#9. Ladies First!

We actually both slept pretty well last night for two anxious first time fathers to be.  We woke up around 5:40 and made the five minute trek over to the hospital around 6:30. It's a short 5-minute walk over the pedestrian bridge

Excited and on our way to BNH Hospital...the building above my head with green lettering.  

and down Thanon Convent (our kids were born on a nun's street!) to BNH Hospital.

We were prepped on where to go yesterday and how the morning would unfold.  We were allowed to have one person in the delivery room, so Chris took his seat in the waiting area, and I was sent to a room to change into my 'birth date suit'

It's a good look for me right??

and went to the area where expectant fathers waited for their summoning.  I was joined by two other guys, one of whom was very friendly and spoke great English (he was Thai), and the other who kept falling asleep while waiting.  We talked for a good 20 minutes or so about many things (fatherhood...this was his second child, the Thai people, Thai food, and differences between Thailand and China...he is currently working in Shanghai) before he was finally called in.  Meanwhile, poor Papa Chris waited patiently in the waiting area through two other births (he heard the screaming babies and poor guy didn't know which was his...and saw them being wheeled off too!). Finally, it was my turn to head into the room so I completed my 'look' and headed inside the delivery room.

It's too late to change our minds now!

In the room I could see Dr. P and his staff already going to work on the delivery with our surrogate.  I was seated in a chair behind the surrogate with a 'live' view.  Apparently, the view was too live and I was asked by a nurse to move my seat back a bit more to shield my view (I was always fascinated by the operations on tv when I was younger...oops!).  During the procedure, Dr. P nodded in my direction to indicate everything was going well.  Soon, Clare was brought out (at 7:19 on 7/19...how cool is that?!?) and she calmly entered life without much of a peep.  I didn't know she was Clare or that she was even she at first...the nurses were shuffling around right behind me so I didn't have a 'clear view'!  After a minute or so, the nurses encouraged me to take some photos.

Clare Pamela Knapp-Heald
2280 grams = 5.0 lbs
(Her right foot has a band with her birth time as 7:19)

Clare didn't make much of a fuss even when she was encouraged by the nurse...just a few little groans.

Meanwhile, as you can hear the screaming in the background, brother Luke was entering the world (officially around 7:20 but it seemed a couple minutes later) with a slightly different outlook.  Boy was our boy noisy! He was laid down on a cart near his sister and I went over to take a look.  He looked a bit smaller (they both were bigger than I expected) but his healthy screams made up for that!

Luke Stephan Knapp-Heald
2372 grams = 5.2 lbs
(Crabby as can be!!)

Unfortunately, I had a little less time with Luke, so his video is short.

I am still trying to decipher all of the measurements we were given.  I will post those after our next visit when I can ask which is the official length...right now lost in translation  (the abbreviations are different and then converting the metric system!)!!  The babies were quickly whisked away to the nursery (heat lamps) and tended there by the nursing staff. They did get to meet their patient and anxious papa Chris on their way up to the nursery floor.  Chris knew it was finally his turn when he saw two babies on the cart!  Things happened fast and boy was it exciting!!  We were ecstatic and headed to a recovery room to make some phone calls.

Skyping with one happy grandma!

We were told to wait 20 minutes to see the babies again while the nurses performed the routine procedures. Unfortunately, only one of us was allowed into the nursery area to see Clare and Luke, so Papa Chris represented us this time.

My view of the babies post delivery...I could still hear Luke screaming behind this closed door!

After Chris' time to bond with the kids, the nursery doctor came out and told us what she had been doing with the babies already and what would be done in the next couple of days.  If all goes well, we will be bringing the babies 'home' to Urbana (our hotel...not the University of Illinois!) on Tuesday.

As you have probably figured out, Clare (Pamela...after my mom) and Luke (Stephan...pronounced STEF-UHN...after Chris' mom) have middle names dedicated to their grandmothers.  Chris and I are both grateful that our moms gave birth to us and also want our kids to be attached to their grandmothers forever because we have loved ours so much.

After meeting with the doctor, we left the hospital in search of breakfast and found a familiar friend and menu.

Ronnie McD greeting us the Thai way

We are currently taking a break (a breath) back at the hotel.  We will head back to the hospital around 1 or 2 for a short visit with Luke and Clare. Things are done a little differently here in Thailand post birth.  Our 'visit times' will be a lot less than we would want them to be in the next couple of days, but we are going to respect the cultural differences.  We know the babies are in great hands at BNH Hospital and we will use our time away to get our place ready for them and to relax before the total craziness begins.  We knew about these differences heading into today, so we are mentally prepared to patiently wait until the babies are ours 24/7 (a scary thought now that they are here, but we can't wait!).

I will keep updating this blog as we have more visits with the babies and more photos to share.  Check back if interested in seeing updates.  We thank everyone for their support and thoughts today.  Everything went perfectly for the babies and surrogate and we could not be more thrilled about that.  More to come!

#8. All Checked In

I'll post about the rest of our Cambodian adventure when I have time, but I want to keep everyone posted on the big day tomorrow.  This morning, Chris and I had one last breakfast at the hotel,

Breakfast view

packed up, and headed for the airport.  We didn't want to leave!  We really enjoyed Siem Reap and all of the kind and friendly staff at our hotel.  They all walked us to the shuttle van and then stood and waived as we left!  Just when we thought we would never see them again, they called the shuttle driver within 3 minutes of leaving to let him know we left an I-phone charger in the hote.  Of course, I have a different I-phone charger than Chris (I find the different chargers utterly ridiculous), so we had to head back.  When we got to the drive leading up to the hotel, there was Makara (that was one of the staff's name) having walked all the way to the end of the drive to hand it off.  We can't say enough about how nice everyone was.  Gotta make sure to tell Trip Advisor.

Unfortunately, we ran into our first travel snags today.  Our flight was to leave at 12:50 and ended up leaving at 1:40.  The flight was 1 hour, but we had an appointment to make in Bangkok at 4:00.  Baggage claim had the slows today so we didn't make it to a taxi until 3:30.  Then, we had our first experience with Bangkok traffic.

Took this from our hotel...we were in the left lane FOREVER

Not fun!  We finally arrived at the IVF clinic at 4:35 and met two women named Nancy and Joy who will be helping us with everything the next few weeks.  We filled out some paperwork and then were told to meet up with Joy at the hospital at 8 PM.

After getting set up in our hotel once again (we are staying at the same place as before) we headed over to the hospital.  When we arrived, kneeling down and signing a lot of documents was our surrogate, Sukanya. That was a really awesome moment.  She stopped signing papers for a short moment and she, and her mother who was with her, performed the typical Thai greeting of placing their hands together and nodding. We all shared a smile and then Sukanya went back to signing papers.  Boy is she big!  We got a tour of the operation room and the nursery level where the babies will stay for a few days.  Tomorrow morning, we will head over at 6:30 AM and the birth procedure should begin at 7.

After a quick dinner at a Japanese restaurant,

This was something on the table at dinner...we took this as a good 'sign'...it's similar to our surrogate's name!

we stopped by 7/11 (Chris said we needed to go to the one on the east side of the street because the one on the west is 'small and crappy'...it's nice to have so many options) and are now prepping for our last sleep before being parents!  We will be in touch with exciting news as soon as we can.