Worlds Worst Blogger

I had all intentions on keeping everyone up to date with our Surrogacy journey this time round but I have failed big time. Who new keeping up with a toddler absorbed soo much of your time. Many nights I have thought to myself that it is on the must do list....tomorrow

Our surrogate has been travelling along very well and seems to be having a trouble free pregnancy so far which is such a blessing. We are now 31 weeks and hoping our little bubs stay put to at least 36 weeks and continue growing.
This time around the twins are measuring about 2 weeks further along than last time so it will be interesting to see the final birth weight in comparison.

The below pictures are from our 29 week 4D scan....hello baby

We will be spending this weekend in Melbourne at the Surrogacy Australia Conference and are looking forward to seeing our wonderful Dr from Corion and her team. We also have the opportunity to have dinner with Dr Kadam and meet some of her other clients, it will be fantastic to meet other parents and IP's.

Not forgetting the other special lady in out life.
Mackenzie is now 2 and fulfillimg the role of toddler perfectly. We really are lucky as she is overall very well behaved and good mannered but the odd tantrum is beginning to rear its ugly head. I think everyday about how she is going to adjust with the babies in the house. She is a bit of a mother hen so I think all will be fine after a while.

This one is an oldie but I love it :)

 

Her gorgeous cheeky smile

 

 

She is a real trendsetter for sure

 



 

Heres hoping that I will get to post again before we head off to the wonderul land of India again......

Candice xxx

14 weeks

I forgot how quickly the weeks can fly by (although when a scan is due the days seem soo long)
Having a toddler in the house means no spare time to sit and stare at computer screen and will emails to come through!!!
We have received our 13 week scan and all is on track with the twins.

Fetus Number	C. R. L. in mms	NT in mms	Gest. Age	FHR
One	65.5	2.13	12 weeks 6 day	159
Two	59.6	1.54	12 weeks 4 day	154

Now for the best bit. We received some amazing photos from the scan and I have to share :)

 

8 Weeks Pregnant today

Time to fill in the gaps and write a complete update.

Alot has happened in the last 2 months and we are very excited to be expecting again. Now to the scary part..........we are expecting twins!!!!!

Our first scan done at 6 weeks 6 days details were as follows and everything was on track. Our next scan will be around 9 weeks.

Fetus Number	C. R. L. in mms	G. S. Diameter	Gest. Age	FHR in bpms
One	6.2	20.8 mms	6 weeks 3 days	126
Two	7.7	19.6 mms	6 weeks 5 days	131

We have been very blessed to fall pregnant on our first attempt again. I know it is still early days yet but we are remaining positive about the future members of our family.
We are feeling anxious about the twin pregnancy as we are all too aware of the complications that can occur. We are just praying and hoping for an event free "easy" pregnancy for our SM.

Corion once again have been great and we have a new wonderful Surrogate Mother (Things didn't work out time wise with Mack's SM) She has a beautiful kind face and we look forward to meeting her when we travel to India for baby pick up.
We are also very excited to be returning to India. It is a magical place that has given us soo much and we can't wait to spend some time with the wonderful people that make India what it is.

On a different news front there is alot happening at the moment affecting Australian parents pursueing surrogacy in India. Stay focused and have hope that all will be sorted and things will work out in the end. We are strong resilient people who can handle what is thrown at us!!!!!

P.s. I also have a teething 19 month old toddler who thinks she rules the house at the moment. Hoping my chilled out and happy little lady will emerge again soon :)

Candice



 

Update

Who noticed the new ticker on the right hand side of the screen???

Life and Times of Miss Mack

Looking at my blog I can clearly see how slack I have been. Couldn't believe the latest photos were of Mackenzie at 5 months. So here is a little photo gallery to catch everyone up.......little emotional tear.

In Daddys Ute

Chilling out in the garden - 7 months

First Camping trip

Best Seat in the place

First Christmas

The smile that melts my heart everyday

1st Birthday party

Back on the Surrogacy Train....stopping all stations

Its official, the decision has been made and we are planning a sibling for our beautiful daughter.
We had always thought a 2 year age gap would be perfect however did not realise how quickly this would come around.
Mackenzie is now 16 months old and the most adorable little girl. I have to stop myself calling her a baby all the time because she is an active toddler now.
We really are ready to welcome another baby into the family and think Mackenzie will make the best big sister ever.

Our Surrogate has been confirmed and the most amazing part is she was Mackenzies surrogate. We already have soo much love and gratitude to Mrs K and she is willing to do this again for us. How will we ever be able to repay such a blessing.

This time around it will be a FET cycle as we were lucky enough to have 8 frozen embies from our first cycle. I still feel confident about this as the results using FET with donor eggs are quite good.
Thought I would be feeling less stressed and excited this time but all those old feelings have come straight back to the surface....arhhhhh can I survive this again?

I promise to post some photos af Mackenzie very soon, too many downloads this month and internet is on go slow mode!

Best of luck to all and I look forward to sharing this journey with you all.

Candice xx

5 Months Today

Our beautiful baby girl is 5 months old today

She has an amazing personality and brings us joy and happiness every day.

A few facts:

1. I have been having solids for about 2 weeks now and absolutely love them - I now have an orange bib thanks to some pumpkin today.

2. I now weigh just over 6kg and will need to go into my 00 clothes soon

3. I love to stretch and stand up when Mummy holds my hands but hate to lie on my tummy.

4. I have Daddy wrapped around my little finger.

Life at Home

Well our little girl is now 6 weeks old. I can hardly believe it......... Our time in India now seems so long ago although it was less than a month since we got home. I am coping quite well and Miss mackenzie is the model child, so far although tired I have not had day naps or major meltdowns. She has been a little unsettled the last few days due to a slight cold/sniffles but for her this is just restlessness and a little bit a crying out for cuddles. I feel very lucky. My beautiful sister/good photographer came to visit today and took some lovely photos for us. I don't want to miss a minute because she is growing soo fast. She finally made over 6 pound (3 kg) this week and has grown 6 cm since birth. I am in the process of ditching the premmie nappies and moving onto newborns, she is also nearly too big for a couple of her 00000 suits and has starting wearing 0000.

LIFE IS GOOD

More photos of Miss Mackenzie

Sorry no time to write.......

Photos to put a smile on your face

Our little Hannah is in heaven

Our little Hannah past away yesterday afternoon. She never recovered from the heart operation. We are absolutely devastated. We miss her very much.

Photos

Mackenzie Patricia

Hannah Jane

Our daughters are here

Two beautiful baby girls were delivered via a c section at 8.15 am (Mumbai time) today.
Both are in the NICU and doing very well.
Mackenzie Patricia 1.87kg
Hannah Jane 1.84kg
We are in love with our baby girls and now cannot imagine life without them.

Our babies will be born tomorrow

Dr Soni has advised a c section will be performed tomorrow morning. The peadiatric cardiology team will be on standby to attend to our twin with the heart condition. At this point I am full of mixed emotion. Excited for the birth and scared of the outcomes.
Wish us luck.

We are in Mumbai

We visited Dr K today and she was as lovely in person as we expected. Talking with her calmed our nerves alot and we feel so much more settled now.
We go to Hiranandani hospital tomorrow to meet with Dr Soni to discuss planning the birth of our twins. Hopefully Dr Soni will be comfortable enough at this stage to lock in a date. We are officially 36 weeks today according to the clinic.
Our Surrogate Mrs K was admitted to Hiranandani today in preparation in case she goes into labour, we are comforted knowing she is getting cared for at the hospital.
Hope to have more news tomorrow.

We are booked to go!!!! Look out Mumbai

We finally bit the bullet and booked our airfares. We fly out next Tuesday the 1st March and arrive 1.55 am Mumbai time the 2nd March.

I cannot believe we leave next week!!!!!!!!!!

Dr K has advised our babies will be 36 weeks on the 2nd March (We calculated 28th feb based on fertilisation). They will admit our surrogate to Hiranandani hospital then and will monitor for labour so she can be taken straight for a Caesarian if labour commences.

I am so proud of our surrogate for looking after our babies and making this milestone.

Our SM will have a scan at the hospital tomorrow, I hope the report arrives before we leave to Mumbai. I really would like to know an estimate of the weight of our babies.

Accommodation has been booked at the Rodas in Hiranandani and we may also spend a couple of days at the hospital until discharge of one of our babies. The operation that needs to occur for Baby B is still an unknown quantity, it really depends on how our baby is post birth on the outcome and recovery for the surgery.

Today is also my last day of work.............Not sure how I feel about this.

I have worked for my current company for the last 6.5 years and have never spent and extended time at home. But I am just about to commence on one of the most rewarding jobs in my life........becoming a mum.

March is going to be an exciting time in Mumbai.

Week 33 and counting

We are now 33 weeks and 4 day pregnant. I am so pleased our little ones do not want to make an arrival yet and show no signs of this at the moment. We received our last scan report from the hospital (Was done at 31 weeks 4 days ) and everything seems to be tracking well. There has been slight change in Baby B's weight and he/she has now dropped behind Baby A. As this is our baby that has to have the operation I was a little disappointed growth had slowed but this is expected with twins at this stage of the pregnancy. As of the date of the scan they are 1426gm and 1303gm give or take 10%.

Corresponding to a gestational age of 31 weeks 1 day approx.

We are due to receive our 3D scan shortly. We have not seen any scan pictures since week 20 of our pregnancy, Can't wait to see our babies again.

Now the checklist:

Paperwork - Check

Visas - Check

DNA test - Check

Baby Bag Packed - Check

Mum and Dad Ready - Check

Hot Topic

The latest topic seems to be the gender of our babies. This seems to be the 2nd question everyone asks. (First is when are they due?)

I am amazed by the reaction of people when we tell them "It's a surprise" It seems as though everyone finds out the sex of their baby these days. Where has the excitement and surprise gone..

Even if we could find out we never would, maybe I am old fashioned in my thinking but to me this is half of the excitement of the babies being born.

One of our dear friends has started a calcutta for the gender and birth weights of our babies - This is hilarious and I suppose we better come up with a good prize. I suggested a nights baby sitting would be a fitting reward for guessing right.

So I have added a poll to our blog (Thanks CC for the link)

Please vote!!!!

Week 29

We received the ANC update and our surrogate is still doing very well. We received another photo and in this one I think she looks proud to be carrying our babies.

We have also received the report giving more details around the heart anomaly. We are still waiting for the review scan which will be in about 2 weeks time.

It is called TAPVC of the supra cardiac variety. I am trying to stay away from researching everything I can find on the internet, but this is very hard and goes against my nature of wanting to understand everything.

This variety is the most common and does have a better prognosis than other varieties.

We will have follow up discussions post the next scan.

On a completely different note in a few days we enter week 30 of our pregnancy. Wow time has flown and it only seems like yesterday we got the positive pregnancy test. Now we are on the 8 week countdown :)

Nursery - Photo's as promised

Here are a few pics of our twins humble abode (In construction)!