Week 23: Celebrating Diwali and a little bit of Vegemite

Its Diwali this week, The festival of lights,  where good overcomes evil and the light shines brightly on everyone. We celebrated by adorning our house in lights, and also attending the festival at the Claremont show grounds. it was great fun! the food, music, dancing and of course the fire works. What I love most is that we can live in Australia, and also enjoy the Indian culture too.  Our kids truly have the best of both cultures growing up in Australia.

We also took the time to recognise our surrogate mother for this special festival week. We sent her a sari, its customary to gift new clothes during Diwali. We sent a silk emerald green with gold trimming sari. Green is supposed to be auspicious in hinduism, and particularly where our family comes from, (the state of Maharashtra). Green is a festive colour, it represents life and happiness. The colour green also stabilises the mind, is cool to the eyes and represents nature.  We were privileged enough to be sent a photo of Mrs U dressed in her new sari. - She looks radiant! We are thrilled that it arrived to her on time and that she knew we were thinking of her and that we wanted her to feel special and be able to get dressed up for such a holy week in the hindu calendar.

Some of you may know that my mum is a world champion surfer on a wave-ski, so with that mum (our twins Granny) has been researching the best nipper school. Yes I know its early but she is really looking forward to taking them to their first surf lesson and making them vegemite sandwiches.
Perhaps we should start calling the twins "Our Gumnut babies" or "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie"?.

Week 20: BLUE OR PINK, WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Our report update is fantastic. The twins are doing really well and so is our surrogate Mrs U. We were sent beautiful images of the twins on Tuesday. 3D images, WOW they look gorgeous.

We've fallen in love with them.

They both have a squishy nose and big full lips. They look like their Daddy!

Normal active and passive movements are seen.
Heart beats are: Twin 1 is 150Bpm and Twin 2 154Bpm

Week 17: BRAVING IT IN IKEA

A couple of years ago my gorgeous nephews and niece kindly donated some of their toys to us so they and other kids had toys to play with. The toy corner worked a charm. We weren't the boring Aunt & Uncle. We were somewhat cool and somewhat prepared for kids. Kids knew as soon as they arrived, after a kiss and hug hello they could run straight to the toy corner to play. Google also enjoyed time in the toy corner.

As part of my will to get organised and set everything up for our samosa babies, the toy corner needed shelving and baskets. I also kept kids art. We were often sent home with "master pieces". pieces of kids art I could not part with. The moment a kid hands you something they have created is just precious. Drawings, paintings, stick on things. didn't matter what it was, it was the fact they created something and decided to gift it. And gift it to us (how lucky were we). So sweet when you are engrossed in adult conversation and this little person comes up to you and holds out an art piece for you to look at and take home.

So who best to help me in organising the toy corner, non other then my wonderful neighbour, who is a lot more then a neighbour Mrs D and her husband Mr P.

Mrs D loves IKEA! I braved it on a Sunday no less with Mrs D. To my astonishment I've been doing IKEA all wrong. The trick is to have a plan, know exactly what you need and stick to it. It also helps if you know your way around the store so you can cut the corners and not go through every section. Another trick is if possible to go there on a week day. Not a weekend and certainly not during school holidays.  So Mrs D and I went to IKEA. I saw this store in a very different light it was my "friend" and maybe a very good friend over the next few years. Perhaps because I was looking for pieces for our kids or the fact Mrs D doesn't waste any time, she goes straight to the product puts it in the trolley and keeps moving, made the whole experience positive. mmmm I might need Mrs D to come with me again for another practice round before I brave it on my own.

We got shelving, baskets, photo frames (for kids art), waterproof cot sheets (wasn't on my list, but I couldn't resist the price at $9 - my friend Ms M gave me a full proof cot making tip that I'll share later when we set the nursery up) drawer organiser, this one was for me and a large mirror, also for me.

Check out our before and after photos. As you can see my kids play room is slowly coming together. Perhaps the trick is to show Sam what the play room looks like and then he might agree to it. Treading very slowly with this idea.

I would often find Google in the Elmo chair after kids had gone home. As much as Sam and I longed for children of our own, Google too showed his way of wanting play mates. 

Google helping setting up the toy corner. Actually he was annoying, always sticking his nose in where the screw needed to go. So I put him in the basket for a few minutes whilst Mr D put the shelves together.

The finished look. Feeling organised. Now to continue that conversation with my understanding husband. I need a play mat, space for the pram, and bouncy/rocker swings. oh and the kids art which is now framed to be put up on the wall.  mmm...The dining table must be moved! a very delicate conversation. 

Week 16: Spring has sprung

Our 16 week scan results came through late Friday evening.

Dr J's report tells us the following:
TWIN LIVE GESTATION

Twin 1 (HR 155Bpm) gestational age 16weeks 3 days
Twin 2 (HR 160 Bpm) gestational age 16weeks 4 days

Mrs U is doing fine and her pregnancy is progressing well. You little beauty mate! ok I had to add in some Aussie colloquialism, there is just no other way of saying how stoked we are.

Spring has sprung here in Australia. Spring is new life, which also means getting everything organised for the summer which for us also means getting organised for our Samosa babies. Oh and do I have a LIST! the little miss organiser that I am has a very extensive list, one that I think Sam would normally want to hide from or at the very least negotiate his way out of doing. This spring-clean list I'm 100% certain Sam will execute with his whole heart, knowing that we are working hard together in preparation for our children. When you do something for your kids it doesn't feel like a chore or a grind. It feels like LOVE.

Our spring list is

• Gardening - get the garden in shape after the stormy winter we had, and also set it up in a way that we can leave it for 4-8 weeks over the stinking hot summer and God willing its survives.

• Clean out the garage to make room for our spare bed (The Nursery is being set-up)

• Sand back and stain the out door furniture so it may survive another harsh summer. 

• Relocate items of furniture, decor that might break with kids around. Yes I know getting ahead of myself, but I think if I do it now with a clear mind and not sleep deprived it will be organised well. We need to move the wine rack and glassware out of sight and reach. perhaps more so out of reach for us. 

• Begin my visa application for a medical visa and source all necessary docs for picking up our Samosa babies and being able to bring them back to Australia. 

But, the most fun thing on my list is officially setting-up the TOY CORNER. I have a vision for our kids play room. The space is not really a play room, its actually our dining room/area. However with careful and considerate conversation with my very understanding husband,  I may get the opportunity to create such a space where together with our kids can make a mess and most of all MEMORIES.

Week 12: Our Announcement

We are singing from the roof top!

12 weeks and all is well.

The samosa babies are growing, heart beats pumping and reports tell us everything is fine.

We ARE HAVING BABIES!

This is how we shared our announcement with family and friends.
We hope you enjoy the video. I wish I was a fly on the wall when people opened the link. It would have been great to see their reaction.

(We can't claim full creative and imaginative rights to the video as we looked up ways to announce "we are expecting" and took ideas from others and then created our own)


The report from Dr J, tells us  "Twin live fetus in variable presentation" Twin 1 HR - 154Bpm and Twin 2 HR 160Bpm

As I mentioned earlier in India its against the law to disclose the gender of the baby. So my friends have referred to the old wives tale of guessing by the heart rate. Do you know what we are having?

It will now be 4 weeks until our next report and images of the babies. Something tells me this time will go very fast and within a blink of an eye they will be here.

We would like to thank everyone for their kind emails, phone calls, hugs and tears of joy. Its been fantastic to share our wonderful news with you all. 

Week 10: T-minus 14 days away from announcing to the world

10 weeks. We are 2 weeks away from announcing to the world! another 2 week wait! this journey has a lot of counting and waiting. (Most definitely worth the wait)

I was able to celebrate 10 weeks with two of my very dear friends Ms T and Ms M. We celebrated with champagne of course, and as a treat french cuisine, while the husbands stayed at home and played xbox and ate steak.  Our samosa babies now look like jelly babies. I never thought a photo like this would look so beautiful. More tears of joy.

Now to the fun part - have recruited Ms T & Ms M as the baby shower planners. I figured that Im having twins, therefore I need 2 party planners.

The report from Dr J, this week describes "two well-defined gestational sacs containing live fetus (HR - 152 ; HR - 158 Bpm) The yolk sacks are normal.... corresponds to 9 weeks 6 days. 

Week 8: Let's celebrate

I was having coffee in Napoleon St Cottesloe and thought Id go check out the baby shop. I walked in and it was nice, beautiful clothes, toys, wraps everything you would need to clothe your beautiful child. I got to the back of the store and broke down in tears. I quickly ran out - went home and poured a glass of wine. The emotion was too much. I was in the store and buying for ME. Yes thats right ME!! I've been into baby stores several times to buy for friends. I like to buy clothes, wraps, creams, shampoo etc for friends that are having babies. But to be on the other side and buy for me, this I knew was a moment to cherish. I'm glad I didn't buy anything that day, I'm glad that I was emotional. I'm cherishing each and every moment, of this pregnancy with the utmost care and awareness.

So, my husband Sam and I decided that in celebration of the 8 week scan we would go choose the twins outfits together. I couldn't wait for this day to come fast enough. We went back to the store on Napoleon St. Having my husband with me, I felt more relaxed and ready to purchase our babies clothes without breaking down in tears of joy. We spoke to the owner of the shop Ms K and her daughter Ms A.  We told them we were doing surrogacy and that we were expecting twins. oh the joy on their face. complete strangers and they were happy for us (either that or they were happy for double purchases, I like to think it was the first emotion). We said that the twins are fraternal (not identical) we could have 2 boys, 2 girls or 1 boy & 1 girl. We also needed to choose non gender specific clothes. In India it is against the law for doctors to disclose the gender of a growing baby - (to prevent female foeticide) this also goes for international intended parents commonly known as (IP's) undergoing surrogacy.


Sam was amazing! the care and attention he made to selecting the perfect outfits was beautiful to see. A moment I will forever cherish and remember.  We came home with beanies (its going to be very cold in Delhi when we pick them up), booties, and 2 sets of onsies. tiny tiny onsies with pictures of cherubs. My angel cherubs.

Our report from Dr J, showed "two well-defined gestational sacs containing live foetus (HR 164; 168 Bpm) the yolk sacs are normal......corresponds to 8 weeks 1 day"