From India With Love...

Crawling

2011-01-03T15:49:00.009+11:00

I have been trying in vain to add a video to our blog for a while now, so I have decided that 2011 will be the year to persevere and become more tech savvy! Now, no laughing at Papa's silly audio.

Christmas Celebration & Eight Month Update

2010-12-30T22:20:00.002+11:00

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Let your heart be light... Don't you just love that song, I do! Recently, whilst googling this particular Christmas song, I learnt that the original lyric was actually 'Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas, it may be your last. Next year we all may be living in the past'. I recently watched Meet me in St Louis for the first time this year while visiting my grandparents, a movie I had wanted to see for years now. Judy Garland made this song famous in a Hollywood classic, however the original version was considered too morbid and was later changed to the now popular song we all know and love. Our first Christmas with our darling son was everything that we could have imagined it to be and more. This time last year we were praying that our dear surrogate Sarika would be safe, healthy and happy and were blessed with the knowledge that in only four short months, our baby would be born and we would at last be parents. The reality of this dream is somewhat overwhelming and yes, we are still amazed at the gift God has given us. We of course started the Christmas season with decorating the house and our Christmas trees as we do each and every year since we met fourteen years ago. We have yet to venture outdoors with the exception of a garland here and there and bows on the garden lamp posts. This is most likely a blessing as it already takes us long enough to decorate the inside of the house so I can't begin to imagine how much longer outside would take too. Usually we start on the first Sunday in November but this year we were a month behind. I know that many people think this is too early, but we both just love this time of year and I am not the only one in my family to have chronic Christmas-itis. We were both so excited to have Noah's first santa photo taken and we ventured into one of Sydney's major department stores, David Jones to have this done.
The window displays are beautiful and the store is decorated and early in the morning leading up to Christmas there are carolers too. Noah just adored Santa, let's see if we can have a repeat next year and years following this as he grows and becomes more aware of this strange man in a red suit. The above photo was the first one taken by the photographer and NoNo was so happy that he almost pulled Santa's beard off. Being one of Santa's helpers as we all know, his beard wasn't real of course. Only Santa himself has such a long beard and he needs this so he stays nice and warm in the North Pole. Ninna, Daddy and Pappa enjoyed Christmas carols in the Blue Mountains this year. We spent the early evening singing underneath the largest English oak tree in Eastern Australia. We also met with other same sex families in the Blue Mountains for a Christmas dinner and catch up at a restaurant close to home.
We are the only male parents in a large group of mainly lesbian parented families. The Blue Mountains Rainbow Family Group is a division of Rainbow Families Australia and it is great to catch up with other families living nearby. We were lucky enough to have another visit from one of Santa's helpers during dinner too, aren't we a lucky bunch! This year, Daddy and Papa wrote Noah's letter to Santa for him since he is still a small baby. We excitedly woke on Christmas morning and followed our normal routine of morning bottle and some cereal before Noah went back to bed for a morning sleep. Ninna's partner, Poppy Michael came for Christmas breakfast as he does every year although for the first time ever we were very much behind schedule; understandably so with our little one demanding our attention! Still, we enjoyed a champagne breakfast and opened some presents before Noah went back to bed for his lunch time nap. I think the day was somewhat overwhelming for Noah, he was so excited and just loved the gifts that Santa, Ninna, Daddy & Papa gave him. WE definitely need to find out if Fisher Price is a publicly listed company and if so, get to buying some shares! Daddy and Papa decided that we wouldn't spoil our little boy (excessively) as he is still a baby and has everything that he needs in the world and has not yet been tainted by modern day consumerism! We did however still buy some toys; a FP talking/learning puppy, a tambourine, another FP walking trolley with blocks & Dr Seuss boxed set of books & some new clothes. We knew that family members would be very generous to the newest addition of our household, and they were. Ninna bought Noah a beautiful limited edition Disney Christmas tree that plays carols and the small characters spin around the tree, some books, new shoes and clothes and a keepsake Christmas ornament for the tree. Poppy Michael bought NoNo a beautiful Blinky Bill book. Grandma & Poppy went totally OTT and bought books, books and more books, toys a plenty; including many made by you know who, Wiggles DVDs, clothes, and a new beach towel. Aunty Becky & Uncle Stephen bought NoNo a FP 'Little People' train and an Elmo doll dressed as a chicken that does..the chicken dance. Noah is still not 100% certain of this one! Aunty Trella and Uncle Patrick bought Noah a wonderful alphabet floor rug that is in his bedroom, books, books and more books, a xylophone and hooded towel too. Have I mentioned that we love reading to our son? Noah enjoys story time too and it is wonderful spending time with him reading and watching the expressions on his face. I pray that the love of books and reading stay with him for life. Uncle Brett bought Noah a Christmas teddy bear and a FP musical bird bath that sings from one to ten and your ABCs too. Darren's niece Hollie and her partner Dan bought us the most beautiful Swarvoski crystal baby carriage and rocking horse for Noah's room. They are simply stunning and will be especially treasures as our son grows up. We also had fun opening presents from Aunty Tans and Uncle Trent; a Royal Doulton Bunnykins figurine, bath time toys and PJs. Aunty Ed gave NoNo a teddy bear too. Uncles Michael, Jarrad and cousin Reid sent us a beautiful tin plane that we just love, a book (The Night Before Christmas) and Nanna Lyn from Tasmania sent a small children's bible. Aunty Rhonda & Uncle Mark from Port Macquarie sent a beautiful set of outfits. Aunty Tanya & Uncle Chris from the Paris of the West (see earlier blog entries for clarification) sent a beautiful boxed set of Little Golden Books (the Christmas stories). One of Daddy's work colleagues sent an enormous Mickey Mouse toy which we added to the now mountainous collection of stuffed toys in Noah's bedroom (note to self, no more stuffed animals)! Neighbours Carol & Mark gave Noah an embroidered legionnaire hat with a penguin and his name. To say our son is loved and was spoilt would be the understatement of 2010. I a sure that I have missed gifts and the kind people who gave them to us. There is just strong>SO MANY GIFTS! It is amazing to witness the mass of toys and books one little boys has in such a short period of time. We are truly blessed beyond imagination and still wonder at the bountiful life we enjoy here in Australia. It does make me sad to think of those less fortunate, especially at this time of year Children who are not as lucky as Noah and will go without. We did have the obligatory 'tears before bedtime'. Noah was playing on the floor of the conservatory with a mountain of gifts around him and fell, hitting his chin on a box and cut himself. Not too badly, but bad enough for a bit of blood and plenty of tears. All was good again however with a big cuddle from Daddy & Papa. We enjoyed Christmas lunch at Johnny's parents house who live nearby. Aunty Becky & Uncle Stephen along with Aunty Mags and Uncle Charlie came to the Mountains for the day and enjoy our first Christmas with NoNo. We had a sumptuous feast prepared by Grandma, Papa & Aunty Becky including the yummiest turkey and stuffing, glazed ham, prawns and oysters, salads and desserts just to make sure we were well and truly full! The weather was simply perfect, we had such a beautiful day. The sun was shining and there was a slight breeze, lucky considering that it has been four seasons in one day these past weeks. For December, the weather has been all over the place; a blazing hot day and the A/C is turned on, Noah sleeping in a singlet and nappy and then, the next day it's freezing and the heaters are on again to keep us warm. No wonder NoNo has had summer sniffles and coughing off and on for days...again! After our beautiful Christmas Day lunch, Daddy, Papa, Noah and Ninna headed down the Mountain to Aunty Trella and Uncle Patrick's house for Christmas dinner. We enjoyed an equally delicious dinner albeit somewhat lighter than lunch with family; Atlantic salmon with asparagus spears, balsamic glazed cherry tomato and lemon butter sauce, roasted chicken, salads and a Christmas punch with punch! We had a lovely Christmas day with our son and returned home just before midnight. Noah was so tired and managed to sleep for a few hours before we returned home but still, the day was long and he sure did make up for lost sleep over the coming days. Apart from the excitement of Christmas day, other news of interest is that our son is now officially crawling! No longer content with the strange bottom shuffle or a backwards crawl, we now have forward thrusters activated! It was so exciting to see and we are now actively mobile. Noah is also holding his weight very comfortably on both legs and can support himself unaided by either Daddy or Papa when holding onto the furniture.

The other thing Noddy enjoys is jumping and I mean JUMPING. All the time, be it on the floor, bed, lounge or Papa's lap and I have the bruises on my legs to prove it people. Noah is so very active and loves to move. We are definitely going to have to enrol this boy in some kind of active sport. Tomorrow is New Years Eve and we have a quiet night planned with friends we often catch up with. Noah will be spending the night at Grandma and Poppy's house after months of pleading from Grandma, her wish is granted. We want to end 2010 by wishing everyone 'out there' the very best and pray for healthy pregnancies if you are pregnant, positive results if you're trying to conceive and blessings beyond compare for 2011.

I Should Have Stayed in Bed Today

2010-12-16T20:08:00.006+11:00

The east coast of Australia was hit by a major storm this afternoon. MAJOR! The suburb of Penrith near when Johnny works had a whopping 33mm of rain in 15 minutes and the temperature dropped 7 degrees in 10 minutes. From our little travel agent in the mountains we could see the storm rolling in. The sky changed colour again and again as the bright afternoon day turned dark blue, green and black. Thunder, lightening, rain and hail. I am very sad to report that Orlando the Ocean Racer Volvo did not do so well when he went head to head with mother nature this afternoon. I believe that the below will be more than sufficient in detailing our distress at today's events!

Where Is My Contented Baby?

2010-12-14T10:57:00.001+11:00

Where oh where has my contented little baby gone? Someone please let me know if you find him.....PLEASE!

Since Noah's birth, Daddy and Papa have been following the contented baby routine by Gina Ford and it has worked a treat for us & Noah. That is, until around six weeks ago when we returned from Melbourne. The weather in Australia this year has been all over the place, unseasonably cold and then hot, cold again, snow today, heat wave tomorrow and since our fateful return flight from Melbourne to Sydney late October, our little man has been the discontented baby. Gina Ford help me! In an ideal world, at just over eight months old Noah's routine should read something similar to the following;

7am

Happily awake in his bed waiting for Daddy or Papa to come down & greet him for the morning. Sing a Disney'esque song whilst changing nappies handed to us by cute little blue birds. This is followed by a morning bottle and 1 weet bix mashed with a little banana. We usually play a little and read a book, then depending on where Noah is spending the day, either madly rush around getting ready for work or laze about in our PJs for a while.

9.00am

Morning sleep until 10.30am

10.30am

Awake from our morning sleep and again happily chatting to himself waiting for his parents.

11.00am

Morning Tea which now consists of 1/4 mango sliced, 3 lychees and a bit of banana

12noon

Lunch time bottle and solids (100gms) of what ever I have made the week prior and is in the freezer.

2.30pm

Afternoon sleep until 4.00pm

4.00pm

Awake again waiting for Daddy & Papa with some play time until 5pm when it's time for a bath. We have our dinner (100gms of solid food) around 5.30pm and a night time bottle between 6.15-6.30pm.

7.00pm

Blissfully and peacefully drift off to sleep without crying or distress whatsoever.

The above routine was our reality from three months of age until six months of age with the occasional and I mean very occasional wake here and there. Noah was sleeping through the night and was the picture perfect contented baby. I don't know what happened. From what I hear, what we are experiencing is normal and we simply have to grin and bear it. Below is an idea of 48 hours recently when we visited Great Grandma & Great Pop.

10DEC - 6pm to bed

11DEC - 3am-3.50am awake, screaming and nothing would pacify or soothe him
6am awake for breakfast bottle and solid food
8am-8.30am asleep in the car
10.45am lunch and bottle
11am-1.30pm afternoon sleep
5.30pm dinner and bottle
7.15pm put to bed and cried until 7.50pm eventually giving in to sleep

12DEC - 12.15am / 3.00am / 5.00am waking at different times through the night
6am breakfast bottle and solid food
8.50am-10.20am morning sleep
10.45am morning tea of banana, apple and cinnamon puree
12noon lunch and bottle
2.40pm-4pm afternoon sleep
5pm dinner and bottle
6.40pm-10.30pm asleep in the car on our way home
10.30pm-11.35pm cried and cried. Changed nappy and gave another bottle to
calm and sooth

13DEC - 5.45am awake

Noah is taking 200ml of formula four times a day and each solid feed is around 100-150gms depending on whether or not he is hungry.

It could be teeth, he quite distinctly has two teeth still coming through. Could it be his ears? A friend suggested we take him to the DR to check on his ears as maybe swimming or the pool has given him an ear infection. Turns out that the DR could not see either ear drum as they were blocked with wax - yuck! Papa has not wanted to over clean Noah's ears so they have been getting done once a month, this obviously has to be looked at. So, is it his ears causing discomfort and that is why every time we now lay him in his cot he turns into the devil child? My poor darling, I wish I spoke baby, tell me what is wrong!!! We have been dropping olive oil into his ears twice daily in the hope of softening the wax and we are headed back to the DR tomorrow for a follow up and if there is no improvement I am demanding they do something for him. So perhaps it is simply a combination of teething, sore ears & summer heat causing our angel to be so restless. One glimmer of hope though, he slept through again last night!

Meeting Great Grandparents

2010-12-12T22:34:00.010+11:00

Noah, Papa & Aunty Becky had a wonderful weekend on the NSW South Coast where our paternal grand parents and Noah's great grandparents live. It has been so long since I last saw my grandmother and grandfather and this was going to be the first time Noah met them. Grandma and Pop's home is located high on a hill in an enviable location overlooking the Tasman Sea with truly breathtaking views. Growing up, this was our annual holiday location every Christmas. Long summer days spent with cousins playing cricket, badminton, billiards and spending what seemed like endless hours with our grand parents. My grandmother is a wonderful, wonderful cook and there is nothing she can not or would not make for her grandchildren and this is still the case. I finished work on Thursday and excitedly headed home to pack for our mini getaway. Daddy was working this weekend so Papa was going solo. It takes so, so long these days to pack for a weekend away.

I quickly remembered how full the car was on our last weekend away in Dubbo and trust me, this time was no exception. It took me an hour and a half to make sure I had everything needed and pack it into the car. Aunty Trella and Ninna were on hand to help feed Noah whilst Papa got everything ready, showered and headed out the door. Noah comfortably in his baby seat and Papa about to shut the door and.....vomit. Unclip seatbelt and take Noah back inside the house for a quick re change and wipe over, Papa a clean shirt free from baby vomit and we're back in the car and driving down our street headed 300km south to the picturesque seaside town of Dolphin Point. It's a long drive made even longer when you're travelling by yourself and the weather is thick with fog and misty rain. I relied on our car's GPS 'just to be safe' and what an event in itself this turned out to be. I comfortably drive for an hour and a half until I hit the pretty town of Bowral in the southern highlands. Bowral is famous for it's tulip festival in Spring and we often make a day trip travelling here enjoying lunch and a spot of shopping. As I left the town I was instructed by Lee (my GPS man) to take a left at an unfamiliar bridge, so I complied. It wasn't until 20 minutes or so later that I realised I had taken the scenic tourist route. I was literally in the middle of no where. The road barely wide enough for my single car was meant to be two lanes and the fog! I was so uncharacteristically panicky. I was on unfamiliar roads, with no passing traffic, homes, street lights and could not find my way back to the freeway. Turns out the scenic tourist route was bypassing the towns of Wollongong, Kiama, Berry and others travelling via Kangaroo Valley which is lovely and I would have liked it had it been the middle of the day and not raining, misty and wet. I literally did not have a passing car for over an hour. I ended up meeting the freeway again just before Nowra with only an hour until I arrived at my grandparents. I did eventually arrive at just after 11pm and the unpacking of the car began. Noah happily asleep in the back seat and Papa unpacking, unpacking, unpacking. I am instantly transported to my childhood on climbing the landing stairs and walking to the front door. The familiar smell of my childhood and that of my grandparent's home magically works wonders with my mind and I am in that happy place again. I am a child of 11 or 12 years with my sister, cousins and extended family surrounding me. The sound of laughter fills the air and my heart is warm and full of love as I let this feeling envelop me. This are the childhood memories I want Noah to have. We had a wonderful weekend and it was especially good seeing my grandfather who at 86 years old has been unwell for some time now. I don't like the thought of him not being around and it is a hard admission the thought of him not being with us much longer. Pop has become frail in his old age, losing a large amount of weight, not eating properly and finds it frustrating not being able to do the things around the home and garden he once done without issue। He also has dementia (thankfully no longer progressing due to medication), this has however affected his short term memory. He can easily recall the events from more than 30 years ago but something that happened last week, even earlier that day is much harder for him. My grandfather is also spending more and more time reminiscing about his years in the Pacific Islands during WWII and the friends he made and sadly lost. I know this plays on his mind from the stories he recalls to me and Grandma often tells me he often wakes from nightmares. I know that the absolute worst of what he experienced during the war he keeps to himself. Grandma, always her stoic self happily reminisces about 62 years of marriage and I can see that it is hard for her to see the husband she once knew change so drastically in front of her eyes. The time I spent with my grandmother growing up I am sure helped pave the way for my love of cooking. The time spent in her kitchen, combined with that of my mother are some of the happiest memories I have as a child. Nothing was ever too much or too outlandish for her to prepare. This is still the case. The next morning I quietly snuck into the pantry for a peek and yes, they were there. The cookies from my childhood that she had made in advance knowing we were visiting. Two containers full of coconut and walnut bikkies - - yum!!! I quickly had two even before breakfast had begun. Their familiar buttery texture and smell are drug like to me. Over the weekend we enjoyed, chocolate cake, sticky date pudding, caramel tarts, lemon tarts, pavlova and a treasure trove of home made delights we all enjoyed. Noah and Papa had their first real taste of Summer at the coast too. The weather at home has been so unseasonably mild and temperate that I was not prepared for the 35 degree days we had. Thankfully there is a wonderful sea breeze and the ocean to enjoy and cool off in. I have to say though that the vision I had in my head of Noah and I at the sea-shore and the reality could not have been more different. In my head we were blissfully floating in the water, chatting and splashing away, the current carrying us to where the open ocean meets the lake and then walking back to the lake only to be carried away again. The reality was far more abrupt. The water was freezing! Absolutely chilly and Noah hated it. We therefore spent our time playing in the sand (another vision in the head that needed reassessing). Noah decided that he would rather eat the sand and I mean EAT IT and from time to time rub it in his eyes than enjoy playing and sitting with his Papa. We therefore had an interesting 30 minutes or so at the beach quickly to return home for a thorough shower and afternoon nap!

It truly was a wonderful three days and I am grateful that Noah has finally met his great grandparents. I am planning another visit early in the new year, January hopefully. By this time (fingers crossed) Noah will be back to his happyily contented sleeping soundly through the night self...this is another post!

A Day of Firsts

2010-12-05T22:30:00.002+11:00

We woke this morning as we normally do. Rising just before 7am to Noah babbling to himself in his cot. Daddy didn't start work today until after 10am so we had breakfast together; Noah his morning bottle and weet bix and Daddy & Papa their coffee.

Papa was playing with NoNo on the lounge room floor and then the bite. Papa was letting Noah blow raspberries on his cheeks and suck his chin and nose and ouch! Teeth! Two teeth appeared overnight. The bottom middle two teeth on the bottom gum line. It was so exciting and I hurriedly ran to share this milestone with Daddy. Our boy has teeth! Now, I won't be able to take a photo just yet as they are teeny tiny on the gum line and trying to see them ourselves is a mammoth task so just imagine what it will be like trying to pry open your baby son's mouth long enough to capture that all important shot. For that photo update, watch this space.

We had another first today; Noah's first birthday party. I was so excited to open an email last week and find that at seven months and 24 days Noah had his first birthday invite. We both enjoyed the morning spent at Leo's 2nd birthday and we played party games and pass the parcel. One of Leo's mums made the most beautiful bib for NoNo that was his gift in pass the parcel. It is a little tight around his neck so when an extended is added, I'll blog the photo. It is truly wonderful! So we have had a wonderful Sunday and a great day of firsts. Of course every day with our little wonder has many firsts but these two I though deserved special mention.

Noah's Six & Seven Month Update

2010-11-26T22:30:00.001+11:00

This post is long, long, LONG overdue and I apologise. Life has been hectic beyond belief and it just seems to be gaining momentum! Just wait until Noah is crawling and then *gulp* walking, Where is the stop sign PLEASE! Perhaps it's that life seems more hectic than it actually is, simply because Noah has been sick...again. Our poor little man has been coughing and sneezing with a snotty, mucusy nose. Combine this with a lack of sleep and you have yourself an unhappy little chappy. We have had the tiniest of tiny tastings of what a Spring day should be like in the Blue Mountains since the start of September but, Jack Frost and his Winter pals have not wanted to leave us this year. We even had snow in October which is unheard of where we live given that the altitude of our tiny mountain village is only around 750 metres above sea level. I have mentioned in older posts that Darren and I both adore the cold weather, mist, rain and chilly Winter days, but this year we really want some warm weather to 'chase the blues away'....gotta love Ella Fitzgerald right!

The above paragraph has been in 'drafts' for weeks now and I have come to the realisation that even though I may not blog as often I like, what's the point of worrying; que sera sera. I love Doris Day too! The purpose of this blog is two fold really. It is a resource for other intending parents to use when planning their own family through surrogacy overseas and it is for our son. I want Noah to have this blog, our thoughts, feelings and emotions to look over and have when he is older. From India With Love will become a book for he & us to share and read together. A gift from his parents detailing our journey to his birth and the first twelve months of life with his Daddy and Papa. I don't yet know if I will continue blogging after Noah turns 1; what will be will be, right!. The past two months have been as always filled with many great adventures, shared laughter, tears and a few sleepless nights! Noah, Papa, Grandma and Aunty Becky travelled west to the country town of Dubbo. Affectionately known as the Paris of the west in our family. It was for a family wedding that we travelled here and it was officially Noah's first wedding! Je t'aime Duboo! The drive from where we live to Dubbo is just over four hours and Noah slept the entire way. He is the perfect, contented baby (thanks Gina Ford)! We arrived at our destination and the cute cottage we rented for the weekend escape. By the time we unpacked the car and were indoors it was around 11pm. Noah decided to wake up on our arrival and not to sleep in his travel cot. Grandma tried keeping Noah happy while Papa unpacked the mountain and I mean MOUNTAIN of luggage that is now required for a simple two night get away. It was then left to Papa to relax his little one and ensure his safe boarding on the 'sleepy train' for another night. After two hours I gave in and in the end Noah spent the weekend sleeping in the queen size bed with Papa. Other than this minor blemish on an otherwise perfect sleep routine, we had a fun weekend and enjoyed seeing our extended family and had a great night at cousin Em's wedding. She was the perfect blushing bride and looked beautiful! We have also spent time enjoying picnics with friends and their children as the weather finally warms up and Noah just loves being around other kids. He really is fascinated by them and they seem to enjoy being with him too. Tans and Trent who are close friends living nearby to us and their three children Mason, Mischa and Sienna just love being around 'Bubba Noah' and they are all so beautiful and gentle with him. We're just so excited to see them interact and look forward to them growing older and spending more time together. Once a month the Sydney members of the Gay Dads Australia Support group meet for a catch up. Usually it is a picnic or we meet at a park or children's play centre depending on the weather.

Our family have been to one get together since Noah was born and decided this month to return to Sydney for a planned picnic. We have been waiting for Noah to recover from his seemingly never ending cold and the warm weather to join us. Papa, Daddy and Noah hopped in the car, provisions on the ready and headed to Sydney. Turns out that Papa was not as prepared as he first though he was. We arrived at Pyrmont and I had forgotten the address of the meeting point. I also did not have any contact numbers and could access my email from my phone. We did try three separate parks in and around Pyrmont but in the end had our own private picnic just the three of us and enjoyed the afternoon sun relaxing on our blanky playing with our little boy. Noah and daddy have started swimming lessons together and our little one has taken to the water like the proverbial duck. We thought this would be the case as bath time has ended up with Papa on his hands and knees drying not only the floor of the bathroom but the hand basin, walls and toilet which end up covered in water from our son, he just loves it. Swimming lessons are meant to be a weekly occurrence, every Friday morning. A quick trip in the car after Noah's morning sleep and lunch to our local swim centre and a 30 minute lesson or thereabouts. But as you all know, the best laid plans....Having been so sick we have missed a few weeks and can you believe that if you miss more than two you need a DR certificate to make up the classes! Perhaps due to the fact that they are paid for in advance and only operate during the school term. Noah's last lesson for the year will be the 17th December but I know that Daddy and Papa are going to continue taking him to our local pool during summer. We have a beautiful pool located in a wonderful bush setting, with shady trees, it is so peaceful. There is plenty of soft grass to relax on with a summer evening picnic and we can enjoy balmy nights and a refreshing swim! We are still waiting on Noah's first tooth to appear and thought we were there a few weeks ago. There was a tiny white speck on the bottom gum line that had Papa convinced a tooth was moments away and then...gone. Noah will be 8 months old in 12 days time so it can't be too far away. There is an 8 month old girl in Noah's swim group that already has three of her teeth; two on the bottom and one on top and it is utterly adorable! Noah does seem to be drooling more and more every day combined with chomping down on anything put in his mouth and rubbing his gums. I am told, these are the signs a tooth or teeth are not far away! We have had Noah to our local GP a few times these past two months for his six month immunisations, general check ups and also to a paediatric opthomologist. Noah weighs just over 9 kg & you sure can tell when you pick him up! The very top of both of Noah's iris have a tiny crescent moon spec of white which you can see the colour of his iris through. Of course being first time parents and wanting to be safe rather than sorry, we booked an appointment months ago and saw the specialist recently. It turns out to be nothing of concern which is wonderful news. It was explained that the tiny spec of white is hypo-pigmentation and does not have any affect at all on his eyesight. We were at the specialists rooms for close to three hours and the full eye check up was around two hours duration...$200 later, thank you for coming. Noah has been expanding his culinary world this month. As well as enjoying the deliciousness of HEINZ progress formula, STAGE II four times daily, Noah is now enjoying the following home made delights: Stewed Apple, Pear & Blueberry / Pumpkin, Carrot, Zucchini & Quinoa / Pumpkin, Carrot, Zucchini & Sweet Potato / Stewed Apple / Sweet Potato & Avocado. We have recently also introduced KIDS Weet Bix for breakfast mixed with some formula and mashed banana which Noah simply adores and it turns out so does Daddy! Papa has yet to venture down the road of giving it a try as the smell of the formula is enough to discourage me, but it seems not Daddy! Noah is now also enjoying a morning and afternoon snack of some fresh fruit of which our favourites are: Blueberries that have first been peeled and slightly mooshed by Daddy or Papa, Peach pieces (ditto peeling & mooshing) & Mashed Banana. Our little one certainly has developed a palate for veggies and fruit for which we are thankful. We have had to resort to some store bought food now and then as travelling with home made food is not always practical or possible but thankfully there is an abundant choice of organic baby food on the market and the variety is not too shaby either so we make do. We recently returned to Melbourne for four wonderful days catching up with our friends Jarrad, Michael and their truly beautiful son Reid. As always we had an amazing time & only wished our visit had been longer. We rented a private apartment decorated in the French Provincial style which was perfect for us Francophiles. Anyone who has been to our mountain home will attest to the fact that we are BIG lovers of French style. Complete with kitchen and laundry facilities it was simply...divine and a perfect pied a terre on the outskirts of Melbourne CDB for the three of us. We enjoyed a lovely day trip to Daylesford with the boys enjoying lunch, coffee and the array of gift shops in this picturesque town. The remainder of our time was spent enjoying great company, meeting new friends and the delights of delicious food and superb wine. Not to forget the deluxe edition of scrabble. My newest favourite board game. We always love visiting Melbourne and our dear, dear friends and eagerly await the next time we're together again. Did I mention to you however our pram was misplaced by a certain domestic airline? We arrived into Melbourne Tullamarine nice and early so as to avoid afternoon peak hour. Jarrad had agreed to meet us at the airport and we disembarked ready for our four days of relaxation. Baggage carousel number two had our luggage ready and waiting. We then head on over to the oversize baggage counter and wait. Noah happily chatting to himself and Daddy & Papa commenting how quick we always seem to get our luggage when we fly. This dear reader was our fatal mistake, the Achilles heel of this trip. Wait until you have all your luggage before praising your chosen airline you have just flown with. Other guests prams, surf boards, baby seats, appliances and God knows what else they had packaged into boxes, eskys and the like were being dropped off at a cracking pace. But not our pram. Ever the optimist, I was convinced it would be next to arrive. Now, when we departed Sydney airport we checked our one and only pram at the gate and this is where we made our first fatal mistake which destined our pram to the abyss of missing luggage. Darren laughed out loud to himself that wouldn't it be funny if we arrived and there was no pram. Funny? One is not amused! Having handed over our boarding pass' we are assured by the staff checking our flight that all would be OK and our pram would be in Melbourne with us when we arrived. We then board the aircraft and are now blissfully unaware of what drama lay ahead of us and the fate of Noah's Princely Carriage! Back to Melbourne and forty minutes or so later and still no pram. The next flight arriving had begun to have their luggage pass by on carousel number two, it was then we raised our concern with the airlines dedicated ground staff and discovered that yes, the airline had lost our pram. In fact there was no record of the pram even leaving Sydney or the whereabouts of it's current location. Even a phone call to the gate and staff there failed to reveal an answer. Our pram went awol. Not happy would be an understatement! I completed the mandatory lost item form, gave my contact number to the airline staff member and hoped for the best. We had been waiting for the pram for over an hour. We then readied ourselves for peak hour traffic into the city! That night we enjoyed a wonderful BBQ and an unseasonably warm Melbourne night for the time of year and our pram woes seemed to be a distant memory. It wasn't until after a few glasses of deliciously sweet bubbles I realised I had missed a call from the airline. I phoned back but of course no answer after hours. We did eventually get our pram back. The same night we arrived in fact, around 11.30pm. We do not know the details of the sordid adventure it had but we are glad she returned to us.

Noah's Five Month Update

2010-09-21T21:52:00.013+10:00

Five months, actually more than five months have now passed. Our son is five months and two weeks old tomorrow, the 22nd September. Each day with Noah brings new joy to our lives. Joy as any parent will tell you unlike any other. Most days I find myself walking into Noah's room to simply stare at him. I stand at the side of his cot quietly watching his chest move up and down as it fills with oxygen and then as he exhales how his little face, cheeks, and nose move. His face twitches & squirms usually as a result of me rubbing my nose against his cheek or stealing one more kiss for the day. I have discovered that there is never enough kisses shared in any one day. I find myself holding his tiny hands, thanking God we have a healthy, happy baby boy. There is so much that is wrong and sad in this world today but for that moment when I am standing next to Noah, nothing else matters. It is bliss.

We have seen the arrival of Spring this month and for the first time, Darren and I are welcoming her with open arms. We both adore the cold weather, Winter especially. The colder the better. This year has been the exception. We have had a cold Winter and what seems to have been a very long Winter. This coupled with the fact that Noah has been sick, meant that we were eagerly awaiting warmer weather. As mentioned in earlier posts, Noah had croup not long after we returned from India and Winter set in. It was simply awful and the cough was only one aspect of the illness. The past five to six weeks has seen us visit our local GP three times due to a consistent cough, awful wheeze and the most yuckiest of runny noses and subsequent mucus, apologies! This infection did not want to leave and we were both so worried, feeling there was nothing we could do.

Noah has been wheezy off and on since his immunisations at four months of age but the cough came a little later, then followed by the yucky nose. It was so terrible and there was just nothing we could do to offer relief to him other than a steam vaporizer in his bedroom and lots and lots of love. On our second visit to our GP Noah was diagnosed with bronchiolitis. This now seems to have passed and our boy is 99% back to his normal self. It is so good to wake up in the morning and have a child free from coughing, sneezing and being terribly congested. For this and other reasons, Spring we welcome thee! This month Noah enjoyed his first ferry ride on Sydney Harbour. Typically every August we celebrate the birthdays of Darren, his brother Brett and sister Tracie with a family get together. This year we were a little late and made it in September. We agreed to meet at the Ivanhoe Pub in Manly for a family lunch and we were joined by our nieces Hollie, Hannah & Brooke and nephew Chad. Aunty Rob and Uncle Charlie from the NSW north coast also joined us. The weather on the day was drab and grey, yet we still had a wonderful time & our boy was so happy and well behaved the entire day. There was so much excitement and people to meet that sleeping and any resemblance of a routine went out the window for the day. This did not matter though and Nono was still his happy self and not one bit grumpy! This month has also seen a wonderful milestone for Noah and his daddies; solid food. We decided at just after five months of age, having shown growing interest in our meals and drinks that we would start Noah on some solid food. So, we readied the video and still cameras, set the high chair up in the lounge room and defrosted some home made organic pumpkin puree made by Papa. And, it was a smashing success. 50grams of pumpkin goodness was eagerly eaten and then a bottle of formula to boot. Needless to say we had a wonderful first experience of solid food and Noah has been enjoying a wide range of home made deliciousness these past two weeks. Those infant taste buds have been enjoying a wide selection of gourmet fare including; organic pumpkin puree, organic apple puree, pumpkin and corn puree and organic sweet potato puree. I just love spending time in the kitchen at the best of times and especially love knowing that I am cooking home made, prepared meals for our little man. I can't wait to try some new flavours and textures and see just what he likes the most. At the moment it seems to be the sweet potato. Both daddy and papa are adventurous with their food & we're sure that Noah will be just the same. I also have to share something that keeps happening more and more often over the past couple of weeks and I wonder if this is a trend with other new parents? Our wonderful surrogate is always in our hearts and the front of our minds. We often chat about her, her children and extended family and hope they are well. We hope she is happy with the choice she made to have a child for us & wonder if she would do the same again? The more we spend time with parents of multi-child families the more we think of a sibling for Noah. For us however it's not as easy and straight forward as it is for others out there. We're not wired to reproduce and the plumbing is all wrong to boot. Do parents of children conceived the ole' fashioned way think of siblings so soon? Is this normal? Are we selfish? Are we crazy?!? Shouldn't one healthy child be enough for any family? Having a child is such an emotional and life changing experience that neither of us were prepared for. Yes we anticipated just what life would be like when Noah came into our world. Yes we anticipated that life would be amazing, stupendous, tiring and all the more richer having him here with us and it is. However, we were not prepared for how we would feel once we knew he is an only child. There are plenty of single children in the world and there does not seem to be any detriment to their development, life skills, happiness or how they feel about their life. So why question this, are we being selfish I ask again? Why does a sibling keep coming into my mind and then out of it again? Our pregnancy with Noah was text book perfect. Not a single hitch. Are we tempting fate by thinking of trying for a brother or sister for Noah?

The chances of a positive pregnancy are lessened with a frozen embryo transfer or 'FET'. Then there is the nine months. In fact more than the nine months; the two week wait, waiting for beta numbers, waiting for the all important heart beat, first trimester, second trimester, third trimester and normal birth. Nothing is certain until your healthy child is born and even then...Both Darren and I felt such a connection with our surrogate that I don't know if it would feel right trying again with another woman. Is this selfish? Is this normal? Again, what is normal? My mind is awash with the thought of possibilities and what could be's. There is also the reality that commercial surrogacy is not as simple as simply saying yes, let's do this. One has to be financially able to cope with the unknown. What if there are complications during your surrogate's pregnancy etc. And then having a child is but one aspect of life's story. There is so much we as a family have yet to experience together. We want to provide the best possible life for Noah. Will a second child bring more financial stain that we can deal with? I suppose it is a feeling of melancholy that has me asking these questions of myself. We have had a month away from blogger and the online surrogacy world. Checking in on new intended parents, their stories and blogs again has re-kindled the feelings of anticipation, hope, joy and love of knowing that there is a new life about to be born and that life is that of your child.

Noah's Four Month Update

2010-08-23T12:16:00.036+10:00

As each day draws to a close surely as the setting sun, our little man is growing, developing and enriching our lives. Noah is fast becoming a baby boy with a wonderfully gentle, loving and warm personality. Our son is now four months and 16 days old. He has truly perfected his sleeping routine and again we sing praises to the 'Contented Baby' routine by Gina Ford. To the non believers of having your newborn in a sound routine, it can and is being done, not only by us but parents everywhere. I was amazed when I attended parents groups and there were children older than Noah who were still waking in the night and then others who had wished they had tried a routine but thought it was not possible. We have been following the routine as recommended by Gina Ford since Noah was born in April.

We did not feed on demand as recommended by the nurses at Hiranandani Hospital. Rather, we chose to feed as outlined in the 'Contended Baby' and the results speak or I should say sleep for themselves. Noah has been sleeping through the night from 7pm to 7am since he was three and a half months old and nothing has changed. He is perfection at bed time and, as the clock approaches 7pm, his beautiful little eyes start to become heavy and in a matter of moments he boards the sleep train bound for sleepy land, as we say in our home. This routine has been important for us knowing that both of us would be returning to work so soon after Noah was born. Darren returned to work just after Noah was one month old and Johnny has just returned to work too. We needed to know that our son was going to be happy, healthy and in a strong routine and, he is.

The past month has been one of major development for Noah. He is no longer newborn and this is very obvious to us when we compare him to other young babys; cousin Reid who is seven weeks old and cousin Alexander who is four weeks old. No No (Noddy) is growing up.

Our son can now hold his head up high on his own and is no longer a rag doll when sitting upright. He really enjoys tummy time but not for too long Papa! Noah is laughing out load every day and especially loves it when Daddy wakes him up with his morning wake up song; Good Morning! Nothing compares to the joy we feel when we walk into Noah's room of a morning, opening the blinds and there is our little star looking up at us smiling, giggling and waiting for us to pick him up for his first cuddle and kiss of the day. He is so happy to see his Daddy and Papa and the squeals of delight are simply divine! Noah really enjoys Fisher Price's "Little People" too. We have a couple of Baby Einstein DVDs and the Little People Discoveries DVD which runs for fifteen minutes. We usually find this being played at around 10:30am just before a mid morning bottle. The five 'Little People', Michael, Maggie, Sonya-Lee, Sara-Lyn and Eddie enjoy a number of adventures together such as helping Farmer Jed with his corn field, helping a little car stuck in a tree, playing with the animals at the zoo and helping each other. The DVD is not long and Noah just loves sitting on the sofa watching while Papa and Daddy run around the house trying to get a few chores done.

Noah has also had his second immunisation booster this month: diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Hep. B, rotavirus, pneumococcal and hib. When we went for the two month check up and immunisations he was such a trooper, but this time round he was less eager to accept what was being offered by the community nurse. Perhaps it's because Noah is growing and becoming more aware or maybe he was simply having a bad day. Regardless he did not take the oral vaccine easily and one of the two needles he was given really, really upset him. He took longer to calm and settle this time round but at least we know he is protected from illness that can be prevented. Immunisations are a topic of discussion amongst new parents and we know that some people are against vaccinating and other would not have it any other way.

A large section of the community where we live in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales like to live a simple, hassle free and alternate lifestyle. I suppose you could say the city of the Blue Mountains welcomes with open arms the inner hippy in all of us. And sometimes, with this chosen way of life many people like to live as naturally as possible and this sometimes means not having your children immunised. To each his own, we live in a wonderfully accepting society (could be more so) and if you don't want to do something, you have the choice not to do it. For our family however, Johnny in particular immunisations are something that was non negotiable. When I was in high school, a young boy in year 10, his third year of junior high, came to school one day with a cane. The kind of cane you see vision impaired people using to assit in walking. I though nothing of this at the time, consumed by my own world and that of my friends.

Later that same year I left this school for a twelve month student exchange program to live in Japan. When I returned to Australia in 1997 I discovered from my younger sister that the boy who had brought the cane to school had in fact contracted the measles. This boy gradually lost his eye sight, went completely blind and was then bed ridden before he passed away.

This young boy aged fifteen years old had died from the measles.

I remember Becky telling me that the school community at the time was in total shock at his passing and nurses in our local hospital required counselling after he died. I still often think of this boy and his family. I can not imagine the pain and anguish that his parents and brother must have endured knowing that he was about the lose his life because of the measles, a preventable disease. This is why I always felt that if we had children there would be no question in having him or her vaccinated. And, on to the next topic of debate, politics!

Isn't this meant to be a blog about family, our son and our experience in India and not a social soapbox?

I won't venture too far down the political brick road other than to say that Australia has just had a federal election over the past weekend and we are still awaiting the results to hear who our new Prime Minister will be. Neither of the two major political parties won my a clear majority. and both now need to try and coerce the independent and green parties to form an alliance with them to have a clear majority of power in the senate or it's back to the polling booths for us all. One of the hopes Darren and I have coming into this election is that the government will recognise our family as equal to that of our straight counterparts and even (gasp) allow us to publicly declare our love for one another and have this recognised as valid and equal too. You know what people; doing this will not result in the world as you know it crumbling and falling apart! The sun will still rise in the East and set in the West. Autumn will still follow Summer and Spring will still follow Winter. There is still hope and change will come. But change, major change always seems to take a snails pace to happen don't you think?

This past month Noah and Papa went to their first local school's open day and I'm sure this will be the first of many as we decide where is best to nurture our little boy and provide the best opportunity for him to grow and develop both emotionally and academically. So far so good and we will go again next year to look at the school's facilities, chat with staff and students. If we decide this is where we want Noah to be educated, we will pay the enrollment fee, sign the paperwork and place him on the waiting list for kindergarten in 2010. YIKES!

We have had some wonderful day trips, outings and visits from family and friends over the past four to five weeks too. Daddy, Papa and Noah started off with a very full day exploring Sydney and some of her outer suburbs. We started our day with a spot of shopping trying to find some cute outfits for No No. We then enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch at Nicks on world famous Bondi Beach and spent our afternoon enjoying coffee and a spot more shopping in the cute village of Woollahra in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. We decided to finish the day with dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant in Glebe, in Sydney's inner west. A total of ten plus hours out with our little man and Noah was perfect! He woke, ate and slept when he was meant to and enjoyed a great outing with his dads.

We also took a day trip west of the Blue Mountains to the small town of Oberon, famous for wild mushrooms in Autumn and truffles in Winter. This is where Uncle Brett lives. We also had a visit from friends Fara and Matt this month, with the wonderfully exciting news they are expecting twins which was a surprise and a half! We knew they had been trying IVF and did not know they were successful until we saw them this month. Cathing up with this pair is akin to walking into the FRRO in Mumbai, swanning around without all your required paperwork and then leaving with your child's exit visa in hand within the hour...next to impossible. We have been trying to catch up for lunch since our return from Mumbai in April and finally managed to do so in July. The expectant parents managed to keep their pregnancy a secret and when they arrived we were met with a five month pregnant belly! We are so excited for them and know they will be great parents.

Aunty Nadyne, Uncle Murray and Cousins Emerson and Makayla also visited us from Newcastle in July. This was the second time we had caught up with Johnny's sister, brother in law and children since we returned from India. And it was a great opportunity to relax at home and enjoy some time visiting wonderful cafes and shops which are abundant in the Blue Mountains. We always have a fantastic time when we meet up and sharing the joy of parenthood with them adds another dimension to our relationship.We also enjoyed a wonderful weekend with dear friends, Jarrad, Michael and their newborn son Reid, born in India in June of this year. We had a beautiful weekend exploring some of the surrounding areas in the Mountains and again, enjoyed delicious food and beautiful wine but most importantly shared great times with remarklably wonderful friends. These boys and their son mean so much to our family and we are delighted to have continued our friendship since the birth of our children. In them we have friends for life.

Noah's Three Month Update

2010-07-13T13:17:00.014+10:00

Where have the past 90 days gone? Well in fact 95 days! We have had our son in our lives for almost 100 days! What an amazing 95 days they have been too, unlike any other we have experienced before. And, just as wonderful as we had dreamt they would be! Prior to your child's birth, people tell you that the love you feel as a parent is unlike anything else you could possibly imagine. You love them unconditionally from the moment you set eyes on them. We all know how this story goes right? But, experiencing this love, this change in oneself is amazing. One can not put into words how this truly makes you feel. How is such a thing possible and what if it doesn't happen to me? You often hear pregnant woman speaking of this. Having a child grow inside of you for nine months, giving birth and feeding your child creates a bond for life. But, how do dads create this bond & does this same bond happen when our surrogates give birth to our children? Does it exist for them? One would imagine it does, right, but maybe resigning themselves to the fact they have fallen pregnant to help another person become a parent, a joy they already know for themselves first hand is how they cope with these emotions. For dads the world over, we are not able to carry a life inside us so we bond by talking with our unborn child and caressing our partner's pregnant belly. Great if your partner lives with you and you happen to be heterosexual, but again, what about Darren and I and other intended parents the world over who don't have that pregnant belly there with us? Many IPs we have spoken with talk about a fear of not bonding with their child when first born and I think this is normal. You are so detached from the daily realities of being pregnant that it's no wonder we have to sometimes pinch ourselves and reaffirm that YES, WE ARE PREGNANT! Many of us are not even in the same country as our unborn child for the majority of their pregnancy. Some are lucky to travel midway through the nine months and be there for ultrasounds etc bu the majority are not. We are relying on another human being to take care of our unborn child for us at a time in our lives when it is not yet possible for us to do so. We are kept in touch with 'our' pregnancy via email, skype and ultrasound photos via email. Fo Darren and I, our surrogate remains our angel and we know this is the case for most of us who have travelled down the path of commercial surrogacy. Without these woman willing to bear a child for us, our children would not be with us today, bringing unimaginable joy to our lives. Our surrogate is an amazing woman who has made being parents possible for us. This is the most wonderful time of our lives and something we previously only ever dreamed of. But this is not a dream, this is real. The bond we have with Noah was a natural, instant emotion we had the minute we knew he had entered this earth. We were not yet in the same country as him, yet to meet our son yet it was there for us. In Singapore, waiting for our flight to Mumbai we received the news we had been waiting to hear for what seemed like a lifetime....your baby has been born, congratulations! The first photo we received of Noah was of Dr Yash holding him minutes after he was born. Darren and I were amazed that this little life, our son was real and waiting for us in Mumbai. Waiting for his dads to arrive before he even knew we existed, before he had met us or knew how much we already loved him. More than anything in the world. This emotional roller coaster plays out I'm certain in 'normal' pregnancies too. There are mothers too who fear they will not bond with their newborn child when born. I guess this worry it heightened for those of us who have to go to such lengths as we do to bring a baby into our lives. Even more so to those of us unable to fall pregnant on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sometimes even sixth or seventh attempt. Our resolve at not losing focus on becoming parents amazes me. I have such admiration for these people and pray for their happy ending. I repeat, we both repeat to ourselves time and time again just how lucky we were to have success on our first attempt and to have a smooth text book pregnancy. Others have not been so lucky and it is heart breaking. The past three months have seen Noah, Daddy and Papa create some wonderful memories together and I thought I would share some of them with you now. So.....drumroll please. In no particular order, the first three months of life for Noah Robert have seen him enjoy the following adventures. Rushing about Bombay in an auto rickshaw less than a week old. Dining out with friends from the USA at three days of age. Of course taking his first international flight from India to Sydney and having his first complimentary upgrade at 17 days of age....thanks British Airways! Flying to Melbourne to meet his two wonderful uncles who have recently become dads themselves! YAY! Shopping with Daddy & Papa for his first pair of shoes. Enjoying yum-cha in Sydney with Papa and his friend Mel. And last but by no means least, sharing an in calculable amount of laughs, hugs and kisses with his two loving parents. We love and adore you so much our darling son. I pray we can live up to our expectations at being the best dads you could ever hope for.

***********************************************************************

To Our Darling Son Noah:

You were our dream of love, hope and joy. Then you were born to us, a perfect, darling baby boy.
Months spent praying for a safe arrival. Nights and days of tears and fears.
Now you are home with us, your parents for life. We're here for you, all of your years.
May life be kind, generous and always glad. You can always rely on us, your two loving dads.

No Time To Blog

2010-06-30T15:50:00.001+10:00

How long has it been since your last time? For me it has been 18 days. I seem to have no time to blog anymore and this post has been a long time coming, sorry for the delay. Prior to Noah joining our family I had a grand plan of 'stay at home parenthood' in my little country boy head. Baking, gardening, preserving (yes preserving) quince are almost back in season you know! The required amount of housework and of course time spent playing & reading to our son. Maybe too a little time enjoying outings with friends and family. HA! To say that I am busy is an understatement of unimaginable proportions and time poor simply does not cut it either. Is there such a thing as the lack of time poverty line? If so, I'm there my friends........The above paragraph was started on the 20th May and it is now June 29, almost July! Jeesh, I HAVE to find the time to blog, this I know. There just doesn't seem to be any time available. Today is different though. Today is the first day Noah is spending with someone other than his Papa. But more on this later. As I said above, prior to returning home and daily life with an infant, I had planned to update our blog on a weekly basis with cute photos of our son & humorous stories of what was happening in his life and how he was growing and developing but that has seriously taken a back seat. I also mentioned above that I was looking forward to preserving some fruit, quince in particular as I simply adore it! Well, this too didn't happen and I am super miffed. Quince come into season in Autumn and are a strange looking, rock hard, yellow, furry nothing. That it until after hours and hours and hours of poaching. This non descript fruit becomes blossom red and the fragrance tells you it is ready. YUM!!!! Well, I excitedly rushed into my green grocer last week expecting to buy a kilo or two of quinces only to be told I have missed the boat this year. The best of the season is long gone. How did this happen? I was so looking forward to this once a year delight. In the now common domain of my baby brain, I had thought there were weeks to go until the end of the season. HA! You silly boy. Were you not in India for the first month of Autumn??? Was you son not born just as the leaves were turning golden brown?
Alas, another year will have to pass until I can enjoy this most humble of fruit. Never mind, good things as they say will come to those who wait and wait and wait as this is the case when poaching quince. Now onto the second reason for the delay in posting and I like to think the most valid. Yes I am time poor there's no mistaking this fact. Baby up-chuck now and then on my shoulder, no time to change my shirt. Just a quick blend and you would never know it was there. Except of course if you are wearing black. My computer has not been allowing me to access blogger and facebook. Every other internet site known to man kind there has been no problem at all. But these two for some unknown reason have been a no go for weeks now. Of course, there have been much more exciting things going on in our loves than the above. Our perfectly wonderful son is almost THREE MONTHS OLD. Can you believe it? In nine days time Noah will be three months old and yes, the time does pass by ever so quickly and I now can see why parents say it only seems like yesterday when.....It really does only seem like yesterday. Already Noah has become an infant, no longer the newborn baby we brought back to Sydney from Mumbai. He is starting to become a little boy with an amazing personality to match. He is now holding his head high as his neck muscles start to develop.

Tummy time is still kept to a minimum and it usually is on my lap/chest or with a swaddle under his chest for five minutes or so. Noah has settled into life with us perfectly and we with him too. From the very beginning we were determined to have a routine and after reading too many parenting books on which is best. Feeding on demands versus feeding to a routine, we opted for a routine by Gina Ford, author of the fabulous Complete Sleep Guide for Contented Babies. And, we are happy to say at two months three and a half weeks, we officially have our contented baby sleeping from 7pm to 7am! YAYAYAYAY! Noah really is such a good little boy. We did have to tweek the suggested routine around a month ago and thanks be to J whose little boy is also following the same routine. Your advice as you know worked a treat. In a nutshell, Noah's day starts at 7am and is awake for two hours and then back down from 9am to 10am. From the time he wakes up at 10am, it is up for two hours and then down for two hours and so on and so forth. Until 4pm, when he has a quick 45 minute nap until 4.45 and is then up again for a bath, night time feed and lots of kisses and cuddles until 7pm when he goes back to sleep again. The routine has worked really well for us and Noah too. His awake time is really positive and he is not in the least bit grumpy and we all enjoy this time together. The sad reality of having to return to work is soon going to breathing down my neck. In a matter of weeks I will be returning to part time work and no longer spending every hour of every day with out little boy. This saddens me so much to think that there will be magical first moments I am now going to miss out on. But hey, the majority of parents have to work right? Also, we were not the winners of OZ Lotto's $50M last night so we have to work. But all is not lost. We have our healthy baby boy who is perfect. We have each other, our health, home and the wonder of a lifetime of joy ahead of us with our son. This post has been SO long overdue and even now, it is tomorrow (two days since I started the second paragraph). The day is over and I have a MOUNTAIN of laundry to fold. Prior to ending this entry though, I want to take the opportunity to congratulate our dear friends who we met last July when we cycled in India. A couple from the state of Victoria whose first attempt ended in a heart breaking miscarriage. Months of waiting to hear news of their second attempt....pregnant! We welcome their darling little boy into the world and know they are going to be the best possible parents. Congratulations guys, we love you and look forward to creating many happy memories with our combined families! Below is my current favourite photo of Noah taken a week ago. What do you think? Adorable no?

Home

2010-05-02T18:23:00.016+10:00

As Dorothy famously said; "There's no place like home". And, as we all know too well she was right. It is great to be back. It has taken our body clocks a while to re-adjust to having Noah in our lives. In Mumbai, the responsibilities of daily life are but a distant memory. Housework? Cooking? Cleaning? Simply pick up the phone and dial room service. Hop in an auto rickshaw and in five minutes a plethora of dining options are at your disposal. Leave a small card on the bed, return a short while later to fresh linen and one's room cleaned, fresh water supplied for the next 24 hours. Being home deals the new parent a different hand of cards. One has to shuffle these cards and manage daily chores with the demands of your new born plus the added bonus hand; sleep deprivation! But, we are not complaining after all, this is what we have all been waiting for. Prior to us leaving India on Sunday, we said goodbye to Greg, Rob and their beautiful baby girl Addison who is simply divine. We had such a great time with them all and are glad they too are now home safe and sound. Both the guys were right, we did end up having more bags for the return trip then when we first arrived into Mumbai! Our flight from Mumbai to Singapore was in the morning this time round, departing at 10am. We used the fantastic Vikas to take us from our hotel to the airport and anybody travelling to Mumbai should avail themselves of his services. He and Ajit are both great guys and will make sure you are taken care of and arrive at your destination in air conditioned comfort. THANK YOU VIKAS!!! Our Qantas flight into Singapore arrived on time and we were met by ground staff to assist with our mountain of bags and the transit to our next flight. Thankfully we had the wonderful Baby Valco carrier which was a God send. Thank you to the Tigerlilycats for their insight in recommending this to us & the bottle drainer which arrived the day of our departure from Sydney! Noah used the carrier the entire time we were in Mumbai and it meant we did not have to disturb him when travelling from the hotel to where ever we wanted to be. He even slept in it while we took an auto here, there and everywhere. Our flight from Singapore to Sydney was with British Airways and thankfully there was no delay due to a certain Volcano eruption the week prior. This was our only concern as we arrived at Changi International Airport. The cabin crew on both flights were amazing and everyone wanted to meet little Noah who, was an absolute dream on both legs of the journey home. Not a peep. He slept, ate and pooped just as he had on the ground in India. You would not have known there was a newborn in the cabin with you unless you snuck a peek at his cherub like face. We were lucky enough to be upgraded to BA's World Traveller Plus cabin or premium economy cabin which was just perfect and the best way to end our flight home. The cabin is a dedicated 32 seat cabin in front of economy and just behind business and it was not full. We had the centre row of four seats to ourselves and the extra space and seat recline was appreciated! Our thanks also have to go out to the BEST travel agency in NSW, Jetset Blue Mountains and their never ending help whilst we were in India. Nothing was ever too much trouble and we thank the entire team there, especially agency manager Lisa. www.jetset.com.au/bluemountains.

From 33 degree Mumbai heat to a crisp 13 degree Sydney morning, the temperature difference was very noticeable when we landed in Sydney at 5.15am Monday morning. This, combined with sandals and light shirts we were very eager to breeze through customs and immigration to our heated car for the drive home. Speaking of which, customs too was easy. Simple and straight forward without issue in Mumbai, Singapore or Sydney. Sure we had the obligatory where is the mother question when we left Mumbai but other than that nothing! Having an infant with you is akin to Moses parting the seas. Queues become non existent and one simply glides through formality with the simplest of ease; which we are completely fine with thank you very much! We arrived home to welcome signs, balloons, flowers and kindness from friends and family. Darren's mother & Johnny's parents had organised a wonderful morning tea with some friends, family & neighbours and everyone went to so much effort for the three of us. Thank you to our parents, Tracie & Patrick, Scott & Julie, Tans, Michael and everyone who made us feel so welcome on our return home. We are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends surrounding us and our son. Now that we are home, what's next? This week has seen us having to get used to a new routine with Noah the centre of our day. Our little boy is doing so well and it is hard to believe that in four days time he is going to be one month old! He is sleeping very well and daddy and papa are trying to stick to our chosen routine which he seems to like and appreciate! He is currently feeding from 100ml + each feed every three to four hours and longer after his midnight feed. Last night for instance he fed at midnight and then again at 5am which is great news for us. We have had a couple of outing since being home but have preferred staying in as it is truly amazing how even the simplest of tasks can become a mammoth effort in organisational skills. We are expecting a visit from the community nurse this week to check on Noah's progress and general health yet, other than that and maybe a coffee date here and there our week is our own. We are indeed glad to be home and are enjoying just that. Being home and being parents. We are both so thankful that our son has been born and is in excellent health, this is what we have been waiting for and, what some people are still waiting for. After two, three, four or sometimes more attempts still waiting. We know we have been blessed to have been successful on our first attempt and we never take this for granted. The wonderful support and friendship of Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash that has been forged over the past year and a half will be life long. We are very strong advocates of Surrogacy India and their services, http://www.surrogacyindia.com/. Why wouldn't we be? Look at the result for us. We know yes, our surrogate did not agree to carry a child to term for purely altruistic reasons but still, we admire her wonderful generosity and are thankful that we had the opportunity to meet her, her family and convey in person how we feel about the amazing gift she has given us. We would not change this for the world. There seems to be so many IPs pregnant at the moment & equally as many still trying. It's easy once you reach the other side to speak words of wisdom but we truly believe that one should never give up. To everyone who has been with us every step of the way and to those we have only just met, thank you. Support is the one thing you can never have too much of and for that, thank you.

FRRO - Not as Scary as One Imagines

2010-04-23T20:20:00.004+10:00

Noddy's passport has been printed, exit visa issued and we are ready for departure. We will fly Qantas out of Mumbai this Sunday the 25th April and arrive into Sydney early Monday morning. The tasks at hand always seem more manageable after a good nights sleep wouldn't you agree? Having yesterday afternoon at our hotel was just what our bodies needed and we awoke today refreshed for the FRRO! Now, up to this point in finalising everything for Noah's trip home we have been cool customers. Very relaxed and nothing daunted us. The FRRO or Foreigner Regional Registration Office in Mumbai however was the only aspect we were concerned with. Horror stories from other parents who have been there in the past had us believe it would be awful...really awful. The truth is that it is not. It's fine and there is nothing to concern yourself with provided you are prepared. Our driver met us at our hotel at 7.30am for the drive back to South Mumbai to collect Noah's passport. We arrived at 8.55am and were out and on our way to the FRRO by 9.10am. You could do what needs to be done there by yourself but it makes life more pleasant to have somebody there to guide you as we did. One and a half hours was all it took from the moment we entered the FRRO at 10am to the moment we left holding Noah's exit visa.

How fantastic is that!

Parenthood...Days 4 to 14 & Mumbai Madness

2010-04-23T03:40:00.012+10:00

This post has been days in the making and I mean DAYS! Time is no longer our own and blogging has had to take a back seat I'm afraid to feeding, changing nappies, washing bottles and baby clothes & napping! Our days in Mumbai have been as busy or relaxed as we want them to be, yet still there are not enough hours in the day. We also have had to learn that we DO need to nap during the day when Noah does. This was made abundantly clear today on our way back to our hotel from the Australian Consulate General in South Mumbai when we fell asleep in the car. The past ten days or so have been amazing. No adjective will suffice in describing our time here so amazing will have to do. Our son has changed our lives and for the better, we both know this. He is perfection personified and so utterly beautiful. Our birth certificates took 7 days to arrive to us & this included a delay due to a public holiday. Dr Sudhir was great in arranging all the necessary paperwork and birth certificates for us to obtain Noah's citizenship by descent....that's right OBTAIN. Our boy is officially an Aussie as of yesterday and the turn around was super quick. Like we said, Dr Sudhir arranged for all the paperwork required to confirm Noah's citizenship by descent; letter from Hiranandani hospital confirming he was born there, signed and stamped letter from Dr Soni confirming she delivered him, letter from Dr Pai confirming he performed our IVF and finally a letter from SI confirming our status as IPs under their care. Along with our surrogacy contract and the fee of Rs5400 we visited Blue Dart couriers at Galleria in Hiranandani Gardens and sent our documents to New Delhi. We had confirmation the next day of their receipt and then we began the phone calls. We were given the standard 'this will take four weeks to process' and not disheartened we insisted on speaking with the team leader Varun Gupta who handles citizenship by descent applications. He is very familiar with surrogacy and what is involved so he asked we call back that afternoon after 2pm. In the mean time I emailed him directly (he was cc'd in the email to us from DNALABS in Sydney confirming Noah's parentage) advising we had our flights booked for Sunday and we needed citizenship processed ASAP to ensure time to have a passport and exit visa processed. Voila, 24 hours later we have a third Australian citizen in our hotel room and a passport to collect from the Consulate General tomorrow. It could not have been easier or smoother for us and for that we are thankful. The passport application process was straight forward too. Our original certificate of citizenship for Noah was couriered to us today from New Delhi and we requested a scanned copy of the original be emailed to the Consulate General to expedite our emergency passport application which was done without issue. Tomorrow we visit the FRRO after collecting Noah's passport at 9am. We have been fortunate to spend the past 13 days in Mumbai with some fantastic people and we have especially enjoyed sharing time with Greg, Rob & Addison. We have been shopping, eating and sightseeing our way around the city with the three of them plus the docs and it has been a blast. Last night in particular we visited a small complex around 50km outside of the city which showed what village is like in Rajasthan. It was great and we had a fantastic time with the guys, Dr Sudhir, Dr Yash & Ajit. There was traditional dancing, fire eaters, magicians, puppet shows, camel rides, bullock rides, fresh sugar cane and mango juice stalls, henna painting, pottery wheels to throw small vases, arcade attractions like an old fashioned fair...just fantastic. It was such a great way to spend time with the docs and share something really special that we will remember always. We had such a great time that by the time we got back to our hotel it was close to 1am! We then slept and fed Noah at 2.30am and again at 5am and had to be up and ready to leave our hotel at 8.30am for the 10am appointment at the Consulate General. Hence being so tired today. We were due to see Greg, Rob and Addy prior to their leaving and catch up for lunch in South Mumbai, but our passport could not be issued same day and subsequently we did not visit the FRRO today. That adventure awaits us tomorrow! We were so tired we ended up back at our hotel by 1pm and slept for four hours. Our hotel at Powai has been great and it is very convenient to Hiranandani Gardens and the stores, cafes, restaurants & banks there. An auto rickshaw into Hiranandani costs between Rs 30-40 depending on traffic compared to the Rs200 in an A/C cab. We would highly recommend to others coming back to Mumbai for baby pick up to stay at one of the hotels at Powai. Yes the VITS is popular and we too almost stayed there but are now so glad we're here. The hotel has some beautiful grounds and the pool area is to die for with a grassed area to relax in the shade! So what is left for us to do in Bombay? When we booked our flights here we anticipated a stay of just over two weeks and it has proven to be true. 16 nights is the total for us. We arrived on the 9th April and we leave Mumbai this Sunday the 25th April. A total of 16 days. Noddy's exit visa is issued tomorrow and two days later we will be on a plane back to Sydney. Now that the time has come we are sad. Sad to be leaving our hotel room we couldn't wait to leave, sad to be leaving the smog, heat and crowds we are so unaccustomed with. Sad to be saying bye to Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash, now friends for life. And sad to be leaving Bombay, the birth city of our son. We will however be back so goodbye is not forever!

For those of you reading this contemplating if surrogacy in India is right for you, just as we did...the proof is in our son. And you could do no better than to have Surrogacy India, Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash by your side.

Parenthood...Days Two & Three

2010-04-13T13:29:00.019+10:00

This our newest favourite photo of Noah, aged five days in our hotel room at the Renaissance Hotel with his teddy from Aunty Nadyne. Every time we look at our little boy our hearts fill with overwhelming love for this little person. He is so utterly perfect and we can't stop with the kisses! Life without him in our lives is now unimaginable. Strange how a child can have such an affect us it's parents in only a matter of mere moments. Our baby boy is here for life and we are so in awe of him. We have done a little of the required paperwork and formalities to arrange Noddy's return to Australia but more is to be done. For those of you out there doing surrogacy in Mumbai, we'll include a little bit of info you may find helpful & some cute pics included!

We have almost all of our paperwork to send Noddy's citizenship application off to New Delhi. We are going to use Blue Dart couriers located at the galleria at Hiranandani Gardens. Other couples have used their courier service and they are both reasonably priced and reliable. We visited the ICICI bank branch also at the galleria at Hiranandani Gardens and obtained the bank demand draft to send along with the citizenship application. The fee charged by the bank to do this was Rs110 & we double checked the exchange rate at a cyber cafe across from ICICI bank. Dr Sudhir has arranged our signed and notarised affidavit and we have met with Pratik who reviewed our surrogacy contract. He was kind enough to come to our hotel to do this for us and this was covered in his standard fee. We also learnt from another Aussie couple in our hotel that the High Commission are also asking for a letter from our hotel stating that Noah is staying here with us until further notice, thanks Ken and Mike.

Last night was especially exciting as SI had seven babies attend their first combined 'baby party' at a fantastic restaurant in Powai, Saffron Spice. Parents and babies from Australia, the USA, Israel and Belgium attended this wonderful extravaganza and the entire SI team were there to celebrate with us. Drs Sudhir and Yash went to so much effort and it was an amazing night with memories to last our lifetime. It was great to meet so many new parents of surrogate babies and again to see Greg, Rob and their little girl. It was also an opportunity for some secret kisses between Noah and Addison watched over by the ever caring Dr Yash. Noah also received a beautiful outfit from the docs which both Darren and I adore. This should fit him in time for his 1st birthday. All the parents chose to give their babies and Indian name and the 'naming ceremony' was lovely and heartfelt. Noah's Indian name is...Ansh which means a part of me or oneself. We left the restaurant around 10.30pm and were unabe to get a taxi so Noddy had his first auto rickshaw ride back to our hotel. Both Darren and I were laughing at how no one would dream of doing this is Australia. Here we were weaving in and out of mad traffic and Noddy on our laps in his travel bassinett.

There is a public holiday in Mumbai this Wednesday so hopefully we will have Noah's birth certificate Thursday or Friday at the latest. When can then courier his documentation to the High Commission to process his citizenship application. It is then a matter of waiting and then applying for his passport and finally an exit visa from the FRRO office. The latest we have heard from Aussie couples is that the FRRO really is not as bad as expected. Yes it is very busy and hot but exit visas have been issued in a matter of hours with the help of Parashaar (My Man in India). This blog entry would have been posted much earlier but time is no longer our own. Noddy is sleeping well, anywhere between two and a half to four hours at a time and feeding from 50ml to 100ml each time. He is so good to his daddy and papa & we love him so.

Noah, Addison & Dr Yash (LEFT)

Drs Sudhir & Yash & the SI 7 (RIGHT)

Parenthood...The First 24 hours

2010-04-11T18:55:00.013+10:00

We finally have our boy at the hotel with us. Our first 24 hours as parents has been more than we could have ever dreamed of. The love that we have for our son is overwhelming and all consuming. He is our angel and we are so blessed. We were lucky enough that Dr Sanjeev Ahuja (Noah's pediatrician at L H Hiranandani Hospital) agreed to discharge him last night instead of tonight. The sisters in NICU basically said to us that since he had such a good birth weight and was eating and pooping well, there was nothing they were doing that we could not do in our hotel. Yesterday afternoon we met with Dr Anita Soni (the OBGYN) who delivers for all the surrogates at LHH and had her sign some paperwork required for Noddy's citizenship and we chatted about our surrogate and of course baby Noah.

We feel it needs to be said that Dr Soni is fabulous. She really does an excellent job in caring for the surrogates under her care and every Tuesday that our clinics surrogates visit her, Dr Yash has results back from her & is onto any issue or problem..stat. Like the medico lingo? She is so approachable & down to earth and takes no crap from nobody. Thank you Dr Soni.

We finished the discharge process in around an hour and a half and Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash met us for the final stages to expedite Noah and us leaving the hospital. We then travelled to Juhu Beach and met Greg, Rob and their beautiful little girl Addison and had dinner at their hotel. Rob's mum is over the from the US and together with the docs, the nine of us had a delicious Italian dinner and Noah and Addison their first date. Now I now there's a certain young man in Arizona that seems to think he has already been betrothed to Miss Blosser but you know these young Aussie boys!

Anyway, we had a wonderful night and it was great to finally meet the guys we had been chatting with online for so long now. Thanks to Drs Sudhir and Yash for their wonderful hospitality and time spent with us all. We ended up back at our hotel quite late as the drive from Juhu to Powai is not that close, especially on a Saturday night. Our first night was....I'm not sure. We had no expectations on how it would be, so lets just say we woke up tired. Noah was a little restless and I think we managed a total of around three to four hours max. When we had finished Noah's early morning feed around 6am and had him settled, the three of us went back to bed and slept for three hours until just after 9. We fed little Noddy again and the had some time by the pool for a little morning sun as he was a wee bit jaundiced. Today our son has been nothing other than perfect. He has been taking around 45-50ml of formula every three hours without issue and burping well and then sleeping another three hours until his next feed. Our decision not to warm his feeds, rather give them to him at room temperature seems to be a non issue which is great. He is feeding fantastically.

We met another Australian couple staying at our hotel today too and their little boy who is simply beautiful. We chatted about their time in India and the are expecting to leave this week, maybe Wednesday. They have been here for around two weeks and have had two public holidays during that time so hopefully the quick turnaround continues for our family too!

Tomorrow morning we will head into Hiranandani Gardens to the ICICI bank to arrange the bank demand draft for Noah's citizenship application and in the afternoon we head to South Mumbai to meet Dr Jayant Rele who will perform the DNA test required again for citizenship. We are expecting our birth certificate copies this week and we shall then courier these documents to New Delhi...One step closer to returning home!

Introducing.....Noah Robert

2010-04-10T00:04:00.006+10:00

Well, here it is folks. Our grande finale. Our son, Noah Robert was born in Mumbai on the 8th April at 4:51pm local time weighing in at 3.57kg.

Darren and I are both over the moon with the excitement at having our little boy in our lives, albeit currently across Lake Powai as he is still in Hiranandani Hospital and we're in our hotel room at the Renaisseance. Not too shabby let me tell you. We would have like to blogged earlier but what a day we have had!

The first photo is of Noddy in the NICU this morning; 17 hours old and perfection personified. We managed to feed our little boy once today and change his nappy, cuddle him and whisper little songs into his ears. He is so wonderfully beautiful and perfect we are overwhelmed with the love we feel for this little person...our Noddy. Since our first visit to Hiranandani last July there has been an additional NICU room attached for those babies not requiring critical care so that parents can feed and spend time with their children prior to being discharged. The standard time in NICU post birth is 72 hours apparently. So like a child on Christmas morning we are waiting with baited breath for Sunday to arrive.

The second photo to the left is of Papa and little Noddy in the NICU. Now, the nursing staff assure us the room is kept at an ambient 21 degrees celcius but when you're wearing a hair net a-la-KFC and a face mask with zero ventilation and a floor length gown it's more like 121 degrees...We both arrived at the hospital at 8:45am after 4 hours sleep after what seemed like the longest possible flight to India. We met Dr Sudhir who led us to the NICU and it was then we met our angel. We were planning for a much more relaxed return to India but little Noah had other ideas for his daddies. After speaking with Dr Yash very early on Thursday morning we decided to fly out that afternoon and thank goodness we did. On arrival into Singapore we phoned India and Dr Yash gave us the news that after a long labour, our surrogate was admitted for a c-section and our son was born very shortly after. Dr Sudhir emailed us some photos without the news on whether or not we had a boy or girl. We wanted to wait until we arrived at the hospital to find this out.

This morning we spent an hour or so with Noddy and then the remainder of the morning at Hiranandani Gardens; shopping and having lunch. We went back to the hospital for Noddy's scheduled 12:30 feed only to be told he had already been fed...We still spent time with our boy singing to him and cuddling while sneaking in a few photos.

The last photo in this post is of Noddy and his daddy who is so in love with his little boy it is beautiful to see. We already have experienced such love and a wonderful bond with our son it is hard to put into words. We just want him here with us now.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the amazing and we mean AMAZING support of Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash of Surrogacy India, Dr Pai who performed our transfer, Dr Soni and our surrogate.

Words will never be able to convey the deep gratitude we have for such an amazing woman and the gift she has given us.

Change of Plans.....We are Leaving for Mumbai!!!

2010-04-07T23:55:00.006+10:00

SCREETCH!!!!!

We have been on the phone with Dr Yash as our surrogate has gone into labour and is now at Hiranandani. Dr Soni confirms that we are in the early stages of labour and it can not be delayed. We have just spent the past two hours changing flights and hotel and frantically finishing packing. We arrive into Mumbai around 2am on Friday morning and will have an update then.

This is not a drill, we repeat...this is not a drill.

Our life is about to change and we can't wait!

7 Day Countdown

2010-04-03T11:03:00.006+11:00

This time next week we will be en-route to Sydney International Airport and exactly 38 weeks pregnant. Darren is cool, calm and very collected and I am too to a certain degree. My head is still spinning wildly like you wouldn't believe but maybe that's due to the washer being on spin cycle at the moment.

First of all, congratulations have to go out to Greg and Rob Blosser and their wonderfully, beautiful little girl Addison Claire. One of three babys born to SI IPs this week. We are so looking forward to meeting the three of them when we return to India next week.

Next week, 7 days! Gosh the time has come by quickly, thankfully we have a four day weekend at the moment to try and get things into some kind of order before we leave home. We're both working right up to the day prior to us leaving, so Monday will be spent packing our bags and making sure we have everything that we need and don't take the silly, fluffy stuff we do not. We chatted with our beautiful surrogate again this week and she is SO BIG! Dr Soni is very happy with Noddy's growth and weight gain that a planned c-section has been arranged on the day of our arrival into Mumbai or the following day which means that provided nature doesn't decide to introduce Noddy to the world any sooner, our darling will be born at either 38 weeks 1 day or 38 weeks 2 days. She seems very happy still albeit very tired and probably glad to be seeing the end of our pregnancy. We are amazed at the truly wonderful gift that she has made possible for us.

Drs Sudhir and Yash also said that it appears Noddy may be SI's biggest baby born to date......Not sure if this is a good or bad thing? Any opinions of this? Noddy is just over 3kg according to Dr Soni as of last Tuesday. We are planning to chat with our surrogate again tonight Saturday and will again next week before we leave for India.

Our last week as a childless couple. How will it be spent; date nights, romantic dinners? Probably not. Darren is working long, long hours in the last week before his time off work and we still have to prepare for the possibility of dropping everything and trying to find a flight to Mumbai.

WEEK 37

Fetal size: crown-rump 35cm (14 inches), crown-toe: 47cm (18.5 inches). Fetal weight 3kg (6.5 pounds). The average size of a healthy full term baby in Australia is 3.5kg. There are many variations on this figure and the size of your baby is linked both parents birth weight and their adult height.

Two Week Countdown

2010-03-26T10:59:00.009+11:00

Tomorrow, Saturday will mark 14 days until our departure from Sydney and more importantly, our return to Mumbai to see Dr Sudhir, Dr Yash, Team SI, our wonderful surrogate and finally meet our darling Noddy.

Giving myself over to the thought of finally becoming a parent gives me unbearable pins and needles throughout my entire body. Goosebumps, dizziness and tingling in the base of my neck are just some of the sensations when I imagine our child in our lives. A child that no one can take from us. A child that will call us it's parents. A child that will wake in the morning and want us, it's daddies to hug and take care of them. My mind is racing at a million miles an hour and I keep repeating to myself that WE ARE ABOUT TO BECOME PARENTS!!!

Last night we had the opportunity to again chat with our surrogate on SKYPE and see her happy smiling face. Having such fantastic technology available to us and a willing surrogate to chat regularly has made the past nine months seem all the more real for Darren and I. We have been encouraged by the positive news and feedback during the course of our surrogate's pregnancy for us. Some IPs have chosen to visit India mid pregnancy which is a great way to stay in touch with your chosen surrogate but for us we opted not to do this. SKYPE had made the many, many miles seem not so far and our surrogate closer to us which we are grateful for. We asked our SM last night how she was feeling and if baby Noddy was moving much to which she replied that our baby likes to dance of a night time! She cracked up laughing and so did the other girls in the room with her. Every time she laughes it is so contagious and makes us happy. A happy pregnancy = a happy baby!

Below is a screen shot from our chat last night on SKYPE. SI clients will recognise the happy smiling face of Jaya in the background, one of the members of "Team SI".

WEEK 36

Fetal size : crown-rump 34cm (13.5 inches), crown-toe 46cm (20.7 inches). Fetal weight 2.75 kgs (6 pounds). From about 24 weeks it is possible for your health care professional to determine what position your baby is in. This may change quite a few times as your baby grows, until some time between 32-36 weeks, when the baby runs out of room. A baby usually lies in the cephalic position, that it head down and legs curled up towards the ribs. This is an ideal position, as a baby's head is larger than the rest of it's body, so if the head fits through the pelvis, the rest of the body will. On less frequent occasions, the baby can be in a breach position, where it's head is under the ribs and the feet pointing toward your pelvis.

Engagement

This is when the baby's head has entered the pelvis. It usually occurs at around week 36 for a first time pregnancy and later if you have already had a child.

Why The Questions?

2010-03-18T10:09:00.012+11:00

Is this normal practice when you congratulate expecting parents? I know that when family, friends or work colleagues announced they were expecting we never asked these sort of questions or made such comments. Perhaps it's because we're a same sex couple. Maybe people think because we don't have a traditional 'mother' in our family unit that some how we won't be able to cope and people seem to be counting down the day til our demise. It could be that after 13 years together, people think Darren and I are looking at impending parenthood through rose coloured glasses? Or maybe I'm just being overly sensitive and perhaps they are right...

Am I crazy and delusional?

Are we wrong to be so excited about Noddy's birth that smelly nappies and sleepless nights don't come into the equation? We know that with a newborn baby comes sleep deprivation. We know that our time is no longer our own. We know that for the rest of our lives we will have a life depending on us as parents. We know that we may never again be able to leave the house, hair perfectly quiffed and shirts vomit free and you know what........we can't wait!

Some of the questions and comments I'm referring to that some people seem to be throwing our way include:

" You won't know what hit you" - Thanks, I never thought of our baby as a hazardous projectile!

" Give it five to six weeks and then I'll ask you again" - The reply when asked if we're excited.

"Just wait til the baby won't sleep and stop crying" - Response to Johnny's excitement of being a stay at home dad.

Then there's the chuckle from mothers. A chuckle similar to a secret handshake as though they are members of an exclusive club and now that we have 'signed on the dotted line' there's no turning back. A chuckle so sinister that it's true meaning will only be understood by us when Noddy arrives. Then and only then does the reality of membership to this club reveal itself.

I now want to ask a question. Does this happen to you dear reader? Is this normal and have you had to answer such questions or had similar comments thrown your way? Like I said, perhaps I am the crazy, delusional and overly sensitive one here?

What do you think?

Noddy's room is not quite 100% complete but we are almost there. The timber has all been painted and the prints we bought at Disney Land in 2005 finally have a home in Noddy's room. There is still a bookcase and toy box to paint and then that's it. No more painting of furniture. YAY! All of Noddy's clothes and bed linen has been washed and folded and we have his/her bags packed for our return to India. We on the other hand will most likely pack a few days prior to our scheduled departure.

WEEK 35
Fetal size: crown-rump 33cm (13.2 inches), crown-toe 45cm (20.25 inches). Fetal weight: 2.5kg (5.5 pounds). Fat has continued to build up under your baby's skin and is responsible for providing energy and regulating body temperature. These fat deposits have also changed the appearance of the skin, making it pinker (rather than red) and less wrinkled. Fingernails are developed on the fingers, but still may be growing on the toes. Eyelids can be opened and closed and blinking is possible. The irises are also now light sensitive and will dilate and contract depending on exposure to light.

Week 34 Update

2010-03-11T11:49:00.012+11:00

34 weeks! You can't begin to imagine the smile from ear to ear on our faces at the moment; well, I know that some of you can! Noddy's impending arrival is becoming very, very emotional for us and every time we hear from Drs Yash and Sudhir with a photo, report or ultrasound scan we're elated. Daily we're being greeted with "not long now" and "is the baby here yet", from friends and extended family.

This morning for instance, I woke as usual and first thing was to turn on the computer. Every morning I wake, check for emails, photos, scans, then it's off to blogger to see what's been happening to our surrogacy buddies world wide, then the SI forum for new posts and updates, then the Australian Embassy website in New Delhi for any changes to requirements for children born in India from a commercial surrogacy arrangement and then my work emails. Once this morning ritual is complete I can then feed the cats, change their litter trays, iron shirts for work, make the bed, have breakfast and then feed myself and get ready for work. Usually it's Darren who is the first to leave for work but not today. When I woke and saw the above photo and the latest email from Dr Yash I ran upstairs smiling to myself and thinking, "we may be soon be waking up to an email or phone call that our SM going into labour"!

We're on the one month count down folks!

This wasn't the case this morning though. Our dear surrogate had an ultrasound two days ago and we were reading the results and an email from Dr Yash telling us that from next week, week 35 our SM will be moved to the SI clinic for the remainder of the pregnancy to monitor her so that should she go into labour early she is being cared for and looked after. We re-packed Noddy's bags last night, nappies, bibs, bottles, singlets and what seems like a thousand other items for such a small person. At least we'll be prepared!

Latest results on Noddy's development are;
BPD - 8.94cms compatible with 36w1d
HC - 32.77cms compatible with 37w2d
FL - 6.58cms compatible with 33w6d
AC - 31.48cms compatible with 35w3d

FHR - 114bpm
EST FETAL WEIGHT - 2629gms
Average Gestational Age - 35w5d
EDD - 08 April 2010

WEEK 34
Fetal size: crown-rump 32cm (12.8 inches), crown-toe 44cm (19.8 inches). Fetal weight: 2.25kg (5 pounds). Your baby is now perfectly formed and has the proportions of a newborn. Now it's simply a matter of your baby gaining some weight and doing some further maturing before he/she is ready to be born. It's becoming more cramped in your uterus as your baby continues to mature. Consequently your baby curls up more and starts to move a bit less. Everything is mature now except for the lungs which will continue to prepare themselves for breathing air after birth. Although the lungs are not fully developed, almost all babies born at 34 weeks will survive, but will probably experience some breathing difficulties.

Our Baby Shower

2010-03-08T11:18:00.024+11:00

Yesterday we had a great group of 35 family and friends celebrate an afternoon of 'Bombay Baby Madness', our baby shower. We had planned a garden party but the always unpredictable Blue Mountains weather had other ideas and we ended up indoors.

We had a wonderful afternoon celebrating with some close friends and family and we're sure everyone had a great time too. Not everyone we invited was able to make it but we know those of you that couldn't make it in person were there in spirit, sipping bubbles from afar! How great do our cupcakes look!

Johnny's younger sister as you know from earlier posts is a cake decorator extraordinaire! Beck did such a wonderful job and the cupcakes were yummy. Thank you to all the wonderful people who came and shared our day with us. I had very, very grand plans and some of them had to go out the window at the last minute. We did want to arrange somebody to come to the shower to apply henna to our hands but at more than $300 that idea was given the flick. We did purchase some henna cones ourselves and made stencils and were ready but ran out of time on the day. I did though have time the day prior to try my hand at some mehndi on our two nieces Emerson and Makayla.

We had a yummy Indian themed lunch consisting of saffron rice, chicken tikka, dhal and eggplant curry, vegetable samosa and a selection of naan and pappadums.

The day could not have been the smashing success that it was without the help of our wonderful family. Our parents who have been helping us over the past months leading up to this day, helping us with purchases, organising and decorating the house and Noddy's room. To our sisters who helped out immensely on the day both in and out of the kitchen enabling us to mingle and enjoy the company of our friends, thank you! We have a wonderful family and to have you share this day with us was a dream come true for the two of us and one we will remember fondly when Noddy is harassing us to borrow the car!

Noddy's room is almost complete. We're 99.97% there. We have one piece of furniture left to paint and Darren has offered to do this. We have managed to empty the wardrobe in his/her room and put our Christmas ornaments in storage boxes. Darren has framed some wonderfully cute pictures of Pooh Bear, Snuglepot and CuddlePie (Australian gumnut babies) and Big Bird to hang on the walls and finished painting a mirror we had in our old study which now finds a home in Noddy's room. When complete, we'll post a few photos here for you all to admire!

It's true that dreams really do come true and we are so very, very grateful to have reached for the stars and manged to find Noddy. I hope that those of you out there contemplating surrogacy take the plunge and reach for the stars too. You may get a pleasant surprise just as we have.

Week 33 Update

2010-03-05T09:51:00.003+11:00

Have a look at that wonderful belly! I wish we were already in India. We really want to spend some time with our surrogate before she goes into labour and Noddy joins us. I pray we have this chance. Noddy is developing beautifully and it looks like the elevated WBC count from last week is decreasing which is a relief both for us, the docs and our surrogate. From this latest photo sent to us by Dr Sudhir, you can really tell that our surro. has put on weight, especially in her face. I hope she is happy and healthy. She must now be really starting to tire and be coming to the end of her patience with Noddy growing so well. When we last spoke with her on skype, she said the baby must be very hungry as she is eating lots! If those chubby cheeks on our latest 3D scans are anything to go by, she is right!

The latest results from Drs Sudhir and Yash on Noddy's development are:

BPD: 8.32 cms
HC: 30.00cms
FL: 6.45cms
AC: 27.45cms
FHR: 131bpm
EST Fetal Weight: 1955gms
EDD: 14 April 2010
The placenta is anterior and grade II in maturity
The amniotic fluid level is adequate
The internal os is closed
Cervical length 3.56cm

We are hoping to chat with her again tonight, our home PC has been done....again! Our replacement as been couriered to us today and I'll set it up after dinner. This Sunday we are having our baby shower and I'll be sure to post photos for those of you overseas or interstate that can't be here in person. Currently the weather forecast is a little stratchy. Not sure if we'll have sunshine and warmth on an Autumn day or not. I hope so. We've been getting gift packs ready for our surrogate's kids for our return to Mumbai and want to find something special for her too. We are thinking a piece of jewellery (maybe ear rings or a bracelet)?

Noddy's room is almost complete. The light we bought and painted has been installed and looks great! We have one last piece of furniture to paint and then that's it. No more painting! YAY!When everything is in it's place we will post a few pics to share with you all. Tomorrow will mark the five week count down until we fly back to Mumbai. I hope Noddy can hang in there until our arrival and that he/she is kind to our dear surrogate in these last weeks of her pregnancy for us.

WEEK 33
Fetal size: crown-rump 30cm (12 inches), crown-toe: 43cm (19.4 inches). Fetal weight: 2kg (4.4 pounds). Until week 20, your baby spent most of it's time in a wakeful state. Between weeks 20 and 28, he/she started to have periods of activity and quiet. After week 28 your baby started to experience active sleep (eyes and body moving, heart rate speeding up then slowing down, facial expressions changing and changing breathing patterns). From week 28 onwards, it is likely that your baby starts to develop a pattern of deep sleep and active sleep. During the active sleep periods, your baby's brain undergoes stimulation, which probably helps it to mature.

Week 32 Update

2010-02-25T10:33:00.008+11:00

The past seven days have passed by in much of a non event as the previous seven. Both Darren and I are putting the finishing touches on Noddy's room. We have bought a much smaller light for the room as our current chandelier is now too low and we keep hitting our heads on it every time we enter the room. We bought a five arm light fixture from a local 2nd hand store that we plan of painting white and adding some white shades. Currently it's brass and has bad 80s glass shades...urgh. A little bit of DIY should do the trick and at only $45 it's a bargain. When complete I will post a photo. We have also finished painting the timber trim above our panelling and now just three pieces left to be painted (wait, four) and then...voila! Darren has had two beautiful oak pieces of furniture since he was around 19 years old that we are going to paint white, a bookcase from our dear friend Bron, who recently moved to the USA will also get the same treatment and then a rocking chair currently federation green will also get a lick of paint or two or three as I think it may need. The weekend ahead will be a busy one!

For some unknown reason I have been feeling anxious when thinking about Noddy the past few days. Most likely because our surrogate's WBC count has been a little elevated. Drs Yash and Sudhir were on the ball and quickly placed our surrogate on a five day course of antibiotics just as a precaution. This along with reading other IPs threads on the SI forum has helped me to relax slightly but I can't quite put my finger on the reason for this unwanted anxiety.

There has been some sad news this week in the surrogacy community we find oursleves a part of. Couples who have had negative results and others coming to their second trimester miscarrying. It is terribly devastating and I can not begin to imagine their anguish. This also reminded me of a client recently who came into my work place to book flights to the UK.

Their daughter was pregnant and all was well. Baby was growing as it should be and 'normal'. The soon to be grandparents were elated.

Then, all of a sudden their baby didn't continue growing. It's heart simply stopped. By this stage, the expectant mother was 35 weeks pregnant and just thinking of what awful sadness she, her partner and their families must have gone through gives me goosebumps and saddens me beyond expression. WHY, WHY, WHY?

How on earth does one cope with such sadness and loss? I am shaking my head as I type these words.

I suppose I am anxious as any new parent would be. Both Darren, myself and our families are so looking forward to this new arrival. A new life. Noddy is already so loved and cherished the fear that this wonder could be taken from us scares the hell out of me. I pray this is not our fate.

Onto a lighter and happier note, we do know that Noddy IS growing well and IS healthy and we have NO reason to be fearful or anxious. We ARE in the best of hands and our surrogate IS going to deliver a beautiful, healthy baby boy or girl very soon. I was so happy to wake up this morning and find more 3D scans from two days ago, the 23rd February. The scans show Noddy's approximate gestational age at 31weeks and 5days.

WEEK 32

Fetal size: crown-rump 29cm (11.6 inches), crown-toes 42cm (18.9 inches). Fetal weight 1.7kg (4 pounds). This week your baby has continued to grow and his/her lungs and digestive system have also continued to mature. Your baby's senses are functioning and by week 32 the mind may have even started to function. Your baby still needs more time in the womb to continue maturation, and the build up of fat stores.

Week 31 Update

2010-02-19T09:22:00.015+11:00

This week we reach 31 weeks in our pregnancy and are one step closer to Noddy reaching full term. Technically we only have six weeks to go right? A baby born at 37 weeks is considered 'full term' and then we can really let out a sigh of relief.

We are starting to prepare our essentials list for our return trip to India. Bottles, formula, nappies, clothes, baby sling vs carrier, cotton balls, bibs, burp cloths, bottle steriliser, hanger for drying small laundry items in our hotel room, bottle drain stand, ipod, laptop and the other gazillion items to make sure we have every possible scenario covered. Of course this can't be achieved and we will be as prepared as we can be and the rest.....we will deal with if and when we need to. You know we're not going to have a refluxy, colicy baby! PLEASE!

Our wonderful surrogate again this week has been for more check ups and scans and the latest results are looking good for Noddy's development...

A single live foetus is noted in cephalic presentation with spine to the left.

Liquor - Adequate.
Placenta - To the right and Grade O Maturity

BPD - 78.6MM
HC - 286.7MM
FL - 57.2MM
AC - 272.0MM
EFW - 1685GRAMS

This week we would also like to say a BIG THANK YOU to the many people who have kindly helped us over the past 12 months plus. Many of you out there we have only ever met in this virtual world and having your support, kindness, encouragement and ever willing ear to listen to us has made our journey much more enjoyable. When we started to seriously consider commercial surrogacy in India we were just as apprehensive and trepidatious as the next person. Having people to email, talk with and allay our anxieties meant we could focus on what was really important and that is creation. Noddy.

We met Stephanie and Adam whilst in Mumbai and their cherub Micah. Chaya and her princess Ella also made us appreciate the reality of what we were about to do and that yes, it is possible!

To our numerous online supporters; M&J, Jason & Brendan, Greg & Rob (can't wait to meet you two), Rhonda & Gerry, Megan & Bob, Lisa & Nik, Jojo and the others I have forgotten....thank you. You all know the stress involved in becoming parents half way around the world and no one else can relate to these crazy emotions more than the people going through the same things as us.

To our wonderful doctors in India, Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash. Words will never express the gratitude and awe we have toward you and your staff for your wonderful commitment to Darren and I. For us, there is no other clinic we would have other than Surrogacy India and will continue to sing your praises to one and all that will listen.

And finally, our family. Both sets of parents and siblings have been amazing in their steadfast support and unwavering faith in us and the desire to become parents. Family is one of the reasons we chose to become parents. We love you all.

WEEK 31
Fetal size: crown-rump 28cm (11.2 inches), crown-toe 40cm (18 inches). Fetal weight : 1.6kg (3.5 pounds).
The eyes are now fully formed and the eyelids have separated, allowing your baby's eyes to open. Once the eyes are open, your baby will start to see and focus (within a limited range). Your baby now has a fully developed breathing rhythm and his/her lungs begin to prepare for breathing air in the outside world. Sucking and swallowing skills also continue to develop in preparation for feeding. Your baby passes about half a litre of urine into the amniotic fluid each day.

3D Ultrasound & 30 Week Update

2010-02-11T10:39:00.019+11:00

30 weeks....sigh....

We have had a reprieve this week from working on the nursery, most of the planned work as we now know is almost done and there are only minor cosmetic touches left for us to do. We had the wonderful opportunity last night to again chat with our surrogate and Jaya from Surrogacy India. As always she had the most wonderfully smiling face. Always laughing and happy to chat with us and also our parents last night. Both Johnny's parents and Darren's mother had their chance to say Namaste and thank her for the wonderful thing she is doing for us.

We are so eager to return to India to see her and the docs at SI and I know she is keen for us to come back too. Not a day goes by when we are not thinking of her and her family. Praying for their continued good health and happiness. We really do live in a wonderful time to be able to say we are going to be dads with the help of two beautiful woman half way across the world...

Last night we also received some scans from our long awaited 3D ultrasound from two weeks ago on the 29th January.

Wow, amazing, beautiful, tiny & perfect! Words can not begin to express the wonder we both felt at seeing little Noddy's tiny features before he/she will join us. Our hearts are so warm and full of love for our tiny baby that I can not fully express how we feel at seeing these ultrasound images. Just thinking of them and seeing our child gives us goosebumps.

WEEK 30

Fetal size: crown-rump 27cm, crown-toe 39cm. Fetal weight 1.4kg (3 pounds). Your baby has increased in size and wont be able to somersault for much longer. Your medical practitioner will be able to ascertain your baby's position by performing an abdominal examination. Your baby keeps gaining weight and maturing. Your baby's brain has grown and the brain cells and nerves are now active. This means that your baby can now engage in more complex learning and movement. From now on there will be less and less room for your baby to move. While your baby has been moving around over the past few months he/she has been building muscle tone and learning how to orientate himself/herself in the uterus. Over the next four weeks your baby will probably lie with his/her head facing upwards, but sometimes a baby will turn upside down and 'engage' or get ready for birth earlier than usual. Your baby starts to gain weight and starts to round out as fat continues to appear beneath the skin. This fat smooths out the wrinkles in the skin. Your baby also begins to control his/her own body temperature. The hair that covered the skin now reduces while the hair on the scalp lengthens. The head and body are now fully in proportion - just like a newborn.

The Nursery...A Work in Progress

2010-02-08T20:38:00.026+11:00

OK, Noddys room is still a work in progress and not yet completely finished. But I thought I would share with you what we have done so far. Darren and I are not the most handy boys when it comes to home DIY jobs. Give us a paint swatch and some fabric though and LOOK OUT!

So the plans we had for the nursery were always going to involve a little DIY much to our dismay...but I think we have done well so far. The photo to the left is what Noddy's new room (once our study) looked like just over a week ago. Floor to ceiling gingham wallpaper, a very large bookcase, desk, filing cabinets and all of our Christmas supplies in the built in wardrobe made for one busy study. This room overlooks a side veranda on our home and has lovely filtered light throughout the day it will make a beautiful nursery for little Noddy.

Our first step involved wallpaper removal - urgh!
Both Darren and I are wallpaper mad, almost every room in the house has been glued and papered. This is the first time either of us had attempted removing paper. The study had a lovely English vinyl paper that ended up coming away in two parts. The green outer was removed in part first and then we had to steam the backing paper and scrape to remove it, what an effort! The wall was so sticky from the wallpaper paste, but I am pleased to say that it was easier to remove than either one of us had anticipated. We spent a good day steaming the walls and then washing them three times over to try and remove the excess glue from the wall.

So now, walls are free from wallpaper and washed ready to be painted. We spent the next couple of days undercoating the walls with some fantastical, wonderful, expensive undercoat that the salesperson at Bunnings said one simply had to use on walls that had previously been wallpapered if you don't want your finished wall to have a mother of pearl finish. The walls were given two coats of undercoat paint by our resident Matisse and then it was onto the next task at hand, preparing for the stripe. Originally we were headed for a circus theme and wanted a candy stripe on the walls. A thin stripe of white, red, green etc and then continuing in the same method but that idea went out the window as too tricky. Blame it on sympathy baby brain! We even spent some time trying to find a striped wallpaper as it is much easier to paper than to tape a wall and then paint a stripe! Even with industry contacts we couldn't find a paper that we liked and colour matching is also a bit hit and miss so we opted for a painted finish instead. Darren did the undercoating of the walls whilst his mum, Lynnie and I prepared the timber railing for the bottom half of the walls. I even used a drop saw (is that what it's called)???

The taping of the walls to measure the stripe took us close to three days to complete! We were both so chuffed when we started, we had a glass of wine in one hand, tape measure in the other and away we went.

"Isn't this easy" says Darren
" We're so handy" say I

....Ha! We had finished one wall and I, oblivious to any mathematical error singing along to the Carpenters was rudely interrupted by Darren telling me we had to start again. Why? Because we hadn't calculated the width of the tape when taking measurements for the white stripe between each of the green stripes. So, that was that. We gave up and took a fresh approach the following night, minus the wine.

This was probably the most arduous task so far in 'Operation Nursery'. Once this was done and we double checked our measurements we began the exciting task of painting the walls with our chosen colour. We were lucky enough to be kept in check by one of the two resident feline site managers, Billy, who ensures there was no slacking off on our part! We then had to get our hard hats back on to install the timber panelling that we wanted below the green stripe. And then this too, had to be painted and painted and painted! We also extended our handyman skills to assembling the cot we bought back in November.

We still have lots to do but at least you can start to see the nursery coming together. The timber rail above the panelling needs to be painted and we need to change the light fixture as it is far too low now. We still need to paint some timber furniture too and buy linen. We have a cot and mattress but no linen! But these are things that will happen over the coming weeks before we head back to India. At least we have a nursery that is 90% complete and ready for the newest member of our family. Tell us what you think

Week 29 Update & Noddy's Stats

2010-02-04T10:07:00.002+11:00

29 weeks! Both Darren and I are now starting to feel like we're on a train headed down hill and the driver is not using the brakes!

It's funny that even now I have small milestones in my head that when reached, I exhale and let out a small sigh of relief. Next week will be another of those milestones...30 weeks.

Noddy is doing so well and appears very content with his/her current uterine residence that we hope it stays that way for many weeks still. Last night we received the results from our surrogate's latest ultrasound and tests. She must be starting to feel sick and tired of all these darn tests, but all that we hear from Dr Sudhir is that she is always smiling and happy. What a wonderful person she is and again we are so blessed to have her helping us complete our dream of becoming parents. Our home computer has been out of action for around a week since we had a major thunder storm resulting in our modem being fried. As of late last night however, after spending a lengthy amount of time on the phone for internet support, we're back online!

We did miss the opportunity to SKYPE with our surrogate the night before last which was disappointing, Dr Sudhir said that she was so looking forward to seeing us again and chatting. Now that we are back in the land of the internet enabled, SKYPE has been booked in for next week when next she returns to SI's clinic. We were happy though to have some results on Noddy's development to this date:

BPD - 7.79cm compatible with 31w2d (head measurement side to side)
HC - 27.95cm compatible with 30w4d (head circumference)
FL - 5.36cm compatible with 28w3d (femur length, thigh bone)
AC - 24.30cm compatible with 28w44 (abdominal circumference)
EST Fetal Weight - 1293gms

EDD - 11 April 2010

Now the due date above is sooner than we had thought. The due date from conception was around 24-26 April and then our date was brought forward a month or so ago to 18 April 2010 and now 11 April 2010. Lets hope that Noddy sticks around for as close to the 40 week mark as possible. Darren and I have booked our airfares yesterday with Qantas via Singapore and we arrive into Mumbai on the morning of the 11th April. We were booked to spend all our time at the VITS but have changed this to the Renaissance Hotel at Powai as I managed to secure an amazing rate as a travel agent that could not be beat.

WEEK 29

Fetal size: crown-rump 26cm (10.4 inches), crown-toe 38cm (16.7 inches). Fetal weight 1.25kg (2.7 pounds). Over the last five weeks your baby has doubled it's weight. Your baby grows so quickly that even a few weeks growth will have a big effect on your baby's size. A baby born between 37 and 42 weeks is considered term and full mature at birth. A baby born prior to 37 weeks is considered to be premature and requires specialist medical attention. Today, rapid medical intervention has enabled babies born as early as 25 weeks to survive, although they face many possible complications and weeks in hospital. The further a pregnancy develops the higher the chances of a better outcome for mother and baby.

Week 28 - The Start of Our Third Trimester

2010-01-29T14:30:00.006+11:00

No news is good news and truer words were never spoken. Especially when it comes to how we, as soon to be parents worry about so many things.

Our surrogate and her family, are they well and in good health?

The Drs at Surrogacy India, are they well and in good health?

The political situation in India. Are there tensions about to boil over?

Is Noddy growing well and is everything 'normal'?

And the list goes on and on and on and on. Many of you reading this will agree and be nodding your heads when reading the above. This week we are 28 weeks into or pregnancy and this means we really are on the home stretch. Blessings have been abundant for us during the past six months and then some. We have been so fortunate to have a great support network of parents and parents to be, all in the same boat travelling the same river as us. Dr Sudhir and Yash from SI have been our rock when it has come to the medical side of things and always there to listen and help us.

We are going to start the nursery this weekend. Sunday has been put aside so that we can strip the walls of the wallpaper there and then we will undercoat and prime the wall ready for painting. We will then still have the timber moulding to install and paint and then we can set to decorating and preparing for when Noddy joins us.

On a quick side note, so as not to give this person too much precious air time. A BIG POO POO to blogger ibnzayd. You are the hideous, disgusting and filthy person not us. How dare you judge us when you do not know what is involved between our surrogate and us.

WEEK 28

Fetal size: crown-rump 25cm (10 inches), total length 37cm (15.75 inches). Fetal weight 1.1kg (2.4 pounds).

This week the amount of tissue in your babys brain increases, and the surface of your babys brain starts to change from being smooth, to forming grooves, ridges and indentations. Your baby continues to fill out, becoming plumper and rounder in appearance.

Time to Switch to Decaf

2010-01-27T12:01:00.005+11:00

This one was so weird that I just had to share it with you. It has been a while since I have dreamt of Noddy or what life will be like once he/she joins us but last night was different. A dream unlike the others I have had and here's the weird part.

I (Johnny) was in our lounge room and people were arriving for our baby shower. In this dream Noddy was already with us and as people were arriving I decided that it was time for a bath. I went into the bathroom and filled the baby bath and then proceeded to place Noddy in. Noddy was VERY tiny, about the size of my mobile phone and this was totally normal. After placing little Noddy in the bath I left the room, proceeded back to the party and sat down!

What on earth was going on in my mind. I sat in the loungeroom sipping champagne and chatting with our friends when I realsised I had left Noddy in the bath. I ran back to check on things and he/she was under the water. Now, this is where the dream gets really weird. I picked Noddy up and checked for breathing which was OK. I covered him/her in a towel and then noticed that Noddy was in fact.....a kitten. Hmmm.

I went to the lounge room and people were cooing and complimenting us on our 'baby' and then somebody said to me; I thought you were having a real baby?

I replied that I thought we were too but a kitten is OK.

Definitely time to switch to decaf!

Whats In a Name?

2010-01-21T09:37:00.007+11:00

We are one week away from the 'official' start to the final trimester in our pregnancy. Wow, the time has really flown. On reflection to this point, I laugh at the thought of all the little things that worried me and kept me online day in and day out. And, there were plenty of little things!

This weekend we caught up with the Aussie couple we met in Mumbai when we were there in July. We have made fantastic life long friends and it was so good to see them both again and share some laughs, great food and their wonderful company. I have attached a photo of the Noddy learning blocks that we received from them, amongst many other wonderful pressies they gave us!
When it came to choosing a name for Noddy, both Darren and Johnny wanted a classic name. Nothing too tricky or with weird spelling. You know the kind of name I mean right? What's benefit to your child is spelling their name other than the norm;

Matthew/Matthieu?
Paige/Paije?

Maybe it's just us and we are the weirdos? We always had our boys name chosen from the get go but when it came to selecting a girls name we were undecided. Of course everyone and their dog wants to give you their opinion on your chosen name and then offer suggestions as to what they would do. Then there's name association. You know what I mean here too; one partner really likes the name Ralph lets say, but Ralph was a crazy man who stole your underwear from the clothes line when you were in high school so, Ralph's a no go when it comes to naming your unborn child...and the list of 'no go' names goes on and on and on. On that note, I give unto thee our chosen names for Noddy, be she a boy or girl:

Noah Robert

Arabella Rose

What do you think? Of course if you don't like them, chances are they are not being changed but we would love to know what you think.

WEEK 27 UPDATE

Fetal size 24cm (9.6 inches). Fetal weight 1kg (just over 2 pounds). The head to toe length of your baby can now be approximated (until now, the measurements have been approximations of the crown-rump measurements). This week the crown-toe measurement is approximately 34cm (15.3 inches). At about this time the retina develops. The retina is located at the back of the eye and receives light and light images and information, and transmits it to the brain where it is interpreted. The lungs continue to develop, and this week the special moistening agent surfactant production begins. Surfactant stops the walls of the lungs sticking together when we exhale. Along with the production of surfactant, the network of blood vessels servicing the lungs increases.

Why We Chose Surrogacy India

2010-01-13T21:02:00.009+11:00

For an openly gay couple living in Australia, the options when it comes to starting a family are very limited. For all the freedom we enjoy as tax paying Australian citizens, we are far from equal on many fronts when it comes to the civil liberties enjoyed by our heterosexual counterparts. That is all I will say on that topic for now. This post is about our wonderful clinic Surrogacy India, Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash and not the Australian government and their outdated laws!

First a quick recap:

When Darren and I eventually met on the same page of our family's story, we seriously started looking at what available options there were for us to become parents. One of our closest and dearest friends, whose son we are god parents to offered to be our surrogate and the research phase began. After a few months we decided that this was not a road we wanted to venture down. Beside being fraught with hair raising twists and turns, our friendship was not something we wanted to jeopardise. We then contacted Growing Generations in LA but MY LORDY THE COST!!!

Thailand was considered as an option, as well as two clinics in India. This is the quick introduction to our story and as you know, we chose Surrogacy India. After receiving personal feedback from two Australian couples who had already been through a cycle with Surrogacy India our first email was sent to Dr Sudhir - possible@surrogacyindia.com
From the very beginning, Dr Sudhir was open, honest and forthright in his replies to our questions, of which there were many. We often repeated ourselves just to make sure we understood exactly what we were getting into and we left no stone unturned. Literally! We both had no hesitation in proceeding with SI and proceeded to have our medical tests done and application forms completed to send to Mumbai.

Dr Sudhir and the entire SI team make you feel so at ease and comfortable with the process from start to finish (so far for us that is) from enrollment, selecting your egg donor, surrogate and even arranging your hotels, transfers and sightseeing via their recommended travel agent Amit Kulkarni, mumbai@exploreindya.net if you wish. On arrival at our hotel in Mumbai we were met by a beautiful arrangement of flowers and a welcome card from the doctors.

Our meeting at Lilavati Hospital was great. Both Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash were warm and welcoming and so are the staff at SI's clinic in Bhandup West. While everyone who undertakes starting their family with the help of an overseas clinic would agree it is not a bump free journey, far from it is some cases. This is the case regardless of your clinic of choice and the country one travels to. Some people have a smoother journey than others and we can not explain why.
It is a journey that opens ones eyes on many levels. Meeting our surrogate and her husband, meeting the wonderful people who have made our dream a reality and the welcoming people in India who have made such an impression on us. I could not have imagined at the time we started this blog, shortly after reading a book detailing the story of many gay dads and their families that we, your average (OK not average but hey) normal (again what is normal) couple would be months away from the most wonderful, amazing, awe inspiring time in our shared life. If you would like to chat with us regarding our experience or to start the ball rolling yourselves, we are more than happy to do so. Our email address is johnnyanddarren@gmail.com.

We can not express in words our gratitude to Dr Yash, Dr Sudhir, Dr Pai, Dr Soni and everyone else who has made this possible for us. It is without hesitation that we recommend Surrogacy India and encourage you to contact them if you too are considering starting your family via surrogacy in India.

http://www.surrogacyindia.com/

possible@surrogacyindia.com

To end, our latest photo from SI showing our beautiful surrogate's pregnant belly at 26 weeks!

Noddy...We have a pram!

2010-01-12T15:28:00.006+11:00

This week brings closure on our pram debate. After many long hours sourcing the best pram for Noddy, the decision has been made for us. Both of us have spent hours at Babies Galore, Baby Kingdom, Babys R Us, Myer, David Jones...the list goes on and on to no avail. What we learnt from this process is that no single pram offered everything we were looking for. One was easy to collapse but did not have a rear facing bassinet or vice versa. This, coupled with the fact that there are very few pram systems under $1000 felt like we were searching for the holy grail of prams. Oh my! Johnny did buy a second hand emmalunjga classic pram on e-bay. It did not matter than the pram was ten years old as it was fabulous looking and was the traditional carriage he was after. Shortly after picking up said pram and it taking up the entire boot space in the station wagon and I mean there was very little room left, he did his wrist lifting into the car.

For days after it was aching beyond belief. Reality kicked in and it was bye-bye to the emmaljunga and we were back at square one; no pram. Our earlier joke of using a wheelbarrow was looking more and more like reality for us.

Luckily for us our pram saviour came in the form of Ninna. Darren's mum who goes by the name Ninna or Nin to her grandchildren. Nin had decided long ago that her baby shower gift to us was going to be a pram and it so it was...along with a mosquito net and stand for our cot, several beautiful nighties and legging sets, onsies, kinitted jackets, booties, bonnets along with shawls, blankets and baby face washers.

Our invitations for our baby shower have been posted this week and we are planning a lovely afternoon in our front garden with friends and family enjoying each other's company and a scrumptious selection of canapes with equally yummy beverages to boot.

WEEK 26

Fetal length 23cm (9.2 inches). Fetal weight nearly 910grams (2 pounds). Your baby's body has started to grow faster than its head. This new sense of proportion makes your baby look more like a newborn. Arms and legs are stronger and bones are hardening. Eyebrows and eyelashes are present and hair on the head is growing longer. Your baby is becoming longer and although still red and skinny its body is rounding out as fat deposits start to develop under the skin. Genitals are now completely differentiated. The lungs are growing, nostrils are open and muscles start to work to give your baby breathing practise prior to birth. Your baby has also developed patterns of sleeping and waking.

Weeks 24 & 25 Updates

2010-01-05T14:30:00.006+11:00

We can almost see the finish line...almost. This week our surrogate will be 25 weeks pregnant and we soon will be counting down from DOUBLE DIGITS!

I remember earlier in the year when we were counting down from 99 days to our arrival into Mumbai for the first time and how excited we were and how fast the time passed by. We still have no movement on the nursery front. We have however purchased one box of newborn nappies and some cans of newborn formula. We will get started on the nursery by the end of January or the start of February.

There has been very little news from India over the past couple of weeks (no news in good news). Drs Sudhir and Yash have sent us two new photos at the start of this week with our surrogate's beautiful 25 week baby belly! Little Noddy is still growing strong and again we repeat how blessed we are that our pregnancy has been smooth and to be under the watchful eyes of such fantastic professionals at Surrogacy India. We are and always will be singing their praises and recommending them to anyone who listens! This week we also emailed Amit Kulkarni from Explore India; (mumbai@exploreindya.net), the travel agent recommended by SI to confirm our hotel when we return to India. We have decided on the VITS as their staff are well equipped to the needs of new parents and there are so many IPs who have been before us and some that will be there at the same time as us so, we look forward to meeting them! Amit's rates are very competitive and even better than what I was able to confirm as a travel agent. Also, Amit knows the people on the ground in India so can include many extras that we would otherwise miss out on or have to pay for.

WEEK 24

Fetal size 21cm (8.4 inches). Fetal weight 530grams (1.2 pounds). This week your baby continues to gain weight. Development is occurring in the brain, growth and increase in size of the kidneys, lungs and gastrointestinal tract (gut).

WEEK 25

Fetal size 22cm (8.8 inches). Fetal weight 680grams (1.5 pounds). Your baby continues to develop and mature. Its brain begins to form connections between the nerve cells and fibre ends. This process continues for a few weeks, while a basis is created for the relay of the sensory messages that signal consciousness in adults.

Squeakers, Bibs & Christmas Cheer

2009-12-27T17:11:00.007+11:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas Day with family and friends. This was the first year in a very long time we did not have lunch or dinner at our place and it was nice to be waited on instead of waiting on others!!!

We always have a quiet breakfast at home with Darren's mum and her partner Michael. This is a lovely way to start our day; carols playing and maybe a chocolate truffle or two whilst we set the table and get ready for our breakfast. Ham, poached eggs, mango and an assortment of other treats kept the morning easy and we all enjoyed relaxing over a few hours and exchanging gifts.

This year Johnny's sister had Christmas lunch at her place. Darren and I, along with both sets of parents and Becky's partner Stephen's folks too. Beck is an amazing cook and a professional chef by trade so lunch was an extravaganza! Her house was so wonderfully festive with a beautifully decorated tree, garlands galore and Christmas lights. It was magical. Becky and Steve had prepared a delicious lunch for us all; ham, turkey, roast pork, potato salad, green salad, scrumptious prawns and the most sublime Tasmanian oysters! We had a perfect day with our extended families and of course ate far too much as one does. Look at the amazing cupcakes Becky made for Christmas!

She is so talented and is really hoping to expand her cake decorating business in 2010.

After our beautiful lunch we headed back to the Blue Mountains for Christmas dinner with Darren's sister Tracie and her husband and two nieces. Again, we had such a relaxing night enjoying each others company, enjoying a meal together, some wonderful Christmas punch and exchanged our gifts. All in all we have had one of the most relaxing Christmas Days ever. We returned home so full of cheer and happy that we decided we must be more low key when it comes to our own entertaining around this time of year. I think we need to apply this mantra to entertaining in general. I am unable to entertain low key full stop.

This will be one of the resolutions for 2010. I usually don't worry about new year resolutions but I will have to learn to entertain more simply right? We'll have a baby with us in a few months time.

Darren's niece bought us the most adorable squeaker rattle and bib for Christmas that I just had to post a photo for you. They are made by an Australian company; Alimrose Designs (they're online). Their squeakers and bibs use wonderfully vintage style fabrics and we just love it. The Scottie dog set it a gift from Hollie to us for Noddy and Darren and I bought the bunny months ago. It was in fact our first purchase for Noddy many, many months ago.

The last days of 2009 will be spent working. Both Darren and I are saving our annual leave for when Noddy arrives. Also, Darren is only three months into his new job and working in retail, December and January are some of the busiest months of the year for his industry. My job on the other hand has started to slow down now. If you haven't already booked you flight to the UK sorry love but you have probably missed out on the $1400 airfare your sister saw for you in the paper a month ago! We are now only days away from entering our last trimester....my mind is awash with the dream of what our life will be like in 2010. I see captured moments in my mind every now and then of Darren and I out with Noddy or at home and I blissfully let my subconscious get carried away with these dream like sequences of daily life. I know I keep repeating myself but we are so blessed I get goosebumps.

Merry Christmas & Week 23 Update

2009-12-24T10:56:00.004+11:00

Tonight is Christmas Eve and this is going to be our last Christmas as a couple. Next year we will have an eight month old baby in our lives...and we can't wait.

These past couple of weeks we have been checking and re checking our paperwork for when Noddy is due, and again made contact with the Australian Embassy in New Delhi to reconfirm we knew what was expected of us legally to gain citizenship for Noddy. We are both very calm at this point in our pregnancy and I am thankful for this. Leading up to this point we have had our 'moments' all self inflicted mind you!

We have, as I have said before, still lots of things to do prior to April but hey;

We live in a wonderful free country, we have our health, each other and the love of family and friends. Tomorrow is Christmas day and we are thankful for each other and the wonderful gifts given to us. We are especially lucky and blessed this Christmas; we are going to be parents next year!

No point in sweating the small stuff right......Que sera sera.....What will be will be.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & GOD BLESS.

WEEK 23

Fetal size 20cm (8 inches). Fetal weight: 455 grams (1 pound). Your baby matures and starts to get plumper. Your baby's body and face start to resemble the appearance of a newborn. The pancreas develops further this week, enabling the production of insulin, which metabolises sugar.

Post Detox Post, Shopping, Baby Belly & Weeks 21 & 22 Updates

2009-12-16T09:27:00.008+11:00

The self imposed internet detox from last week has worked wonders for my complexion! No more square eyes and my skin is just glowing, really it is.

I managed to last nine days without baby blogging, baby forums, Dr Google and everything else baby that had driven me to distraction leading to the 5th December. I still was using my emails since I have to for work and being online was still mandatory but without visiting baby websites in their hundreds, my mind had time for rest and relaxation. Many IPs going through the same process as us will agree that it is very, very overwhelming and even though I know it may be 1:00am in Mumbai, this doesn't stop me checking for updates from the docs at Surrogacy India 20+ times a day...seriously!

The week that was. I have spent so much time with my mum the past few weeks. Each weekend we are out together finishing Christmas shopping, visiting family friends or buying for Noddy. Mum is buying and Darren and I are resisting temptation. Last weekend we spent all day Saturday...all day from 8:30am til 6:45pm Christmas shopping, visiting friends and travelling half way across Sydney trying to find a baby bouncer I remembered from my childhood. My Mum is gorgeous and we always have fun together when we're out. When we finally found it, Mum bought it for us as 'another gift from Grandma'. I think it's great and it will work really well in Noddy's room once we get the ball rolling.

This past week has also seen more updates from Drs Sudhir and Yash about the progress of our pregnancy and our wonderful surrogate who looks beautifully pregnant. Trying to explain how I feel about leading up to B-Day is somewhat difficult to express. There are days that time seems to almost stand still. As though I am looking in on a life that can not possible be my own. A loving family and friends, a beautiful home and job I love. My amazing partner who has been a part of my life for 12 and a half years now (where has the time gone)?

Are we really going to be daddies? I thought this was not an option for an openly gay man? I get goosebumps just thinking of this...

And then, there are the days that B-Day seems to be approaching like a train out of control. 120 something days until our Noddy(ette) joins Darren and I and our lives will be forever changed. There is still so much to be done but I am not going to let this get the better of me. We will do what we can do and not stress about what isn't completed before we travel to India. I am going to enjoy the last 120 something days of our life together as a couple and look forward to the rest of our lives as a family. It's really happening!

This week our surrogate is going to be 23 weeks pregnant. Our latest scan results from Dr Sudhir & Yash are excellent....A+

Placenta maturity is Grade O

Head Circumference 18.5CM

Femur Length 3.5CM

Abdominal Circumference 16.5CM

Estimated Fetal Weight 420GRAMS

And our estimated due date has been brought forward to 18 April 2010. Gosh, can you believe how fast this is progressing. We are so eternally grateful to God for His gift to us and the blessings bestowed to us. Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash both know how much we care for them and the fantastic job they have done is making our parenthood dream a reality. They really are two of the most amazing people we have ever met.

WEEK 21

Fetal size 18cm (7.2 inches). Fetal weight 300grams (10.5 ounces).

Your baby has been growing rapidly, but over the last week and during this week, growth slows down and your baby continues to develop and mature in other ways while continuing to gain weight. At 21 weeks your baby can swallow amniotic fluid. Your baby absorbs the water from the fluid, while any other matter is pushed through the bowel by the muscle movements of the small intestine. The first bowel movement your baby passes will contain the undigested matter from the amniotic fluid. This green-black matter (called meconium) will be passed during or soon after birth.

WEEK 22

Fetal size 19cm (7.6 inches). Fetal weight 350grams (12.25 ounces).

Your baby is getting bigger as each day passes. Eyelids and eyebrows and fingernails are developed. Organs are developing to perform their particular functions. Your baby starts to build an immune system to act as a natural defense against infection. In addition he/she will begin to produce and store fatty tissue to produce body heat and keep warm. This fatty layer (called brown fat) starts to build up on different parts of the body and continues to do so until your baby is born. The skin is growing and is protected from the amniotic fluid by a waxy layer (called vernix). Until your baby develops more fat under the skin, it will remain red and wrinkly. The body is still covered by a fine layer of hair. Baby teeth have been formed and are waiting in the gums. Your baby can now taste and can tell the difference between sweet and bitter.

Your baby starts to move more, becoming more coordinated as muscles develop and strength increases. He/she can now turn and stretch. These movements will build muscle, strengthen bones and improve motor skills.

Time Again For Detox

2009-12-05T11:04:00.005+11:00

Internet detox that is. It has been seven months to the day (5 May) since I last had my self imposed internet detox and another is long overdue!

I'm sure many of you will agree with me when I say this is the hardest thing we have gone through in our lives to date. Searching for a clinic to help us become parents, searching for a suitable egg donor and then a suitable surrogate. Then, surrogate numbers one and two are no longer available. Thank you surrogate number three! Our angel and wonder woman who is making our dreams come true.

Then to further add to the mayhem in my head, there's international air travel, hotels, visas, vaccinations, DNA tests, citizenship applications, passport applications, pregnancy updates including ultrasound results and films, blood, urine and other tests to boot! I believe that the stress I feel is compounded by the fact I am on a computer five days a week for around 50+ hours. Then there is the time online at home; I'm sending myself CRAZY!

I have to detox. I am making the most trivial, tiny news from India a MEGA MOUNTAIN from a tiny mole hill. There is no reason for me to doubt that our pregnancy is going normally and nothing is wrong. Noddy is perfectly safe and well as is our surrogate and they are both being taken cared for by the wonderful team at Surrogacy India.

So, here it is. No blogs, forums, emails, websites, parent chat rooms, you tube or anything baby related for seven days from today. It begins......now.

Five Months Pregnant!

2009-12-01T21:35:00.006+11:00

Darren and I have just finished chatting with our wonderful surrogate on SKYPE and she looks AMAZING!

I know we're biased when I say our surrogate is the best in the world. But hey, she is! Her skin is glowing, her smile and laughter are infectious and she is so warm and wonderful toward us I only wish we were closer to India than a 13+ hour flight.

Today we hit the 20 week mark in our pregnancy. 20 WEEKS! We have successfully reached the half way point. There are no words to express how we feel. I (Johnny) have been having more and more recurring dreams about Noddy (Nodette)? and each one is more real than the next. God has a wonderful plan in store for Darren and I, even if it involves some sleepless nights.

Darren here: Yes I awake most mornings to a story of bizarre baby happenings in Johnnies imagination that are fantastic & sometime a little weird.

Tonight Sarika met my mum & it was just a wonderful moment that makes it that little bit more real for her who, up until this point has only really heard that about our conversations with Sarika & all of the wonderful people we have meet along the way to babydom.

Today is the half way point in our journey to become daddies: it feels amazing and scary. Heck we need to get it together. There is so much to do in the next 4 months before we bring Noddy home.

WEEK 20

Fetal size 14-16cm, (5.6-6.4 inches). Fetal weight 315g
(9 ounces).

Your baby's skin has now formed two layers. The epidermis (outer layer) and the dermis (deep skin tissue). From 20 weeks, your baby's skin starts to secrete vernix (a white pasty substance) that protects your baby's skin from the amniotic fluid. The vernix will be present on your baby's skin at birth.

Week 19 Update & Latest Ultrasound Results

2009-11-26T13:47:00.007+11:00

Can you believe that we are now days from reaching the half way point of our pregnancy! One of the major mental milestones to be passed one would say.

We are so blessed to have by our side, our family, friends and a great community of online supporters following our journey. We sincerely thank you all for your kindness and kind words.

Our surrogate is doing very well from our last conversation with Dr Sudhir and we are very excited for the next day she will be back at SI's clinic so we can SKYPE with her again. I (Johnny) am still amazed that this is really happening to us. I am still scared to give myself over completely to the idea that I am going to be a parent in less than 6 months time. Our wonderful surrogate is being so well taken care of and is in the best of health, this pregnancy has thus fare been uneventful; which is just what we want.

I posted a while back that just because we want to be daddies does not mean it will happen. I won't be completely satisfied (and relieved) until Noddy is in our arms. I am so very fearful of this wonderful gift being snatched from Darren and I before we even realise it.

I am sure these emotions are normal though, right?

Our most recent ultrasound results from India are very impressive with all kinds of information for the medico lamen to ponder - yay for Dr Google.

A quick overview reads: A single live fetus is seen in unstable lie. Liqor volume is adequate. Placenta is situated at the fundus and extends along the anterior wall. It shows grade I maturity. No praevia is seen. Cervical Os and canal are closed. Cervix measures 3.3cm. Normal fetal cardiac activity and fetal biophysical profile is seen. No obvious anatomical anomalies are seen.

All in all a good report card wouldn't you agree? Our revised due date is now the 19th April 2010.

WEEK 19

Fetal size 13-15cm (5.2-6 inches). Fetal weight 200g (7 ounces). This week your baby continues to develop and grow.

Remembering Mumbai, 26 November 2008

2009-11-25T14:47:00.006+11:00

On the 26th November 2008, we all woke to the news of horrific terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Our time spent in India in July of this year gave us the opportunity to meet some people that this day a year ago tomorrow had a direct impact on. Staff at our hotel who were fortunate enough to avoid the gun fire at the Oberoi and Taj Mahal Hotels. We can not begin to imagine the fear they have experienced. We now also have a personal and life long connection to Mother India. This is where Noddy was conceived. Through the generosity of two wonderful Indian woman and Dr Sudhir and Yash from Surrogacy India. We remember 26-11-08 because of them. The world we live in in vastly more aware of global conflict that that of our grandparents and great grand parents. The changed world we now live in seems to be desperately clinging onto peace; at least, this is my opinion. The nightly news without fail always seems to have a terrible story on war, famine and terrorism. The world and the people living here are crying out for help.

Innocent people, caught in the middle of political, religious and territorial motivated hate crimes. This is after all what is happening; crimes against your fellow man are not only terribly hateful but hurtful. The hate has a flow on affect sometimes lasting generations.

I loathe conflict and war. Whenever I hear of the terrible things happening in our world today I'm saddened. I do not understand what it is like to be hungry. I do not understand what it is like not to have fresh, clean drinking water available to me. I do not understand what it is like to have lost family members to war and I do not understand what it is like to have my family home taken from me due to no wrong doing on my part. I am in many way a naive person and perhaps selfish? We live in the Western, developed world a very decadent life. I cringe now when I think of the thousands of dollars spent on trivial, fleeting things; food, possessions long gone and the list could go on.

I love to travel the world, meet new people and experience daily life in a country vastly different from my own. But, as a tourist travelling for leisure one wears rose coloured glasses to a certain degree. This was evident during our time in India. Darren and I were fortunate enough due to my line of work to stay in an amazing 5* hotel with all the bells and whistles one could ask for. As we have said in earlier posts though, there was extreme poverty no more than a stones throw from our hotel lobby!

After my GOOGLE search, I learned the following facts:

~ At least 80% of humanity live on less than $10 a day

~ According to UNICEF, 25,000 children die every day due to poverty. 25,000!

~ Nearly 1 billion people entered the 21st century unable to read or sign their own name

~ Less than 1% of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child

into school by the year 2000.

Both Darren and I know how blessed we are.

We live in a free country ~ free to be ourselves

~ free to practice our religion without fear of attack

~ free from hunger and thirst

~ free from war

~ free from homelessness and poverty

This is the changing world we are going to bring our child into. I hope and pray that our children can make a difference.

Week 18 Update & Baby Belly

2009-11-23T09:50:00.005+11:00

WEEK 18

This week your baby measures approximately 12.5-14cm (5-5.6 inches) in length and weighs about 150 grams (5.25 ounces). Your baby is looking more and more human as time goes by. Your baby can now make facial expressions, including frowning and squinting. Eyes are still closed, but are sensitive to light outside the abdomen. Eyelashes and eyebrows have started to grow.

Limbs become longer and start to gain proportion and begin to move as the connections between the nerves and muscles are established. The nerves are now being coated in myelin (a fatty later), enabling them to pass messages to and from the brain. Your baby's hands can now form fists and if they meet, will clasp together. The lungs are developing , but until birth the placenta will provide your baby's oxygen.

LIFE Magazine Cover: April 30 1965

2009-11-19T12:21:00.004+11:00

LIFE magazine's cover from 30 April 1965 showing an 18 week old fetus in utero, taken by Swedish photographer Linnart Nilsson, using an endoscopic camera with electronic flash.

How amazing to know that this is how our Noddy is looking like around this week. A real person, a human being with all his/her limbs and now able to respond to light and dark from the outside world!

This week we enter our 18th week gestation, or thereabouts. Each week we receive an email update from an online baby forum here in Australia with information on how Noddy should be developing and growing and it is great to have this information available to us. These weekly emails combined with updates from Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash and chatting with our surrogate on SKYPE help to make us feel closer to our pregnancy.

At this stage, from our latest ultrasound films from SI, Noddy is due to join us some time from the 15th to the 27th April 2010. Gosh, not long now until our dream of parenthood becomes reality!

There are so many couples undertaking this life changing journey of starting a family via surrogacy in India, the USA, Thailand and other countries it is easy to forget that for some, the process of becoming parents is very long and exhausting. Not everyone has a positive pregnancy. We are both so very blessed to have had success on our first attempt and count our blessings every single day. We receive continued support from couples world wide, some who have tried in vain time and time again with no success to become parents.

We are equally happy to hear that these people are not giving in to negative results and continue going back for their third, fourth and fifth attempt. As others have already said before us, the one guarantee that surrogacy offers us is options and hope. Hope that this time will be 'our time'.

The surrogacy community is small. Nastiness, lies and malice toward others is not called for and when you behave this way it shows nothing other than ones immaturity and inability to care for your fellow man. Darren and I both believe that we need to be there and support each other with kind words, prayers and messages of hope.

Is this not what we would want for our children? I know I would.

Baby Booty & Week 17 Update

2009-11-12T09:09:00.011+11:00

Not that kind of booty! Our baby booty; gifts that we have received so far for Noddy are stacking up next to the book shelf in our study which is to become Noddy's room. We have received some lovely gifts from family and friends so far; mainly clothes, some soft toys and lots and lots of books! We can't wait to start reading with Noddy. Below is our BEFORE photo of our study as it currently is and once we have made changes turning into our nursery we'll post those too.

We are now only three weeks away from the half way point - 20 weeks! My the time really has flown. We contacted our local hospital this week and obtained the 'blue book' which all new parents in the state of NSW receive on the birth of their child to record vaccinations and development...

The blue book or personal health record

When you have a baby, you will be given a Blue Book. This will be your baby's personal health record for their entire life. The blue book contains information about development, health checks and services from birth to school age. The Blue Book contains a guide when to bring your child to routine health checks to check your child's development in on track. This includes screening of all babies for hearing problems, called the NSW Statewide Infant Screening - Hearing Programs or (SWISH).

There are also other checks for movement, vision and language development. When your child turns four, the health check will also include the Statewide Eyesight Preschooler Screening (STEPS), to check you child's vision so any issue can be dealt with before starting school.

WEEK 17

This week your baby is about 11-12 cm (4.4-4.8 inches) in length and weighs approximately 100 grams (3.5 ounces). Fat begins to form on the fetus and aids in heat production and metabolism. The fetus can also now hear noises from the outside world.

Outing Ourselves & Week 16 Update

2009-11-06T09:08:00.018+11:00

This week we officially outed ourselves as expecting parents! This was more an event for Johnny as he had been keeping the news of our pregnancy quiet, waiting until we were into our second trimester before telling many people.

Our mothers both know already, as does Johnny's step father and our siblings. Most of our friends know but not everyone in our family know our exciting news. This week was Darren's Aunt's 60th birthday and Uncle's 70th so what better time to fill the extended family in our our news! Especially since we had a captive audience and everyone was together celebrating birthdays which does not happen very often. We also officially told Johnny's dad, step mother and children who were visiting Sydney from the NSW North Coast for a few days.

Johnny also told the rest of his work colleagues who did not know already. We had a great morning tea at work and Lisa (Johnny's manager) made the yummiest pink and blue cupcakes. Everyone at work has been great and really supportive as are most people that we come into contact with.

WEEK 16

This week your baby is approximately 11-12cm (4.3-4.6 inches) long and weighs about 80 grams (2.8 ounces). All embryos start off looking much the same, as far as outward appearances are concerned, but this week sexual differentiation is more definite. Your baby's legs are now longer than its arms, and they are moving around.

Irrational Thoughts Be Gone!

2009-10-30T12:42:00.013+11:00

Why oh why do I even give credit to these irrational and crazy thoughts??? Nothing will go wrong and our pregnancy & it shall be one of the smooth, trouble free ones that you read about. 9 months of bliss for our surrogate and Noddy!

> Thank you to God for taking care of our surrogate and keeping her in the best of health.

> Thank you for keeping Noddy growing steadily and as he/she should be.

> Thank you for watching over Dr Yash, Dr Sudhir, Dr Soni and everyone else caring for our
surrogate and Noddy.

> Thank you for keep Darren, Johnny and our families in the best of health, ready and waiting
for the day Noddy will join all of us .

> Thank you for the opportunity to be daddies and share our lives with our amazing child.

Celebration Photos & Week 15 Update

2009-10-29T14:16:00.014+11:00

We just LOVE Sykpe! This week we were fortunate enough to catch our surrogate in SI's office again after some appointments and had the chance to see her beautiful face again! She is looking so well and had the most amazing glow in her face, she truly did!

Gopa also sent us some great photos of our surrogate opening her diwali gifts and she looked so happy. Dr Sudhir said that she was very grateful and happy with what we had sent her. We are so glad and are looking forward to sending a hamper full of Aussie goodies for Christmas time. We saw so many friendly faces at the SI office it made us both so melancholy to return to India now. Our surrogate was asking us when we were coming back to see her and we would love to be there now but financial and work constraints mean it's not likely I'm afraid...If anyone out there has some Qantas frequent flyer points they want to donate to us please feel free to do so!

We are coming into our 15th week of pregnancy which means only another five weeks until we hit the half way mark!!!!! Oh my, this is fact approaching and we have still so much to do. We are going to start our nursery preparations in the new year and we'll post photos of the before and after shots for your enjoyment.

We have a green check wallpaper in our study (that is to become Noddy's room) that needs to be removed, walls repainted, panelling installed, furniture painted and the list goes on. Luckily we have some handy family members who have agreed to help us as we are not that handy. Sure, we can put colours together and select some wonderful co-ordinating fabrics but, handy we aint!

Below is the 14 and a half'ish week baby belly care of wonderful Gopa at SI!

WEEK 15

This week your baby is around 93-104mm (3.4-4.1 inches) in length and weighs approximately 50 grams (1.75 ounces).

The fetus continues to grow rapidly and is starting to look more and more like a baby. The external ears and eyes are well developed and lanugo (a fine, downy hair) covers the body. As the neck further extends and the chin becomes prominent, the head becomes well defined. Your baby may now start to suck it's thumb.

Government Requirements & Week 14 Update

2009-10-23T15:11:00.005+11:00

This week has seen us emailing the Australian Embassy in New Delhi back and forth and back and forth. The paper trail has us daunted again!

Under Australian law, any child born overseas to Australian parents is required to undergo DNA testing to prove their paternal/maternal link to obtain citizenship.

For us, this means we undergo mandatory DNA testing prior to travelling to India in April and then, once Noddy is born he/she must do the same.

Basically once Noddy is born, our time will be spent as follows:

Obtain birth certificate in Mumbai ~ Around 7 days to have this done

Noddy has his/her DNA test (preferably with the Consul General in Mumbai). The Embassy in New Delhi is considering each case of children born via surrogacy & hopefully Noddy will not have to come to Delhi too.

Once birth certificate is obtained, one of us will have to travel to the Australian Embassy in New Delhi to apply for citizenship by descent & then an Australian passport.

We then (hope) to return to Mumbai and await the courier for Noddy's passport and then off to the FRRO office for an exit visa....Argh!

There's nothing to stress about, right?

WEEK 14

This week your baby is about 80-89mm in length and weighs approximately 25 grams
(0.9 ounces). The head is now about one third of your baby's whole length and the neck continues to get longer, meaning that the chin no longer rests on the chest.

The placenta has fully developed and its rich network of blood vessels is functioning as your baby's life support system. The placenta also manufactures some of the pregnancy hormones. The umbilical cord is also completely mature and is made up of three entwined blood vessels (covered by a fatty layer). The large vein of the umbilical cord carries nourishment and oxygen rich blood to the fetus, while the two smaller arteries are responsible for carrying waste products and carbon dioxide from the fetus to the placenta, which then processes waste. The placenta also passes antibodies that help fight infections from the mother to the fetus. Your baby's circulation continues to develop and he/she can now swallow amniotic fluid, which is excreted as urine. Your baby starts to establish a sucking reflex, and exercises the muscles that will help him/her swallow and breath after birth.

The profile of your baby is now more human, and features such as chin, forehead and nose are are more clearly defined. Fingers and toes are becoming fully formed and the external genitals differentiate. By the end of this week your baby is fully formed. From here, he/she needs to mature.

We Welcome Our Second Trimester...Namaste

2009-10-12T12:40:00.013+11:00

It really is true. The time does fly by. Months and months of waiting, emailing, blogging, travelling, emailing and then some more waiting and..voila the first trimester has been and gone.

Welcome Noddy to your second trimester, week 13! Not a single day goes by when your Daddies do not think of the wonder, joy and miracle that is life and the day when we will hold you and know you are our child.

The latest results from our surrogate's 12 week ultrasound and blood tests are excellent;

Noddy's heart rate ~ 178bpm
Gestational Age ~ 11 weeks & four days at 07-10-09
Estimated due date ~ 24-04-2010
No anomolies detected

We are so thankful to everyone who has made this dream a reality. Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash of Surrogacy India, Dr Pai who performed our egg transfer, Dr Soni who is regularly checking on Noddy's progress, our egg donor (a wonderful, selfless woman) and our surrogate who we constantly think of and pray for her good health.

Of course we also have the support of both our extended families, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the newest member to our family. We also have our faith and the love of God in our lives without whom none of this would be in the realm of possibility. We thank him every day for the gifts bestowed on us and will never forget the wonder of his creation. The dream of becoming parents is that one step closer and we are not letting go!

*******

WEEK 13

This week your baby is approximately 65-78mm (2.6-3.1 inches) long and weighs about 14-20 grams (0.5-0.7 ounces)

This week your baby starts to gro rapidly, and his/her body is now growing fater than the head. Maturation of the tissuesnd organs continues. The heart is beating at about twice the rate of a normal adult heart and can be detected using an ultrasonic device or Doppler.

Our New Family Friendly Vehicle

2009-10-08T14:48:00.025+11:00

Darren has just started his new job and no longer has a company car, so we have been looking for a replacement vehicle for the past couple of months. One that is family friendly and will accommodate our growing need for space so we can picnic on Sundays and enjoy long weekends together as a family! We can either take a standard vehicle from their fleet and salary sacrifice (as the costs still come out of his package) or hire purchase a new vehicle ourselves that we will eventually own. We chose the latter option.

Our car wish list is;

Safety. There is no skimping here people - 5* safety rating only
Practical, there has to be space for a pram and overnight bags
Parking sensors (for Johnny)
Sunroof (if possible)
Cream Leather (for Darren)
Sat Nav (Forget the UBD)
Euro Wagon (would be nice)

We already own a cute Mazda 3 sedan; Yuki and she is great. Very fuel efficient and a zippy little love that has us travelling care free as an Andrews Sister from A to B and then some. For some reason we feel the need to name our cars and we have had a few during our time together;

Erica - Darren's first car, a SAAB 900 sedan
Veronica - Our first car together, a VOLVO 850 sedan
Ethan - Our second car together, a VOLVO S60 sedan
Yuki - Our current car together, a MAZDA 3 sedan

Darren is and has always been a car fanatic and since meeting him, Johnny is now the same...well almost. Unlike some men who like cars, racing, engines etc we are more selective in our interest and only enjoy some cars. They are mainly European and way out of our price range or something dreamy and totally impractical. There's no harm in dreaming right?

Every year we look forward to the Sydney International Motor Show and always have our standard manufactures we visit; Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Saab, Audi and then the dreamers Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin. It has been three years though since we've been to a motor show given the recent 'GFC'. Two Australian cities hold a motor show each year, Melbourne and Sydney but the Sydney show has been given the boot my manufactures given the high costs of attending and it is now going to be held bi-annually in each city. Next year will Sydney's turn and we are so excited. We'll also be attending as a threesome, the first time with Noddy!

It is amazing the price difference between

Australia

, the

and some European countries when it comes to cars. For example;

Mercedes' G class SUV in the USA has a starting price of $59,950 and Audi's Q5 SUV a starting price of $37,350. Converted into AUD that's around $70,000 & $43,600 respectively. The same cars in Australia start from $114,000 & $66,700 given the 33% luxury car tax care of the Australian government!

After many weeks of web browsing, brochure reading and test driving we can now happily announce the newest vehicular member of our family:

"Orlando" the Ocean Racer Volvo XC70 Station Wagon

Diwali Festival & Week 12 Update

2009-10-07T10:46:00.007+11:00

We have just finished chatting with our surrogate on sykpe. AMAZING!
She looks so well and is really happy in herself she said. We both only wish we were closer to her so we could visit her now. It is the first time we have seen her since we left India & believe it is such a great way of staying connected to Noddy's pregnancy. She will next be in the clinic in around 10-15 days time and we'll chat again on skype then. We also got to chat with Ravi and Gopa at SI and it was great to see their friendly faces again. The Hindu Festival of Diwali is fast approaching and we are preparing to send our surrogate a hamper of gifts for her and her kids. We both were a little unsure as to what Diwali was other than being known as "The Festival of Lights". We found the below on http://www.diwalifestival.org/

Diwali is one of the biggest festival of Hindus, celebrated with great enthusiasm and happiness in India. The festival is celebrated for five continuous days, where the third days is celebrated as the main Diwali festival or 'Festival of lights'. Different colorful varieties of fireworks are always associated with this festival. On this auspicious day, people light up diyas and candles all around their house. They perform Laxmi Puja in the evening and seek divine blessings of Goddess of Wealth. The festival od Diwali is never complete without exchange of gifts. People present diwali gifts to all near and dear ones.

Week 12

Your baby is approximately 60mm (2.5 inches) in length and weighs between 9 and 14 grams (0.3-0.5 ounces).

From this week onwards your baby is recognisable as a human being and is now called a fetus as opposed to an embryo. Now, or close to this time, you should be able to hear your baby's heartbeat with a Doppler (a special listening device). The fingers and toes develop, and nails and teeth are beginning to form. The skeletal system, which began developing earlier, now has centres of bone formation (ossification) in most bones. The external genital organs are growing. The amount of amniotic fluid is increasing. The nervous system has continued to develop, and the digestive system is now capable of making the contractions that process food.

12 week baby belly

2009-10-04T19:17:00.005+11:00

Our day, week and month has been made today with photos from Dr Sudhir & Yash of our wonderful surrogate and a 'baby belly'!

Our surrogate is looking really well and has put on weight in her face from when we met her. We are both so elated at receiving these wonderful photos and want to share them with you.

Double Marker Test

2009-10-02T09:29:00.007+10:00

Well the results are in. Last night before bed and after checking the email for the 250th time that day, there were our double marker results...

1:949 chance of trisomy 21
1:5172 chance of trisomy 18

We couldn't be happier and our results done on the 24th September show Noddy's gestational age at 9 weeks and four days which means on the Monday the 12th October, the same day that Darren starts his new job we will officially begin our second trimester. We have joined an online parent website & forum, http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/ and we are receiving weekly updates on how Noddy should be progressing and this is it for week 11:

Week 11

Your baby is approximately 44-60mm (1.75-2.4 inches) long and weighs about 8 grams
(0.3 ounces). Rapid growth occurs during this time period. The head is still large, and takes up almost half of the entire length of the body. The eyes are formed, although the eyelids remain closed while they continue to develop. The rest of the face is also formed. Your baby's body has straightened out, and bones and ribs appear. Although your baby can now respond to touch, you won't yet be able to feel it move. Nutrients pass from your body into the placenta and umbilical cord to feed your baby and support his/her rapid growth.

Johnny is in the process of preparing a hamper full of treats and body products to send our wonderful surrogate since we won't be able to visit mid pregnancy although we would love to. We are both saving our holidays for when Noddy arrives so we can have the most amount of time together as a family. With Darren starting a new job soon we are hoping that he will be permitted to have more than just two weeks annual leave in April 2010 (fingers crossed).

Other highlights this week include buying a cot. We have been trying to find something that will suit our French Provencial decorated home and we wanted it to be just right. We ended up finding a beautiful white sleigh cot that converts to a toddler bed too and we saved $650 off the retail price so how can one not be happy!

We will convert our study into Noddy's nursery and our front guest room will become our new study. It is more than twice the size of our current study and means will will still be able to have guets stay over as we're going to buy an ottoman sofa bed to pop in there too. On the list of other things to do before Noddy joins us;

Build cupboards in our upstairs loft which will become our permanent bedroom
Install new floorboards downstairs as the carpet is looking tiiired
Repaint skirting boards downstairs prior to floorboards being installed
Paint Noddy's bedroom

We have six months in which to do the above and other things too tedious to mention here. Thankfully we're coming into our Summer months and daylight saving starts this Sunday and runs for a full six months so we're gonna be OK.

The Waiting Game

2009-09-30T10:40:00.002+10:00

Is not so bad this week. Johnny spoke with Dr Sudhir last night and it's sounds as though he and Dr Yash have had an exceptionally busy week with IPs the world over. Our surrogate had her double marker test late last week and we are waiting on the results some time this week. We are fast approaching our twelve week mark, the end of the first trimester and I think we'll celebrate with close friends and family and a glass of bubbles or two.

On the home front we have some exciting news; Darren is going to start a new job much closer to home in a couple of weeks. For close to ten years he has been working with a major furniture/homewares retailer and travelling more than an hour each way to and from work and putting in very long hours. His new job will be so much closer to home, around ten minutes door to door and will be better for our family in the long run.

Being close to home when Noddy arrives is going to be great and an added bonus which we have never had before is that we will have every second weekend together.Now this may not seem very exciting to the majority but we have never had a proper weekend (SAT & SUN) together in the twelve years we have been together. It is very exciting and already we can see long weekends away with Noddy and Sunday picnics at the lake close to home feeding the ducks....Aaaah.

Role Reversal

2009-09-22T16:06:00.003+10:00

The high we feel after speaking with Dr Sudhir & Yash about our pregnancy and surrogate is surreal. I've said before that this information is like a drug & calms the nerves until our next instalment as we wait with baited breath across the seas.

We have just spoken with both Dr Sudhir and Yash (enroute to Lilavati Hospital) to meet new IPs; these guys are so busy and never stop, and all is well. This of course we already knew but still needed to chat with them. We really have been missing not only them but India so greatly these past couple of weeks it's crazy.

Our surrogate is well & feeling very healthy other than morning sickness and a loss of apetite; the poor girl. The double marker test is scheduled for later this week followed shortly by the nuchal fold test and then in around 14 days or less we will officially be in our second trimester. This is where relief will come to Johnny's mental state...I hope.

There has been a strange role reversal for Darren & Johnny when it comes to Noddy's pending arrival & our surrogate's pregnancy. It is usually the case with anything exciting we have planned that Darren takes a back seat and will not get excited until the event is upon us.

Holidays, parties, anything exciting he waits until it is here. Our trip to India in July was a perfect example; Darren would not allow himself to get excited until we were at the airport checking in for our flight. Johnny on the other hand can't wait and is excited four years ahead of time.

Our pregnancy has been different for us in that Darren feels so confident in that we will have nine months of bliss and then Noddy will be here without a hiccup. All of Darren's co workers already we know we are ten weeks pregnant and are sharing the excitement of every week with him. He is ready to tell the entire neighbourhood whereas Johnny is the one waiting for the prize, so to speak. I am so excited that it scares me and maybe this is why I am holding off telling people.

Only one of Johnny's co workers knows of our pregnancy and everyone else is currently in the dark. It is hard I will admit but for some reason the mental obstacle of passing the twelve week mark is significant for me. I can't explain it and I am fully aware that even into the second and third trimester we can have bad news that could bring our dreams crashing down.

I am so scared of losing Noddy that it frightens me to think of this. I have to stop myself thinking these kinds of thoughts and won't give them a second's credibility in my mind. I can't believe how much we already love our unborn child.

I pray we do have the perfect pregnancy & all goes to Darren's plans (and dreams). I pray to God that it does.

Sympathy Baby Brain & Delusions of Pram Grandeur

2009-09-21T09:31:00.018+10:00

We must be suffering from sympathy baby brain or at least that's the angle we're playing at the moment. Johnny had thought we were coming into our nineth week of pregnancy from today (the 21st September) but we are in fact in our tenth week. Or at least I think so.

Dr Sudhir has confirmed that our surrogate will be having her double marker test this Friday the 25th and, typically this is done around the tenth week of gestation. We are both amazed that we are almost at the end of the first trimester. It has almost been three whole months since Noddy was created and we are amazed every day at the wonderful gift of life being offered to us by our surrogate and Drs Sudhir & Yash.

Both Johnny & Darren have been missing India, the Drs at Surrogacy India and the wonderful people we met there two months ago now. I wish we were closer so we could visit them again. Reading other IP's blogs about their first time arriving into Mumbai and travelling around the city is really making us both melancholy. Silly we know but this is how we're feeling. We also want to be back in Mumbai to see our surrogate again; just to see her and say over and over how much what she is doing for us means to all our family. We are all so blessed and amazed at her generosity and selflesness.

Yesterday was the last day of the Sydney Baby Expo and Johnny and his mum decided to go together. Unfortunately Darren had to work but since it was the last day and all we had to go. To date, most of our spare time is spent either online browsing every imaginable baby website and forum deciding on which pram is best, which nappies are best, debating the pros and cons of paccifers vs self soothing, which formula we should be using, bottles we should be using etc etc etc. It is never ending & there is so much information out there. We are now asking ourselves if this is necessarily a good thing? Hmmm?

Combine this with the mountain (and we mean mountain) of baby catalogues, books & magazines taking over our study we are on the way to knowing all there is about how to prepare for a newborn baby....We're sure this will all fly out the window when Noddy actually joins our family & we'll be just as dumbfounded, scared to death & amazed as any other new parent.

Back to the baby expo & in particular, prams. There are so may choices when it comes to prams and strollers out there we are still undecided as to which pram is best for us.

In a moment of baby brain disillusionment, Johnny had dreams of the Silver Cross Kensington or Balmoral baby carriage...see below picture for the jolt back to reality!

One exhibitor at the expo was Silver Cross & I was so excited to finally see their entire range in the flesh after months and months of brochure adoration. One thing on the above carriage is that it is HUGE! HUGE I TELL YOU......HUGE!

Now I should also tell you, dear reader that the above baby carriage weighs in at a hefty 37KG or 81.4LBS, is 125cm high, 59cm wide and 133cm long. It also does not collapse at all and am told first hand by the exhibitor that Silver Cross are yet to find a vehicle big enough to fit this thing into. But, for those of you out there willing to forgo practicality and more than a few thousand dollars, dream a little dream with me

http://www.silvercross.com.au/balmoral_pram.php

For us however, it is a sudden jolt back to reality since all our savings will be spent on surrogacy. We now present you with our pram of choice below!

9 Week Update

2009-09-14T15:20:00.005+10:00

We are now into our eighth week of pregnancy and last week received our latest test results from Drs Yash & Sudhir on how our wonderful surrogate is progressing.

We received full blood work results including blood sugar levels, thyroid function tests, glycosylated hemoglobin (had to look this one up on GOOGLE) & full urine test results. ON first reading of these results the non medially trained amongst us will definitely have some questions as we did. The internet and GOOGLE are an invaluable tool is deciphering these tests and answering our questions.

Our surrogate is very healthy and doing well according to Dr Yash. Our next update should be in a couple of weeks time when we will have the 'double marker' test via ultrasound to check if there is a risk of down syndrome. The past two weeks since our 'heartbeat' result have flown by and both Darren and Johnny were amazed at how quickly the first two months of pregnancy have gone by. Our only wish would be that we were closer to India so that we could visit our surrogate and the fantastic people at Surrogacy India. We really miss them & are so looking forward to April 2010 when we will return. One of the great things keeping us going is all the other blogs from people around the world in the same boat as us. We check our emails and blog updates daily waiting for the next update from intending parents the world over. This and the SI online forum which has been a blessing of information & support to us in our early stages of research and planning.

Patience is a virtue we are quickly learning.

Our Wait Is Over

2009-09-04T14:52:00.006+10:00

We have just heard from Dr Yash & Sudhir at Surrogacy India and our ultrasound results are:

A Single live foetus is noted well defined in gestation sac with good choriodecidual reaction. Yolk sac is identfied & fetal cardiac activity is well appreciated.

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6 weeks and 4 days according to the sonolgy report.

Just in time for Fathers day here in Australia.

Noddy, we already love you so very much our darling little one.

Waiting for Noddy's Heartbeat

2009-09-03T15:57:00.004+10:00

Isn't the anguish of waiting supposed to be over now that we are pregnant?

Ha!

There is always something we are waiting to hear about or anxious to know, so the waiting and not knowing continues to haunt us. Johnny is repeating to himself that 'no news is good news' but it is very difficult being on a computer for work all day and trying not be distracted by everything baby.

Some of the happy news from intending parents who went to India in July/August has turned very sad; two couples we know of who had a positive pregnancy have recently miscarried and it's terribly, terribly sad. We can't begin to express to these wonderful people how we feel for them & it makes us even more grateful that we are still pregnant. Thank you Lord.

From our conversations with Drs Sudhir & Yash, our wonderful surrogate is feeling well and in good health. Dr Sudhir said the other day that when our SM next comes into their office he will take a couple of new photos for us. What a great guy!

We are expecting the latest ulstrasound results from Dr Sudhir either tomorrow night or Saturday night (we hope) confirming Noddy's heartbeat. 48 hours seems like such a long time!

Happy Birthday Darren & Our Ultrasound Result

2009-08-31T11:42:00.009+10:00

Darren had his 40th birthday on the 19th August & we have been celebrating with family & friends over the past fourteen days or so. A very merry unbirthday to you!

Festivities started with our annual 'August Birthday' dinner/lunch at our place on Sunday the 16th August. Darren, his sister and brother are all born in August and we typically have a shared birthday celebration at our place. This year was a BBQ lunch since we had an early taste of our approaching Summer. What a lovely day we all had, great food with our extended family celebrating our love for each other and celebrating the exciting news of the soon to be new addition to our family; Noddy!

The actual day of Darren's birthday, 19 August we both had to work so were invited to enjoy probably our last Winter roast dinner at our dear friend's home - roasted lamb & veg. We were quickly reminded that although three days earlier we were enjoying a taste of Summer, we are still in the grasp of Winter! We live in the Blue Mountains, West of Sydney and were reminded that it is still infact Winter and three seasons in one day is not uncommon.

We spent the night with our dear friends Tanya & Trent and their three children. Thanks Tannie for the wonderful banoffee pies you made (another favourite of Darren's).

To further celebrate the four decades of DRD, we had dinner with Johnny's mum & dad two days later on Friday the 21st. We ordered take out to keep things easy - - - of course we ate too much and had to finish off with chocolate cake.

Three days later the extravaganza continued with an hour long massage with a local masseuse who also specialised in reiki. Johnny has not been to this particular woman but Darren and Tanya both have & both fall asleep after one of her massages so there's something good going on here.

This now brings us to the weekend that just was; 29 & 30 August & the final installment of the DRD chronicles, chapter 40.

Johnny's sister, brother in law and two nieces travelled to the Mountains from the NSW North Coast on Friday night to spend the weekend with us. Friday night was a catch up, wine and curry night after the long drive from Newcastle via Sydney. Saturday morning, Johnny, Murray & the girls went to source supplies for Saturday nights dinner, a BBQ with Johnny's side of the family. Dinner was fantastic & lots of fun; sticky ginger/garlic ribs, soft shell salt & pepper crab, satay chicken & salads kept the menu easy and dessert was....WOW!

Johnny's younger sister is a head chef at a Sydney golf and country club and has recently started pastry cooking and in particular has an interest in cake decorating. Becky made the most amazing 40th birthday cake for Darren and it was utterly delicious. Three tiers of chocolate and coconut cake with lashings of smooth ganache, iced to perfection. It was a masterpiece and she did a great job. Thanks Beck!

The weekend finished on Sunday with an afternoon rendezvous at a local golf club with friends & family for drinks, food, laughter and...barefoot lawn bowls. Hilariously fun is really the only way to describe the day. We had a blast and thanks to everyone for making it so special & the effort for travelling up to see Darren.

During the weekend's activities, we did speak with Dr Yash regarding our ultrasound. The line was not the best and there was loads of background noise but the news is good. We have yet to receive our written report but we have one gestational sac well implanted from what we could hear Dr Yash saying.

Now an update from Dr Wikipedia on this most recent medical update;

The gestational sac (or gestation sac) is the only available intrauterine structure that can be used to determine if an intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) exists, until the embryo is identified.
On ultrasound, it is an anechoic (dark) space surrounded by a hyperchoic (white) rim.
It is spherical in shape, and usually located in the upper uterine fundus.
The mean gestational sac diameter (MGD) is an effective estimate of gestational age[1] between 5 and 6 weeks, with an accuracy of about +/- 5 days. [2]
The yolk sac and embryo should be readily identified when the gestational sac reaches a certain size and the yolk sac is 20 mm in size or the fetal pole is 25 mm in size.

We are both overwhelmed and greatful to have made it this far. We pray that our wonderful surrogate stays healthy and happy & we now look forward to our next U/S to check for Noddy's heartbeat. We have never before been so scared about losing something we have not even seen yet or realised as part of our life. The dream of becoming fathers through surrogacy is fragile and fraught with uncertainty. All we can do is remain positive & pray Noddy wants to be with us as much as we do with him/her.

The Waiting Game

2009-08-28T09:14:00.003+10:00

By all accounts we are just under six weeks pregnant & any news from the doctors at SI is like a drug, our fix if you will. This makes the waiting game for our next piece of news easier to cope with.

Waiting for news from India on how our surrogate is feeling and our pregnancy progressing is starting to send Johnny more than Darren crazy. It's when we're waiting for news that the irrational thoughts enter your head. Those undergoing surrogacy in India and other parts of the world will know exactly what we mean here;

"I haven't heard today beacuase.....(insert your own disater or bad news)"

Of course we know that both Drs Sudhir & Yash are very busy and run off their feet. Working with couples from around the world offering a service unlike any other we have heard of. Very personalised with great care shown to intending parents. Our time in Mumbai with then was testament to this work ethic. There has been such good news of late coming from India; the birth of three baby boys to couples in the USA and Australia and positive pregnancies from August cyclers. April and May 2010 will be a very exciting time for those of us returning to India to complete our family.

We should have that all important next update if not today tomorrow we hope. Our first ultrasound result & are waiting with baited breath.

We Are Pregnant!

2009-08-18T20:51:00.004+10:00

Our two week wait is now offically over. We have had the very exciting news from Drs Sudhir & Yash that our amazing surrogate is confirmed pregnant with our child!!!

Our beta or 'HCG' levels to date are as follows:

12 days past ovulation - 69

17 days past ovulation - 441

What is a beta I hear you ask?
The 'beta' is the blood test one takes to confirm their pregnancy. The test measures the amount of HCG in your bloodstream. In very early pregnancy, the numbers might not be very high but they should quickly increase. A single HCG level can't really tell you much about your pregnancy but watching the increase over several days is one way of measuring the viability of the pregnancy. There is a large variation in beta numbers in a "normal" pregnancy. Caution must be used in making too much of HCG numbers. An ultrasound at five or six weeks of pregnancy can better predict a good pregnancy outcome than any number of beta tests. As a note, you won't expect to see a gestational sac or the fetus until the HCG level reaches at least 1,200 mIU/ml. And you probably won't see a heartbeat until that level reaches at least 6,000 mIU/ml.

Good steady increases indicating a strong singleton pregnancy. We'll have our first ultrasound in seven days time to check the position of our embryo and that it's well and truly happy in our surrogates uterine lining & the following week will be the all important ultrasound to check for Noddy's heartbeat. At this stage we are both over the moon and enjoying the moment. It is amazing to think that we are already four weeks pregnant by the account of the doctors at Surrogacy India - WOW! Both Darren and I are so very grateful to the wonderful DRs at SI, our ED and SM and the other people who have made our dream of being parents come true.

Noddy will be with us before we know it.

Farewell India, We're Home & Reflection

2009-08-10T10:21:00.012+10:00

Day 7
The morning of our last day in India. We spent the better half of the day lazing around our hotel room, packing our luggage, ordering room service and enjoying every last ounce of our room at the Taj. We had a late check out but did not use it as we had agreed with the docs from SI to meet one last time at Lilavati for our goodbyes and meet our new friends from Victoria there.

We left Drs Yash & Sudhir in the early afternoon and went back to the guy’s hotel closer to the airport for some farewell cocktails & an early dinner. They have been amazing and it has been a better experience having shared this with the two of them.

Our flight home was long but necessary so we're not complaining. This brings us to our newest mantra having seen how the millions of those living in poverty in Mumbai survive day to day. We have nothing to complain about - NOTHING! Our home, humble to us is unimaginable to many in India. We both have stable, secure jobs a bountiful supply of food & clean drinking water...from any tap in the house or garden. The number of people living on the street, sleeping on the sidewalks, under bridges was a sobering experience for the both of us.
Happily riding in our air conditioned car from our hotel to the hospital, apartments, hotels and restaurants; the plight of the poor is hard to fathom and put into words. It has changed how we view the world. How could it not?

Reflection
Now home, back to our reality it is easy to become dismissive of what we experienced in Mumbai. Meeting Drs Yash, Sudhir, Soni and all the other fantastic people who are making our dreams reality was a highlight of course. However the people we met on the street and in the places we visisted made the experience very real and for that we are thankful.

Our new friends from Victoria who shared this experience with us - thank you! Your friendship & the laughter shared have made becoming parents an even more amazing experience than we could have imagined.
The people we encountered during our week in India have been utterly beautiful. Our amazing surrogate, her mother, caretaker, sister and the people in the street. All caring, beautiful and amazing.

A 'taste' of fatherhood whilst in India....What a beauty (the two of them).

xxx

India...Days 4, 5 and 6

2009-08-08T18:09:00.005+10:00

Sensory overload, sensory overload!
Day 4
This morning Dr Sudhir woke us at 7.30am with the news that our transfer was going to be today..WOW. We caught a cab from our hotel to Lilavati & the drive is lovely past some of Mumbai's great places to visit - Marine Drive, Haji Ali Mosque etc. We had breakfast there as the Indian food in the cafeteria is fantastic & what a bargain - Rs150 for the two of us including coffee & juice. Dr Yash confirmed that our embryos are of an excellent standard and she could not be happier. We again met our SM this time with her mother. This was very humbling and we said our ' Namastes' & tried in vain to express our eternal gratitude to her and her daughter. Transfer seemed to take a lifetime when in fact it was only around 1-2 hours of waiting for us and nothing like what our SM went through.
We then travelled to the VITS to meet a Canadian IP who has just had a baby girl around three weeks earlier and it was great to chat with her & her experiences post birth. What a doll her cherub is! We met the guys from Victoria there too & they have been so fantastic to talk to and share our surrogacy journey with. The four of us went back to their hotel for a light lunch & a G&T...India really is amazing!

Day 5
Today we returned to Lilavati for our frozen sample (just in case). We laughed at how much easier it was the second time round - most likely having overcome the shock of the 'sample room'. We then drove to Hiranandani Gardens with the SI doctors - an amazing complex of corporate offices, shops, restaurants and the Hiranandani Hospital. The birth hospital that SI use for their International IPs. Even more amazing is the fact that the area is only around 15 years old. We met Dr Anita Soni who will be delivering Noddy & what an amazing woman. No nonsence & what you see is what you get. Exactly what we like. We toured the hospital and visited their NICU & suites where IPs can stay post birth. Basic but great being at the hospital if need be. We again met up with our new Mumbai contact, who was introduced to us through the Melbourne couple & the five of us went back to the Colaba Causeway for some more shopping. We stopped in at a fantastic silver store and bought a beautiful rattle for Noddy.
We said bye to Tara & the four of us then went to the Regal Theatre to see a newly released Bollywood movie - Love Aaj Kal which is advertised everywhere in Mumbai at the moment. The seating is all reserved & the four us us went for the dress circle tickets at Rs150 pp. What an experience! The movie, although in Hindi was easy to follow. A typical love story that was so great to have experienced. We then went back to Khyber with the guys for our dinner. A fantastic restaurant & highly recommended for others travelling to the South of Mumbai.

Day 6
Our first sleep in...We spent the morning in our room today. With nothing planned we ordered breakfast in & then ventured out of the sanctuary being our hotel room. The two of us took a ferry to Elephanta Island. Only 11km from our hotel but a long boat ride. Again another experience if visiting the South of Mumbai. The series of caves on the island are amazing and definitely worth a visit...Johnny fell in love with the monkeys but was cautious not to get too close due to the warning signs:
Do not tease the monkeys, they may bite you. Enough said. The trip back to the Gateway where the ferries depart/arrive was another experince. Monsoon decided to pay us a visit around 15 minutes into the 45-60 minute trip back to the city. Horizontal rain and BIG WAVES!
Another experience, that's all folks. Safely back on terra firma we showered and travelled to North Mumbai for a birthday dinner with the guys - now this needs to be said. Our first couple of trips to the North have been very quick; 35-45 minutes. This time we left at 5.30ish and we took a little over two hours. Long, long, long but hey we're not complaining. The poverty we have seen in this city of 23 million is unimaginable to many I'm sure. Families living under bridges on the highways, small children & smaller babies struggling to find their next meal while we live it up gives us goosebumps.
This experience has truly made us appreciate the gifts in our lives even more so. We had a lovely dinner with the guys; enjoyed some wonderful food, drinks & more importantly their beautiful company. They will be friends for life.

India...Days 1, 2 and 3

2009-08-05T04:43:00.008+10:00

We were going to wait until we returned home to post with photos but hey, why wait and I know what we were like waiting for updates from those IPs in India so here goes, boring bits and all:

DAY 1
Today we woke very early again and had breakfast in our hotel - divine deliciousness. Our appointment with the DRs from SI has been made for tomorrow & Dr Sudhir confirmed our EPU & fresh semen sample with be done at Lilavati, we're so excited. We'll then visit the SI office in Bandra to meet our surrogate and sign our contracts. We spent the majority of the day exploring the surrounding area close to our hotel; The Gateway of India, Colaba Causeway etc. We did some shopping from the street vendors at Colaba Markets - FUN, and stopped in at Leopolds Cafe for a cold drink and snack - BARGAIN!
We had lunch at a fantastic Indian restaurant Khyber - great food and very reasonable. Our afternoon was spent lazing by the pool at the Taj in what felt like our own private oasis. As to Johnny's pre travel meltdown regarding monsoon...not a drop. Perfect weather and very warm. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant recommended to us by a customer of Darren's, again close to our hotel, The Links Pavillion. The poverty & people begging is more noticable at night on our way back to the hotel than in the day, terribly sad considering the wealth just around the next corner. This seems to be the case with this city.

DAY 2
SI's driver Ajit was at our hotel this morning at 8am for the trip to Lilavati for our EPU and semen sample. We drove via the new Link Bridge & took us around 35 minutes from South Mumbai. We met another Aussie couple cycling at the same time as us and they are great guys. We had our EPU & 'fun in a cup' & then travelled to the SI office to sign our contract & meet our amazing surrogate. This was overwhelming and personally we're glad we had the opportunity to do this. We gave her gifts for her two children and some gifts for her too. She is very sweet & we are both so blessed to have met her.
Drs Sudhir & Yash then took the four of us to a wonderful vegetarian restaurant close to their clinic; Rajdhani (we like our food) YUM!

We both had an utterly amazing day & made some wonderful new friends for life. Dr Yash confirmed our transfer will be in two to three days time depending on development & we'll then meet our SM again at this time. For something different, we had curry for dinner at Leopolds. India is more amazing than we had expected and we love it.

DAY 3
Well folks here it is: results. We woke this morning to a text message from Dr Yash, 12 eggs, 10 mature and all fertilised. We could not stop the happy dance or wipe the smiles from our faces all day! SI's driver Ajit collected us from our hotel today for some sightseeing around the city with the other couple we met from Victoria. Dhobi Ghat, Ghandi's House, The Hanging Gardens & Mumbai University. Again, being ruled by our stomachs our next fabulous place to eat was a restaurant named Trishna; fantastic Indian & prawns the size of a small kitten or puppy - seriously enormous!
More shopping in the afternoon at the Colaba Street markets....We had such an amazing day & spent the night recovering from our running around the city...

Good Morning Mumbai!

2009-07-31T12:49:00.003+10:00

We have just woken up after 3.5 hours of very short sleep after arriving into Mumbai six hours ago....The flights from Sydney to Singapore and then to Mumbai were OK, pleasant and not too overcrowded.
The Qantas rep from Johnny's office was good enough to provide us with Qantas lounge access whilst in Sydney and we had extra space on the flight to Singapore so wer'e chuffed. It's now just after 8.30am and we've woken to the buzz of an amazing city - unlike any other we have experienced and can't wait to get out there amongst it all. What a life changing experience this will be... Even arriving into India at 2am in the morning you can feel the city bursting at the seams with people, cars, pollution and poverty. So many people asleep on the sidewalks, under busses and on cars it is very sad and a sobering reminder of just how lucky we are back home...

Prior to leaving home we visited Darren's sister, brother in law and two nieces to share our news & they are very happy and excited for us. It's great to have more family 'in the loop' and praying for a positive for us (WE LOVE YOU GUYS).

Our hotel is as expected, beautiful and the people we have met so far equally lovely. The docs from SI had flowers in our room on our arrival and we look forward to nmeeting them today. It is hot, humid, hazy but so far today not wet...No rain and even if there was, hah we can deal with it; we're in INDIA!!!!!

The Final Countdown...

2009-07-27T12:22:00.004+10:00

Three days remaining until our much anticipated journey to Mumbai to meet our wonderful docs at Surrogacy India, our SM and everyone else involved in our quest to become parents. I can't actually believe that our time has come; it is somewhat surreal and foreign to me to be feeling this way.

I'm amazed at the relative calm both Darren and I now feel that we're in the home stretch of this part of our journey. The past nine months have really flown by quickly (in retrospect) & we both now know how fast the next nine will pass!

I finish work today and the rest of my afternoon will be spent getting things in order for the time I'll be away from the office, Darren finishes tomorrow & we're both looking forward to 12 days together.

Tomorrow I'll be finishing the final stages of 'Operation Noddy'

Haircut - Check!
Packing - Check!
Currency - Check!
Passports & Travel Vouchers - Check!

Mini Meltdown??? I don't think so!

We'll be staying at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower for our week in Mumbai and only because I managed to get an UNBELIEVABLE discounted rate of 5000 rupee per night for the two of us. Times like this I'm glad I'm still in the travel industry. Otherwise it was going to be Betty Budget for us...

I am so lucky to have Darren in my life and we are both so blessed to have been given the opportunity of living in a society that enables us to be parents.

Our lives together over the past 12 years have been utterly amazing & we both appreciate all of our blessings. We can’t begin to express how overwhelmed we are at starting the next chapter of our lives together….with our child. This stage of our lives will be unlike any of the preceding chapters & we’re ecstatic to see how the pages unfold.

We were both chatting the other night about our time so far to have reached this point & we both are amazed that this is really happening for us; amazed I suppose as like I've said earlier we never thought this was really a possibility for us. Darren ended up saying to me that he was thankful to me for making his dream of becoming a parent come true. I too am thankful, without him in my life I don't know if I would be here right now becoming a daddy too.

GOOSEBUMPS!

The results are in....that high tide!

2009-07-25T10:59:00.003+10:00

MUMBAI: The civic body, which was on its toes for the last two days as high tides measuring over 5 metres hit the city's shores, has warned of similar occurrence for next two-three years because of global warming and called for steps to stop possible flooding. "We must consider ourselves lucky as there were no heavy rain (along with tides) and hence the effect was not much. But due to global warming more such high tides will hit the city in next two-three years," Municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak said. We must learn from our sister cities - St Petersburg, Barcelona and New York - who faced similar situation like Mumbai, but have come out with their own solutions, he said. "At St Petersburg, they constructed a dam outside the city limit and also a wall because of which the high tide does not hit the city directly. Though this is not possible for a city like Mumbai, which is surrounded by sea, but we will study what other cities have done and would then think what can be done here," Phatak said. The civic officials had warned of July 26, 2005-like deluge as the city today witnessed a 5.05 metre high tide, but fortunately heavy rains did not coincide with the tide. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was geared up for the day and had taken several precautionary measures, like evacuating people from low-lying areas.

Johnny was chatting with an old work colleague living in Mumbai yesterday confirming we'll all meet up for a spot of eating and shopping perhaps while in India.

FIVE SLEEPS TO GO!!!

Readers of the 'Mikes' blog will remember their gorgeous kurtas purchased whilst on baby pick up & Johnny has wanted one ever since; picture attached FYI. Shobs (Mumbai pal) assures us that the rain is really not that bad and hey, when in Rome!

ONLINE ARTICLE - BMC's highest tide in 100 years claim sunk

2009-07-22T12:55:00.001+10:00

Further to my recent findings online and managing to worry about yet another aspect of our journey out of our control - the weather, I just the following online.....

The Survey of India (SoI) has slammed the BMC for creating panic by declaring the 5.05-metre high tide expected on July 24 as the “highest

of the century’’. The survey’s research cell has pointed out the error in a letter to the civic agency. The “so-called hi-ghest tide of the century of 5.05 m’’ was factually incorrect, it said. “Tides of this height are quite normal for Mumbai,’’ read the letter from SoI expert Varuna Guddanti Kumar. SoI figures show that Mumbai witnessed its highest tide of 2009 in January, when water levels touched the 5.13-m mark. Yet another high tide of 5.07 m occurred at 1.14 am on February 11. SoI, a research body under the central department of science and te-chnology, has been giving accurate tidal predictions for the past 120 years. The ‘tide of the century’ claims had created panic among the citizens of Mumbai, Kumar told TOI. “I’m not saying that the BMC figures are wrong, but someone should have been aware of the fact that the highest tide to hit Mumbai’s shore was of 5.59 metres in 1989,’’ Kumar told TOI. BMC officials explained that a high tide alone may not mean anything. Mumbaikars might be affected if extremely heavy rains were to coincide with the tide. A comprehensive disaster management plan is in place for July 24, when the 5.05-m high tide is expected to hit, they said. BMC commissioner Jairaj Phatak admitted that there could have been an error on the civic body’s part. “The highest tides for this monsoon were compiled late in the night and therefore were not verified,’’ Phatak said. Last month, as part of its monsoon-preparedness plans, the BMC had declared dates for the highest tides expected on the city’s shore during the rainy season. It declared the July 24 tide of 5.05 m as the highest in the last 100 years. The other days when above-average high tides are expected are July 23 (1.23 pm, high tide of 5.01 m) and July 25 (2.43 pm, high tide of 4.94 m).

ONLINE ARTICLE - Monsoon Warning: Avoid Travel to Mumbai Around July 24

2009-07-17T12:28:00.003+10:00

Oh My! I just found this alarming article online & we are due to arrive into Mumbai on 31 July...

Mumbai received its first pre-monsoon shower last night, 20 May 2009. According to the Meteorological Department, the monsoon is due to arrive in the city around June 8, 2009. It's very difficult to give an accurate prediction though. As usual, Mumbai is hopelessly unprepared for the monsoon rains. What's even more concerning is that the Department has predicted that city will have the highest tide in 100 years -- 5.05 meters -- on July 24. Mumbai's municipal council has admitted that it isn't equipped to handle more than 25 millimeters of rain per hour, coupled with a high tide of more than 4.5 meters. The consequences could be disastrous. In the case of high rainfall, widespread flooding will result and the city could be brought to a standstill for days. A similar thing happened on July 26, 2005 -- and the tide was only 4.48 meters high! The municipal council has advised visitors to stay away from Mumbai on or around July 24, 2009. There's no guarantee that the adverse weather conditions will eventuate. However, with the monsoon being so unpredictable, it sounds like a good idea.

After seeing the below photo though, maybe it's not all bad:

14 Day Countdown

2009-07-16T14:35:00.006+10:00

Fourteen days, not forty, not even 99. Fourteen days, two weeks until Johnny and Darren leave Sydney for Mumbai and the chance to become parents with Surrogacy India.

We are both in a state of shock. Perhaps this is the calm before the storm. Quite appropriate really since our dear friend in Mumbai, Shobana tells us it's raining a treat. Monsoon has well and truly set in.

The lead up to this point in our surrogacy journey has indeed been a roller coaster as those who've gone before us said it would be. The highs and lows are part and parcel of becoming parents via surrogacy & it does not matter which agency one uses or which country they are in, the journey is no more or less stressful.

The desire to become daddies is what has kept us going & the day we meet our dear Noddy we’ll know the months spent stressing, crying, stressing & praying were worth it. We know it will be.

Our journey began with looking into surrogacy in the USA. Costs were too prohibitive to proceed so this door was closed.

We contacted our local DOCS office and looked into international & domestic adoption, short & long term foster care and even an altruistic surrogacy agreement with our best friend but this was not meant to be our story.

Johnny has a high school friend living in Bangkok who knew of a clinic there dealing with commercial surrogacy and the idea of travelling to Thailand to start our family was looking like the option for us. The Australian woman dealing with International patients at the clinic we contacted made us feel at ease & comfortable with our timetable & plan to become parents. However the Thai government laws changed preventing same sex male couples from commercial surrogacy so it was back to the drawing board & our second door closed.

A third door opened when Johnny found an article online about a clinic in India that had helped an Israeli gay couple father a son through ART & commercial surrogacy. The wonders of the online world came into its own when we found their profile on facebook and discovered they were using Rotunda Clinic. We then found through online research a second clinic in Mumbai, Surrogacy India. Emails were sent and the same day we had a response from Dr Sudhir Ajja.

We were both amazed at the level of customer service from the very beginning and shortly thereafter decided to proceed with SI.

Our beautiful ED was chosen and we have been ecstatic ever since. We know she is a caring giving person who will give us one half of an amazing gift otherwise denied to us. Our SM was another story!!!

One, two and recently three.

The monsoon in India brings about its own issues and I know that we are not the only IPs affected by mosquitos and an SM coming down with malaria. This recently had both of us making another selection for the woman who would ultimately carry our child and the second half of our amazing gift – a child to call our own and complete our family.

We are both over the moon with our SM and we know she is the right woman. All things in life are meant to be and it really is a case of ‘third time lucky’ for us.

Nothing in life has prepared either of us for what lies ahead & we’re glad of that.

A roller coaster yes, but what a ride.

Our Wordle...

2009-07-16T12:57:00.011+10:00

As requested by our fellow IP Mrs Humblebee, our wordle for your enjoyment

To ICSI or not to ICSI, that is the question

2009-06-25T20:19:00.005+10:00

This is our latest dilema as we approach the four week mark til we travel to India....Four weeks and both Darren I are relatively calm. It must be the herbal tea and listening to Enya.

Everthing is now well and truly organised for our week in Mumbai and as we have virtually run out of questions...almost, we're preparing for our imminent departure to Mother India and a new question comes to mind: do we want to take advantage of ICSI?

ICSI or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection is the process where by one sperm is injected directly into the egg increasing the chance of fertilisation & the numbers of embryos we have to transfer to our SM and freeze for subsequent FET if need be.

Originally to help combat male infertility issues ICSI is a great tool made available to men whose sperm count is lower than the considered norm; 20,000,000 per ml. Our tests performed in December of last year showed a sperm count of 19,000,000 per ml so not bad but not above the average.

Given our ED is relatively young and fertile (we hope) and we have been taking a fertility supliment (menevit) daily now for almost 60 days we should be OK but nothing on this journey is certain and both Darren and I want to ensure we give ourselves the best chance possible of a positive first time round.

Will ICSI offer this best chance? We hope so...time will tell.

Being Scared

2009-06-21T15:28:00.005+10:00

Darren and I have often spoken of how he felt around the age I am now and how the thought of having a child and being a parent was something, as an openly gay man he had given up on.

Being openly gay negated any chance of having a family of your own and that was that.

There are gay men out there who marry and feign a happy, heterosexual relationship so that they can have a family. We know such men, some are still married and others have since left their wives & former families, with sad consequences.

The catalyst for our journey to India and starting our family was on our last overseas holiday together to Fiji. We had such a relaxing week away, enjoying our island paradise. Perfect weather, blue skies and warm water. There were a couple of families there with very small children and one day during happy hour I started balling, crying like a baby. I was overwhelemed by this feeling of missed opportunity. Darren and I spoke of his dreams of being a dad when he was in his late twenties just after we met. I was too young at that point and too selfish a 19 year old to have been able to truly empathise. Parenthood had yet to enter my mind. One couple in their late 40s began chatting with Darren and said 'why not do it'. And that was that. We returned home and seriously discussed parenthood as a reality for the two of us.

Now, 12 years on in our relationship and 12 years older I'm scared that the dream we both are trying so desperatley to realise is still as elusive as ever. Just because we want this does not mean it will happen.

This week has seen some very, very sad news from India. Surrogates who have lost children well into their pregnancies and parents devastated. I'm scared.

This affects so many people; the intending parents, their families, friends and then everyone in India trying to help us all. Surrogates, their families, the docs and our extended support network. Devastating news is just terrible and I long for hope, positive news and that silver lining. Ever the optimist I believe it is there for us. I pray it is.

This year will be Darren's 40th birthday and four days before this big day we anticipate will be an even bigger day. Around the 15th of August or there abouts we will know the results of our attempt at falling pregnant. One of many hurdles in the next 9 1/2 months til our Noddy will join us and complete our lives.

We are, as well prepared as we can be. Flights and accommodation are booked. Passports have been returned and visas issued. Our ED has been confirmed by Dr S and our SM whoever she may be will be ready too.

We both want this to be a positive experience for everyone involved...It will be.

Our Surrogate: M.I.A

2009-06-10T19:41:00.002+10:00

OK, I tried being pateint really I did but I couldn't wait any longer.

I sent an email to our clinic two days ago just checking up on the final logistics and legalities prior to coming to Mumbai in 52 DAYS and...no reply. I know from other IPs that the docs are really, really busy and both Darren and I are patient people but this was too much!

We are both so excited that our self imposed 'wait one week after sending an email' curfew went flying out the window, and just as well. We have just spoken with Dr S and our chosen surrogate, who we have had in our prayers and thoughts for months now is uncontactable, on extended holiday, M.I.A.

Many Indians enjoy vacation during the months of May and June and this is not uncommon or a first so I was a ready for the inevitable shock & disappointment.

BUGGER! We did not want to have to select another SM but, never mind. So again we find ourselves reading profiles and trying to select the best woman for the job (so to speak). How does one do this? Nevertheless we found a way to & again are happy with our choice. I am still mourning the loss of our first SM as I had played out our meeting a thousand times over in my head and we have her picture with us and talk about her and our ED regularly.

Dr S assures me that everything else is on schedule and our ED is ready for our arrival. I don't doubt him for one minute. Both Darren and I are very pleased with the service we have received from Surrogacy India and would recommend them in a heart beat.

http://www.surrogacyindia.com

Wow, the countdown to becoming parents has really begun!

Reflection & Count Down to EPU

2009-05-29T14:54:00.004+10:00

This week has been one of reflection. We're now 62 days until we both travel to India to meet the Drs at SI and have our EPU.

We had great news yesterday from Darren’s GM that his leave has been approved for July, so we're both officially approved to travel, YAY!

After the recent 60 minutes report on channel 9 on two gay dads from Melbourne and their journey to India for surrogacy and the birth of their twin girls and my subsequent blogging (non stop) and reading the replies to the story, I was really disheartened & was left feeling flat and deflated.

Are we doing the right thing by bringing a child(ren) into our lives? Are we selfish and only focused on our needs and not thinking of the affect two dads will have on our child(ren)? Can two men love a child(ren) as much as a man and woman? Are we really prepared for the major changes in our lives after 12 years of just the two of us?

HELL YES!

Lesson learned, I will not be reading anything online or otherwise that will leave either of us upset or question our love, ability and capability of raising a
child(ren) and providing a safe, secure and stable home with
two loving parents.

Bloody GOOGLE and the internet I tell you! Most remarks on the 60 minutes story were positive but the negative responses really had an affect on me. I spoke with my younger sister and best friend Tans who both offered sympathetic ears and listened to my ranting and raving. I also visited another online parenting forum; mostly Aussie mothers and 99% of their posts were in support of Trevor & Pete.

Being able to provide a home where ones child is loved, supported, encouraged and given the chance to grow up in our ever changing world accepting everyone as their equal without prejudice is paramount as far as we are both concerned.

This is the family life we will have with Noddy.

We have a multitude of loving female influences in our lives and all will be a part of our child’s life too. Our mothers, sisters, aunts and female friends will bless our new family with the love and support needed for a well rounded stable life for our Noddy.

As we draw closer to our travel date to India, I’ll post a couple of more times but then we’ll be off the radar for a while. We want to have our 2WW praying for our positive, which we believe we will have and enjoy being drunk in the moment of bliss.

We will then post a few weeks after that, toward the end of August, beginning of September when we (fingers and toes) will be around five/six weeks pregnant.

Blood Tests, Detox & Fertility Supplements

2009-05-22T13:50:00.002+10:00

10 weeks and counting!

It has been a great couple of weeks and neither Darren nor I have been stressed or worrying about our upcoming trip. More to the point, it has been great and we've both been focusing on the days ahead and taking each new dawn in our stride.

This has been important for me especially as I was getting myself worked up, spending too much time on the net and over analysing this whole process. This was affecting me immensely and I was finding it difficult focusing on work and the day to day trivialities of life. Since our last post we have been 'offline' more than usual and taking a bit of a back seat when it comes to our surrogacy journey.

Another gay couple from Melbourne have just had their babies via a different Mumbai clinic to the one we are using and now have twin girls in their lives. They are so adorable & 60 minutes Australia will be doing a story on their journey going to air this Sunday the 24th May on channel 9.

This week we started on a male fertility supplement called ‘menevit’ which, combined with a caffeine and alcohol 90 day detox will hopefully give us a bit of a hand in ensuring a positive result first time round. We both pray this is the case and believe it will be.

This morning saw Johnny having a second round of blood work done screening him for infectious nasties and other requirements from our clinic. This is the second time since enrolling with SI and hopefully the last. I am not a fan of needles, such a wimp!

Darren has already finished all of his blood work and we have injections only leading up to July.

I'll be sending my passport to the Indian Embassy in the next 14 days to have our visas issued and then...full steam ahead for travel to Mumbai.

Daddy & Pappa are on their way Noddy!

Taking a Step Back & Patience

2009-05-05T13:01:00.000+10:00

It's now Tuesday and officially I am on day three of my internet detox program - four days to go.

Last week I managed to work myself into a bit of a lather. Ha! What an understatement. My mind was ticking over and over and over and over. All I could think of was India, SI and our journey and what is ahead of us. It doesn't help any that I am on a computer for work five days a week for at least nine hours a day and I have Dr Google at my disposal whenever I choose.

This week it has been decided that I will have a break from the online forums, parent websites and Dr Google to give my mind and body time to relax. This is not easy as many IPs will agree but I have to do this.

The weekend was easy as Darren's mother and her partner are now on the start of their five week European holiday so I spent Saturday helping pack and shuttle them to the International Airport. By the time I arrived home I was tired and decided instead of mowing the lawn and folding the washing I would have a kip with the boys.

Now up to this point I don't think I've mentioned our four legged babies; Oliver and Billy.

We have two beautiful Burmese cats that are our babies and strictly indoor cats. I awoke late in the afternoon and decided to spend the rest of the time before Dazz came home cooking. I love cooking and entertaining and last Autumn tried my hand at preserving quince. What a disaster!

Never one to be discouraged I had bought six beautifully intoxicating quince from our local fruit purveyor and being the start of the season they were perfect to preserve. The next six or so hours I was hovering over the stove stirring and waiting for the ruby red colour indicating the quince were done.....I set my alarm for 1.30am people, to check the quince were cooked to perfection and; voila! In my early morning daze I was greeted by the overwhelming scent of soft, deliciously perfect preserved quince.

I'm doing some more this Saturday and this has become my new game plan.

When I have spare time on my hands I'm going to be cooking, cleaning or gardening. Anything I can do around the home to pass the time enjoyably without worrying about Noddy's arrival.

Both Darren and I are confident that our Noddy will be on his/her way to being a part of our family by the beginning of August and we will be pregnant so really I have nothing to worry about, neither of us do.

Shitty Things Happen to Good People...

2009-04-29T14:49:00.000+10:00

We all know this to be true, right? A fact of life I suppose but shitty nonetheless.

This week is the bearer of sad news for two couples, members of our online surrogacy forum and reminds us how touch and go this journey is for all of us. One couple almost out of their first trimester got the sad news that their little one slipped away the other night. Not destined to be a part of their lives.

The second couple were 15 weeks from having their baby and he came into our world early - 15 weeks is not too early I thought but he did not make it. I'm shocked and devastated by this news too.

This has been on my mind ever since I found out. I am trying to stay positive and keep telling myself that we'll be different and have no issues but the truth is...we might. We must stay positive though right?

I have spent the best part of today online consulting Dr Google in his infinite wisdom. I've had a doozy today let me tell you & my head is spinning!
Everything from the quality of eggs from our planned ED given her age to transfering 2/3 day old embies vs paying extra til they reach the blast stage.......

My down time seems to come when I'm asleep and can't think of every possible

what if scenario.

Because we can't control what is going to happen to Darren and I in our endeavour to bring Noddy into our world, a guardian angel to look out for all of us.

I pray that God brings him/her to us.

99 Days & Counting!

2009-04-22T08:32:00.001+10:00

We are officially into double digits until we'll be in India for our IVF cycle.

We have received our draft legal contract last night and will complete this over the next couple of days and send this onto the doctors at SI. The coming weeks will be spent preparing for the week in Mumbai and everything that has to be done leading up to that point in our surrogacy journey.

There is loads and loads of paperwork, documents and tests that need to be done and we don't want to miss anything.

The past couple of days my excitement has been tinged with nervousness. What if something happens that stops us travelling in July, what if our SM doesn't like us and decides she doesn't want to proceed, what if our ED produces no viable eggs and what if the recent paper by the SCAG ends up stopping same sex couples from undertaking commercial surrogacy in India?

I have to not worry about all the possible what could be’s and focus on what I know will happen, what I can control and all that is positive. It is the only thing sure to keep both Darren and I sane over months ahead.