December 30...fourth day

New day, more touring Hyderabad and shopping!

Anjani sent over the driver for a day of relaxation, shopping and exploring. We were also lucky to have our friend that we met from dinner the night before join us. So our first stop was a walk in the old city. Here are narrow streets, bangle sellers, prayer mat vendors, perfume merchants, bakers, outfitters, fabric shops, jewelry shops and hawkers all vying for space. It’s a mix of crazy traffic, noisy, hot and packed full of people shopping for unique finds.

Now if you’re in to pearls, the clinic knows a great pearl and jewelry store called K. Chandrakant & Co..

You can be assured that the pearls are real and you will get a great price.

Also a must see in the area is Charminar.  It is a massive granite edifice built by Mohammed Quli Qutab Shah in 1591 to appease the forces of evil and protect the city from plaque and epidemic.  You are allowed in to view the building and climb the steep, dark spiral stairway to reach the open verandahs. Which I think is a must because the view of the rooftops, the busy narrow streets and beyond is fantastic.

After a little photo spree, we all headed back to the car, when our driver suggested that we go and see Birla Mandir which is a Hindu temple. This is absolutely amazing. It is situated on a hill and basically just floats on the city skyline. The temple offers a panoramic view of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

After all the culture I had an urge to go shopping. I wanted something to wear for New Years and I decided I wanted something traditional from India. So off we all went to GVK One located in Banjara Hills. It was a typical big fast paced mall with food courts, cinema halls, some international shops and most important local shops! I was in heaven.

I ended up getting an embroidered salwar top in teal blue with red beading. Contrasted by Pajama bottoms (skinny leggings) in red. I love it! I am in the process of looking for a photo which I will post later!

Shopping in hand we had some snacks at the Dublin pub located on the top floor of the mall. We ordered chicken wings that blew my head off… No need to ask for spicy here!

All in all the day gave me such a wonderful feeling of excitement for the future and I finally thought I sure could live here for the 2-3 months  wait that the UK makes you do when you apply for a new passport. Hopefully when we become lucky enough to have a baby.

December 29...Third Day

Back to the clinic today...

 William had to leave a "little of himself" for the lab and we are going to meet Dr. Samit Sekhar.

William and I were really looking forward to meeting him; we had a few questions that we wanted to ask in regards to the surrogacy program.

Dr Samit Sekhar was more than helpful. He explained the entire process.

·         Our first question was how do you select the Surrogate?

We really happy to find out that they worked with an NGO (a non-governmental organisation) He explained how the organisation helps women who are interested in being surrogate. It was important to us to know that the surrogates were taken care of before, during and after.

·         How does the clinic make sure that our surrogate would be healthy?

We knew that that our surrogate would undergo medical checks by the clinic. However we were pleased that they would go under psychological evaluations. I think it’s important. When I was going through IVF and donor eggs, William and I had to go through psychological meetings with our clinic’s psychologist. I found it very helpful to express my feeling at the time and to find out if this was really what I wanted.  It really helped confirm what I wanted and how I felt.

·         One surrogate or two?

This was a tricky question for us. The really “big question” for us. We really wanted the best outcome and chance, however I was not sure about having one or two surrogates. 

 I read a number of blogs with potential parents that have cycled with two surrogates at the same time to maximise their success. All seemed really happy with their choice and results. However, I needed to know if it was best for us. Could we handle having multiple births? William and I decided that even though we wanted the best chance possible, we felt we would not be able to handle having two surrogates pregnant at the same time!  We felt comfortable that we would have a great chance with one surrogate for our situation.

Dr. Samit was wonderful helping us through this decision. He explained every possible outcome and our choices. So this time around we are going with one wonderful surrogate.

 If you and your partner can "handle", in every way, taking care of at least quads at the same time... then I think ,  go for it!!! I would love to hear your thoughts on one or two surrogates and your reason why.

We both came away feeling real good about our choice and felt that we were in real good hands at the clinic.

So we decided to celebrate with an excellent India dinner at the Taj Krishna, dining at Firdaus

Firdaus-Restaurant

Which has excellent Indian food, and the menu focuses on traditional Hyderabad dishes. Our waiter was very knowledgeable. This is very useful because the menu is large. Our waiter suggested the biryani, which was excellent!  The wine list is also massive and a bit on the expensive side!

The  surroundings were really comfortable and we totally enjoyed the  live Indian music.

I guess your figuring out that William and I are a couple of foodies! Living in Switzerland, dining out is massively expensive and can be somewhat tasteless. So when ever we travel we like to to take advantage of what a big city has to offer!

December 28...Second day

Awake, fresh and ready to go. We were both looking forward to seeing Hyderabad. The weather was great, temperature was around 28 Celsius.

Our driver show up at a 11 am and off we went to see… Golkonda fort; it is one of the most famous and the biggest fortress in the Deccan plateau of India. The fort has three lines of powerful fortification walls one within the other. The first line encloses the town, the second a double wall, runs around the foot of the hill on which the citadel stands. The third line within the second and further up the hill is formed by connecting walls of masonry to the natural boulders. It’s massive! A great place to discover.

Next we went to…Located about a kilometer north from the fort, the Qutub Shahi tombs represent the most authentic and majestic display of the Qutub Shahi dynasty architectural traditions today. The grandeur of the tombs are located in a  beautiful and picturesque landscape and gardens of Ibrahim Bagh, and the tombs themselves are dedicated to the seven Qutub Shahi kings who ruled Golconda for nearly 170 years. After the hustle and bustle of the drive, it was a real peaceful place to stroll around before lunch.

This is exactly what we did… We used our travel book and choose Chutneys. It was near our hotel and we were excited to try their Thali. The restaurant was lively, full of locals, and serves a wide range of south India dishes.

If you have not trieda Thali, it is a must it’s basically India tapas served with rice and you can keep filling your plate until you are stuffed!

Here is a great link that describes the meal. All about Thali

So now feeling like locals we decided to take an auto-rickshaw back to our hotel. Even though they have meters, it’s best to negotiate with the driver and be very clear on where you want to go. He did get us to a Taj hotel; however it was the Taj Decca that he took us to. Which actually turned out great, due to we sat in the garden and had a drink. We headed back a little later to our hotel and decided to use the Taj hotel car to get us there this time.

When we got back to our hotel we got a lovely surprise. Anjani called and invited us for dinner. We ended up meeting another couple from America. They had just arrived in Hyderabad that day and were feeling the effects of jet lag. If I remember right, I think their flight took over 22 hours. We had a great meal at the hotel, in the restaurant that serves India food buffet style.

I must admit I was a little nervous about sharing our story with another couple. I have always felt this decision was such a personal and private matter and something hard to chat about to anyone that you do not know.  It is also a strange conversation to have with people who you have just met. What do you say? How was your time at the clinic?  I know for a fact William did not want to discuss his time at the clinic. It might be the Canadian in me, but I felt awkward in asking them anything about the clinic. I felt it would be rude of me to ask.  How do you feel about sharing your story?

I must admit, later I did feel more at ease, and it did make me feel better that I was not the only couple trying to make a family.

December 27...part 2

We arrived at the Clinic just after 11 am, feeling a bit jet legged but excited and nervous at the same time. I knew I had a lot of questions; however I could not remember any of them. (Mental note; write them down before you come to Hyderabad.)  However Anjani was great and started right away explaining the procedure, having us filling in our paper work on our medical information and chatting about the city. We were really surprised when he said that he would have a driver come pick us up the next day to tour the city. We really felt welcomed and taken care of, and it was only our first day. I thought to myself,” wow we actually have plans.”

I think this is really important when you come to a new city. Especially if you are coming to a new city and country to do something medical. Especially when that medical procedure involves the prospect of starting a family!

 It’s hard enough starting a family or undergo procedures that will aide you in having a family in your own City. At least at home you’re familiar with the streets, language, and culture; you also have family and friends around to support you. Going to the other side of the world where everything is new, you really need the support from a clinic. That’s my opinion anyways.

Meanwhile, back at the clinic, Anjani got William all set up with blood work, etc. then we were whisked back to the hotel to rest up and enjoy the rest of the day.

Our second highlight of the day was dinner at the hotel. We ate outside at the restaurant Kebab EBahar. The waiter was amazing at helping us navigate the menu. We love India food; however our knowledge is a bit limited. I think this is a great place to experience local cuisine.  My favorite dish was Dhal Makani. Which are black lentils cooked in spices for 24 hours in a coal pot. Fantastic!

Here is a great website that describes the dish: Jintanmanis

I am going to try the recipe this weekend. I will let you know how it went in a later blog.

December 27, 2011 Part 1

So we arrived, checked in to the hotel and headed to our room.  The hotel was kind enough to send us two coffees and fresh orange juice to the room, which we enjoyed. Especially due to we wanted to stay awake and try to get over our jet lag as fast as possible. We knew that Anjani would be calling us to schedule our first meeting at the clinic.  First thing I did was check out our view… We were on the 6^th floor and had a view of the lake and the city beyond. We could hear the sounds of Hyderabad, honking, driving, and life. It was a wonderful sound, coming from a small village in Switzerland; it was a pleasure to hear the buzz of the city. (William and I use to live in Manhattan and Hong Kong, so idle life in Switzerland was something to get use to)

William put on CNN and we both just stared at each other with the thought of “is this really happening!” It is such an exciting and scary feeling all at the same time.

Sure enough as promised, Anjani called to tell us the driver would be there at 10:45 for our first meeting. We jumped in the shower, found something to wear and headed downstairs for a little breakfast and wait for the driver.

Our meeting was great

December 26, 2011

Just finished having great friends over for Christmas dinner and then off to Hyderabad the very next day.  I was nervous about our trip… for the near 15 hours plus of travel to Hyderabad from Switzerland.

The days leading up to my departure we were filled with a strange blend of Christmas cheer and anxiety. William and I packed chaotically, dropped our dog off at our neighbors and headed to the train station to start our travels. All I could think was that we would arrive in Hyderabad at 5:30 in the morning the next day.  The 15 hours that followed were taxing on both mind and body. Even though we both had told each other that we should sleep so that we would not feel awful when we arrived, however both of us basically sat and watched airline entertainment all the way there. I am sure the flight steward thought we were in some post-Christmas shell shocked! As I think back, I believe that we were!

The landing in Hyderabad was most welcoming, after 15 hours of travel since departing from Switzerland. As you can guess, we were both exhausted and knew we had more of our journey to complete before resting. However our luggage took forever to come, in fact it was another hour and ½ before we finally got it. Then through the gate to meet the hotel manager for our transfer to the hotel. As usual we had to make a trip to the ATM so that we would have some rupees and off we went travelling through Hyderabad in the early morning haze, gazing at all the buzz and the giant fish building!  . I was imaging this very moment for a long time and it had finally arrived… We are pursuing our dream of having a baby! (Not the fish building, but everything else)

Anjani set us up at the Raj Banjara hotel, about 5 minutes away from the Clinic. The hotel was wonderful and the staff amazing.  Here is a photo of the hotel. I will catch up later and tell you how our first day was like.

Taj-Banjara Hyderabad

Our choice

I'm not even sure why I'm starting this blog in the first place. Partly it's a place to keep an account of this amazing baby adventure we're on. So why not keep a journal one might ask? Good question. I guess it's also a place where I can give our thoughts, feelings and experiences. Making a record of this incredible journey we are starting.  ...even if no one reads it, at least I'm putting it out there right?

We have chosen Surrogacy in India from the Kiran Infertility Centre, Hyderabad, India, and started our journey right after Christmas, 2011. We will be sharing our experience with the clinic and will be happy to help any Intended Parents who are looking for Surrogacy in India.

As I write this all out I think I know the reasons I'm doing this blog.
1. Maybe someone else will read it who's in a similar situation and not feel so isolated.
2. My husband and I are incredibly passionate about surrogacy and the wonderful opportunity it creates for families.
3. This baby has been so wanted for so long that it's about time I got excited about it and started telling the whole world!!!!