Meeting Layton....

It is Saturday morning and a tense feeling in my stomach has woken me up early today, the last couple of days have been emotional to say the least. Thursday evening was our scheduled c-section and the birth of our Son Layton. We arrived at the hospital at about 7:30 pm and quickly ran into our doctor who would be performing the operation. He escorted us into the main waiting area and told us to wait until he came for me to get prepped for the operation.  We knew from early on that only one of us would be allowed to be in the delivery room, and the other in the nursery so we decided it would be me in delivery and Daniel allowed in the nursery until release.

We ended up waiting what seemed an eternity for the doctor to come and get me to take me into the operation room, what we quickly learned in this process is that always add an hour onto whatever time doctors tell you things would be happening….

The delivery room was a flurry of activity, there were about 5 staff in the room, and this was the first time I actually met and saw the surrogate. It felt a bit awkward once I first went in but shortly after an unspoken nod of approval from our surrogate I knew this was where I was meant to be.

The delivery only took about 15 minutes and I was amazed and shocked how fast everything went, Layton was born at exactly 9:09pm August 16, 2012. He was 7.15 pounds and 50cm long. Perfect in every way. A quick burst of cries once he was removed from the womb and then he settled down and grabbed my finger right away like he knew I was there…. a moment I wont ever forget.

The doctor allowed me to run down to the waiting room where Daniel was being kept company and supported by our friend Alana and her boyfriend, and I told him to come to the 6^th floor quickly so he could meet Layton. The doctor quickly brought Layton and me into the nursery and Daniel was able to watch through a glass window. We shed our tears, laughed, and took as many pictures as we had time for…and quickly it was time for them to tend to Layton and they asked us to leave and come back tomorrow.

Layton is everything we had hoped he would be, healthy, calm, beautiful and most importantly OURS!

We know there are several more steps to go through before our travels back home to Canada, but at least for now our Layton has arrived…. and hopefully will be released from the hospital to come home to be with his dad’s!

4.5 hours to go....

It’s a short 4.5 hours until the C-section and birth of our new boy Layton. The last 72 hours have been nothing less than a whirlwind of emotions.

We arrived in Panama on Monday and it has been non stop ever since. We are lucky enough to have a good friend in Panama who has given us her place to use as our home base, and we couldn’t have asked for anything more comforting and convenient, we can actually see the hospital where Layton will be born from the windows in the condo.

We have had two appointments with Sindy at the hospital for various reasons, and paperwork and for blood sampling since we have requested a DNA test to be completed before we leave, this just in case the Canadian consulate was to request this information, better be safe than sorry….

There have been a few more twists and unexpected information once we arrived down here, and we if nothing have already become experts at trying to just go with the flow, but sometimes its not easy to not want to break down and scream. We were given the task to decide from the two of us which of us will be allowed to be in the delivery room for the birth, and after that the other one would be only allowed in the nursery until Layton is allowed to leave the hospital. We thought we had this figured out ahead of time, but we weren’t aware that there is no common room at all where the two of us could hold him, so one person would not actually hold Layton until he was released…. how do you not hold your own child for up to three days? We were able to come to an agreement, and I think it makes the most sense for both of us…and now excited to finally go through what seemed forever in the making….the birth of Layton.

8pm can’t come fast enough, today was a day that we just tried to keep calm, keep busy, or just relax. The thought of anything more was just too much for us to think about, and even though so many people wanted to give us support today we just felt best if we had a quiet day to ourselves.

Alana has been nothing but a huge support for us down here and we honestly don’t know what we would have done without her. She is going to be coming with us to the hospital tonight to give one of us support while the other is in the delivery room…I know this will help keep us calm and we will feel better knowing the other one is at least supported with family, and we do call Alana a part of our family now. She will be the first person that will be able to see our new son, and hold our new baby…Alana did get tears in her eyes when we asked her to be with us…she called it an honor, to be honest it is our honor to have her there…

4 hours and 15 minutes until the delivery…

360......

It’s Saturday evening, only hours left before we leave for the next and final step in our journey. The thought of this being the last time in our house without a new baby is overwhelming. Daniel and I have both had waves of nausea from nerves and anxiousness and to try and explain the feelings we are having I wouldn’t know where to start…

360 days ago our journey started, and it will be one year since we first made out trek down to Panama for the first time and now here we sit, almost full circle. Layton will be born this coming Thursday August 16^th, and still we need to pinch ourselves to realize this isn’t a dream anymore…. our story will finally have a happy ending.

The support we have been given throughout this year has been nothing short than amazing, our families, friends, and even strangers all jumped on our band wagon and everyone seemed to get just as caught up in our adventure as we did. We are truly thankful and understand how lucky we are.

Our suitcases are packed, one for us, and one for baby Layton. Layton’s suitcase stuffed to the brim with everything we could think of that a baby might need. Clothes, diapers, creams and lotions, funny how much space it takes once you start packing all these things.

Tomorrow we fly to Toronto and will spend the night there, where on Monday we will catch a flight to Panama on Copa airlines which will get us into Panama City at around 2:15 pm. Our friend Alana has graciously offered to pick us up at the airport and take us to her place, where we will be staying until we are able to return back to Canada hopefully a few weeks after Layton’s birth.

The story of our adventure (pre-Layton) is almost complete, now we are excited to write a new chapter in this blog, one that includes a cheerful, happy and well wanted, little boy….

Delivery Date Set!

Well we had one of our last ultra sounds this week and baby Layton is doing just fine, and now weighing in at 4.1 pounds! The doctors are saying that everything is completely normal and have given us the date of the C-Section to be the 20^th of August.

The doctors will do another ultra sound in two weeks’ time, on July 25^th just to make sure nothing has changed and they will be able to see if the weight gain remains the same and will adjust the delivery date if need be.

We are finally at the time where all the final planning can be started; airline and travel arrangements can all be booked and completed. We are going to fly down almost a week before the delivery just to make sure we can get settled and situated with the area that we will be staying, and with deliveries you never know if the date will be bumped up or not, so better safe than sorry.

The amazing thing about the delivery date is that our first appointment with the hospital, which seems such a long time ago, was booked for August 16^th last year^, almost the exact date of when Layton will be born. Who knew at that time one year ago that we would actually be repeating our travel’s down to Panama to pick up our little guy….a lot can happen in just one year!

Thirty-One

It’s now past our thirty one week period and the last stage of pregnancy is on its way. The once nervousness about the pregnancy has turned into anxiousness on preparing for our trip to Panama to be there for the delivery.

Last week we received a CD by Fed-Ex with our 3d ultra sound pictures, this was our first glance of what little Layton will look like. The previous ultra sound pictures were hard to make out and didn’t really look like anything to the untrained eye, but these new ones we received you could clearly see how far our baby has developed and what he is going to be looking like.

We are amazed now looking back on this past year how fast time has gone by, it was just about a year ago when we were booking our first flights for our first trip down to Panama to start this adventure and now one year later we are about to book our flights to Panama again to pick up our baby. What changes a year can make!

We have our last ultra sound on July 10^th, and at this time we will find out the date of our C-section and when we have to be down in Panama. We could have to be down there at the beginning of August depending on how far along the surrogate is, and anywhere between the 37^th to 39^th week of the pregnancy they could schedule it for. We believe it will be more towards the 37^th week so in a very short time frame we will be heading down south! As little as 6-7 weeks away!

Twenty Seven.....

It’s now the 27^th week that we are pregnant, so hard to imagine that almost a year ago we were starting to plan our first trip to Panama, where we didn’t know what to expect, or what journey this was going to be and when and if we were going to have a baby. This year has gone by within a blink of an eye and we still have a hard time imagining that our baby will be born in just two short months.

We are officially in the third and last trimester, and pleased to announce that everything is still going perfectly relating to the pregnancy. Both surrogate and baby are healthy and doing as well as we could ever have hoped. 

This has been quite a year, both Daniel and I have aged about 10 years a piece and if we didn’t have a full head of grey hair, well we do now! (At least I do).  The stress of this process, the unknown, the distance and language barriers, just to name a few have only strengthened our determination to get through this process and to start living a normal life again back home with a family. We soon will start the process of booking travel for our trip down, our thoughts are to book our flights just before the 37^th week of pregnancy, and then if we need to change our flights at least they will be booked. The delivery could be anytime between the 37-39^th week of pregnancy and the hospital will not know our expected delivery date until our July ultra sound. For us it will be better to be down in Panama earlier to get any extra supplies or diapers we might need instead of rushing around after the fact once Layton is born.  Also this will give us an opportunity to re-connect with our friend Alana who has graciously allowed us to stay with her in Panama while we are there picking up the baby. Two months isn’t a long time left in our journey, I know there will be more stressful moments to come, but the relief that we feel right now to be coming to the end is almost unbearable!

25 Weeks....

I’m sitting at the airport in Calgary waiting to catch a flight, of course way too early and thought this would be a good time to write a blog update. It’s been about two weeks since the last update and we have hit some milestones, personally and with the baby.

Our baby shower was thrown a couple weeks ago and about 60 people gathered for the occasion ready to celebrate, eat, and of course talk all things baby. It was the most amazing day with family and friends and both Daniel and I realized how grateful we both are for the love our friends and family have for us and that our dear friends Leah and Bryce for throwing such an amazing party. The baby shower went throughout the day, and then turned into a party that moved over to our house and went until the early hours of the morning the next day. Good times had by all, and we are still organizing boxes, baby clothes, toys and baby “stuff” that now seem to be throughout our house.

Another big accomplishment that we pretty much completed is the baby nursery. Final touches are being made and now what seemed to be a disorganized mess in one of our spare rooms has now turned out to be one of the most beautiful baby nursery’s I have ever seen. Daniel’s painting is amazing and the time we spent on this one room alone is unbelievable, but well worth it. We find ourselves now just sitting in the room, thinking of our baby. Wondering what he is going to be like, how he will like the room, and can now picture him running around his room pulling all the stuffed toys out of the bins and making a mess, a mess we wont mind at all. 5 months ago we were in Panama, going through a procedure to hopefully get pregnant, and now we are sitting in our babies room preparing for his arrival. Such a big change in a small amount of time, and we believe with perseverance all things are possible…

Yesterday we received ultra sound reports from Panama, everything is perfect. We are 25 weeks pregnant and out little guy is about 798 grams, which is well within all normal ranges for a baby his age. We also saw some picture of our surrogate’s baby bump, which is now a full on pregnancy stomach and not such a “bump” anymore. Everything is great, healthy baby and healthy surrogate; this is all we can ask for. The ultra sound pictures still don’t look like anything recognizable when you look at them, but with imagination we both see our little baby boy and all his characteristics we picture his hair, eyes, and can actually start imagining what his personality will be.  We are on the last stages of pregnancy soon, and will moving towards the third and final trimester, where does the time go?

One final thing I wanted to share with everyone is that we have named our little guy, the process with picking a name for him was quite easy for us, once we found out we were having a boy it was almost an instant decision between Daniel and I what we would name him, a name that means something personally to us and our family and with pride I can now tell everyone our baby’s name is Layton…




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