No Time To Blog

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

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.

Parenthood...Days 4 to 14 & Mumbai Madness

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

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

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

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!!!

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!