middle of my abdomen from her kicking me.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:10

Oh my

[Caite]: 00:23:11

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:11

god.

[Caite]: 00:23:12

literally destroyed my body. And she's like, I never kicked him. Okay, kid, okay.

[Caite]: 00:23:21

So I'm just gonna add a question in here. Hannah, since you are braiding horses

[Caite]: 00:23:27

and you said that. Chris and Jose are dog groomers. Have you thought about like combining

[Caite]: 00:23:32

forces and then perhaps like a reality show

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:36

[Caite]: 00:23:36

or?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:36

mean, we're trying to convince them to move down to South Carolina, but I

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:39

don't think it's going to happen. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:40

to do that.

[Caite]: 00:23:41

I'm just picturing the show that you could create from this. And

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:46

Ed-

[Caite]: 00:23:46

I mean, I would totally watch that, so.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:49

It would be epic. It would be epic. They run, so not only do they run

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:53

a dog grooming business, they do doggy daycare too and dog boarding.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:23:57

And one of the first times I went to their house, the, so the whole basement

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:02

is set up as their dog grooming and boarding area. And one of the first times

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:06

I went to their house, they opened up the basement door and there had to

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:10

have been, there had to have been 30 dogs all just like coming and peering

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:14

around the corner and they're like, Oh, hello. And that's

[Caite]: 00:24:18

That

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:18

the reason.

[Caite]: 00:24:18

is GOLES.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:20

It is hysterical, but people love boarding with them because the dogs are

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:23

treated like family, and they're not left in kennels, and you know,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:27

they're out and about and hanging out with everybody, and it's really

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:30

cool. It's a really cool situation.

[Caite]: 00:24:33

Do you think that dog grooming leaves them better prepared for dealing with little

[Caite]: 00:24:36

girl hair than horse grooming does?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:38

Definitely. What do you think? Oh yeah. Yeah? Yeah? Okay. I've been practicing

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:42

with, so whenever we groom dogs, mainly girl dogs, like females, and they

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:48

like poodles, they're like, oh, they're long hair and stuff like that.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:52

Are you putting bows in? Yeah. I

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:24:53

Hehehehe

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:24:54

put bows in. So I specifically, like, we specifically order like, like, like

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:00

cute bows. And then I think I got the hang of it. So I'm all set

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:25:04

Yeah,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:04

for that. Jose's.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:25:05

yeah, perfect. Watch this baby be

[Caite]: 00:25:08

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:25:08

the

[Caite]: 00:25:08

have

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:25:09

baldest

[Caite]: 00:25:09

to say it's...

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:25:09

child ever. Like, you know those babies that don't have hair till they're

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:25:13

like two.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:15

We did an ultrasound, a 3D ultrasound. We had the best, they did a big

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:19

baby shower, what was that, two weeks ago? It wasn't that long ago. April

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:22

1st. They did this huge baby shower back in Indianapolis. And it was amazing.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:28

It was so much fun. Jose's family is obviously Hispanic and cooked up

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:32

the most incredible food. And they have so much family and everybody's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:38

so excited. And we had such a great stinking time. And I can't remember

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:43

where I was going with this.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:25:44

something about hair. Bows.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:47

Oh, and that's right, we did a 3D ultrasound while we were there. And,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:51

um,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:54

it was, oh my god, the food was so good. Sorry, the food got... Oh, Katie,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:25:59

it was lamb. And it was amazing.

[Caite]: 00:26:00

Oh my god.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:01

It was

[Caite]: 00:26:01

Yom.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:01

so good. It was so good. But, um, they did a 3D ultrasound. We had so

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:06

much fun. But she has so much hair on the ultrasound already. And I

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:10

was like, well, that's where all the heartburn came from. So hopefully,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:15

hopefully there'll be some good hair for Jose to play with.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:26:17

Yeah, that's right.

[Caite]: 00:26:19

I love Hannah as the mom of a pretty girly child myself, and she's like, why can't

[Caite]: 00:26:24

you do hair better? And I'm like, kid, look at me. Like, my hair is real short too.

[Caite]: 00:26:29

Like,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:29

Mm-hmm.

[Caite]: 00:26:29

you know why my hair is short? Because I am not the one you want for this baby.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:34

No! And who's got time for that? I'm sorry, I do not have time for that.

[Caite]: 00:26:37

Yeah. I'm trying to find one of the moms at daycare that I can like legit just

[Caite]: 00:26:42

pay off to deal with my kids hair because

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:44

That's amazing.

[Caite]: 00:26:45

I am not, I am not here for this.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:47

That's

[Caite]: 00:26:47

Just

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:26:47

amazing.

[Caite]: 00:26:48

not.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:26:51

So I know that probably every, oh, Katie's got more, go.

[Caite]: 00:26:56

Arlene, I forgot the second half of my question because I

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:26:58

Okay,

[Caite]: 00:26:58

got

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:26:58

sorry.

[Caite]: 00:26:58

all distracted by Jose's family's food.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:01

So you would

[Caite]: 00:27:03

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:03

have been kidding,

[Caite]: 00:27:03

you-

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:03

trust me.

[Caite]: 00:27:05

You said you were a total milk cow for the first kid, and I think you already

[Caite]: 00:27:10

partly answered this, but What's the plan for feeding this baby? Let's talk about

[Caite]: 00:27:16

food, Hannah. Let's just circle back to food

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:20

So we've got a really cool situation with Chris and Jose that they've

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:24

been very open about breastfeeding and birth and everything and just figuring

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:32

out what is going to A, be best for Emma and B, what's going to be feasible

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:36

for all of us. So that was kind of how we came to, you know, let's...

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:42

get Emma here and safely and then go back to the farm and settle and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:48

we can all kind of help each other. I mean, forehands are far better than

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:51

two and all kind of help

[Caite]: 00:27:53

I think

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:53

each

[Caite]: 00:27:53

you

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:53

other.

[Caite]: 00:27:53

have eight hands between the four of you, right?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:55

Yeah,

[Caite]: 00:27:56

Okay, good. I

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:57

yeah,

[Caite]: 00:27:57

just thought

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:58

you're

[Caite]: 00:27:58

I'd

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:58

right.

[Caite]: 00:27:58

check.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:27:59

Yeah. I can't, I don't know. Hard. But just kind of get everybody settled

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:03

and that'll give me time to get my milk in. And I was very fortunate

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:07

that I was an absolute cow last time. So hopefully if they're here for

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:12

about a week, we can get a bunch of milk frozen up for them to send

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:14

off with and then we'll be shipping milk up north for them weekly. So

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:19

that should be a pretty good situation. And last time I produced, I fed

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:25

Tempe, obviously, and then I also pumped, I had a girlfriend who did not

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:29

nurse well. And so I pumped and fed her baby half of his milk as well.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:34

And then I also donated about 600 ounces. So it was, I was very... Good milk

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:40

cow. Yeah.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:28:41

Yeah Good supply for sure.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:44

So, yeah, fingers crossed that happens again. I know it's not always

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:48

the same and pumping will be different obviously than having a baby on

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:52

the breast all the time. So we'll see, we'll see, but that's the hope.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:28:56

That's the hope.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:28:56

Mm-hmm.

[Caite]: 00:28:57

I like that you're setting up a meal train now. You know,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:00

Right? Right?

[Caite]: 00:29:01

for the baby.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:01

Why not? I'm sorry.

[Caite]: 00:29:05

Can you call?

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:29:07

So I'm sure that every surrogacy experience is different, but can you talk a

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:29:11

little bit about the steps like medically that you go through? Like say

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:29:15

someone else was interested or curious about how it works. So what did

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:29:20

it look like for you? And you've talked a lot about kind of the delays and how

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:29:23

long everything takes. So I'm also kind of curious about what happens along

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:29:27

the way.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:29

I think the longest process was probably legal, wouldn't you say? The attorneys?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:34

Yeah, it was a long, because I don't think it was, I think it was like April

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:38

before, or May even, before we started on the actual process, a physical

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:43

process. So the attorney portion took a really long time. And I feel

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:50

like we were all very simple on the contracts. Like we were like, we were

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:53

pretty easy. Like whatever you guys say, I just think it takes a long

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:29:57

time to. get everything squared away. And we have the challenge too, that you're

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:02

dealing with all these different states, right? So they're from Indianapolis,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:07

but and we're from South Carolina, but the laws in Georgia are actually

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:10

more agreeable for surrogacy. And we're thankfully about 15 minutes from

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:16

the border of Georgia. So that's why we're in Georgia to have the baby.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:21

So that was kind of the longest process. And then after that, it was. I mean,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:28

blood draws and lots of ultrasounds to kind of start tracking cycles and seeing

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:32

where everything's sitting. Very similar to an IVF process. And then we

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:38

did, I would go up to Indianapolis and they would do scans up there and check

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:45

everything. And then we did a mock trial, which was super interesting because

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:50

we had to time when we needed to do implantation. And so most women you implant,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:30:57

I believe it was seven days, and they did a mock trial where they actually

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:01

scraped some of the uterine lining and they test the cells to see when

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:05

you're gonna be most fertile to accept an egg or an embryo. And they said,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:10

you know, there's just, there's a few women that are a little before or a little

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:13

after, and thankfully they did that because my day was actually day nine,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:16

not seven. So if we had just gone for the first one, we probably wouldn't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:20

have had little Emma. We'd probably have a little boy instead. So it was

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:24

great that we did the mock trial and kind of knew. what day they need

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:27

to do the transfer on and then The next cycle I went back up for the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:33

transfer and then same as IVF It's tons of tons of shots and I don't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:37

do needles. So that was kind of a struggle, but we got through it But it

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:43

was actually really amazing. We had a We had a mare last year lose a foal

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:48

tragically she was having a canter with the herd and she Ran into a fence

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:55

post and broke her neck And so it was absolutely heart-wrenching. And we

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:31:58

were with the foal, obviously, until the vet got there and had her sedated

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:02

and quiet and everything. And the mare, the mom of the foal, is one of

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:07

my homebreds. So I had pulled her from her dam. And so her and I are obviously

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:11

very close. And so the situation was very challenging and heartbreaking for

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:16

all of us to go through. And when the transfer happened, it was about

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:19

two months after we had lost the baby. And she actually came up into the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:23

field. When I got home, I was out doing some stuff. and she came up and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:27

it was still three days before I could take a positive pregnancy test. And

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:30

she put her head on my chest and put her nose on my stomach and just stood

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:33

there. And you know, I was just loving on her. I didn't really think anything

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:36

of it. And then mom kind of, I think it was, I don't know if it was

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:39

mom or Bryce was like, you know, do you think, do you think she knows

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:41

something? And I was like, you know, I didn't even think about that. She's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:44

a very affectionate animal anyway, but it was just interesting how she

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:47

came over and really just rested on my stomach. And then that night,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:51

one of our cats who we've had for forever, who was also, with me during

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:56

my last pregnancy and is obsessed with incubating babies, obsessed with

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:32:59

it, immediately started incubating my stomach. And so I texted Chris and Jose

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:04

and I was like, I think we're pregnant. And they were like, really? There's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:08

no way we can know yet. And we knew long before we took the pregnancy test

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:11

that we were pregnant. It was really cool. But it was so fun to have

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:14

the animals being the one to tell you, you know, that they were all like,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:17

oh yeah, there's a bun in the oven. Let's get this thing going. So, but

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:21

yeah, the process was. Other than that, it was pretty smooth. I went back

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:25

up for an eight week ultrasound in Indianapolis. And at that point I was released

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:29

from Midwest Fertility. And then I started with a midwife here in Aiken,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:36

who actually kind of counseled us into not doing a hospital birth, because

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:40

our first birth was a home birth. And so then we went to Savannah and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:45

got in with a birthing center there, which we absolutely loved. And then

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:50

Emma decided that, you know, it's not really anybody's decision other than

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:33:52

hers anyway. So here we are at the hospital.

[Caite]: 00:33:58

Chris and Jose, I know you know Hannah well enough by now, but y'all are screwed if

[Caite]: 00:34:03

she comes out with even like half of her attitude. You're just up a creek.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:34:07

Oh,

[Caite]: 00:34:08

I mean,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:34:08

love it. Yeah, I will.

[Caite]: 00:34:09

you're lucky, cause... Hmm.

[Caite]: 00:34:16

Sorry, we totally missed that.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:34:18

Oh, you're fine. We were saying that if Emma, it's just like, we will

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:34:23

love it. What's not to love about Emma? I don't know about that, but they're

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:34:31

pretty great guys.

[Caite]: 00:34:34

I mean, my daughter's a sassy little critter too, so I fully... I love it.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:34:41

You wouldn't want it any other way though. I mean, the stuff that comes

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:34:44

out of Tempe's mouth most of the time leaves me like peeing my pants.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:34:47

So like, I'm game.

[Caite]: 00:34:51

figure it's got to be easier to try and get them to chill a little bit than it

[Caite]: 00:34:55

is to deal with a kid who is just, you know, can be told anything and will go

[Caite]: 00:34:59

along with it. So,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:01

Well...

[Caite]: 00:35:01

at least that's what I tell myself to deal with the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:04

Absolutely.

[Caite]: 00:35:04

tremendous amount of attitude. Um, what...

[Caite]: 00:35:14

I know you said there are other embryos remaining. I was about to say on file, but

[Caite]: 00:35:20

I don't think that's really what I meant.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:22

They're in a-

[Caite]: 00:35:23

Have you guys talked about doing this again?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:29

So we have.

[Caite]: 00:35:30

Not... It's like... Go ahead.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:34

We have, and I mean, we don't have any details or anything. It's just a thought,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:39

I think, right now. And Hannah and Bryce are, I think, agreeable to it. And

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:46

we're on board with another one. So, you know, obviously, this is a little

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:50

girl, and we'd like to have a little boy. But we just want to have success.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:35:59

We want Emma to come and get... We want to get through this one before

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:04

we start really venturing down another path. Planning the second one.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:08

So yeah, that's where I'm with that. I had no desire to do another surrogacy

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:18

until they brought it up. I don't think I would. I wanted to do this

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:21

once. If it was for another couple, I would not be interested. But we've

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:25

had so much fun. And It's been great and it's been so fun to get to know

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:29

them. They're going to be the best daddies in the world. This little

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:31

girl is so lucky. So I think we're, we're game to do it again.

[Caite]: 00:36:42

So how has this pregnancy been different, physically and emotionally, than the last one?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:49

Honestly, not at all. The only frustration I had with this one in the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:54

beginning was they had me on restricted activity, which I understand

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:36:58

why. But that was challenging. Again, Katie and I have known each other for

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:03

years. Sitting is not a common part of my life, nor is sleeping.

[Caite]: 00:37:10

I don't know that I've ever seen you seated,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:13

Yeah,

[Caite]: 00:37:13

and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:13

[Caite]: 00:37:13

I don't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:13

don't

[Caite]: 00:37:13

think you actually do sleep, so...

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:15

know. Really not a cup of tea of mine. So. So that part was a little

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:21

challenging in the beginning. It wasn't bed rest or anything, but it was

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:23

the simple things of like, I couldn't go out and throw 15 bales of hay,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:26

which, you know, I'm taking care of your farm. And so Bryce and my parents

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:32

were very accommodating and helpful to do the heavy lifting on the farm

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:36

that I couldn't do for a few weeks. But after that, I was back to my

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:40

normal activity level. I've been riding three horses four to five days

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:44

a week still, running the farm, throwing, you know, a bunch of hay. And...

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:48

Um, it's honestly, physically, it's been exactly the same up until this little

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:37:53

entertaining blip on Saturday morning. Um, but, uh, and emotionally, it's,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:00

emotionally, it's been absolutely fine. Um, I really, like I said, I really sat

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:05

with this for a long time before I even talked to Bryce about it, um,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:08

and made sure that I felt like I was, uh, emotionally and mentally capable

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:12

of carrying someone else's child and being comfortable, you know, knowing

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:16

that this was not my baby. even though your body thinks it is when it

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:19

comes out, it's not my baby. And so we've all talked about it. It's so funny

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:24

because people bring up the comment a lot, like how do you make a baby

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:28

and then give it up? And I'm like, it was never mine to give up. It's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:32

always been Chris and Jose's little girl. So it's just my job to incubate

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:35

the little cutie and bring her into the world. So I feel like rationally,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:40

I've been very good on that level. That being said, one of the reasons

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:44

we went with this agency is they have a really good counseling program

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:46

afterwards. because we're all moms and we all know the hormones that

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:51

come in after you give birth. And I want to be prepared for that. I definitely

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:38:56

want to be. And we had, we unfortunately had a lot of heartache the first

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:00

half of the pregnancy with some dear friends passing. And just a, it was

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:05

a hard, hard fall. And so I'm very aware that that's probably gonna hit

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:08

me as well. And so we're gonna be prepared for that. But at the same

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:13

time, you know, rationally, like I said, I'm sitting with it very well

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:15

rationally. I just. I know hormones are a beast, so I want to make sure

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:22

I'm prepared for that when it comes around.

[Caite]: 00:39:25

Do you think it helped the mental part of the process, that it started as an embryo

[Caite]: 00:39:31

and not with your, I mean, not with your egg, but also not with your immediate

[Caite]: 00:39:39

biological involvement in the actually making an embryo, if that makes sense.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:45

I think yes and no. I don't know. I'm pretty good at compartmentalizing.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:54

I feel like from the get-go I just emotionally and mentally understood

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:39:57

it's not my child. And I feel like that part sat, that part sits well

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:02

with me. We have no desire to have another child. We feel like we have

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:06

a jackpot. I mean she is beautiful and wonderful and she's smart and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:10

she's kind and she's gentle. she's giving, you know, she's just everything

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:13

we ever could have wanted for a child. And so we always knew we only

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:18

ever wanted one, and I'm sure the next one will be a demon. And so we

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:23

just, we sat tight with that. And that was actually the really funny part.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:28

We were going through some of this paperwork and stuff, you know, Bryce

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:30

was very adamant as we were talking with our attorney, he's like, but how

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:33

do we make sure that this child does not accidentally come to us? Because

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:36

we don't want another one.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:40:38

Don't make us guardians of any kind.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:42

It was so funny, I mean, he was like, no seriously, what if something

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:45

goes wrong with our birth certificate and they try to give us the baby?

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:40:47

Thanks for watching!

[Caite]: 00:40:49

Just like, return policy, there is not one. No

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:52

Right.

[Caite]: 00:40:52

returns without a receipt, no returns with a receipt. It's your

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:40:55

Yeah.

[Caite]: 00:40:56

problem now, guys.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:40:59

So it was pretty funny, but no, it's been a really cool process. It's been

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:04

super cool. And for the most part, it's gone very smoothly other than this

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:08

little hiccup. And I think this was kind of one of the ways the universe

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:12

does sometimes, you need to accept how things are going to go and you

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:15

need to be willing to adapt and evolve. And so this was definitely not

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:18

the plan, but we have been willing to adapt and evolve. And at the same

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:22

time, we're going to spend all this time with Chris and Jose. They've

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:24

been here since Sunday. and we get to spend every day together and we're

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:27

all just hanging out. We've got dominoes on the floor and Tempe's been

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:31

ripping up some uno with everybody and we've just been having a good

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:34

time.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:41:36

That's great.

[Caite]: 00:41:36

It feels like a good introduction to parenthood, too. This is kinda...

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:42

I think so.

[Caite]: 00:41:43

you know.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:44

Yeah, I really

[Caite]: 00:41:45

About

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:45

[Caite]: 00:41:45

what

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:45

think

[Caite]: 00:41:45

it's gonna

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:45

so.

[Caite]: 00:41:45

be like.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:41:47

Right?

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:41:48

So I know you've said that Emma's dictating how things are gonna go in

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:41:51

terms of the birth, but you know, in like detail wise, is everyone going

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:41:57

to be in the room when she's born, or what are your plans for kind of those

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:42:02

final

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:03

Well,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:42:03

moments?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:04

that's the plan. We're not quite sure about Chris. He doesn't do, we've

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:10

been very honest that it's loud and it's messy.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:42:12

Yep.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:13

And he doesn't mess bodily fluids very well. So Tempe might be holding

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:19

his hand in the corner. You know, that's fine.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:42:23

She's seen birth before,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:23

But

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:42:24

right?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:25

I've seen her plenty of times. She's very, they've been very kind. they were

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:30

more than willing to have her in the room with us. Obviously if it's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:32

in the middle of the night and she's not here, you know, we're not gonna

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:35

scramble to try to get her here, but hopefully she'll get to be here for

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:38

it too. But for now we're planning in the room will be Chris and Jose

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:43

and Bryce and me obviously, and Tempe and my mom. So it'll be kind of a

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:49

roomful and we're kind of just gauging who, you know, it's ebb and flow

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:54

of hopefully one of us are gonna catch her. I think it'd be cool to have

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:42:58

someone in the family catch her rather than, you know, the doctors or the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:01

nurses. But it should be really fun. Yeah, the only one we're a little

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:06

concerned about is Chris over there. We might have him sitting in a

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:08

chair.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:09

Yeah, you don't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:10

We just

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:10

want

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:10

don't want him to hit the floor.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:12

to, yeah, don't let the baby or Chris at the floor. Maybe he shouldn't be

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:18

catching either. Take him off the list.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:20

Right, right,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:21

Yeah.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:21

right. I think, I think he's going for.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:26

So if this is too personal, then you can skip it or tell me that you're

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:31

not going to answer this question. But as a Canadian, I know that here you're

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:36

not allowed to pay someone to be a surrogate. And I don't know if money

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:40

is part of the arrangement that you guys have, but I'm just curious about

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:45

the money side of things, I guess even in terms of, you know, like paying

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:48

for medical expenses and all that kind of stuff. How does how does

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:51

Yeah.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:43:52

the financial side work?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:54

So there is a financial side to it. I'll be the first one to say that wasn't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:43:58

what brought us that direction. It's something we've always wanted to do. It

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:02

was something we were actually going to do for some very close gay friends

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:04

of ours growing up, or not growing up, but like initially. And they found

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:10

out that one of them was infertile and he was the one that wanted to

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:12

be biological and they had selected a donor egg and everything. So the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:17

financial part wasn't as big for us as it was. just is something we

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:20

want it to do. The financial part definitely helps and like the agency said

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:26

Mindy was like the most beautiful balance you find between a surrogate woman

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:31

that appreciates the money and uses the money obviously to improve things

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:36

that they need to improve in their lives and all that but also is just

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:39

compassionate and caring and really just wants to do this. So there's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:43

definitely, yes the monetary side is helpful for sure but... And then they

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:48

do cover all the medical expenses and all of that. But that's not terribly

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:44:54

what it's about, if that makes sense.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:44:56

Yeah, that totally makes sense. Yeah, and just being from somewhere where you're

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:45:01

not allowed to pay someone, it just, you know, I understand the ethics

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:45:08

of that, but you know, as someone who has born children, I also can appreciate,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:45:13

you know, like, there are something,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:14

Yes.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:45:16

you are doing something with your body that has value, right? And you know,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:45:22

that can't be done in any other way. So.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:27

No, and it does definitely take a physical toll. I hadn't thought about

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:30

what Katie said earlier, which is such honestly a brilliant statement.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:34

The beauty of, we have three completely healthy individuals after a baby

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:40

is born, where normally you have one. And the mother is a bit, it's a process.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:47

Giving birth, it's a big process. And it's strenuous on your body and

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:50

it's hard. whether it's natural, whether it's C-section, it doesn't matter,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:54

it is a hard process and your body goes through the wringer. And to

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:45:58

have able-bodied individuals when you're recovering is huge. And I honestly

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:03

hadn't even thought about how helpful that will be for all of us as we

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:07

kind of get going and get settled with little Emma.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:46:11

Mm-hmm. I was wondering if the dads wanted to chime in again about what

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:46:17

the plan is. Are they both self-employed? Like, are we both taking some

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:46:23

time off? What does your paternity leave look like in the next

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:29

They're

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:46:29

little

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:29

getting closer

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:46:29

while?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:29

so you can talk.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:46:30

Sure.

[Caite]: 00:46:32

I say, Arlene, I want to interject too that Hannah, a large part of my thought

[Caite]: 00:46:37

with that was actually that as new parents, they will have experienced parents

[Caite]: 00:46:42

who are not their parents helping with the baby.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:48

Absolutely. Well,

[Caite]: 00:46:48

Because

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:49

and

[Caite]: 00:46:49

that, that being

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:51

that

[Caite]: 00:46:51

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:51

helps.

[Caite]: 00:46:51

first-time parent is a mindfuck, to be

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:55

It's

[Caite]: 00:46:55

sure.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:56

a challenge. Yeah, it is. It's a total mind-boggling. It's a challenge.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:46:58

And they're very fortunate, too, where they're at. Jose has a beautiful

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:47:02

extended family with cousins and sisters and family that are so excited

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:47:06

to help. And Chris does, too. And the amount of support they have is

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:47:10

really incredibly beautiful. It was so touching to be—their baby shower

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:47:13

had like 150 people, I swear to God. There were so many people. And it was

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:47:19

a majority that was family. And it was just so touching to see how much

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:47:22

support they have. It's gonna be a really beautiful experience for them.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:47:25

But I'm passing it over to them.

[Caite]: 00:47:28

And I feel like I'm scaring them. I hope I'm not. I'm an only child and didn't

[Caite]: 00:47:32

grow up with babies, so being sent home from the hospital, we're like, somebody

[Caite]: 00:47:36

else is in charge and knows what the fuck they're doing, and then they just let

[Caite]: 00:47:40

you take this thing home, and they just assumed that you know what you're gonna,

[Caite]: 00:47:45

like... They assume you'll figure it out, which you will. It'll be fine. But it

[Caite]: 00:47:52

would have been awesome to start out with somebody who'd already done this. That's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:47:55

Yeah.

[Caite]: 00:47:55

all I'm gonna say about that.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:47:59

Yeah, so I guess my question was for you guys, what are the next weeks and

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:48:02

months look like? What are you most excited about and what are your plans

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:48:07

with your new little one?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:09

You know, I don't know. I don't know. So like Hannah said, we have tons

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:16

of support. We have tons of family. We have so many friends and everybody's

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:22

so supportive. And we have Jose's sister, one of the sisters works for

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:28

us full time. So she's with us, you know, five out of seven days a week.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:33

And another sister works with us one day. So we always have. We're always

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:40

gonna have so much support. I always think back to what Hannah has told

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:46

us several times that when they had Tempe, when Tempe was born, they had

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:52

all this support at their home. And then at a certain point, everybody

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:48:57

kind of left and they were home alone with a baby. They're like, oh shit,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:03

what do we do now?

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:49:04

Yep, that sounds familiar.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:07

Yeah. And you know what? They made it through and they just took it.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:12

They figured it out and took it day by day. And I think we're going to do

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:15

the same thing, you know? So we're just so damn excited and just over

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:22

the moon and can't believe this is happening. And I have to pinch myself

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:26

to. I just don't.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:49:30

Yeah.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:31

Yeah, I would. I just I would just add like as far as the. how the next weeks

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:36

will look for us. Definitely we'll take in some time off from work. We'll

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:41

still be taking some dogs here and there. The main reason we're doing

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:46

that is because I want Emma to start feel comfortable with dogs being around

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:49:52

her. Like as far as like barking or crying, whatever it is. Cause even

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:50:01

Hannah agrees, and probably every mom will agree with that. with it is

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:50:06

that your home, you have to make it feel comfortable for her. So whatever

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:50:11

noise, whether it is loud or not too loud, it will be eventually become

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:50:20

like comfort for her. So that's what the next week will look for us.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:50:27

Busy but not too busy. Enough busy to make some money but not too busy to

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:50:34

make her. feel comfortable if that makes any sense.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:50:38

Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

[Caite]: 00:50:44

Sorry, I was just thinking about what a lucky kiddo this is to be born into so many

[Caite]: 00:50:50

families and so many people that love her and worked this hard to make this happen.

[Caite]: 00:50:57

I mean, it's really... The best possible thing a kiddo can have is to have more people

[Caite]: 00:51:03

who love them. And that's...

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:51:04

Yeah.

[Caite]: 00:51:07

What a wonderful thing. So I'd really like

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:51:10

Katie,

[Caite]: 00:51:10

to hear from all...

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:51:12

just one more question, Katie, before we go on. I know that you guys have

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:51:16

probably told Hannah these things lots of times, but what do you feel

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:51:22

about her and the gift that she's giving you? Are there words to put behind

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:51:28

what she's doing for you guys?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:51:31

You know, for me, I try to wrap my head around this whole, from the very

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:51:37

beginning, how we ended up so damn lucky. Hannah and Bryce and Tempe,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:51:47

they're all just angels to me. I just can't. I just still don't understand

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:51:56

how we managed to be so lucky. And

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:04

we just, we're like, me and Jose and Hannah and Bryce and Tempe, we're

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:09

like peanut butter and jelly. I mean, I just, yeah. And I think it, you know,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:17

yet to be seen, but I think it's going to be lasting. I think. And I think

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:22

they're gonna be in our lives for a very long time, so. Yeah, I couldn't

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:28

agree more. I think we talked every day, so. We're getting a little bushed

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:34

up. But.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:42

Sorry.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:52:42

That's okay. I'm tearing

[Caite]: 00:52:44

I just feel

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:52:44

up too.

[Caite]: 00:52:45

bad that Hannah volunteered for this podcast and then we've just roped all of you

[Caite]: 00:52:48

into it.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:51

I mean, I texted them, I don't know how many times I told them, like,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:52:56

I cannot find words of how to explain to be thankful to her, to Bryce,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:03

Tempe, you know, it's just like, we're just so happy. There will never

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:07

be enough words for me to explain how thankful I am for them. And like

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:15

Chris mentioned, they... By now, they're family. They're not even considered

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:20

friends or any people that we just met. But they're definitely part of

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:28

our family now. And I know it will last forever. We'll eventually come

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:36

visit them, or they can go up north and visit us, vice versa. So we're

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:40

here. Yeah, we'll keep it up. Where? But we know Hannah hates the cold,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:46

so that's why she ran away from Iowa. So more than that, Google I like

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:50

last time we were here towards the end of March, was it? Yeah, I think it

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:53:57

was sometime in March, the fifth week. Yeah, and I just love that because

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:54:03

it was, you know, like we live in the city and it's loud all the time.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:54:09

We're fortunate that we don't live close enough to where there's too many

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:54:14

cars, but there is enough cars to you can still hear it. traffic all

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:54:18

that and when we're at their farm it was just like peaceful you don't hear

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:54:23

anything but the horses the chickens and but yeah i enjoyed it so i'm looking

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:54:29

forward for more of those days like that and of course sharing it with

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:54:34

Emma and all of them too.

[Caite]: 00:54:41

So, we ask all of our guests, and I'd love to hear from all four of you, if you were

[Caite]: 00:54:46

going to dominate a category at the county fair, what would it be? Any categories

[Caite]: 00:54:50

can be real or made up to ensure that you win. And maybe we should start with Hannah,

[Caite]: 00:54:54

since I think she's the only one who saw these questions ahead of time.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:54:58

I didn't look at him.

[Caite]: 00:55:01

I never look at him and I'm a co-host of the show.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:07

dominate? What would you dominate? What would I dominate?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:14

I mean, lack of sleep, I could definitely dominate that one. I could

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:17

slice that one up.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:20

Well, your horses must

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:21

I don't

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:21

have

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:21

know.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:21

the best hair, so I mean, a certain kind of braid

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:24

day.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:24

are you the best at?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:27

Pretty luxurious. It's pretty luxurious. Yeah, I have no idea. I have no

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:32

idea. Something with animals, obviously. What do you have Bryce? I think

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:38

I would dominate the pie eating contest.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:41

Sweet. Quantity

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:43

Yeah,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:43

or speed?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:44

I think. Um, quantity. Yeah, I would wanna enjoy it. Yeah. Definitely.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:53

Yeah.

[Caite]: 00:55:55

What kind

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:55

Nice.

[Caite]: 00:55:55

of pie are we talking there, Bryce?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:56

Oh, I knew you were gonna ask that.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:55:58

Hahaha

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:55:58

Um, probably lemon pie or lemon meringue. I really want a lemon meringue

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:03

pie. I, we were thinking about this and nobody will make me one. So

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:07

maybe they'll have some in the cafeteria.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:10

Oh, hospital

[Caite]: 00:56:10

If I could

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:10

cafeteria

[Caite]: 00:56:10

think of a way

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:11

pie

[Caite]: 00:56:11

to ship

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:11

is probably

[Caite]: 00:56:11

one,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:11

pretty

[Caite]: 00:56:11

I'd

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:12

bad.

[Caite]: 00:56:12

do it, because I love lemon meringue.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:15

Or they have it here in the hospital. So maybe I'll have to go down there

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:18

and look. All right, Chris, what do you got? I'm gonna piggyback on what

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:25

Bryce said and it's the eating part of it because I just love all the food

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:31

at the fair. Whatever it is, fried. Funnel

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:34

Yeah,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:34

cakes. I'll eat it. Yeah.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:36

all the fried stuff.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:40

Yeah. Yeah, probably me too, because I love to eat. I

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:42

Hehehe

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:43

love food. We're very. Yeah, we're very fluid motivated.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:45

Very food focused.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:46

This is why we all get a lot of help. So,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:48

Yeah, that's right. So

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:51

anything from you.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:56:51

are you eating from the cafeteria or are we Uber eating into the hospital tonight?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:56:57

We- They brought, what, what, last- two nights ago they brought us steaks

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:57:02

and mashed potatoes and all sorts of yummy stuff. Last night we had- Last

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:57:06

night we had Thai, that was fantastic.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:57:08

Oh delicious.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:57:10

So, yeah, we've been having a good time.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:57:13

That's great. So we're gonna go ahead and move into our cussing and discussing

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:57:18

segment. So this is anything goes, it can be from a minor pet peeve to major

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:57:22

societal issues, whatever you want to talk about. And listeners, if they

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:57:27

want to submit their cussing and discussing, you can go to our speak pipe

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:57:30

or our email, they're both in the show notes. You can leave us a voice

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:57:33

memo or send us an email and we'll read it out. Katie, what are you cussing

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:57:37

and discussing this week?

[Caite]: 00:57:41

I hadn't prepared anything, but I'm just gonna wing it. I am not the most emotionally

[Caite]: 00:57:49

adept person. I'm not good at deep feelings. And so when I had my kids, you know,

[Caite]: 00:57:58

people say things like, "'A child is your heart walking around outside of your body.'"

[Caite]: 00:58:02

And I was like, the fuck's the matter with you people? You know, like... It is. You

[Caite]: 00:58:09

guys, I'm... I'm... I love that Hannah's snorting

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:58:12

I'm sorry.

[Caite]: 00:58:12

over here.

[Caite]: 00:58:17

Chris and Jose, I'm so excited for you guys,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:58:20

it.

[Caite]: 00:58:20

I've never met, so I can't even imagine how excited you guys are. To get to experience

[Caite]: 00:58:26

that, because it's unlike anything else, the

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:58:31

Yeah.

[Caite]: 00:58:31

love that you will feel for your child. And

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:58:34

Thank you.

[Caite]: 00:58:36

now that I've done it for a while, I wish I could go back and experience that

[Caite]: 00:58:41

first. that first experience of it, again, because it's, for me at least, being

[Caite]: 00:58:50

the emotionally stunted little weirdo that I am, I frequently try really hard not

[Caite]: 00:58:56

to think about how much I love my children, because it sends me into a very uncomfortable

[Caite]: 00:59:01

place very quickly. And I'm just so excited for all of you

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:09

Thank you.

[Caite]: 00:59:10

to get that. And if it's overwhelming, just don't think about it because it'll just

[Caite]: 00:59:18

break your heart real quick. Because it's... Yeah. Anyway. Um, are- Well, now, how

[Caite]: 00:59:26

are we gonna do this with all four of them, Arlene?

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:28

We'll just ask if anyone wants to cuss or discuss anything and they can jump

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:32

in. They're pretty good at that. Anybody have anything you want to talk

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:35

about? Cussing? Discussing? Hannah, you've got something.

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:42

Yeah

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:47

You

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:47

discussed

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:47

must have

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:47

plenty.

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:47

something

[Caite]: 00:59:48

Hannah,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:48

[Caite]: 00:59:48

can

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:48

complain

[Caite]: 00:59:48

we see this

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:48

about.

[Caite]: 00:59:49

belly real quick before we get off here too?

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:51

Ugh!

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:52

Oh yeah,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:52

It-it-it-

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:52

this is great

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:53

Honestly,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:53

for an

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:53

it's

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:53

audio

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:53

like- I don't

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:54

medium,

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:54

know. It is

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:54

Katie. Our listeners are gonna

[Hannah Jungling]: 00:59:55

a little-

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:56

love

[Caite]: 00:59:56

Yeah,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:56

this.

[Caite]: 00:59:56

well,

[Arlene Hunter]: 00:59:56

Ha ha.

[Caite]: 00:59:57

awww. Baby.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:02

No, she's a good girl, she's just chugging along.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:08

No.

[Caite]: 01:00:08

Alright, anybody got anything?

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:11

I just was gonna go off of what Katie said about that first love and I

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:14

was gonna say I've already warned him about the first meconium poop. That's

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:17

what I've been hitting him hard for.

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:00:19

All the firsts.

[Caite]: 01:00:23

I will

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:24

[Caite]: 01:00:24

save

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:24

had nothing

[Caite]: 01:00:24

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:24

to burn.

[Caite]: 01:00:24

the-

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:25

Good old tar.

[Caite]: 01:00:28

When the girl child was like ten days old, we took her to a young farmers meeting

[Caite]: 01:00:33

in a church that for some unholy reason did not have changing tables.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:00:37

Oh god.

[Caite]: 01:00:37

And so I was like ten days post C-section and trying to change a baby who was... It was

[Caite]: 01:00:42

like the first poop after the meconium where it just looks like they've exploded.

[Caite]: 01:00:46

I assume this is a common thing. And I had to change her like in a sink in this

[Caite]: 01:00:52

church

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:00:52

No.

[Caite]: 01:00:52

bathroom. And I... I have never questioned... whether I should have had children before or

[Caite]: 01:00:59

after like I did that night. Um, yeah. So, there's that poop. So much poop.

[Caite]: 01:01:10

That's a lot of poop. Arlene, what do you have to custom discuss?

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:14

So since we decided to move this up and have it be our Mother's Day episode,

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:19

I am going to cuss and discuss or mostly cuss the fact that Mother's Day and

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:23

planting line up so perfectly so that there's unless it rains and then people

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:30

are grumpy about the fact that it rains. There's never any chance that Mother's

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:33

Day is going to be like the relaxing, like go to brunch and get flowers

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:37

situation that non-farm families apparently get. So I wanna say happy Mother's

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:44

Day to any of the moms out there who are maybe, you know, making meals

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:49

for people out in tractors or looking after kids by yourself or on a tractor

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:54

with your kids, or maybe you could put the kids on the tractor with your

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:01:58

partner. You could drive the tractor by yourself and listen to a podcast

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:02:03

instead of listening to people ask when planting is done or whatever. Anyway,

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:02:08

it's just, we could move Mother's Day to like January or something and then we

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:02:12

might actually get a day off.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:02:14

And Ray, those are the best, unfortunately.

[Caite]: 01:02:19

I'll say to that if it's someone who is not a mother listening to this, chances

[Caite]: 01:02:24

are that you know a mother and you should go do something nice for that person,

[Caite]: 01:02:29

even

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:02:29

Yeah,

[Caite]: 01:02:29

if they're not your mother or the mother

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:02:30

[Caite]: 01:02:31

of your

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:02:31

that.

[Caite]: 01:02:31

children. It's rarely a bad idea to do something nice for someone.

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:02:36

There you go. So.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:02:40

conversation here. I just have a funny little note that I found out about

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:02:43

the other day that I think you will find entertaining. So we grow roses

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:02:47

beautifully down here which we did not we're not able to grow up north

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:02:50

and so I was chatting with I've planted a few and they really just grow

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:02:55

beautifully down here but I was chatting with a gal at the flower shop

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:02:58

a couple of weeks ago and I was asking her like I need to learn more

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:01

about how to prune them and keep them beautiful here and all of these things

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:05

right and I said do you cut them back like in the fall or something and

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:08

She looked at me and she goes, we're talking about roses, right? And

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:10

I said, yeah, like roses. And she's like, yeah, so Valentine's Day is

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:14

the perfect day to cut them down to the ground. And I was like, Valentine's

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:18

Day?

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:18

That's a good way

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:19

Really?

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:19

to remember.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:19

I know, I was like, that's kind of savage.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:27

Not highly.

[Caite]: 01:03:27

I like that.

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:31

It's a date you can remember. That's good.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:03:34

Seriously.

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:34

So yeah, I want to thank everybody in the room for talking to us today. And we

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:40

I know Katie has already said it and we're both going to say it again. We're

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:43

so excited for all of you. And by the time this episode comes out, there's

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:49

gonna be an Emma in the world and we will hopefully be able to share some

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:54

pictures or whatever you guys are comfortable with sharing with us and our

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:03:59

listeners after she makes her appearance. But good luck in the next few hours

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:04:04

and days and weeks. And yeah, we're just so thankful that you came on with

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:04:09

us today and we're so open to sharing with us. So thank you.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:13

Thank you for having

[Caite]: 01:04:13

Yeah,

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:13

me.

[Caite]: 01:04:13

thank you guys so much. And I, Hannah, I know I said, but I hope that this is the

[Caite]: 01:04:18

most uneventful and boring delivery that could possibly happen, because

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:24

My last.

[Caite]: 01:04:24

I feel like that's really the like, you

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:27

I'm

[Caite]: 01:04:27

know.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:27

really hoping so. My last one totally was, but this is just a whole hiccup.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:30

I don't know. I don't see. But thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you.

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:04:38

Thanks

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:38

It was

[Arlene Hunter]: 01:04:38

everybody.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:38

nice

[Caite]: 01:04:39

Thanks.

[Hannah Jungling]: 01:04:39

meeting you.

[Caite]: 01:04:39

Thank you guys so much for coming on.

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