STEPS star Ian 'H' Watkins has told of his joy as he plans to have a surrogate baby with his gay partner.

Ian, 35, said: "I'm so excited. We both are. We just can't wait. It's like 'Oh my God, this is finally happening!' I'm so broody - I have been for years. I always knew that I wanted children."

He and his partner of four years, actor Craig Ryder, 34, are planning to travel to the US next week to start the complicated process. Ian added: "These days there is really no 'normal' or 'natural' or 'right' way to have a baby. Surrogacy may not be a traditional way to have a child - but it's our way.

"The most important thing a child needs is love and support and that is something ours will have in abundance."

They have already picked out an egg donor who will go through IVF to provide them with embryos.
These will then be implanted into another woman who will carry Ian and Craig's baby.

Craig said: "If Ian sees a baby, he's off, cooing and smiling at it. We both can't believe we're nearly there, that we could soon be holding our own baby - or babies. It would be great if it was twins!"
The couple, who live in North Wales, turned to surrogacy after first trying to adopt.

Craig said: "It was a very painful, intense experience.

"The social workers were really supportive but it is a very, very tough thing to undertake. We had been doing it for about a year and we started to realise that we might go on for ages and at the end of it not even have a child."

Ian, who is touring in new musical Rhinestone Mondays with former EastEnders star Shaun Williamson this year, said: "Craig and I had already spoken about surrogacy and Elton John and David Furnish's experience was just so positive.

"I mean their son is so adorable, isn't he, and they seem so happy."

The UK's first gay dads Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow - who made legal history in 1999 when they fathered twins using a surrogate mother - helped Ian and Craig with their baby plans.

They have an agency in the UK which helps other couples - gay or straight - who want to go through the same process.

Craig said: "I don't know if we could ever have done it without them. But Barrie and Tony have been through it. They know exactly how every step of the process works, what to do legally, what to look for in a donor - everything."

Barrie and Tony run the British Surrogacy Centre in Essex, which has an office in California dealing with all the surrogacy aspects of the process.

Ian said: "Tony and Barrie arranged all the medical tests we had to have, including blood tests, fertility tests and health checks.

"We both had to be checked for any genetic abnormalities, such as cystic fibrosis. And those results have to be checked against the egg donor's ones to make sure there is nothing that could cause problems.

"We had to have sperm tests and I'm glad to report we have supersperm. The agency in California then put us in touch with egg donors and surrogates. It would be a lot more difficult for us to do what we are doing in the UK. But in America there are quite a few donors and surrogates quite willing to work with people like us."

Full article: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3718733/Steps-H-I-cant-wait-to-have-baby-with-boyf riend.html