In Buying Dad, Harlyn Aizely moves through the process of a lesbian couple getting pregnant as smooth as a baby through the birth canal. Up and down their rollercoaster of “sexual science,” the ride is as unexpected as it is intimate as Aizley and her partner (Faith) take baby steps toward motherhood.
Having a Baby
“Ten minutes after we have slowly inserted and retracted both vials I think I feel something moving inside me. I’m pregnant! Then I get anxious. The incredible hugeness of what we’re doing hits and surprised me like all along I had thought we were buying a car…It’s perhaps the biggest, most life-altering, irreversible thing you can do..”
The Secret World of Insemination
As it began with the basics, I felt like I was in sitting on an adjacent couch from Ellen Degeneres and Sharon Stone. But as Aizely moved into private anecdotes and details the audience didn’t get in the HBO special, I felt like I’d been let in on a big secret. “Part of me wishes there had been candles, more ritual, not Faith leaving me splayed with a syringe poking out of my vagina while she flossed and brushed her teeth...” The syringe needs to stay in for twenty minutes so all the sperm can make out of the tube.
Humorous and Honest
Not only is Aizley candid in a way only hormones could induce, but she lets it all hang out. From revealing her fears of motherhood and uncontrollable gas, seeing friends (also trying to get pregnant) fighting over anonymous idyllic sperm donors, to letting the reader see the human side of her relationship, Aizley is first, honest, then informative.
Beyond the entertaining, neurotic madness of the narrator’s voice, this book is a bit of a learning journey for those of us who’ve always wondered how two vaginas can create a baby. An interesting nugget culled from the book: there are two ways for lesbian couples to get pregnant—ICI (intracervical) and IUI (intrauterine.) Translated: ICI=turkey baster, IUI=doctor inserted. Who knew? Pick up this book and you will.
More than Turkey Baster Stories
This book isn’t all dry humor and blunt honesty about buying a dad. Interwoven through the manuscript is a painfully ironic parallel of Aizley getting pregnant and her mother dying of cancer that adds a rich element to the book.
It’s no surprise that Aizley does indeed get pregnant; otherwise she probably would’ve had a harder time selling her we-threw-in-the-towel manuscript. But fortunately for her (and for eager-mother readers) the baby not only turned out great, but so did this read.—Gina Daggett
