Since I am in the mood for baby stuff, a couple of babies here were born right around the time of Bryan…. Both sons of my friends from SCAD.
Walker Murdza @ New Jersey, USA
Allen Tillmann @ Friedrichsdorf, Germany
Category: Baby stuff
Everything about the baby
The Same Baby?
Same kid?
Here’s What Happened….
I am sure many of you are wondering how Grace’s doing. Here it is….
After almost 3 hours tough labor, our nurse was getting concerned about the baby’s vitals. Grace’s body temperature was creeping up while the baby’s heart rate was a little unsteady at times. At first they decreased the amount of epidural so that she could actually feel the pain to help her with the push. But that didn’t work too well.
While the position of the baby’s head was improving with every push, it just wasn’t enough. So a doctor came in and explained to us a couple of options Grace had to help her with the delivery: vacuum or scoop. Grace decided on the vacuum since it had a less change of tearing on you-know-where.
Once that decision was made, a whole fricking team of people came in with special equipments which required modification of the birthing bed. WTF. They didn’t say the setup was going to be so elaborate. It’s almost intimidating.
The whole room, at this point, was filled with female nurses, doctors and specialists. Barring Bryan, I was the only male in the delivery room. That was an odd experience.
After the vacuum was setup, it took three really big pushes to get the head out, and another gentle push to get the rest of Bryan out of Grace. After this intense maneuver, Grace still suffered a third degree laceration. OUCH!
Grace took everything like a champ though. No tears. No complaints. Just really deep breathes and big pushes.
A few stitches later, Grace was all smiling with the baby in her arms. Obviously the industrial-strength pain-killer was doing its job. I have a feeling she won’t be so smiley when she goes back to consumer-strength pain-killers when she gets home…
Grace has been in recovery room since last night. She will be there for a couple of days with the Bryan.
Hanging out with granny…
Expired Visitor’s Tag
This tag may not look much. But it’s an effective visitor’s tag with a latent expiration mechanism built right in. I got this tag when Grace was still being induced to go into labor. This allowed me to go in and out of the hospital without having to sign in again and again within the same day. But the cool thing was, after I went home for a few hours of quick nap, I found this tag with “Expired” watermark that weren’t there before. Cool stuff.
The writing says “L+D” –> “Labor & Delivery”
First Moments of Life
Life is a series of events stringed together peppered with coincidences and endless decisions. Birth is one of those times when the choice was not yours, and you have nowhere to go but to simply exist. As parents, we can hope Bryan’s existence is going to be a happy and fulfilled one.
Here’s an account of the first momentss of Bryan’s life immediately after birth… In the absence of a better digital camera, my pathetic Canon S230 would have to make due.
Only seconds after birth, Bryan was brought to a examination station to check on his vitals — heart rate, skin color, respiratory system… etc. A OK on all.
What’s going on around me? Why is everything so bright all of a sudden?
Alien adoption must have felt like this… bright light above the head; strange people surrounding you, taking notes, talking in gibberish….
“Jesus Christ! Why is everybody laying her hands on me?”
Bath. Shots. More measurements. Note the computer chip on his ankle. It’s to prevent theft. It triggers hospital’s alarm when the baby is removed from the premises without authorized personnel.
Hello World
Hello World, this is Bryan!
Hello Bryan, this is the world! Welcome.
My Stats
Bryan Chu (Chinese name to be determined)
Born August 1st, 2005 @ 23:24PST
6LBs 11oz
18 inches long
To those who didn’t even know I existed, I offer no apology.
My daddy and mommy have been busy.
But for those who have already seen me in my mommy’s tummy,
Hello to you finally.
More pictures (and video clips) of me will be available soon.
Damn you, Murdza. Your boy wins on length and weight (and even time of birth).
And the Needle Is In
While I was taking mom to get some grocery, the doctor decided that Grace was having too much of a good time (not dilating) and increased the doses of picocin in her IV drip. Did that work or what…
A couple of hours later, the water ruptured. Pitocin worked. Four nurse- and three doctor-shifts later, it was about time.
Grace dilated to 4cm (10cm is the magic number; that’s when all the pushing and screaming starts). It may have been that I didn’t get enough sleep last night in addition to lack of food, I thought my knees were going soft on me when I saw the amniotic fluid draining down her legs. But all was good.
The nurse was happy that Grace was now finally making progress. But Grace was grumpy that she would now be feeling the pain at all times from this point on. In fact, the pain became so unbearable that she had to request for epidural. By now, she’s all hooked up with a bunch of high-tech machines, each monitoring a different vital status crucial to both the mother and the fetus.
More IV drips than a man can take.
More machines than a man can take.
Getting Ready for the Big Push
Had to run back home to get something to eat and get ready to pick up my mom at SFO. Perfect timing! The baby stepped on the umbilical cord in time for the doctor to see on the chart, forcing her to admit Grace for induced labor…
More monitoring…
She doesn’t appear nervous at all…. And yes, she gets her own direct line in the hospital…. Since cell phones are not allowed, this is her only way to communicate with the outside world for now.
Grace Admitted into Labor and Delivery
As of 5PM today, Grace was admitted into Labor and Delivery when we went for a cervical exam. Based a fetal monitoring chart, the doctor decided her amniotic fluid was too low for baby to move around.
More news will be updated when I am more connected to the Internet… Expected delivery time is early tomorrow morning or tomorrow night PST.
Shit…. no baby name yet…
This is the chart that was responsible for sending Grace into Labor and Delivery. There was a dip in fetus’ hearth beat, alarming the doctor that the baby may have pressed on the umbilical cord for a short moment.
Baby Noises
Heather blogs about her daughter earlier this week about her trip to a conference in CA, away from her daughter.
This is going to be a brief and much needed break from the sleep schedules and food flinging and did I mention that Leta can now etch words in glass from four feet away? The sound she makes, it’s like Björk inhaled helium laced with acid.
WTF. “Like Björk inhaled helium laced with acid”? Great, I can’t wait to meet my own baby…
Another insert from the same entry:
Tomorrow morning I leave for Santa Clara to attend BlogHer Conference where hundreds of women will be gathering to talk of estrogen, progesterone, dilated cervixes, nipple cream, jumbo tampons, the color and consistency of their discharges, ovulation, the size of your penis, whether or not a hand job should include gratuitous rubbing of the balls or is it better just to stick with the up and down, and how many times has your kid walked in on you and your husband and wondered what all that wiggling was about?
See. Told you she’s bold and funny!
Crappy Electronic Toys
Thanks to our baby registry, we’ve been getting a lot of stuff from friends and family. The one thing that I noticed about infants and toddlers related electronic products is this — they are all pieces of crap with huge battery consumption requirements.
Sure, I can understand why most of them require multiple huge size “D” batteries, but why do manufactures have to make them with such low quality and poor craftsmanship? Does being made in China has anything to do with it? Why is it that low quality products are almost always associated with the notion of “Made in China”? And truly, I have not used anything decent coming out of China as of late.
Speaking of batteries, they are so darn expensive in the U.S.! What’s the deal with that? It’s not like Americans do any better job recycling the batteries. Is it because the manufacturers can charge any amount and get away with it? Or does it cost more to make them FOR the United States market while exact the same batteries are way cheaper elsewhere because they are made locally? I’d love to find some answers on the myth of high battery costs in the U.S.
To Be or Not To Be…
Because of the unique composition of our family, I was intrigued to find out what citizenship possibilities there are for my son.
U.S. Citizenship — this is a given since my son will automatically get a U.S. Citizenship when he’s born within the borders of the United States. United States does not allow dual citizenships with very few exceptions.
Taiwanese Citizenship — this is not a particularly useful citizenship in terms of travel, but it probably beats having a passport from China since Mainland Chinese have an extremely high “disappearance” rate when they travel aboard. But for the sake of comparison, I found out that Taiwanese citizenship is extremely easy to get if either one of the parents is a citizen of Taiwan, which I am. Another downside of having a citizenship from Taiwan, particularly for a male, is Taiwan’s compulsory military service for one year and six months (or extended civilian service option) for all males before the age of 40. Taiwan allows dual citizenships.
Malaysian Citizenship — Malaysia is really a funny country. On paper the government claims it does not discriminate anyone. But in practice, it’s probably one of the most discriminatory countries in Southeast Asia (it’s hard to beat Indonesia in its mistreatment toward Chinese though). In this case, unless a child is born in Malaysia to a Malaysian parent, the father must be Malaysian if the child is born outside of Malaysia. But… what about the right of the mother? Why can’t the mother enjoy the same right for her son if she’s married a non-Malaysian and the child is born outside of Malaysia? That’s one f*cked messed up rule. Messed F*cked up, yes, but consistent with most Muslim-faith based countries I guess. More information can be found here and here. So does Malaysia allow dual citizenships? My knee tells me “no”.
We haven’t had too much pleasant experience with Malaysia and its policies as of lately. Hopefully this will change as Jai, a friend of ours, swears by the government’s efficiency. But for now, Malaysia isn’t giving too many reasons for some people whose children may consider Malaysia as their home. If Malaysia wants to be able to compete more aggressively in this global climate, it has to do more to allow qualified people to be part of its society more indiscriminately.
Just my two cents.