Ok. We've been terrible bloggers. But I think we have a good excuse. Ok, two good excuses!
Our time in India came to an end on Monday night. Following two flights (which Sebastian and Sienna were AMAZING on), we are now back home, trying to get into the swing of things and nail down some sort of a routine.
Before I go on, I have to say HUGE thanks to Dr. Shivani and the team at SCI. They have made our dreams come true and everyone there was very great to work with as we went through the formalities following the birth of Sebastian and Sienna. Our wonderful surrogate has also been amazing. We'll never forget what she has done for us and she'll be a part of our family stories for the rest of our lives. If it wasn't for her nearly nine months of dedication, this wouldn't have been possible:
For those of you who are going through the process now, all of the waiting, stress, emotions, emails and late-night calls all become a distant memory the minute you hold your little ones in your arms. Many of you have asked for more details about logistics so we'll share what we can in hopes that it helps those of you who are descending on Delhi soon.
The biggest piece of advice we have is to be sure you have all of your paperwork ready and printed out, extra copies made and folders created for each of the offices that you'll need to visit (ie. Embassy, FRRO). It really helps you keep sane, though to be honest, the US Embassy was very simple. The FRRO was chaotic (and thank god we had somebody helping us navigate and expedite our way through) but ultimately, it comes down to having the right paperwork in order and ready for their review.
Here are some details on what we brought and what we used:
What we brought:
700 diapers, 1000 wipes, 14 bottles, electric sterilizer, 10 short sleeve onesies, 10 long sleeve onesies, 12 socks, 7 hats, 2 hooded towels, 4 pacifiers, 2 pacifier holders, 6 blankets, 2 packs of cloth diapers (used as spit-up rags), 5 swaddle blankets, 13 long sleeve pijamas, 2 sleep sacks, 1 crib sheets, 24 small liquid formula bottles, 5 boxes of powder formula, 1 baby soap, 2 baby lotion, 2 powder, 2 diaper rash cream, 1 thermometer, 1 saline nose drops, 1 gripe water, 2 books, 1 diaper bag, 2 Phil & Teds Cocoons, 2 Ergo baby carries, 2 Ergo inserts.
What we actually used or wish we had more of:
~150 diapers, ~ 200 wipes, bottles and sterilizer, didn't use long-sleeve onesies, didn't use socks since they wore pajamas, only needed one hat each, wish we had brought two towels each (they like to pee when they are being dried off), glad we had extra pacifiers as we always dropped them, only needed two blankets each, really needed more swaddle blankets as they are in them a lot and they pee on them sometimes or milk gets all over them, didn't use sleep sacks, only needed like 6 of the small liquid pre-mixed formula as we only used it for our embassy/FRRO appointment and plane ride, had too much powder formula and only used one box, only needed one soap/lotion/powder/cream, didn't really use the books yet, the Cocoons were the BEST thing possible to bring, didn't need the Ergo carriers.
So that's what we used. Hope that helps, but also keep in mind that we were only in Delhi for 12 days after the twins were born. If it would have been longer, we probably would have used more of the stuff.
Back to twin duty now...
Our time in India came to an end on Monday night. Following two flights (which Sebastian and Sienna were AMAZING on), we are now back home, trying to get into the swing of things and nail down some sort of a routine.
Before I go on, I have to say HUGE thanks to Dr. Shivani and the team at SCI. They have made our dreams come true and everyone there was very great to work with as we went through the formalities following the birth of Sebastian and Sienna. Our wonderful surrogate has also been amazing. We'll never forget what she has done for us and she'll be a part of our family stories for the rest of our lives. If it wasn't for her nearly nine months of dedication, this wouldn't have been possible:
For those of you who are going through the process now, all of the waiting, stress, emotions, emails and late-night calls all become a distant memory the minute you hold your little ones in your arms. Many of you have asked for more details about logistics so we'll share what we can in hopes that it helps those of you who are descending on Delhi soon.
The biggest piece of advice we have is to be sure you have all of your paperwork ready and printed out, extra copies made and folders created for each of the offices that you'll need to visit (ie. Embassy, FRRO). It really helps you keep sane, though to be honest, the US Embassy was very simple. The FRRO was chaotic (and thank god we had somebody helping us navigate and expedite our way through) but ultimately, it comes down to having the right paperwork in order and ready for their review.
Here are some details on what we brought and what we used:
What we brought:
700 diapers, 1000 wipes, 14 bottles, electric sterilizer, 10 short sleeve onesies, 10 long sleeve onesies, 12 socks, 7 hats, 2 hooded towels, 4 pacifiers, 2 pacifier holders, 6 blankets, 2 packs of cloth diapers (used as spit-up rags), 5 swaddle blankets, 13 long sleeve pijamas, 2 sleep sacks, 1 crib sheets, 24 small liquid formula bottles, 5 boxes of powder formula, 1 baby soap, 2 baby lotion, 2 powder, 2 diaper rash cream, 1 thermometer, 1 saline nose drops, 1 gripe water, 2 books, 1 diaper bag, 2 Phil & Teds Cocoons, 2 Ergo baby carries, 2 Ergo inserts.
What we actually used or wish we had more of:
~150 diapers, ~ 200 wipes, bottles and sterilizer, didn't use long-sleeve onesies, didn't use socks since they wore pajamas, only needed one hat each, wish we had brought two towels each (they like to pee when they are being dried off), glad we had extra pacifiers as we always dropped them, only needed two blankets each, really needed more swaddle blankets as they are in them a lot and they pee on them sometimes or milk gets all over them, didn't use sleep sacks, only needed like 6 of the small liquid pre-mixed formula as we only used it for our embassy/FRRO appointment and plane ride, had too much powder formula and only used one box, only needed one soap/lotion/powder/cream, didn't really use the books yet, the Cocoons were the BEST thing possible to bring, didn't need the Ergo carriers.
So that's what we used. Hope that helps, but also keep in mind that we were only in Delhi for 12 days after the twins were born. If it would have been longer, we probably would have used more of the stuff.
Back to twin duty now...
