Merry Christmas!!

I want to say a big Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everyone and a make a special wish for two wonderful women.  Bec and Rene, I am hoping and wishing with all my heart that 2012 will be the year you are both blessed with babies.  Christmas and New Year always seems to be a time when we reflect back on the past year(s) and can be a difficult time when things are not running so smoothly.  Bring on the New Year I say and lets make it a cracker (a very fertile cracker for everyone)!!

Ben and I are looking forward to a few days off over the Christmas break and are spending it with very good friends in their new Penthouse apartment on the beach (yeah tough life I know).  No plans for New Years Eve as yet though we are thinking we may go out for a nice dinner with friends.


We had Bens Mum here last week for 5 days and not only had a blast but we actually achieved quite a bit baby shopping wise.  The nursery is now pretty much completed and still manages to make my eyes widen in surprise every time I walk past it!!  I have ordered the pram and will probably pick it up at the beginning of Feb with the car seats.  Now I just need to make a list of all the small items I need and start the gradual buying of these over the next 8-10 weeks.  A big thanks to Jutta for all her help and very special contributions like Lulu the Moomoo Cow (seen pictured below) and fantastic musical light projector (that will keep me even more entertained than our little ones) and all the other gifts she bought, and especially for her time and company xx

From spare room to nursery in 300 easy steps!



Ben looking very happy with his Mum (no wonder as we did all the sticking :))



2 Cots ready and waiting.




A little glass of bubbles after all the hard work (that Jutta and I did!!)

It was a lot of fun buying the nursery gear even though Ben and Jutta made me buy all the boring practical stuff while they got all the fun stuff LOL!  On a strange note I bought a cot quilt and sheet set and when I read the washing instructions the label said "not suitable for children under 12 months"  WTF???  How old do they think a child in a cot actually is?

A question for all you lucky parents of twins and multiples  - did you buy a nursing chair and if yes did you get 1 or 2 so both mum and dad can feed a baby each at the same time?  Any advice would be welcome!

Wishing you all the best for 2012 xxxx


Baby/Critter No 2

Well if i thought Ben was worried about the first photo his eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw this one.  Even I think it looks a little bit like a critter in a scary movie.  This certainly does not mean we love our little baby/critter any less LOL!!  Poor child is never gonna live this one down....

Babies turning 21 (weeks that is).

How time files!  It has been ages since my last post I know.  My excuse is we have been very busy with work and holidaying.  The car yard is going really well and we are both loving the work.  It sure is satisfying to build up a business and see that the hard work is paying off.  Well done to my wonderful husband Ben who works so hard and never ceases to amaze me with his positive outlook - Love you babe!!

On the holiday side we had a great 2 week break and flew into Sydney and then drove down the coast to Batemans Bay then through Cooma and Thredbo into Albury to spend 3 days with Ben's Mum and Dad.  We had a blast with them and did lots of eating and drinking and a bit of paddling on the Murray River too!  Then it was off to Melbourne where we caught up with Lucylu and her family.  We had a bloody great afternoon and managed to down 2 bottles of Champagne with our BBQ lunch.  It was wonderful to meet face to face and hope that we can return the favour if they visit Perth.

We then checked into our hotel in Melbourne and began the waiting game to see if our good friends from Perth could get a flight during the Qantas meltdown to join us for the Melb Cup.  Thank goodness they made it and we had a great day.  Unfortunately we did not win much money (in fact we spent more that we won) but we sure had great fun doing it!! Photo from left to right is me, Ben, Di and Andrew.

The Twiblings are growing well and we are at the end of week 20.  One of our surrogates Mrs N, was in hospital while we were away with a fever for a few days but has now been discharged so we hope she is feeling much better.  We received our first 3D photo of Baby S last Friday but Ben is not too happy about it as he thinks the baby looks a bit "melted".  I told him it's normal but I dont think he is convinced :)  Once we recieve our photo of Baby N, I will post it up.

While I was away I was not able to comment on any of your blogs because for some reason my Iphone will not let me.  I tried about 5 times and then gave up.  I have been following everybody's progress and a BIG congratulations to everyone who received good news - Its always such a pleasure to read!!

What a great suprise to see Sam and Phil and their absolutely gorgeous girls on TV for their interview on Sunrise!!  I was so happy to see such a positive story regarding surrogacy and believe the boys have certainly promoted the cause for getting the surrogacy message out there!!

We have Ben's Mum coming to vistit us in December and we are planning on getting the Nursery organised while she is here.  I am really looking forward to this and will certainly appreciate her help.  Ben and I started writing our list on Sunday night and boy it sure seems long when you think we will need double of lots of stuff (not that I am complaining!!).

I am getting so excited now when I think of bringing our babies home and know the time will fly with Christmas and New Year just around the corner.  We have been looking for someone to replace me at work and once we find that person I will need to get them trained up.  March will be here before we know it and then babies here we come!

To everyone who is on this surrogacy journey I wish you the best of luck and I would like to say a big thank you to all my family and friends who have supported myself and Ben and also eagerly await the arrival of our Twiblings xxx

Twiblings are growing and into the 2nd trimester.

Well we have made it into our second trimester and by all accounts our Twiblings (twin/siblings) are growing big and strong.  We finally started letting our friends know on Friday and they have all been so excited and full of support for us.  Some of girlfriends keep laughing when they think I will be looking after 2 babies next year, hmmm.  The amount of people who have said "you dont know what you're in for" has been a little concerning but I figure we will worry about that when we need to!!

The scans are wonderful and they are now on our fridge where we get to see them all the time.  It feels a bit more real now we have told most people and I will have to start planning and organising in the next couple of months. It's a strange feeling that I can be at work busy with work things and then the Twiblings will pop into my head and I think "oh wow we are having babies".  I get a funny nervous/excited  feeling in my stomach each time :)  A bit thank you to our wonderful surrogates Mrs S and Mrs N.  We are very glad to report that Mrs S is feeling much better after struggeling with some very bad morning sickness.

I have been reading lots of blogs and find that we are all at different stages of our journey.  It is amazing to read of all the couples picking up their new babies and of people who are now self cycling or choosing an egg donor.  Best of luck to Lucylu for this October, I so hope this will be your time!! Wishing the best too for Bernadett & Duane.  I wish with all my heart to read some good news from both of you soon xx

A big thank you too for my Aunty Valda for explaining the term Twibling to us after watching a show about a couple who were in the same situation as us with one baby in each surrogate.  I thought it was great as I had not heard it before and decided it was the perfect name for our growing babies!!

In our 8th week and everything normal!

Well we are now into our 8th week of pregnancy with our babies.  I still can't believe I get to say that!!  Babies are doing well and all the results have been normal.  One of our surrogates had been suffering from very bad morning sickness and has been admitted to hospital twice to keep her hydrated.  I hope during this time she knows that we are thinking of her and appreciate beyond words what she is doing for us.

I have been reading many of the surrogacy blogs out there and just want to say how wonderful our little community is.  I have cried and laughed while reading your stories and wish all of you the very best outcome. Thank you so much for your support and comments, they are truly appreciated  xxx

We have been very busy with work as our small vehicle wholesale operation has gone reatail.  What a couple of months we have had - not that I am complaining but 2011 sure has been a doozy of a year!! I really hope the last half of the year is unevenful and boring :)

I am happy that our office is now out of our house (good timing as we will need the room for a nursery next year) and I get to get dressed up for work again.  Ben is very thankful to see my out of my tracksuit pants and I am glad that when I get home from work now that home is home again and not a place where I have to work too.

We are both looking froward to the 12 week mark as it will be very exciting when we get to share our wonderful news with our all our friends.

Our official due date is 19th March but as you know that will probably be earlier.  If anyone else will be in India Feb/March please let me know as I would love to hear your story and perhaps make plans to meet you!!

A little bit of history and some very good news.

Well what a year 2011 has been so far.  After trying so hard to have a family since we were married in 2003 we are in the process of giving surrogacy a try.

We were hoping to use our own eggs and swimmers but after tests showed that my eggs were now too old and too few we realised our only option was using an egg donor.  I have to admit that when we first started talking about surrogacy (and before I knew about the condition of my poor old eggs) I was quite negative about the whole egg donor idea and didn't think I would be able to go through with it without my own genetics playing a part. 

As with most things when you actually start thinking about something and sorting it through your mind it all seems to start making more sense and you become far more accepting.  I thought about my age (now 40 gulp) and how this would affect our chances of having a healty child.  Would it not be better to use a young egg donor?  Would it not increase our chance of the whole process working after so many failed attempts with my eggs over the last 8 years?  The thoughts  I were having were now causing me to think that an egg donor was a much better option - Ben did not agree.  He was adamant that we should use my eggs and didn't forsee a problem.

Receiving the results saying that my eggs were not viable was a very emotional and upsetting day.  I spent a good day crying and feeling very sorry for myself and to say Ben was shocked is quite an understatement.  We now had a lot more thinking to do about moving forward on the surrogacy idea.  I was certain I wanted to go with the egg donor but told Ben I would not even consider it if he was not 100% happy with this decision.

What a difference a good night sleep makes - we both woke up feeling much more positive and excited that this could still happen, even though it was not the way we envisioned it. After talking it through we were both agreed that Egg Donor + Bens' Sperm = baby(ies)  Lets get on with it!!

After many emails and phone calls with the girls from SCI we were ready for Ben to fly to India.  We both decided that Ben would go alone for the 6 days and I would stay home with Kenny our Cocker Spaniel.  Ben jetted off on Friday the 24 June and had his first meeting with Dr Shivani on Sat afternoon when she instructed him to be back at the clinic the next morning as our Donor was ready for egg collection.  Wow that was fast!! Ben said Dr Shivani had an amazing aura the made him feel very confident in our choice of clinic.

I waited all day Sunday with no news which was very frustrating and Ben did not know anything either.  Oh the thoughts running through my head - why have they not contacted us?  Did we not get any eggs?  Very Frustrating! 

I took my phone to bed with me and checked the emails at about 2am Monday morning and sure enough there was an email from Dr Shivani to let us know that 21 eggs were collected.  I was over the moon but also wondering when Dr Shivani slept as the email must have been typed at about midnight Indian time!!

We had a geat cycle and of the 21 eggs:

19 Fertilised
15 Turned into embryos
12 Grade One

We ended up transferring 3 eggs into each of our 2 surrogates (froze 6) and crossed our fingers for a happy result.

We found out Monday 11 July that both surrogates are pregnant.  The emotion I had while reading that amazing email is hard to describe.  I could not stop crying and could not believe after so many awful phone calls from the past years to say the test was negative that this had actually worked the very first time. 

We realise it's early days yet but are both committed to taking one day at a time and keeping positive!!