#4 The Birth Announcement

We have a date...and a place to stay!

I will eventually catch up on updating the Beijing experience, but I want to spend a little time catching everyone up on the progress of Clare and Luke.  Throughout the pregnancy, we have received results/reports/measurements on how the twins are progressing based on observations of the Thai doctor, 'Dr. P', meeting with our surrogate.  Initially, from weeks 4-12, our surrogate attended weekly screenings/ultrasounds.  Then, the schedule changed to every four weeks during the 2nd and early stages of the 3rd trimesters.  Once we hit around 30 weeks, our surrogate began to see Dr. P about once every two weeks.

All along we have been told to expect the twins to be born, supposing they aren't early, at the 37th week (which would officially be July 26) by C-section.  So, in making our travel plans, we decided to arrive in Bangkok by the 35th week since many times twins like to come earlier.  The last time our surrogate met with Dr. P, we were told that she likely had gestational diabetes.  While this isn't something of tremendous concern for either the surrogate or babies, it did mean the babies could potentially be growing faster and, thus, need to come out earlier than 37 weeks.

Last week, the day we left Chicago, our surrogate had her '34' week (which was actually at 34.5 weeks) scan.  The tests for gestational diabetes ended up being false, which was good news.  The twins both measured at 34 weeks and 2 days.  'Fetus A' weighed in at 2087 grams (4.6 lbs) and 'Fetus B' weighed in at 2343 grams (5.2 lbs).  We love to see these numbers this high!  We still aren't quite sure which baby corresponds to which 'fetus'.  The labeling is based on which baby is closest to the exit (A is closest).  I guess we will soon find out their true identities.

The biggest news, no further suspense, is that Dr. P has set the date for the birth of our twins to be

Tuesday, July 22, at 7 AM!!! 

(Bangkok time...meaning Monday, July 21, at 7 PM Chicago time).  He is confident the twins will be in a strong position to be born at this point.  We could not be more thrilled with this news!  Hearing the actual date of birth has been the biggest moment of reality (meaning more numb now) in this entire process!  We hope our surrogate and the babies have a safe and uneventful final finish.

More reality comes from the fact that we are now physically in Bangkok.  We arrived Saturday night, July 12, really late, stayed out by the airport, and cabbed into the city the next morning.  We checked into a hotel (with apartment-sized living spaces and amenities)

1-BR apartment

THE most important appliance...Chris is still trying to figure out how this works!

that we thought would be a good spot to set up camp for the better part of the next month.  Thankfully, it is. I think we were sold when we arrived to our room on the 25th floor and opened the window to see our view,

Wow!

which, if you take a closer look, you can see the hospital where Luke and Clare will be born in the distance just steps away!

BNH Hospital...watch out, the Knapp-Heald's are taking over soon!

The pool isn't so bad either.

Can't wait to swim laps here!

We took a quick stroll over to hospital

BNH Hospital...since 1898

which felt a little more like a resort.  We are excited to come here next week for the most exciting day of our lives!  We checked out our surroundings and found the supermarket (they have diapers and wipes!), the 7/11 (in Bangkok 7/11 stands for 'there might be 7 or 11 of these stores within walking distance') and, most importantly, the closest McDonald's (for Chris).  We even stumbled upon Chris' company headquarters in Bangkok.

Happy JLL Employee

We couldn't be happier with our location.

So, now we are a week and change away from the big day.  We have talked with some folks during our journey and we keep getting asked about our level of excitement.  Of course we are excited even though it still feels miles away.  I have been telling people how every travel day tends to feel like 3 days at home, so its almost like we are still 3 weeks away.  Regardless, we will be daddies soon enough!

With the extra time before the births we have decided to take off for Cambodia, tomorrow (Tuesday) and visit Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat.  We will have plenty of time to explore Bangkok (which we have already started) when we get back, so we are looking forward to heading somewhere close by (1-hour flight) and enjoy some ruins and relaxation before heading back for the final pre-birth moments.