Third Trimester

May 29 is the day I've been looking forward to for a few months. According to most IVF pregnancy calculators, it's the day when our third and final trimester begins. Since twins are considered full-term at 37 weeks, we've actually completed more than 2/3rds of this journey. To remind us of this great news, SCI sent us our monthly scan over the weekend. At 26 weeks, Twin A was 25 weeks and 5 days while Twin B was still measuring 13 days behind. I sent a panic e-mail to Dr. Shivani and she promptly responded by reminding me that there will always be some difference between twins and that less than 2 weeks is not something to be too concerned about. She also mentioned that our surrogate is on a high protein diet, so we hope Twin B will grow grow grow!

It's hard to imagine how far along we've come in this journey. How did all this time pass by so quickly? Looking back, the hardest and slowest part was the first trimester. Second trimester just flies by. Either that or everything we've been doing to distract ourselves is REALLY working. We took another one of those 'distraction' trips, this time to the San Juan Islands for a family reunion. My brother flew up from Southern California and it was really nice to spend time with him and the rest of the family. When I first came out to them a couple of days before our wedding (bad idea), my folks refused to attend our wedding and it was very difficult for everyone. Since then, their views have really evolved. All these years later, it was nice to see everyone wholeheartedly supporting us and anxiously awaiting our newest additions to the family. Life is good!

We painted the walls of the nursery a very neutral color and finished most of the shopping as well. Now, we just need to put the furniture together and start decorating our nursery.  I don't know if we'll have a nursery theme. Right now it's looking like a lot of animals and travel. We liked a fellow blogger's suggestion of having just 1 crib and a pack n play for the first 6 months. We got the crib and all crib essentials from Ikea. The pack n play is on our gift registry so we'll see if we still need to get it after the baby shower :) The one thing we have no clue about is diapers. I hear twins use about 25-30 diapers a DAY so is there any point in taking them with us to Delhi? That sounds like a lot of excess baggage fees! I would think they would have diapers in Delhi so I think we'll just stock up on diapers from Costco, before heading to Delhi. On our next update, we'll most likely have nursery pictures. Hard to believe that in a little over 3 weeks, we'll hit our 30 weeks pregnancy milestone!

Finally, BIG congrats to Doug & Bill on the birth of their daughter Cristina Lei, to Jason and Adrian on the birth of their twins Olivia Grace and Clara Joanna, and to Temmy on the birth of her baby girl.

Nuestra Historia

Nos conocimos en una discoteca de Dallas (Texas) varios años atrás. Aunque suene sacado de una novela, desde el primer momento nos sentimos atraidos, estamos seguros que no fue amor a primera vista, pero los sentimientos se desarrollaron con el tiempo. Desde ese momento no dimos un paso atrás, salimos juntos por varios meses antes de tener  nuestro primer apartamento y contárselo a nuestros amigos más cercanos, todavía faltaba mucho para contárselo a nuestras familias.

Aaron se graduó y un tiempo después nos mudamos a la ciudad progresiva  de Seattle. Muchas de los valores familiares que compartimos, nuestra pasión por viajar, conocer otras culturas, aprender y compartir con su gente, maduro nuestra relación. Dentro de las cosas que mas disfrutamos en esas aventuras es el estar fuera de nuestras vidas cotidianas, ver lo diferente que los seres humanos vivimos nuestras vidas, hablamos nuestros lenguajes y lo variado de las comidas, tan ricas por supuesto.

Aaron es por profesión y por naturaleza un planificador innato, no es de extrañarse que en una relación no convencional como la nuestra, fuera el quien propusiera matrimonio, y para lo mismo no escogió ningún lugar exótico, si no mas bien fue de regreso en  Dallas, para recordarme donde nuestra historia personal había empezado y cuanto habíamos crecido juntos.

Me llevo al mismo laguito en Las Colinas, donde salimos juntos por primera vez y fue ahí donde saco un anillito, algo muy simbólico y me pregunto si quería casarme. Claro que dije que SI.

Un tiempo después fue la ceremonia tradicional en una iglesia, frente a nuestros amigos y familiares más cercanos. Ahora orgullosamente podemos decir que nuestra unión es oficialmente reconocida en el estado de Washington, donde vivimos.

El mayor ideal que compartimos es el de ser padres, pero siempre creímos que una de las desventajas de ser gays, era el no poder concebir hijos nuestros, fue así cuando leímos como muchas parejas gays y heterosexuales ahora tenían la opción de la maternidad subrogada.

Después de casarnos y comprar casa, sentimos era el momento adecuado para nosotros. Fue mucho trabajo, vencer cientos de obstáculos y después de mucha investigación y una larga lista de lugares donde podíamos hacerlo lo redujimos a dos clínicas: El Centro De Reproducción Panamá y SCI Healthcare en India. De esta forma conversamos con una pareja de Dallas, Texas quienes vivieron el proceso por medio de la Doctora Shivani y tuvieron gemelos, esto nos hizo decidirnos por el SCI.

Yo tengo varias hermanas con muchos hijos, mientras que Aaron solo tiene un hermano y sus padres no tienen nietos.Por lo anterior, les pedí ayuda a algunas de mis hermanas y hasta algunas de mis sobrinas estuvieron anuentes a donar óvulos para que nuestros hijos o hijas estuvieran unidos genéticamente a los dos. Después de muchas pruebas medicas con varias de ellas, mi sobrina Daya fue la candidata perfecta pues apenas tenia veinte y tantos, y tenia unos resultados perfectos.

Aaron y Daya volaron a India para empezar su ciclo y su IVF bajo la supervisión de la Doctora Shivani, Daya produjo 23 óvulos de los cuales 19 fueron fertilizados con el esperma de Aaron. La doctora Shivani transfirió 4 embriones en dos madres subrogadas y los demás fueron congelados por si los necesitamos en el futuro.

Nosotros, Daya y el resto de la familia recibimos nuestros mejores regalos de Navidad con un e mail de la Doctora Shivani: !!“felicidades, una de las madres subrogadas dio resultados positivos y ahora están esperando gemelos"!! Desde ese momento hasta el día de hoy a sido un camino lleno de felicidades, pero no han faltado momentos tensos, aproximadamente a las 8 semanas nuestra madre subrogada tuvo un sangrado leve y apareció un coagulo de sangre en una área cerca de los bebes. Fue el momento más triste y estresante de nuestro embarazo, sin embargo tuvimos la bendición de que se arregló por si solo a la entrada del segundo trimestre.

Esta semana empezamos las 24 semanas, que es muy importante, comenzamos a pintar el cuarto de los bebes, a escoger las cunas y el coche, en fin es toda una metamorfosis, es increíble como le encuentra uno el sentido de como en la madre naturaleza nos muestra a los animales, preparándose de forma instintiva y natural  para este gran acontecimiento y volverse padres.

Hoy, nos quedan 90 días para los 9 meses y al ser gemelos las fechas son impredecibles, en cualquier momento tendremos que viajar a Nueva Delhi, por lo menos unas pocas semanas antes de la fecha predicha. Mientras tanto Aaron y yo, seguiremos acolchando nuestro nidito. 

23 Weeks

We're back home in Seattle after a fun cruise on the pacific coast. Received an e-mail from SCI last week, just when we were about to board our cruise in San Diego, California. Many "what if?" scenarios were playing out in my mind before opening the e-mail. We were SO relieved to find that it was just our 22 week scan and that all was well with our surrogate and the twins!

Per last week's (April 26) report, Twin A measured 22 weeks and 2 days. Twin B was 20 weeks and 3 days (13 days behind). The email did say that "Dr. Shivani has reviewed the reports & found everything within normal limit." But being the worrier that I am, it's hard not to keep thinking about why they would measure almost 2 weeks apart..

It was a nice break to not have Internet, e-mail or even mobile phones on the cruise. Yet, as soon as I got back yesterday, I've been spending a lot of time talking to Dr. Google again! Mostly, what I'm hearing is that all babies grow at different rates and that the difference of under 2 weeks is not a concern, unless they are identical twins, which they are not. This makes me feel a little better. Also, the fact that Twin A would be around 23 weeks 3 days today makes me feel a lot better! We're hoping our little Twin B is getting all the nutrients he/she needs and that we'll see better progress in our next scan, which is due in 3 weeks. Has anyone else had twins measuring several days apart during their pregnancy? 

We started painting the nursery a neutral color today and will start making purchases this weekend. Really looking forward to it since we've been resisting the temptation for months now. Not sure what to buy exactly but I'm sure there will be help at the stores. Ikea, Target and Babies R Us - here we come!!

17 Weeks

Firstly, huge congrats to Bernadette & Duane on the birth of their twins. We have learned so much from them and their journey continues to inspire and motivate us. How amazing to be blessed with a girl and a boy... they truly deserve this and all the happiness in the world. We join many others in sending healing and strengthening vibes to their beautiful babies Scarlett Rose and Hayden Michael…may they grow stronger with each passing day!

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Today we received our 17 weeks scan. Twin A is 17 weeks 2 days while Twin B is 16 weeks 5 days. The e-mail from SCI states that "your surrogate is doing fine and your babies are also growing well." Everything is normal and we are now starting to get really excited!! The next scan will be done within a month and we're really looking forward to it since it will include 4-D pictures as well. Can't believe a month has gone by since our last scan. It's gone by really fast - especially the last 2 weeks!

'awww'

These days every time we go to a store, we take a peek at the babies section. We always seem to find one super cute item, then look at each other and go "awwwww!!" As tempting as it is, we are resisting the urge to make any purchases until at least 24 weeks. Even my mom wanted to purchased a bunch of diapers on sale at Costco, but we asked her to wait for at least a few more weeks.

We'll need to start working on our nursery soon and we are thinking of starting when we get to 23-24 weeks. We recently did some major remodeling of our kitchen, living room and dining room in under 5 months. So, we figure we should be able to do the nursery in under a month. Not sure what kind of cribs we should get. The twin cribs look so cute but they may not be very practical. If you've had twins, we'd love to hear your experiences on having a twin crib vs. 2 separate cribs. Also, we're curious as to how long others waited to make their first purchase. Is 24 weeks the norm?

Pacific Coast Cruise in 4 weeks!

Eddy and I just love to travel. We've been to most major American cities and 25+ countries together. Some of our friends tell us they had to stop traveling after they had kids. We do plan on taking a break from traveling for about a year and then take the kids with us after that. Before heading to India for delivery in July, we wanted to go on one last vacation. So, 4 weeks from today, we're going on a Pacific Coast Cruise from the southern tip of California all the way up to Canada. With this cruise and our 21 weeks scan to look forward to, we're hoping the next 4 weeks will fly by!

Second Trimester Begins..

 Over the weekend we received our 13 weeks scan along with a note that "R is doing fine & her pregnancy is going well."
Phew - what a relief! We are so excited that everything is going well AND we have made it to the second trimester. Woohoo!!

Dr. Jolly's report also stated that "normal active and passive movements are seen. Placentas seen along anterior wall, not low lying, grade 0." Not sure exactly what this means but if anyone knows, please let us know. From what we've read through Dr. Google, the placentas are either along the anterior or posterior wall so this sounds normal. Dr. Jolly also noted that:

Twin A
Approx. gestational age is 14 weeks
BPD - 22 mm
HC - 89 mm
Nuchal Lucency - .9 mm
Nasal bone seen

Twin B
Approx. gestational age is 13 weeks
BPD - 19 mm
HC - 73 mm
Nuchal Lucency - 1.1 mm

Nasal bone seen

Even though we had a rough first trimester, it's gone by pretty fast and our babies are growing quickly. Speaking of growing quickly, according to this site one of our babies is now the size of a lemon while the other is the size of a peach!
<Baby Size by Fruit>

Our surrogate's next scan will be in 1 month which seems like a long time but in a way, I am relieved. I tend to stress out a lot in the last few days before a scan is scheduled to arrive. The bi-weekly scans during first trimester meant a lot of stress twice a month. Once a month should reduce my stress by 50% :-)

Few of our friends already want to throw us a baby shower. That sounds awesome but we'd like to wait until we are further along in our pregnancy. Maybe when we are in third trimester would be a good time. Has anyone had a baby shower after delivery? That may be a good idea too, considering we won't know their genders until they're born!

Rainbow after the Storm

I was actually going to title this "to hell and back," but decided to stay positive, as everyone's been recommending! At approximately 9 weeks, we received news from Delhi that our surrogate had some more bleeding and was hospitalized again. I started communicating almost daily with the SCI team in Delhi. Our surrogate was on complete bed rest and at 9 weeks, Dr. Jolly found a moderate area of S/C bleed or subchorionic bleeding in her scan. The bleed area was adjacent to our twins. For those that have not heard of this before, subchorionic bleeding  is a type of blood clot found between the pregnancy membranes and the wall of the uterus. This often regresses, especially if it is small or moderate in size. Large S/C bleeds which strip 30-40% of placenta away from endometrium may enlarge further, compressing the gestational sac, leading to premature rupture of membranes and causing a miscarriage. 

I am the worrier in our relationship and so I got  little to no sleep. I could not get our surrogate and twins out of my mind and was just constantly worried that something bad might happen. Through the help of Dr. Shivani's assistant Deepika, I was able to write a  short letter to our surrogate. She replied the very next day telling me how comforting the letter was and that she was taking lots of rest. Huge relief! We also felt more optimistic when we learned that most cases of subchorionic bleeding eventually resolve by the second trimester. Finally, our friends and relatives have also been very supportive. Many of them have been with us every step in this journey. Eddy's mom who lives in Costa Rica has been praying everyday, just like my mom and dad who live close by in the Seattle area.

All our prayers were answered over the weekend. We received news from Delhi that our surrogate was scanned again at 11 weeks. "Dr. Shivani has reviewed the report and found everything fine with the pregnancy. We are happy to inform you that your surrogate R is doing fine and your babies are doing very well." Dr. Jolly made no mention of the bleed in his report and noted that both twins were doing well. Woohoo!

Twin A

Twin B

Twin A measured 49 mm which corresponds with 11 weeks 5 days (HR - 146 Bpm)

Twin B measured 37 mm which corresponds with 10 weeks 4 days (HR - 142 Bpm)

My birthday was a few days before our scheduled scan so I had postponed all celebrations. Once we received the scan, we were ecstatic and my mom organized a big birthday celebration at her house. 

no news = good news

Until this morning, I didn't know if I wanted to share this story. Then, I thought of all the stories I had read that gave us hope in this journey and I knew that I had to share ours. I know that we still have a long way to go. We're still about a week away from second trimester and the last few weeks have taught us that anything can happen at anytime. However, we hope that our story will give hope to others that find themselves in similar situations. As for us, we're just keeping everything crossed that there will be no more news from Delhi until our 13 weeks scan!

8 Weeks & Twin Storms

Outside our window

We usually get a lot of winter rain here in the Seattle area but very little snow. So far this winter had been pretty nice with little rain, no snow and the sun shining brightly almost everyday. All that changed last week when twin winter storms hit the pacific northwest (U.S.) bringing with them the largest snowfalls in decades.

Twin Storms Hit Seattle 

Most people here don't know how to drive in the snow and so getting around can be pretty risky, even if you are a good driver. With the Seattle area almost grinding to a halt with these "twin" storms, we were wondering how our own twins were doing back in Delhi. We went to sleep Sunday night, praying that all is well with the twins and our beautiful surrogate.

As it turns out, our surrogate needed those prayers. We got an e-mail early Monday morning letting us know that our surrogate had started bleeding and was hospitalized. Words cannot describe how scared and worried we were. Both Eddy and I just could not get out of the house.  First, the snow storms and now this. I started calling all the numbers I had in India to find out how our surrogate was doing. Unfortunately, everything was closed since it was past 10 PM in India. Finally, I was able to get a hold of  SCI's accountant Gourav who informed me that it was 11 PM in India but that he'd do his best to have someone from the office contact me. In a few minutes, Deepika called me back and mentioned that our surrogate was doing much better. Also, Dr. Shivani e-mailed me promptly saying that she had talked to the obstetrician and found that bleeding was mild with no clotting and that she expected our surrogate to be discharged shortly. Phew!!! We were SO relieved. One thing we're very grateful for is the outstanding communication we've received from Dr. Shivani and her staff right from the beginning. Whether it's day or night, weekday or weekend, they have always responded promptly. 
 

@ 8 weeks

It's been almost a week since our surrogate was discharged and Deepika assures me that all is well. Our surrogate's scan shows twins with healthy heartbeats. Today we are 8 weeks and 4 days pregnant. We were happy to learn from Dr. Google that we have passed the riskiest phase of the first trimester :-) However, we realize that the next 3 1/2 weeks are crucial as we wind up the first trimester. Hang in there lil ones…your dads can't wait to meet you. You are in our thoughts every moment of every day.. and until we can meet you, your grandparents and all your uncles and aunts are praying that you grow stronger and healthier everyday!!