It’s hard to believe how fast all of this happened. We are about 4 1/2 months away from being dads, and I feel like we were just discussing our options. There is no manual or guidebook for any of this, and I am constantly asking myself questions about our preparedness and our timeline. Should we be buying cribs and strollers yet? When is too soon to pick out some baby clothes? I guess it will all come in time… I mean, with all of the billions of births on the planet, we HAVE to be better prepared than most, right?
On January 11th, we will be receiving our Week 18 sonogram pictures. The last sonogram was quite a few weeks ago, and except for brief email check-ins with Dr. Patel, we haven’t had much communication with Mumbai. In theory, the babies will be big enough that we could determine the sex pretty easily. I was initially under the impression that once we had passed the first trimester and gone beyond India’s pregnancy termination cut-off, we would be able to have the sex of the twins revealed to us. However, I learned that India has laws specifically prohibiting gender selection or identity, so we will not know the sexes before birth. After reading about the awful birth rate of females in India compared to males, it makes sense and I fully agree with the laws. Still, it would help us in planning for the shower and for the first few months of their lives. Grandma is already crocheting two baby blankets in a pale rainbow of colors. When they are born, we will still be in Mumbai for a few weeks, and it will give her time to trim them out in an appropriate color.
While we were visiting my family in North Carolina for Christmas, we finished putting together my mom’s application for an Indian visa. She mailed it off to Washington earlier this week, and it will take a few weeks to process and return. I’m thrilled that she has agreed to join us in India. Her first grand-babies appreciate it, too.
Lastly, here’s a video of our holidays that Josh made recently on his iPhone. The video captures it all perfectly. Hope your holidays were great, too.
–Matt
New Dads on the Block 