Sunday, May 17, 2015

Friday, May 8, 2015: Part II - The Afterbirth

I don't think I ever told you the specs of the babies... 

Edie Grace was born at 1140 am and weighed 5.71 lb

Stella Kay was born at 1141 am and weighed 5.67 lb

The nurses came and gave the babies their first feedings.
After that, we realized a couple hours later they just leave you alone and basically have you fend for yourself. It's crazy. We thought, wow, really?

They are just leaving us here with these two brand new human being babies?! Us? I mean, Scott and I are both totally ok with babies. I've been around both my nieces alone as infants since they were born as well as other cousins and what not. Scott has a huge family so he's been around babies and what not. We were both ok but we thought it was just weird they did that. It's not really like American hospitals where they come in all the time for check-ups and what not. At least, from what I hear. I've never experienced it myself, so I don't know. Our OBGYN Dr. Escorza came by to visit us along with the other OB who both did the delivery. Dr. Escorza is just amazing! We can not say more good things about her. She's the best! Dr. E came by and then other nurses and pediatricians on duty came by to check Edie and Stella. They are under a heat lamp cause they need to stay warm.
By the way, it's hot as a mofo here. Not only is it hot, it's humid. Naturally, everyone here is used to it, but we're from the San Francisco Bay Area so we're not used to it. We come from the land of microclimates and fog. We kinda kept having a kind "dispute" with the doctors and nurses cause they kept thinking it was too cold for the babies. We had to find a happy medium. So we would turn the A/C fan thing on for a few minutes at a time and then turn it off so it wouldn't be too cold. We just needed some relief. We were up on and off for 48 hours anyway so we were able to kinda regulate the temperature the whole time. Here's a little tip for anyone going to this Clínica Médica de Jesús especially if you're staying there: turn the A/C on as soon as the nurse or doctor leaves the room. That will give you a long time to cool the room down before they come back.

After the change of shift in the afternoon, they move us to a different, more permanent room down the hall. Turns out we were in a temporary holding room, as we were in a room right next to the O.R. The nurse moves us to room 103. We set up and make ourselves "at home" once again. The folks there at Clínica Médica de Jesús were super super nice. We were so thankful and lucky they gave us our own room for two whole nights with our babies!
Basically, what happens while you're there with your new baby(ies) is kinda all up to you. You feed them, you change them, put them to sleep and whatever else you need to do. The thing they did which was convenient was keep track of the babies feedings and brought in the formula in the bottle ready to go. We fed our babies 1 oz. every three hours. We set the alarms on our phones so we would be on track each time. I found it was best to set the next feeding as soon as the alarm went off for that current feeding. We would push the call button sometimes, mainly during the overnight hours, and the nurse or aide would come in with bottles in hand already. So they knew what was going on. The other thing the nurses did was give the babies baths everyday. I will write down on the next post tips and tricks for your stay at Clínica Médica de Jesús. I only put that down because we didn't go to any other hospital.

We spent the next couple days with our babies - Sleeping when they slept. By the way, doctors and nurses make rounds starting at around 7am. We slept when they slept as much as we could. There is a extremely small eating area with snacks and drinks you can purchase. At lunchtime, there is sometimes warm food. There are usually sandwiches. Thankfully, our coordinators Catherine and Joe came back Friday (the day the babies were born) and brought food - KFC and various snacks to hold us over. YES! It was great! Warm food! We were starving because we didn’t get to eat lunch, but for good reason. They came back Saturday afternoon and brought more food from McDonalds this time. They had great timing because we barely had a lunch at that point. The cafeteria had quesodillas and some warm meat/bread thing so we had that earlier in the day.

I forgot to mention the day after the birth, Saturday, we took the babies upstairs to our surrogate’s room. Before the delivery, she and her husband asked if we could come back with the babies so they can all get pictures with them and their own three kids. So after we had a quick bite of our brunch, we took the babies up to see Tati and her family. Her husband and three kids were there and her husband Alejandro quickly left to get Tati’s sister. During that time her and her three young kids checked out the babies. It was a nice visit. Alejandro was super excited to hold them too. I thought it was a nice touching moment for them to hold the babies they helped bring in to the world for us. Tati’s sister came in and held them too. Another lady came in a little bit later, which we think was Tati’s mom. She seemed a little unsure about the whole thing, however everyone else was happy. I guess it’s not for everyone. Whatever the case, it was a nice touching moment and Alejandro took so many pictures with them and their kids with our kids. They kept blessing our babies with the sign of the cross on their foreheads.


Alone with newborn twins? It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought. I think the adrenaline rush from their birth kept us going and going. Plus, it’s the only thing we needed to do. So we switched off taking care of them - meaning, I took one and Scott took one. We were only taking care of one at the same time. So it wasn’t all that bad. Just remember to sleep at every moment you can while you’re there and I guess, while you’re in your hotel room when you get back. We were free to come and go as we please and go back to the hotel but I think neither of us wanted to leave. There is a shower in the bathroom and they provide you with soap, towel and toilet paper. You needed to bring your own stuff, even more toilet paper, if you needed more. We stayed the whole two nights.

We were discharged on Sunday afternoon. Note to any IPs staying at Clínica Médica de Jesús: you need to pay for your surrogates cafeteria bill or any other bill she might incur. It was totally fine with us to do so. Another note: cash only. So we get packed up and actually, we packed up way way earlier in the morning. We were SO ready to get out of there. The babies got one more bath and check-up from the pediatrician before we left and another feeding. We left at around 1345 and our ride back to the hotel was, get this….. a regular Taxi!
We wanted to just get back to the hotel so we piled in. Also, there were no seatbelt in the back and I held on to the carseats for dear life. It was a short maybe 5-8 minute drive back to the hotel. The taxi driver was careful to avoid the pot holes and bumps and what not.

So here we are, nine days later (sorry to write part two so late, it’s kinda hard to find a good chunk of time to write) and we’ve been at the hotel. We are here this long because we are waiting for our official birth certificates. Remember, things don’t run the same here as back home in the U.S. so you will need need need to pack your patients like no other! Start practicing your patience now! It’s actually not too bad being here trapped in the hotel. It’s great great great bonding time with the babies because you have no other responsibilities other than to the babies.

Personally, I think waiting of the official birth certificates thing is kind of…… dumb. A co-worker texted the other day and said you can’t leave the hospital at home without a birth certificate! Again, you have to remind yourself we’re not in the United States and things don’t run here the way we are used to. Things that should have been done by the lawyer long before the births, were only taken care of after the birth and not only after, four days after birth! I know, I know. Like I said earlier, pack your patience!! We got word Friday afternoon whatever the Civil Registry office needed from us they got and approved the birth certificates. Why they couldn’t just print those two pieces of paper out on Friday before end of business, I can not even try to explain. We had a appointment at the U.S. Embassy scheduled for Friday morning which we had to reschedule to next week. Our coordinator Joe keeps pushing and pushing for our lawyer to try to get the birth certificates ASAP. It sucks because it just prolongs our stay here away from home. We can’t really afford too much more! I already have to go back to work sooner rather than later. Anyway, Scott is kinda feeling trapped being here in the hotel room and I’m slowly getting there. Coincidentally we are binge-watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix. Great show! It helps pass the time and it’s great to binge-watch a show like that.

Here is what I put together for the Facebook announcement. How 2015 of us. My iPhone says Edie was born at 1140am and Stella was born a minute later at 1141am but the hospital wrote differently. So that's what I put down. 

More to come later! 

5 comments:

  1. Love the updates, hopefully you'll be able to bring then home soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you! it's been hard to update lately with the lack of a computer now. but we met with the embassy (spent most of yesterday there) and will hope to be home maybe as soon as this weekend. yeah!

      Delete
  2. Wow! This weekend!?! Excellent! How was the flight from Villahermosa to Mexico City?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. we hope so! we're supposed to get the DNA results tomorrow. flight was ok. the girls did just fine. fussy at times but overall, they did ok!

      Delete
  3. Wow! This weekend!?! Excellent! How was the flight from Villahermosa to Mexico City?

    ReplyDelete