TELIA : Week THREE

(Tuesday 21st August) It's a double birthday celebration today! Three Weeks for Telia and 42 years for DADDY!!! Happy birthday DADDY!!! We can't wait to see you again soon!!

So today also marks Day: 27 for me and I have no intention what so ever of contesting Bernadette's title so am REALLY hoping to be on a plane again before lets say - Day 31!! But certainly no guarantees there as many IP's before me will attest to - so all I can do now is put on my most patient disposition and trust the system.  Zzeeeennnn......

It is absolutely pouring with rain today - and ironically of course it is as dry as a chip at home and in need of MUCH rain!! (farming country) SoTelia and I made up a short video clip this morning and posted it onto our special little face book site trying to send this rain to daddy as his birthday present. We are still awaiting confirmation of its receipt - and may be waiting ...... Some ...... Time!

There are a few new IP's arriving this week (that I know of) and so I (we) wish them all the VERY BEST for their big adventures coming up in New Delhi!!! Your precious little children will make any future frustrations so much easier to navigate and one little gassy smile from them will melt your heart instantly!

I would be happy to provide whatever "first hand experience" I can offer to anyone apprehensively approaching India for the first time - as an IP in the same situation -  and although my experiences are very basic (ie 27 days) I may just be able to put your mind at rest about any niggling concerns? Just drop me an email.

As for Telia - she has come up with a few pointers of her own!
1. Getting your nappy changed is the ABSOLUTE PITS and should be outlawed!!
2. When I wake for my bottle - always assume I was already STARVING 5 MINUTES AGO!!!
3. If you want to save on washing NEVER leave me without a nappy for longer than .003 seconds!!  4. There is no difference between S26 Formula and Nan Pro 1 Formula! They are both delicious!!
5. If you cry like a Banshee at night time there's a fair chance you will end up being dragged across town to see a Doctor in the day time - so only do this if you REALLY want an outing!! Trust me there are more fun outings to be had if you can just  zip it between the hours of say 10pm and 6am! Nappy changes and Feeds are permissible between these hours but I would suggest snuggling down and sleeping ASAP afterwards!
6. Mum tells me I want to go home. APPARENTLY there's more to life than just this apartment and having mum at my beck and call 24hrs a day!? Honestly I can't see it but if mum says so then I guess it must be true??

Lots of Love from Jacaranda and Telia xx

PS: Oh and for those wondering - a Jacaranda is a Tree! And not just any tree but my favourite tree because in the lead up to Christmas in southern Australia all of the Jacaranda trees go into the most spectacular PURPLE bloom and up against the gorgeous-ness of their green leaves look simply STUNNING and make you feel happy inside :)

PPS: There have been no more trips across town to see a Dr since our first trip just over a week ago. Touch wood we're going to make it home now before a second one is required!!

TELIA: Week Two Day 3

8pm (Friday) Ok So I am tapping this out with the iPad balanced on my lap and Telia hugged close to my chest hiccuping away like a small engine. She doesn't like evenings at all and more specifically she doesn't like the hours between 8pm and 1am! Yes that's a lot of hours to be a bit grumpy - but that's my girl! XX And then some nights - she's not grumpy at all! But there have been two when I've been that close to (somehow) finding our way to a hospital - that it's only been because I'm not too sure how to actually do that in the middle of the night - that I haven't gone! I need to check one day to see if Rahuls taxis run 24hrs . . .I guess they do but I didn't want to wake him in case they didn't!

But last Monday (lunchtime) we did go to see a very lovely Paediatrition who checked her out from head to toe and reassured me that we're right on track. Bit of a sore bum and (maybe) a bit of reflux but otherwise - we're ok. We came home with a new bottle of "colic aid" (which, according to Telia tastes like poison) some saline drops for her nose if needed (not needed yet) instructions to sleep her at 30degrees, to feed her in more of a 'bolt upright' position with heaps of intermittent burping and a real airing of her bot bot with every nappy change. Oh and to start using the Sudocream from home! She is feeding quite well (except we lose a "BIT" down the front sometimes) and she's taken to the new formula as if there hasn't been a change! Phew! That was starting to worry me - leading up to the change! The reason wasn't medical - it was simply because I ran out of the one tin of S26 brought from Australia (you guessed it the other two tins WERE coming with daddy) and apparently you can't buy S26 in New Delhi? No bother! It seems Nan Pro 1 tastes JUST as delicious!! YAY!!!

The visa nightmare has reached the 'climax' many of you probably saw coming and we've given up on them ever processing it so have asked for the passport (at least) to be returned ASAP. Photocopies of said passport are now needed for other reasons here in Delhi so its no help to us stuck in somebody's In-Tray in Sydney!!!  The visa application was first lodged June 29 and so you can do the Maths to see how long NOTHING has taken to happen. Daddys not coming to India. So very disappointed but moving on!  I have now been in New Delhi for 23 days.

Telia's application for Australian citizenship was lodged today following the excellent news last week that there was more than a 99.98% chance that my husband is her father! Oh Yay! Oh Yay! Oh Yay!!!  So I am not entirely sure what happens next. I guess I wait for the application to be approved and then apply for her passport? Anyway Poonam Jain has it all in hand and I  recommend her services to anyone coming to New Delhi to pick up their beautiful adorable gorgeous magical bundles of bliss!! 

I am so sorry that I am not able to post any photos -  whilst in India - an unexpected downside to the iPad I'm afraid - but trust me the kid looks TOTALLY gorgeous and my Green Leaf accommodation is just fine!! I would certainly love to catch up with any (currently visiting) IP's or soon to arrive IP's! It's been so wonderful catching up with several already and our friendships will last forever I'm sure! For starters we all had July babies so that's a pretty good common ground hey? 

Wishing everyone on this amazing journey the very best of luck with their next hurdles and I hope you clear them with ease and that you follow us to Delhi very, very soon!! 

Telia and Mum XX OO 

TELIA Day 9 + Bernadette

Stalking the Stalk has summed up beautifully just how many of us feel about the irrepressible, inspirational Bernadette! If you are able to contribute at all to this amazing fund raising effort please  do so and THANK YOU so much on behalf of all the IPs currently in India attempting the 'high wire' sport of surrogacy and motherhood in a wonderful but foreign land.

Telia my precious little girl has taken pity on her temporarily single mother and conceded some ground on the feeding, drinking, sleeping fronts. We had a few nights of heated discussion about it - Telia more heated than me - I was too tired to exert that much energy - but in the end she made a couple of excellent choices:

*to drink her bottles at room temperature (cutting out all that wasted bottle warming time)

*to drink all 60 mls in one sitting (and not 10mls here, 20mls there, sucking like a dummy blah blah)

* to settle better between the 10pm-ish feed and the 2am-ish feed YIPPPEEEE

These three simple adjustments have made a world of difference and I thank her immensely for that!

We celebrated her One Week birthday with a trip to the Svelte and play dates with the "Saskia - From little things, Big things grow" family and the "Our journey so Far" family! It was REALLY lovely and I had a great time - I'm pretty sure Telia did too coz she barely let out a squwark the entire time! Good Girl! Thanks again for such wonderful company guys and looking forward to more of the same in the future! Except my treat this time!!!

We also got to experience the 'Famous' City Walk Mall and I was simply blown away! The shopping options around Kalkaji are very ummmmm rustic and charming and the M Block Market is bustling and intense whereas the Mall . . . Is just like a big MALL ha ha! It was like an upscale "Westfield" shopping centre! ... And amongst other things I was finally able to buy myself a notebook!! . . Or four! . . As well as some tins of tuna! Some stuffed olives! Some Pringles! Some Nescafé coffee and some cracker biscuits! Ha ha yep - I went nuts and bought crazy stuff! But seriously you can get pretty much everything you need from that Mall from Saris to Sandshoes! :)

We've spent the last couple of days chilling out at home and waiting, waiting, waiting for whatever the next move might be. My husband has all but given up hope of ever getting here now and has returned to the oil and gas rigs in the desert. It seemed ridiculous wasting all of his hard earned holiday leave sitting around at home being lead up the garden path day in day out by all involved in the visa process.

So Telia and I are going to attempt this exit gig on our own it seems. Wish us luck! And talk again soon! XX

TELIA Day Six

Can't believe how much Internet access I've had since the Biggest Power Outage in the history of the Universe so maybe it did have one good outcome?
Telia has settled in to Delhi life with relative ease and yesterday got to see quite a lot of it due to her many appointments! Still no visa for daddy so we won't even talk about that - but I was able to hire a lovely private nurse for the day for roughly $20 and I simply couldn't have managed without her! First stop was Eden Hospital for her Jaundice review where she had a small amount of blood taken from her left hand. 1500 inr cash for this so it pays to keep a certain amount of money on hand at all times because Visa just doesn't cut it sometimes. Luckily the Passport Photographer the night before didn't empty my savings (in fact he was VERY reasonable, took GREAT passport photos, gave me a lovely 'mummy and baby' freebie photo and came to my apartment so all in all HE WAS GREAT!). She weighed in slightly under birth weight but that is perfectly normal so I'm not worried.
Then we all bundled back in to the car and headed across to SCI to settle our accounts etc. Then straight across to MBlock briefly to exchange the last of my Aussie Dollards at the Money Exchange. Now THAT was an interesting experience and I was pleasantly surprised with the end result because to my untrained eye it appeared to be total chaos! Was also acutely aware that my driver, nurse AND BABY had driven off to wait for me so was REALLY hoping to see them all again when I emerged! Yes! Thankfully I did!
Then ACROSS town to see Dr Law and have Telias DNA test. For us this meant another 'stab' for Telia (heel this time) because that's the type of sample needed by DNA Labs in Sydney. Sorry Telia!! But she was a little trouper and didn't bawl for long. That's my girl :)
Ok everyone BACK IN THE CAR and back across to MBlock for some quick-sticks shopping while I had some help! Needed to stock up on more nappies, more wipes, a couple more Avent bottles, some wash flannels, some baby oil and bath 'soap', a Snuggle thingy, some tiny bibs and of course I couldn't resist a little outfit or two.  Then just enough energy left to buy a small take-away coffee and bowl of noodles for back home. By this stage I was feeling pretty worn and Telia was looking decidedly wilted so I steered us all back home to the air conditioning and some decent feeds!! Well for me and Telia anyway - I couldn't seem to offer the nurse ANYTHING except a glass of water! I mean I offered everything/anything to her but she just wouldn't take me up on it! How BAD did that make me feel?!
At 5 and then 5.45 as instructed I phoned the hospital back for the Jaundice results and they were fine so yay. One thing off my mind. Across at the DNA appt there was an awkward moment when it seemed they may not be able to take the sample because the 'donor' wasn't present (no - don't get me started) but following a reassuring phone call to Poonam and a short discussion - a plan of attack was formulated and implemented so fingers, toes and eyes crossed it all works out just fine!!
So today is a QUIET day in front of the Olympics. Only set two challenges for the day today (1) WASH my hair!! And (2) give Telia her first ever tub bath! I'm sure she probably had one in hospital but since she's been home with me (today day 3) we've just been topping and tailing until we work ourselves out. Bath procedure pulled off without any dramatics so I am happy to report it will probably be repeated on a regular basis :)
Oh - another thing we did today was arrange for Telias dad to read her, her very first story book- via Skype! It was called "Spot goes to the Farm" and she loved it!! Hee Hee
(Ps Sorry for all iPad related spelling/grammar inconsistencies - finger tapping your posts is an acquired skill believe me!!!)  xx

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr and Mrs Jacaranda are very super overwhelmingly happy to finally announce the very safe arrival of Miss Telia Kate on Born on July 31st at 10.55am Delhi time!!
This has been the first time I have been able to re- access Blogland since my last Blog on Delhi Day 5 so apologies for the apparent delay.
Miss Telia was born via csection at the Eden Hospital and by all accounts hasn't been causing anyone too much grief in the nursery. She weighed in at 3.12kg and by my calculations held on for 38 weeks. Good Girl! At that weight she has claimed heavy weight champion of the NICU and hasn't been hooked up to any monitors or under any lighting as far as I can tell.
She has squwarked once in my presence and that was to say PICK ME UP MUM so I did and she stopped. Good Girl!
Today in "TELIA Day 3" so I am fully expecting to bring her home with me! I will find out for sure when I get to the hospital. She will either have her bags packed and waiting, or she won't!
I would also just like to use Blogland to personally thank my 'new friend' SASKIA for coming to the hospital with me the day Telia was born - in lieu of her daddy who is still frustrated beyond belief with the apparent lack of intelligence at the visa place in Australia! You got it! Still not here! Still no sign of a visa and still not able to get a straight answer from anyone! An it's a TEST I tell you!
BUT WE HAVE TELIA AND THE WORLD IS WONDERFUL DESPITE THESE HURDLES!!
(please don't listen to any advice to travel on a Medical visa!).
And now before I close for the day I would also like to express my eternal gratitude to Dr Shivani and her team working from SCI in New Delhi and to the beautiful nurses at Eden Hospital!
Access to Blogland is sketchy at best and yes most of us here at the moment were most DEFINITELY affected by that big power failure on Tueday (I believe it's made the news WORLD wide so I'm guessing you heard about it!) well guess what . . . That was the day Telia was born!
We like to make a bit of an entrance it seems.