#19. Two Trips to the 'DMV'

It has been a successful week here in Bangkok if you judge our trips to the US Embassy.  On Tuesday, we visited the Embassy in the afternoon for Clare and Luke's DNA swabbing.

Pssst...who's your daddy??

We survived security and were placed in a 'holding' area. While we waited, we quickly realized how parallel the US Embassy is to your local DMV...everyone is there for a different reason, nobody seems prepared for that reason, and every transaction takes forever.  There were parents attempting to secure a passport renewal for their kid, others needing paperwork notarized, one guy decided to be the spokesperson to tell the Embassy how they should be doing things (as if logic is appreciated in a place like this), and one young man (appearing strung out and/or hungover) lost his passport the night before in some dramatic-sounding fashion and was supposed to leave Thailand the next day.  I wanted to ask him more about his story since we were waiting and doing nothing but he passed out on an entire row of seating (I wish I was allowed to take my camera into the Embassy).  After a 45 minute wait, we were called up to the counter and told to go back to the front gate (where we started), where we once again came through security (our security clearance must have 'timed out').  Finally, we were introduced to some peppy US college intern that took us back to the doctor for the testing.

Trip number two to the Embassy, on Thursday, was to apply for a CRBA (certificate of birth abroad), US Passports, and Social Security Numbers.  Our 'appointments' (times we were allowed to proceed to the holding area) were at 7:45 and 8:00.  We almost overslept!  Our alarm clock children didn't 'go off' like usual for their 6 AM feeding.  At the Embassy we met up with our surrogate, accompanied by her mother, and a representative from the IVF clinic.  This was the surrogate's first chance to see the twins.  I caught her eyes when she first noticed Luke and Clare on the ground in their carriers and I could tell she was happy to see them.  She and her mother both spent a few minutes smiling at Clare and Luke and taking photos with their phone.  Her mom also took a shot of me as well.  I enjoyed watching them check out the twins.

Only Chris, myself, and the surrogate were allowed inside the embassy.  Once we made it to the dreaded 'holding area', we submitted stacks of paperwork and were told to sit in a private 'shoe box sized' room.  There, Chris, myself, the surrogate, and the twins sat in close proximity for probably half an hour.  It was tight and a little awkward given that we know no Thai and our surrogate knows little English. She kept looking down at the babies and smiling as we all sat in silence.  We could see the Embassy staff shuffling all of our paper work and stamping documents.  Next, they copied each document, inefficiently, one page at a time (I didn't want to be the spokesperson).  Finally, the 'Wizard of the Embassy' appeared and the process of signing and notarizing documents took all of five minutes.  We were praised by the 'Wizard' for being so well prepared and told that as soon as the DNA results from Tuesday are confirmed, they will process emergency passports for the babies.  This could be as soon as mid-next week.  Hooray!

Our visit with the Embassy was not quite complete as we had a couple other documents needing a notary. We learned that we should have mentioned this earlier because we had to wait again for about an hour to have proper staff that could take care of this.  During this extended wait, I had the pleasure of meeting a character in the holding area who, like many others when you carry around two babies in duffle-bag like carriers, was interested in our twins.  It turns out he is originally from Pensacola, FL, (picture a Nascar-loving, Wilford Brimley-like, Southern man) and has been living in Thailand for the past several years.  He encouraged me to enjoy being a father and that when my time comes (as if he was giving a self-eulogy) the kids will be the best footprint left behind.  He said he had 8 kids himself, though many were from a second marriage.  Chris was off paying the cashier while I continued to have conversation with this odd man.  My favorite part of the exchange, maybe the comment of this whole trip, was when he asked me where I was from.  When I told him Chicago, he didn't look the least surprised and said, 'Chicago, you look like good Midwestern stock'.   I will never forget this man.

When all papers were signed, we headed out from the Embassy.  We felt bad for our surrogate's mother who waited patiently outside.  We said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel.  We left with a sense of accomplishment.  Even though we won't feel 'finished' until we open our townhouse door in Chicago, we do feel like we have made it through the gauntlet of what it will take to get home.  Now, it's waiting for confirmation of the DNA test and word that the passports are completed.  Once those are in hand, we can begin planning our return to the States.  It was only fitting that we saw our first blue skies in Bangkok of the whole trip.

As good as it gets in July in Bangkok

To celebrate, we held our first family evening 'hang out' (as in, we were all awake at the same time!)

Papa at play

 

Luke is beginning to be more present (awake) now.

Is that a smile or the moment right before discomfort?

Here's our calm, laid back, little boy.

                                         

Clare continues to stare us down.

Not in the smiling mood here

Trying to tickle Clare to get her to give us a little smile.

 They are definitely growing,

They still fit in one lap

and maybe starting to realize they have each other.

Already being protective of his sis

Here's the typical Luke and Clare show...Clare waves hello and is chattering while Luke is just hanging out.

#18. We Sleep, Therefore We Are

In Bangkok, run at your own risk!! When total cloudy conditions turn into partly cloudy (so, a little sun!!) five minutes into a run in Bangkok, an early afternoon jog to Lumphini Park and back turns from a tolerable trot into a run/walk bust.  I was the lone soul running this afternoon and now it is perfectly clear (a condition I can't fathom running in here) why bicycles are only allowed from 10:00-15:00 so the pathways are clear for everyone in Bangkok to run in the late afternoon/evening (cooler) temperatures.  Wow, I am still sweating.

This was how I left room 2505 this morning while heading to breakfast,

Before...funny how they 'sneak' into the bed in the morning

and this was the scene on my return.

After...one tired trio

I'm not sure (and I actually am sure which one it is) if it's due to our busy week of business (yesterday we traveled to the US Embassy for DNA tests and head back tomorrow for citizenship/passport stuff), or if it's Clare's sudden nightly struggles from 1-4AM (we are hoping this works in our favor when we come home to CDT), I think it's safe to say we earned a sleepy morning.

I decided to photobomb the 'party'

Changing sleep patterns have definitely caused some difficulties for us.  Chris seems more affected than me (as the photos of him wearing a bath robe in bed suggest), despite my history of insomnia and sleep trouble.  It's amazing how caring for newborns can drain the brain.  Last night, out of the blue, I came to the realization that Chris and I completely failed to acknowledge our 5-year anniversary (which we base off the day we met...July 26, 2009) last weekend, despite the fact it was Saturday and we were even out to dinner.

Given our latest woezzzzzzzzzzzzzz, I think the blog will take a little kNAPp today, get some zzzzs and rest up to share our progress with the US Embassy and exit process later this week.  Fear not, I will post some sleepy photozzzz below.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

Here's 'Good Clare'...just wait til 1AM!

Laid back Luke...our round the clock sleeper

Clare and Luke catching zzzs in their new sleep cocoons delivered from an anonymous sender...THANK YOU!

Swaddled or not (and they were totally swaddled and squirmed their way out)...

...all Knapp-Heald children must strike 'The Thinker' pose while sleeping

#17. The Business Side of Things

Look who snuck into the 'big bed' after dads got up!

Well, it ended up taking two trips to the photo shop to get passport photos for Clare and Luke!

The beginning of unsuccessful attempt #1...note the farmer tan has not improved

It seems as though our babies are passport photo shy, or they have narcolepsy.  Take 1 was actually entertaining as between Chris, myself, and four photo shop workers, we could not get either baby to open his/her eyes!  Feet were tickled, wake up calls were made in both English and Thai, and faces were blotted with a wet cotton ball.  No go.  We decided to try again the next day.

It was Saturday night which we have decided is 'twins take dads to dinner' night.  So, we walked a couple of blocks to a nearby hotel restaurant.

Too bad those tuk-tuks don't have car seats

While they slept, we ate.  It was nice to get away from the hotel for dinner for a change.

Guess which dad ordered this meal at a Thai restaurant??

Take 2 of the passport photo mission was successful.

Here we are again

The staff remembered us (hard to fathom being two guys with twin babies). It was obvious they had discussed a new strategy because instead of setting the babies down on a table with the backdrop, they draped a white cloth on Chris' lap to take the photos.

Not sure Clare's going to be the modeling type

We learned that babies are what brings people together.  Despite the language barrier we all found ways to communicate and worked as a team to get the job done (while I took pictures, of course).

Thailand's most wanted family??

Now that we are a week post birth, I think it's a good idea to update everyone on our progress and future steps with the exit procedure.  We have talked to many of you in the past few months about this part. I'm sure it seems confusing, as it is for us at times.  I will do my best to explain what is happening to bring us back home.

On July 19, as soon as the babies were born, the birth certificates were ordered.  We were thrilled they were returned to us quickly last week, on Thursday, July 24.  They were in Thai, so Chris took them to be translated into English and we have these back now today, July 28.  We have an appointment tomorrow, Tuesday, July 29, with the US Embassy to have a doctor perform a DNA test on the twins to confirm the paternal biological link to the kids. The US Embassy already has our DNA sample, taken in Chicago in June, and will take samples of the kids and then ship this quickly back to the US for confirmation.  This should take a couple of days before we receive an email confirmation and then a few more days to receive 'official' confirmation.  (Looking at these babies, we are not worried about passing this test!!)

As soon as the births occurred, we also set up appointments for both Clare and Luke with the US Embassy to help attain their US citizenship and then order US passports.  These will take place this week on Thursday, July 31. Each baby has their own appointment.  At the appointment we will be submitting a CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad), this is what declares them US citizens given a genetically related US citizen father, as well as a US passport application. Our surrogate will also attend the appointment and submit a consent form for the babies to leave Thailand.  This is what we show to customs when we exit in addition to the twins' passports.

Once these appointments have taken place and the DNA report is received and passports processed and received (phew!), we will be free to leave Thailand!  We don't want to estimate the timing of all of this too much, but based on past cases, it seems like it should take around two weeks after we attend this Thursday's US Embassy appointment for everything to happen.  We will keep everyone posted as things unfold.

Now that you are probably even more confused than before, LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!!  Luke and Clare, the people you are really interested in seeing when we get back, will be in Chicago within the next few weeks!  Here are a couple of sleepy photos of the babies taken at one week along with some of our observations as we get to know them.

Clare

Clare:  a.k.a. 'Squeaks', cute face, pretty blue eyes, likes to look around while being fed, hands must be up at all times, chugs her bottles down quickly, loves to raise her eyebrows, always chirping and making noise, seems like an old soul, ticklish, starting to smile when tickled and kissed on the face, a little gassy, likes to cuddle with Papa Chris, cries before feeding for attention, a little HIGH MAINTENANCE!

Luke

Luke:  a.k.a. 'Bubba' or 'Buddy', chubby chubby cheeks, head seems like 80% of his body weight, HUGE blue eyes, ALWAYS sleeping, adorable little cuddle lump, loves to stick his tongue out when awake, laid back, takes his time while feeding, loves to pee to his right when diaper comes off, seems like a content little boy (except when being bathed!).

#16. Size Does Matter

Angels....well....almost.

Someone must be foreshadowing...'We swear we didn't do it!'

Being a Friday night (which with Bangkok TV means watching CNN news on repeat, TLC reruns...yeah for Friday Bride night...or a few other limited options), I decided to take a night off from blogging. This ended up being a good thing given our soon-to-be first 'rough' evening. Though I am pleased to report the little ones are feeding much better now, I also must state they are beginning to dictate their own feeding schedule. Apparently, they don't like the 9AM, 12PM, 3PM, (every 3 hours), etc. schedule we have designed, especially Miss Clare. We had a lot of crying last night well before feeding times. I was 'lucky' to draw the 3AM (more like 2:30 AM) shift and it felt a little like playing the carnival game 'Whackamole'.

This is how I feel during a rough day of teaching as well

Things were non-violent, of course, and we only had two moles to 'Whack', but we had some very pesky moles to deal with that wanted their feed and wanted it NOW! At one point I literally had two bottles simultaneously in the air. Later, it was one down with bottle and one on shoulder to burp (this will be impossible in a couple of weeks when they gain weight, but works for now). Dazed in the middle of the night, I kept directing an extra arm I don't actually have with my mind to help and was frustrated when it didn't assist. Clare wiggles and chirps her way through feedings and Luke usually downs his bottle with eyes shut. Somehow, I/we survived our frantic feeding with 'Squeaks' (Clare must be destined to be a female tennis star) and 'Bubba' (what I have been calling Luke) both taking down 2 oz. What a night!

Yesterday, we had our first official check up appointment at the hospital. Chris was extremely anxious, of course. For once he was full of excitement and interest in numbers, as in grams of weight gain. Before we headed out, we took our first baths in the kitchen sink. We must be showing improvement, because Clare

Hey, this isn't so bad!!

didn't seem to mind this time and made it to her towel with little resistance.

All clean!

Luke, on the other hand,

went back to birth mode and was not as impressed. However, once we got washing his backside,

'Bubba', our little Butterball

he settled down.

Nothing like my terry cloth towel...thanks, Aunt Amy C!

Once everyone was clean, we loaded up the stroller (it's getting a little more snug with both every day) and made our short walk to BNH.

Today's obstacle...a kilometer of power lines, which the workers kindly moved to the side so we could pass

On our way, we stopped off at the food stalls for lunch. This is something we have been wanting to do and we took advantage of a cooler (only high 80's today...the polar vortex is here!) day to grab a bite for only 100 baht (meaning, we had lunch for $3).

Daddy Scott's happy he got his bowl of tom yum gai (spicy Thai chicken soup)

Once we arrived at BNH,

Thais love their royalty

Pictures like this one (on our pedestrian bridge) of the King are everywhere with the message 'Long live the King!'

we had Clare and Luke's temperatures taken and then the all-important weigh-in. Here are the results (with past weights):
                      Birth weight                             Day 4 weight                        Day 6 (today) weight

Clare             2280 grams (5.0 lbs)               2096 grams (4.6 lbs)             2140 grams (4.7 lbs)

Luke             2372 grams (5.2 lbs)                2260 grams (5.0 lbs)            2290 grams (5.04 lbs)

You should have seen the look on Chris' face over the combined gain of 74 grams (that's 74 paper clips!). When looking at the numbers, Dr. Thidawan said it was good progress and we are headed in the right direction. She asked about the feedings and poops and then gave each baby a good look. According to her, things are looking really good for both Bubba and Squeaks....another successful parent/teacher conference! We made a tentative (only if concerned) appointment for next Friday. When Chris paid our bill (a mere 1800 bath...$56.52), we decided we would definitely come back concerned or not (meaning, we will pay $50 for them to tell us we aren't screwing things up again next week!).

In the afternoon, Chris headed to a translator to have our birth certificates (currently in Thai) translated into English, while I stayed home to watch over the little ones.

I totally got the better end of the deal

We will need the English versions of the birth certificates for our appointments next week with the US Embassy (I will be making a blog post soon about our exit process and potential timeline to keep everyone updated). Both Clare

She is all arms and worked very hard to get into this position laying on top of Daddy

and Luke were such cute sleepers during their nap and when Papa Chris came home to help feed them.

Usually sleeps through a 2 oz feeding...what a talented boy!

We thought it might be an appropriate time, before the twins get too big, to give an idea of how tiny they are. So, we had some fun taking pictures with Luke and Clare and here are some of our favorite shots.

Luke and his pink lady (hi, Uncle Jeremy!)

Clare's for dinner

Luke's not impressed with old technology...

...he prefers Papa's laptop with mouse pillow instead

I-phone addict at 7 days...

...we hope she reads books instead (and she hopes we read this one!)

Luke's about the length of Daddy's running shoe

Clare is all abaht the baht

Our two little peas in their Swaddle pods

Clare's head is not quite a handful

Luke's teeny tiny hand

We are headed out for a quick stop next door to get some passport photos for the babies. Given that Luke is awake only about 5% of the day, this should be interesting!

#15. Feeding Frenzy

Well, we all survived our first night together!  We did learn that apparently Clare is nocturnal.  Papa Chris got suckered into spending a good deal of the night laying with her while she cooed with eyes wide open.

Papa's little girl in the making

Two ounces.  Just a tiny bit more than a shot.  I've never timed myself throwing back a shot, but I've been timing our children every three hours.  Sometimes it takes 30 minutes, sometimes an hour, and sometimes the two ounces aren't even finished (we've settled for one a couple times).  Our whole lives right now are consumed by trying to get these preterm babies that weigh about 5 lbs. to swallow two damn ounces of formula.  Ah, the joys of the beginning of parenting.

Once we fill the bottles up, it's go time.  (Insert Rocky theme song)  We immediately turn into bottle sucking cheerleaders and get excited for every painfully slow quarter ounce that goes down.

Clare showing her stuff

Luke suckin' it down

We've been reading that preemies are particularly difficult during early feedings.  Their stomachs are smaller as well as their attention spans (Clare!).  Our kids don't have trouble latching on, but then they stay attached and fall asleep. We've tried various forms of awakenings.  Sometimes they wake up and sometimes they don't. They don't seem to like the bottles we brought for the trip, either.  I don't know if it's the softer nipple, the color, or if they just don't like the brand Playtex. Luckily, having won the array of parting gifts from the hospital yesterday, we have found Clare prefers her Pigeon bottles (no surprise given her nocturnal chirping)

She also likes to help hold the bottle...or her face

and Luke likes his Avent.

Two ounces or bust

It's actually a blessing they like different ones since we currently only have two of each!

The highlight of our day was our first family outing to visit a Thai lawyer.  So, we packed everything up and set out for the office building...about a 20 minute walk.

I'm driving today

Things weren't quite as difficult as yesterday when we played Frogger crossing a major street, but there were still a few hurdles.  We had the uneven pavement you seem to find in every big city,

Staying the course

motorcyles driving towards us on the sidewalk (this is actually legal here...and people complain about bikes on the sidewalks back home!), and not enjoying the pedestrian luxuries we are accustomed to where the green walk light actually means we can cross a street without fear of being steamrolled.  Despite the obstacles, we made it to the office building to visit with the lawyer.

Luke and Clare's first photo with an elephant

We were even a few minutes early.

We slept through the whole walk

After visiting the lawyer, we headed back to the hotel and found our new favorite place...a nice coffee shop next door with comfortable couches. This will prove to be a convenient (and comfortable) place to conduct some of our future feedings (and get us out of room 2505!).  We also had a lot of people coming over to have a look at our babies.  Thais love little children and we are enjoying the interactions.  Papa fed Luke,

I'd rather be drinking that berry smoothie

and I worked with the fussy eater, Clare.

I won't let you down, Daddy

Both kids downed their two ounces (woohoo!) and we are already seeing improvements with their feedings. It's crazy how one week ago excitement was foot massages and having drinks on a road called Bar Street, and now it's all about watching the amount of liquid in a plastic bottle disappear, sometimes slower than an hourglass, so our babies can gain their weight!  Chris and I left the coffee shop beaming over the progress.

Don't worry baristas, we'll be back!

When we got home, we had to tend to some diaper changes,

Oops!  Someone wasn't finished yet...at least he managed to launch it to a good spot!

and then we spent some time cuddling.

Feelin' safe with that diaper on

A storm came through the city tonight,

Luckily, got my swim in before we got hit

but, like most, it didn't last too long.

Same view a few minutes later

For dinner tonight, I took about 350 baht (about $11) to the food stalls on Convent Road.  It was kind of like a game to find us something to eat on the street with the budget.  Convent was full of bargains tonight! I found us some chicken and then ran into 7/11 for some 'supplies' (buy one get one free on paper towels tonight...I couldn't read the sign but luckily the kids at the store filled me in), and was able to stay under budget. Tomorrow, Chris and I will attempt our first non-nurse aided baths (this will likely prompt a blog post). We will also head over to the hospital in the afternoon for a Day 6 checkup with the pediatrician.  We are hoping to see some weight gain and have a good report on the twins!