Anndee Hochman

Both swear the baby gave side-eye to the medical team within moments of her birth and now, Jordan says, “she’ll roll her eyes if you say something stupid.”

At the five-week ultrasound, the doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat; the couple left with a prescription to end the pregnancy. But Kodi kept counting the days, doing the math, checking his hunch.

The adoption journey affirmed her faith, Tish says, that “this world is good.”

After 16 years of trying to conjure a child into their lives, Kyra’s presence felt surreal. “I’d wake up in the morning and think, ‘I’m a mom. I’m a mom?’”

It took a global village: A surrogacy agency in Boston; the LGBT community center in New York; a fertility clinic in San Diego; an international organization called Men Having Babies.

The shame that keeps many women from seeking help for their distress is the heart of a new book, “Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts: A Healing Guide to the Secret Fears of New Mothers.”

Carrie was morose last Mother’s Day: She wasn’t pregnant, and the world seemed full of joyful women and their children. But the next day, she went to the clinic for a blood test; an hour later, the nurse called with good news.

At Abby’s 13-week appointment, the midwife couldn’t find a heartbeat.

One healthy baby. That was Elizabeth’s mantra for months. And then -- "a two-for-one special."

"They put her in my arms. I thought, ‘Wow, I am home when I hold you,’ in a way I’d never really felt before.”