Hi All.
First of all, I am at 20 weeks and at the halfway mark (yay!!!). Perhaps, over the halfway mark because twins are considered full term at 37 weeks and surromomma and the twins are still doing great (double yay!!!).
"Now tell me how you really feel":
Among many causes, one source of my stress is planning baby pickup. Every time I think about the logistics, I say to myself "ugh...I will sit down and plan it out later." I am now at 20 weeks and I cannot procrastinate any longer.
Yesterday, I sent an email to SCI asking exactly which week should I plan my arrival. What stresses me out the most is that C & C (my little ones) run this show; as with their daddy, they are going to do, what they are going to do, when they are ready to do it. I am on their time! LOL. I don't want to fly to India so early that I am spending weeks and weeks (and $$$) waiting on their arrival. However, I do not want to fly their so late that I miss it.
SCI informed me that the twins will be considered full term at 37 weeks (August 7th). My surrogate's due date is 40 weeks (August 28th). Although they can come at anytime, SCI suggested that I plan to arrive at around 38.5 weeks (halfway point between when they are full term and when surromomma is due). Arriving at 38.5 weeks seems to make the most sense for me. What are your thoughts?
Coordinating a flight seems to be the most difficult. Here is my situation (I may have mentioned some of this on a previous blog), and I would love any insight you can provide. You can comment on my blog here, or if you'd like, you can email me directly at flesteresq@gmail.com. I appreciate any tips/advice you have to offer.
I plan to fly to India sometime between August 14th - August 21st (if there are any IPs out there who will be there at the same time, I'd love to meet up). Ideally, I would like to fly from Newark, NJ, as United Airlines has a direct flight from Newark to New Delhi. It will take me approximately 3.5hrs to get to Newark but I'd rather deal with that instead of the layovers and the "where's the mother" questions in different countries. If the Newark flight becomes too expensive, then I will just fly from DC.
Anyway, here's my confusion (and it is taking me forever to just think about how I want to type out what my confusion is). I am not sure how to logistically arrange the flights. I want to get a round-trip flight. How many seats should I book? My godsister Tiffany will be meeting me in India to help me with bringing home the babies. Do I go ahead and book two round-trip tickets even though it will be only me flying to India. This way, when it is time to return home, I will already have an available seat for Tiffany. When I book my flight, the airline will want names of all passengers right? Although I won't have any going; I will certainly (God willing) have two coming back home and the airlines definitely don't allow you to have 2 infants with only 1 seat. If I do this, it seems like a waste of money because there won't be anyone flying in the 2nd seat on the flight to India. Also, Tiffany would then have to get a one-way ticket to New Delhi which seems to be as expensive as a round trip ticket. Will she have any issues with Immigration/customs there when presenting only a one-way ticket?
I guess my bottom line questions is, for those of you who had someone meet you in India for baby pickup, how did you coordinate the trip? Was it difficult holding the babies the entire way (14hr flight from New Delhi to Newark)? Did the flight provide any accommodations? I'm not sure how to go about doing this? I am going to also just contact the airline to see what they suggest but I would greatly appreciate your opinions.
Thank you
First of all, I am at 20 weeks and at the halfway mark (yay!!!). Perhaps, over the halfway mark because twins are considered full term at 37 weeks and surromomma and the twins are still doing great (double yay!!!).
"Now tell me how you really feel":
Among many causes, one source of my stress is planning baby pickup. Every time I think about the logistics, I say to myself "ugh...I will sit down and plan it out later." I am now at 20 weeks and I cannot procrastinate any longer.
Yesterday, I sent an email to SCI asking exactly which week should I plan my arrival. What stresses me out the most is that C & C (my little ones) run this show; as with their daddy, they are going to do, what they are going to do, when they are ready to do it. I am on their time! LOL. I don't want to fly to India so early that I am spending weeks and weeks (and $$$) waiting on their arrival. However, I do not want to fly their so late that I miss it.
SCI informed me that the twins will be considered full term at 37 weeks (August 7th). My surrogate's due date is 40 weeks (August 28th). Although they can come at anytime, SCI suggested that I plan to arrive at around 38.5 weeks (halfway point between when they are full term and when surromomma is due). Arriving at 38.5 weeks seems to make the most sense for me. What are your thoughts?
Coordinating a flight seems to be the most difficult. Here is my situation (I may have mentioned some of this on a previous blog), and I would love any insight you can provide. You can comment on my blog here, or if you'd like, you can email me directly at flesteresq@gmail.com. I appreciate any tips/advice you have to offer.
I plan to fly to India sometime between August 14th - August 21st (if there are any IPs out there who will be there at the same time, I'd love to meet up). Ideally, I would like to fly from Newark, NJ, as United Airlines has a direct flight from Newark to New Delhi. It will take me approximately 3.5hrs to get to Newark but I'd rather deal with that instead of the layovers and the "where's the mother" questions in different countries. If the Newark flight becomes too expensive, then I will just fly from DC.
Anyway, here's my confusion (and it is taking me forever to just think about how I want to type out what my confusion is). I am not sure how to logistically arrange the flights. I want to get a round-trip flight. How many seats should I book? My godsister Tiffany will be meeting me in India to help me with bringing home the babies. Do I go ahead and book two round-trip tickets even though it will be only me flying to India. This way, when it is time to return home, I will already have an available seat for Tiffany. When I book my flight, the airline will want names of all passengers right? Although I won't have any going; I will certainly (God willing) have two coming back home and the airlines definitely don't allow you to have 2 infants with only 1 seat. If I do this, it seems like a waste of money because there won't be anyone flying in the 2nd seat on the flight to India. Also, Tiffany would then have to get a one-way ticket to New Delhi which seems to be as expensive as a round trip ticket. Will she have any issues with Immigration/customs there when presenting only a one-way ticket?
I guess my bottom line questions is, for those of you who had someone meet you in India for baby pickup, how did you coordinate the trip? Was it difficult holding the babies the entire way (14hr flight from New Delhi to Newark)? Did the flight provide any accommodations? I'm not sure how to go about doing this? I am going to also just contact the airline to see what they suggest but I would greatly appreciate your opinions.
Thank you
Hello Fred, it is mel we had dinner st Barbuddha....congrats on reaching halfway mark..I would plan to arrive at the 36 week mark..many twins arrive earlier than 37 week mark....ours held on but I don't think we were the norm...in terms of tickets..because u can't book babies tickets till they are born we used a travel agent to book our tickets including our niece who came over later.....we booked flexible return..also you can request bassinette seats and also good to let airlines know you have twins.....they will provide extra assistance if they know.....email me at melsiehay@gmail.com if you want to talk further.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mel...I sent you an email.
DeleteHi Fred. I'm gonna agree with Mel here. If I were you, I'd forget about 40 weeks with twins. Ours were born back on December 18 right at the 37 week mark and everyone was surprised our surrogate was able to hold out that long. We arrived in India on December 13 - about the 36 week mark. I was glad we had a few days to settle in before they came. We purchased a one way ticket going over on Air India out of JFK and a separate one way ticket to return on Swiss Air. Once the babies came, we called Swiss and told them we'd be bringing 2 lap children with us. they charged us something like 10% of a full fare ticket for the babies. They can't do it until you have their passports. E-mail me if you want more info. - I'd be happy to help.: rplindsay@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteThank you! I sent you an email also LOL. I'm getting a lot of good advice. I really appreciate it.
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