Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Some first piccies ...

We have arrived in New Delhi (about three hours ago!) and we went straight to Phoenix Hospital.

Here are some piccies we quickly grabbed, before we headed off to the guest house.

Remember ... watch this space! ;-)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The whirlwind continues ...

Okay ... this one's gunna be short and sweet ...

We arrived home from the UK late last night, after a horror first leg. The girls REFUSED to go to sleep in the basinettes, so I spent a large part of the 12-hour flight walking up and down the aisles with the girls, trying to tire them out. The girls won many a heart with the other passengers, however, with Gaia strutting up and down, waving and blowing kisses to everyone, with Evelyn following along fluttering her huge brown eyes and grinning her cheeky, toothy grin.

Today, heads congested with jet lag, we completed our DNA testing, and we are flying out to Delhi ... TONIGHT! :-/ (Talk about double-whammy of jetlag! Hmmm ... more airplane food! *sigh*)

But it will all be worth it when we finally get to meet and hold our dear son ... Reuben. :-))

So once again ... watch this space ...

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Welcome to the World ...

It is with great delight that Trevor and I welcome to the world ...

REUBEN HARVEY ALEXANDER ELWELL-WEST

Born Saturday, September 4, at 11:49am (New Delhi time)


Surrogate and baby doing very well.

*-*-*-*

Wow ... what a whirlwind couple of days this has been!

We had arrived back from staying Wednesday night with Trevor’s mum Ellen in Cannock, to find an email from Dr Shivani saying that the surrogate had gone into pre-term labour, was having some bleeding (with clots), the baby was in breech position, and so would definitely be a caesarean.

After a few frantic emails back and forth, Dr S assured us that the surrogate and baby were both well, and that the birth could happen at any time … but hopefully in a week’s time. It was all up to “Baby R” and Mother Nature of course!!!

8:30am Saturday morning (UK time), we were awoken by a phone call from Dr S saying “Congratulations! Your baby has been born and it’s a boy!”. We both bolted out of bed, went into the girls’ bedroom to find two smiling faces peering at us from over the edge of the cot, and we all went downstairs for our traditional group “jelly hug” … where Aunty Brenda found us “grinning like Cheshire Cats”.

Reuben Harvey Alexander ...
  • Reuben For my father who passed away when I was 10
  • Harvey For two of Trevor's heros ... Harvey Milk and Harvey Fierstein
  • Alexander Gramps' name.
Even though it is going to be a few days before we get to Delhi to meet him in person, we know that Dr Shivani and her wonderful team will be taking very good care of him, as we have the utmost faith in the staff at Phoenix Hospital. We are so much more relaxed this time than last …

We will be arriving back in Melbourne on Monday night, and then it’s going to be another whirlwind of making sure the girls are settled with Aunty Barb who will be moving into our house while we are going, repacking, and then off to the airport once again! I can see the massive amount of jetlag looming on the horizon now! LOL

As many of you may know, my sister Barbara took four week’s leave to come with us when we collected Evelyn and Gaia from India. She is taking more time off to look after them while we will be in India collecting Reuben, and it is with great pleasure that he was born on her birthday. What a birthday present for Aunty Barb! We love you and thank you for all the help and support you have given over the past year and a half. Mwah!

And congrats to the 55 people (79%) who guess correctly in the poll! :)




Watch this space …