We are living our dream

An update from a happy family

2012-02-01T13:50:00.002+01:00

It´s been a while, sorry.

Life in Sweden is great. One happy family.

Alwina is doing great but she has been having a cold for some days now. Both of us is now working and studying so Alwina has started preschool and she is enjoying it very much. She has become a big girl now, 17 months. She is all over our house and there are toys everywhere!!! Before Alwina we had our house proper and each thing had it place. We have more and more started to be relaxed with the feeling that our house can be in a mess...

She is talking a lot and she loves to swim, being outdoors in the snow, playing with lego, cuddling with our cats and much more.

Two weeks ago we got an update from India. Our pregnancy is going well (fingers crossed). There were three embies growing inside our lovely surrogate so there has been a successful reduction made. Today our twins are entering week 16. We are waiting for our next update and it should be made in two weeks. Loooooong time. But, as said before, no news are good news.

Wishing everybody good luck with your upcoming events.

Heartbeats - not heartbeat

2011-12-03T21:55:00.002+01:00

Yes, the titel is correct.

Our six week scan came today and it showes two well defined gestional sacs containing live embryos. Heartrate 108 & 112.

If everything goes well, crossing my fingers, Alwina will have not one but two siblings in summertime next year.

There is so much going on in our lives right now and it is so exiting. Alwina is a wonderful child and for her to have siblings will be wonderful. I am absolutely sure that she will make a great sister. She is all around these days. She is walking, talking, laughing, crying and more and more she has a will of her own. One of us is still at home with her but next year she will attend a preschool for 25 hours/week.

We have to consider some lifechanging projects ahead, if things moves per schedule. Our house is to small for a family of six. Yes six, we have a five year old boy living with us in fostercare but he is more and more living with his mother. It is sad but at the same time we feel joy that his biological family is getting stronger and stronger.

So, for know, we wait, and wait and...

Good luck to everybody out there in the surrogacyworld. It is very nice hearing progress and very sad to read about failure. Be strong!

So, here we go again

2011-11-18T18:42:00.002+01:00

We are doing it again and so far so good.

Letter from the clinic from earlier today:

We would like to inform you that as per our schedule we have done pregnancy test for XXXXX.

We are very happy to inform you that the value is 179.43, which is very good. Kindly find the attached report for the same.

We would like to congratulate you as you are pregnant now.

We now look forward to see you after nine months along with your baby.

First time for a short movie

2011-11-02T20:50:00.002+01:00

Ok, here is my first effort to put a short movie on the blog. If it works there might be more.
Everything is just great. Alwina is growing a lot and she talks a lot. She doesn´t walk by herself yet and everybody says that we should be happy for that!!! But, we are longing for the moment anyway.
She is eating a lot now and there isn´t much food that she doesn´t like. She is gaining weight and I guess she is about 10 kg now.
Photos another day.

Alwina, 1 year

2011-09-06T20:56:00.007+02:00

Alwina is eating carrots. We usually do this before bathing...

Alwinas first Pride-festival in Stockholm, beginning of August.

One year old. The lovely cloths is from Shilpi, thank you.

See, my teeths.

Time goes by so quickly. I am ashamed that I haven´t written more frequen but there aren´t that much time...

Some days ago our beloved daughter turned one year old. She is the sunshine in our lives and she can make a grey day bright.

She is all around the house but she doesn´t walk by herselft yet. She has two small teeths and she can say some words. The first one was "ks" that is "kisse" - cat. Then she said vov and by that she means my mothers dog. Maybe there is a vet born in India a year ago? Posting some recent photos.

2011-03-13T20:48:00.003+01:00

Let me tell you that time flies. For more than a week ago I turned 6 months.

I am doing fine. I have started to eat some solid food, fruit, vegetables and of course porridge. I roll over and in a week I probably sit on my own.

I am 65 cm tall and my weight is about 6,8 kg.

I am awake a lot daytime but I sleep through the night, from 20.00-07.00. I am learning to swim and dive and I like it a lot. Some days ago I went to the doctor for my 6-month checkup and I am doing just fine, following my schedule.

First month of the year

2011-02-02T20:45:00.009+01:00

Tomorrow our darling will become 5 months.

She has started to eat some fruit and some vegetables. She likes it a lot sitting with her mouth fully opened. But a lot of food ends up in her face!

We have also started to do some babyswimming once a week. It is lovely to see her in the pool doing some floating. She likes it a lot.

For some days we have had a crying baby. She is starting to get some teeth and I guess it aches a bit.

She doesn´t like to be put on the floor so she doesn´t roll over yet. The doctor said we need to let her be more on the floor doing some exercises. We should let her a cry, a bit of anger is just good, according to the doctor.

Her weight is about 6,5 kg and her length is 63 cm.

Some pics...

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T20:30:00.005+01:00

Hope you all will have a happy new year with your upcoming events. Year 2010 was the greatest this far, posting pictures to proof it!

Santas visit to Alwina

2010-12-24T22:41:00.002+01:00

Alwina met Santa for the first time today. She had a new outfit just for that special moment. She got some toys, cloths and money.

Hope you all will have a merry Christmas and a happy new year, filled with joy and excitement.

It´s been a while...

2010-12-16T20:44:00.005+01:00

It´s been a while since last time I wrote but I am out waching you all!

Alwina is doing just great. We went to our doctor yesterday and she is now 60 cm tall and her weight is about 5,4 kg.

We are very happy with our routines. She goes to sleep about 10pm and she sleeps until 8-9 in the morning. We were a little concerned in the beginning that she did sleep so long without food but she is eating more during daytime.

She has started to talk a lot and it is easy to make her laugh. She is holding things hard and she has started to reach for things, for example her bottle.

She has made our dreams come true and we enjoy every minute with her. She is just adorable.

Presentation of myself and some pictures...

2010-11-07T18:48:00.006+01:00

I am getting bigger and bigger. This weekend I passed 5 kg. I have increased my weight by 2/3 since birth.

I really like my home, my bed, my bath, my brother and of course my fathers. My fathers can make me smile using their voices and I have started to make some talking. But, of course, my fathers doesn´t know what I am saying. I have started to sleep all night. So my fathers can put me to bed by 23.00 and I usually sleeps until 06.00-07.00. My fathers think that is good so that they can sleep a lot too. Most of the time I am pleased being a small baby, but I do cry when they doesn´t bring me food quick enough. My interests this far is taking baths (I have been to the swimming place), travelling in the car and in my pram. Unfortunatly I have lost some hair on the back of my head but they say it will be fine soon. My eyes are getting browner and browner.

By the way, I like my nappies.

Pictures of the day!

2010-10-24T19:08:00.002+02:00

I couldn´t resist putting those two pictures on the blog. Pure love...

Three weeks at home

2010-10-23T20:46:00.007+02:00

We have been at home for three weeks now and everything is just great. We have had two doctors appointments and everything is very well with Alwina. We got her weight yesterday and she has gained 1 kg her first 7 weeks. She is now 4095 g and she is 54,9 cm tall. All according to plan (doctors words). She is a very calm baby, she doesn´t scream that much and she is very easy to handle. We just adore and love her! Look at our beautyful daughter...

A week at home

2010-10-09T20:04:00.004+02:00

My sister Josefine and Alwina

André (in fostercare with us) and Nellie (my sisters girl)

Alwina in her chair

Alwina and our youngest cat Stumpan.

Alwina, a short while after bath

Hi everybody

We have been at home for more than a week and everything feels just wonderful.

Alwina is growing. She eats a lot and has settled well into all kinds of routines.
At home our parents had a party for us when we arrived. We ate a lot of swedish food and had a lovely cake.

I have started to work again and Alwinas is at home with Robert. We are going to change after New Year, then I´m going to be home for a while.

On Tuesday there are some people from our community coming to our home. They do theese homevisits everytime there are someone born. We get a chance to ask questions and they tell you all about childsafety at your home.

Tomorrow we will be out in the garden most of the day. We need to take in all our summerplants into wintercare so that they don´t freeze. We have had minusdegrees already at night.

Going home...

2010-10-01T00:36:00.002+02:00

We are finally through with all paperwork and got the Exit-Visa for Alwina yesterday. We are flying out of India within the next few hours. It feels great! We are longing to get home to our family and friends.
Everything is fine with Alwina. She is doing great! She eats a lot and sleeps a lot. Gaining weight and getting taller.
Wishing all IP´s out there good luck on your upcoming events. It is sometimes quite hard being away from home for so long BUT it is so, so, so worth it! We have got the most beautyful, lovely daughter and she has/will make our dreams come true. Hold on...

Fredrik, Robert and Alwina

Ruby Tuesday

2010-09-14T20:17:00.006+02:00

Hi there

Today we met some IP´s, Dr Shivani, Shilpi and some more staff from SCI for dinner. We had a lovely time at Ruby Tuesday in GK 2. The food was good but a bit spicy. Thank you all for a pleasant evening and a special thank you to Trevor and Pete for that lovely present Alwina got from you.

All papers in order!

2010-09-08T16:08:00.006+02:00

Today we got the last papers signed by our lovely surrogate. By the way, she is feeling fine but was a bit sad when we spoke today.

Later this evening Mr Chawla will have our birthcertificate done, then we are ready to go to the Embassy. Unfortunatly the man we are suppose to work with is away Thursday and Friday so we got an appointment on Monday morning. If everything goes as planned Alwina will be a Swede in the beginning of next week. Then we can apply for Swedish personalnumber and after that a Swedish passport. Have no idea how long that will take but we are hopeful.

Today our lovely daughter is five days old. She is asleep a lot and she doesn´t scream that much. The first night she screamed everytime we turned out the light so we had to sleep with lights on. But the other two nights has been great. She has been sleeping all night exept when feeding. She doesn´t like to take baths - then she screams a LOT!

Alwina Keya Skoglund

2010-09-03T15:57:00.002+02:00

She is here! Alwina Keya Skoglund, born 03/09-2010 at Phoenix Hospital.

She is just wonderful. She has dark eyes, dark hair and slightly pink skin. She was born in week 38 and her weight is 3025 g.

Will write more later! Now we have to grab some dinner, hasn´t been eating in twelve hours!

SOON

2010-08-31T19:58:00.002+02:00

S/he will soon be with us.

Made a scan yesterday and everthing is fine. S/he weight about 2915 g and has a heartbeat of 152 beat/min.

Dr Shivani will try to induce labour on Thursday and if it doesn´t work there will be a c-section probably on late Friday or Saturday.

Do you think it´s boy or a girl?

New scan today

2010-08-30T20:00:00.003+02:00

Today we were with our surrogate for our last scan. It was amazing seeing the baby in there! Seeing the heartbeat, meassures and gender (NOT!). He was very quick with the things when we were near the precious parts. So, we have to wait some more days before knowing if it is a son or a daughter. But, of course, it doesn´t matter.

We also met up with Paul and Renee and we will try to meet them tomorrow afternoon.

We are also meeting up with Shilpi tomorrow. She will take us for a shoppingtour in the area. We do think we have most things that we will need but to be certain - let´s take a walk in some babystores! Horray! Wallet, Rupies and creditcards - oh we might need another suitcase!!!

Next time I write I might be a father. Keep smiling and good luck everybody.

Newly arrived

2010-08-28T09:50:00.002+02:00

We arrived to Delhi some hours ago. Everything seems to be as it was last time, a lot of noicy cars and a LOT of people.

We spoke to Shilpi upon arriving and no news yet concerning our baby. We keep you posted as soon as things happens.

It´s very real now, very real.

Fredrik and Robert

Strange comments

2010-08-21T08:39:00.002+02:00

Hi all!

Just want to say that sometimes I get some strange comments on the blog. I don´t know if it is something done by people sending it or if it is something wrong? So if you had sent a comment and it isn´t seen on the blog there has been something wrong with it!

The comments then only contains squares and dots????

Has anyone had the same problem?

/ Fredrik

It is close now!

2010-08-20T19:54:00.002+02:00

Today it is only one week until we leave for India, 7 days!!!

We have made a list of things we need to pack. But we are also thinking there might be something missing. But as priors has said, you can buy most of your things there.

Right in the middle of everything I got an offer of a new job that I couldn´t refuse! Why do all things happen at one time? So, directly after coming home I will start a new job working at a center making investigations on children having trouble to read and write (dyslexia).

At first I was supposed to be home with the baby but I can´t do that now. Instead Robert will be doing the groundjob at home. But I do know that we can be happy with our securitysystem when you are home with newborn. We can be home for 480 days, so my time will come!!!

Now I have to pack, pack, pack...

/ Fredrik

End of summer...

2010-08-10T20:40:00.004+02:00

Today is my last day before I start working again. It has been a strange summer in many ways. It isn´t often you wish your summervacation will past fast, longing for autumn!

Tomorrow, back to school again and then in a week get to meet the students again. Then leave them again for travel to India!!! 17 days until we leave...

Today I fixed the nursingtable. A few days ago I put some decor on the wardrobe and a new wallpaper is up! It is starting to become a room for a baby, our baby! (Smiling, while writing).

Photos:

Shopping...

2010-08-08T20:49:00.005+02:00

Today we have been shopping (again). We waited a lot longer this time and now we are wondering how we are going to get everything in order before leaving for baby delivery and pickup.

Today we bought a nursingtable, some linnen and a pram. I like the pram a lot. You can use it to lay down, switch and then use it to sit in, switch and then use it to put your carseat on. Perfect.

New scan today

2010-07-30T18:36:00.003+02:00

Got a new scan today saying that our child has grown a lot theese last weeks.

S/he is now 33 weeks 5 days
Weight: 2268 g (+-12%)

They have changed our delivery-date from september 20 to september 12.

Everything is going so fast theese days. We want to book our flights, getting our Visas and telling our employes that we need to leave...

In Sweden we can´t get our Visas if we don´t have the flyingtickets booked so we just have to wait...

We are just back from a week in our caravan. We have been visiting a small town called Lidköping. It was nice but the weather has been horrible. Rain, rain, rain...

Until next time...

Fredrik and Robert

Less than two months!

2010-07-21T21:46:00.002+02:00

Looking at the counter on my own blog makes me realize that time flies! It´s less than two months left of our 40-week long wait (i.e. 8 years).

If everything goes by the book we have less than 40 days before we leave Sweden for India!

Our next update is in 9 days, waiting...

Good luck to everyone and specielly to the IP´s being in Delhi.

Until next time...

A nice summerday

2010-06-30T19:57:00.002+02:00

We have had a most lovely summerday today. Just before writing we went to a lake to take an evening swim.

We got an update from India today saying:
28 weeks and 4 days
Heartrate 144 bpm
Cephalic presentation
Weight 1193 g (+-12%)

We have decided not to buy anything before getting to week 32. But sometimes it is hard not to. We saw the most beatyful baby furniture in a store a couple of days ago. We have bought one thing, a wardrobe.

My intension is to make it like a house. With windows, door and roof. I´ve seen some VERY goodlooking furnitures at a store in Stockholm. I think they import their things from Dutch company.Check out their homepage: www.systerlycklig.se and get a lot of ideas.

Until next time...smile

2010-06-21T10:08:00.002+02:00

Hi all,
Got a lot of pictures from Dr Shivani a couple of days ago. It is lovely to see the belly growing and showing.

We are entering our third trimester tomorrow and everything is going so well. According to Dr Shivani both surrogate and baby are "happy".

In a couple of weeks they will do a new scan of our lovely baby. If I don´t remember wrong there will be some 3-D photos then. Can´t wait...

Until next time...

Less than 100 days left

2010-06-12T17:19:00.002+02:00

According to our last scan we now have less than 100 days left before delivery.

Our full term pregnancy is supposed to end September 20.

We have made reservations at The Lotus from August 28. So, hopefully, we will be there in time (3 weeks before).

We got an update a couple of weeks ago, May 31. Everything is fine and the baby is growing as it is supposed to do.
24 weeks 0 days
BPD 57 mm
HC 221 mm
AC 184 mm
FL 45 mm
Weight 646 g (+ - 12%)
Heartrate 144 Bpm

Our next update will be done June 30.

Good luck, everybody!

22 +2

2010-05-15T10:56:00.003+02:00

Hi everybody

We got a report yesterday from Dr Shivani and everything is progressing well. Some weeks ago they made the Triple Marker test and everything seemed to be normal and fine.

It is nervwrecking this journey. Unfortunatly I can´t get our latest attempt out of my head. In a week we enter the week that our last SM misscarried and it´s like sitting on needles. When the phone rings you...

But this is a total different journey, I know. And everything is just NORMAL! But I wish it was September.

22 weeks 1 day
HC 192 mm
Weight 469 g (+ - 12%)
Heart rate: 144 Bpm

/ Fredrik and Robert

2010-04-19T20:25:00.002+02:00

We got some news a couple of days ago. There was some photos, both 2d and 3d. We got a small hint of what our child will look like. I do think it´s a boy!

By the end of the week Dr Shivani will do our Triple marker test.

Today we entered week 19. Time flies - I guess we are halfway there.

I have been speaking to the owners of The Lotus about apartments and then Meg wrote that we could go through Shilpi at SCI. Then I sent her a letter as well.

We have had some more great news. We have a 4-year old boy living with us 6-7 nights a month because of different things. The social service wanted us to increase that so from now on the boy is living with us half of the time. It is wonderful and very, very funny. Everything is going so well and he loves being here. He has been with us for a year and a half.

Our latest scan was made April 14 and it said:
Length 14,1 cm
Weight 202 g (+- 29g)
GA by USG 17 weeks 4 days

Until next time,keep up!

Fredrik and Robert

News from India

2010-04-05T19:50:00.003+02:00

We got a report a couple of days ago and some pictures. Our baby looks like a chimpanzee! So cute and lovely...

Here some details:
He/she has become 11,4 cm and his/her weight is about 136 grams. She/he has become 15weeks 5 days according to growth.

All the parts of her/his body seems to be fine.

We have a low lying placenta but I do know that it usually goes up the longer you get into the pregnancy.

We told Dr Shivani that we didn´t need the two week updates but waiting a month was long! Our next scan will be the triple marker test and after that we will get some 3D-photos! Longing...

Until next time,

Fredrik and Robert

2010-03-03T21:29:00.000+01:00

Got a report this evening saying that we are now entering week 12.

Everything seems to be in order.

HR 144 beat/minute
BPD 15 mm (12 w 2 d)
CRL 48 mm (11 w 4 d)
Nuchal fluency 1.2 mm

It seems like our baby is having a big head (maybe it´s gonna be as smart as its father!!!).

It feels great that everything is progressing well. It feels like everything is going soooo fast (12 weeks) but even though I do feel like it is ages between the reports. Strange...

Keep up everybody! Until next time, smile!!!

2010-02-15T07:07:00.002+01:00

Got an update a couple of days ago saying that everything is progressing well. The embryo has become 13 mm and meassure 7 weeks 5 days. The report also stated that there has been a twin, next to the large sac they found an anembryonic sac. I think it´s the same as vanishing twin.

Making progress, part 3

2010-01-27T16:28:00.003+01:00

Got a short email from Dr S today saying we have a heartbeat. She will send us the report tomorrow.

Feels great that everything is moving on so good. Next report will be in two weeks - that´s a looooong time...

Making progress, part 2

2010-01-20T07:05:00.000+01:00

We recieved a short email from Dr S late last night (nighttime in India) saying that there was one single sac seen on the ultrasound. She was going to send us some pictures tomorrow (read. today).

We are very happy that things are progressing well - will keep you informed!

Good luck to you all.

Making progress

2010-01-11T18:55:00.000+01:00

We got an email saying that Dr S would do an early test because of some holiday coming up this week. Later she called to say that one of our surrogates is pregnant and the hcg was 206, 13 dpo. A good and healthy figure! Looking forward to our next test and it is a scan and it will be done 19/01 to search for number of gestational sacs.

We are, of course, very pleased and very happy BUT we DO know that it is a long path to walk!

Celebrating our first hurdle with some cognac - Robert is working!

Until next time - keep smiling!

We are on the road again

2010-01-01T22:47:00.000+01:00

Dr Shivani wrote to us today saying that we got ten eggs of good quality. This time we are using two surrogates to increase our chanses of success. Three eggs were transferred into each surrogate and the rest 4 is frozen.

Now we just have to wait and see. Hopefully we will get a positive respons 12/01! Crossing both fingers and toes!

Happy new year to you all!

Eggcollection delayed

2009-12-30T00:03:00.000+01:00

Our eggcollection was delayed one day and we got the result today. We got 15 eggs and 13 was mature. Dr Shivani emailed us but we got a phonecall during our cinemavisit and had to get out to answer. But it wasn´t the doctor calling it was my brother. Keep you posted in a couple of days.

Eggcollectionday

2009-12-28T11:18:00.000+01:00

We are having a new attempt today with a new eggdonor. We are waiting for Dr Shivani to call/email us the result. Until now everything seems to be in order according to Dr S a couple of days ago. The prescan showed about 13 follicles so it seems good. I will write when results are delivered.

Happy new Year to you!

Back to where we started

2009-11-24T17:31:00.000+01:00

I guess this road to parenthood is a long way to go. Our second attempt didn´t succeed so now we are back to where we started, again!

We feel a bit disapointed but I guess it´s just the way it is. We are going to give it one more try then we really have to think about our situation. It also costs a lot of money - but that of course you already know!

Will be reading all your posts and maybe write once in a while. Now we have to wait... (Havn´t done that before!!!)

What to write?

2009-11-13T20:08:00.000+01:00

Since this is my second attempt to write a blog I don´t know what to write so therefor I will tell you about my day!

I guess it isn´t that many people reading but I can tell you something about myself and my life. I am married to Robert since 7 years and (as you know) we are longing for a child/children. By the way, 8 days left in 2 WW. We are a small but happy family, its us, our two cats, a big house, a lovely garden and then there is a small boy, André. He doesn´t live with us but we are caring for him 6-7 days a month because his mother is very young and need some time alone. Right now Robert are getting him into bed and I´m just finished cleaning the kitchen. We made our own pizzas and it tasted very good.

During the days I´m working as a teacher. I have been doing that for 14 years and most of the time I like it a lot. Some years ago I started to study again so now I´m only teaching children with difficulties in math, english and swedish. Right now I teach in our fift grade and by that time the students have become 10 or 11 years old.

I think that will be all for today! Have a nice sleep!

Just have to wait

2009-11-11T20:14:00.000+01:00

So, now our second attempt to become parents with a surrogate in India has begun. We had our eggcollection saturday, eggtransfer monday and now 2 ww.

We are hoping for an early phonecall in two weeks saying "congratulations"! 10 days left...