Oh every blog needs one, so I had to write up the experience
of having a baby born in Asia. Sorry guys, but I had to do it.
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| Morgan on his stool. |
I thought this was all going to be simple because I am a
scheduled c-section Mama. But of course I rubbed in the fact that I have never
had a contraction after 2 kids and never knocked on wood. SO I guess I deserve
pre-term labor and a whole night of contractions before the nurses would give
me a c-section. My water broke at 9pm at night so I Skype called our family and
let them know we were going to the hospital thinking it would be no time before
our little guy came. I laid in an emergency delivery room bed with no room for
Morgan to rest. He sat on a stool the whole night. I had contractions every 6-8
minutes but nothing worth calling in the only foreign doctor for me. They wanted
to wait till morning. (It would be
fine if I was going to have a natural delivery, but I was still going to have a
c-section!) To be honest, that room was pretty bad, dirty and very uncomfortable.
It was a room with other women with only a curtain to separate us. I heard and
saw the other women in labor very close to me. Morning did not come fast
enough, 6:00am they started the prep for my c-section, and even though I had a
very close friend by my side to translate I still missed the little talk the
nurses had to say.
They wheeled me into the operating room and that’s when I
started to get a little worried. This room was very clean and very bright and
we were impressed with it. I was so thankful they let Morgan come with me. They
have never let a father come into the c-section/surgery room. So Morgan was
also prepped, but maybe not for all he got to see. Morgan got to watch the
whole c-section. They covered the surgery enough so I could not see but Morgan
could peek as much as he wanted. He saw the intestines and much more. But…he
also got to see little Levi John come into the world. That was the moment that
made all the stress worth it.
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| 1st picture! |
They took me to recovery room and 2 friends watched my baby
closely. After about an hour, they brought Levi to me and they asked me not to
feed him for 6 hours! I did not listen and fed him for the first time anyway. I was in a lot of pain and they insisted
on kneading my stomach and laid a brick on my belly! I was there on a full
house day so I had to share a room with two other families. Morgan had to bring
a foam bed to lay on the ground next to my bed so he could stay the night with
me and the other families. He had to do all my nursing care, like empty my
urine bag or manually lower or raise my bed so I could feed Levi. He also had
to try and convince my nurses I really did need more then 12 hours of pain
medication. Thank goodness he had Ibuprofen in his bag when they would not give
me any more pain relief that first night. We had a lot of great friends helping
with the kids and also getting us meals. It amazes me how much you have to do
by yourself here. I also did not get meals through the hospital, friends had to
bring me food during my stay too. We bought a package full of supplies for the
baby (an upfront extra cost) and so this is why my little guy was wrapped up in
pink. Every baby gets the same thing regardless if it is a boy or girl. However,
Mom supplies I had to buy ahead of time, bed pads, paper towels for cleaning,
etc. Pretty hard to think of everything, and I mean everything! I am not sure
if I enjoyed being told every few hours that I am a very strange foreigner who
does things differently. The families were very kind, but they had their way of
asking questions but really the questions were statements. One question was,
“did you just wash your hands with cold water?” Um, I guess new moms get sick
if they wash their hands with cold water, but what else should I do, the
hospital bathroom had no hot water? However I know they all loved having a foreign baby around.
The families all introduced us to their visiting friends and family. Also, the
nurses would take each baby one by one for their bath. Each baby took about 10
minutes. I started to wonder why Levi was taking longer than the others and
when I looked out the door to the nurse station, I saw about 4 nurses passing
around their cell phones with smiles like they just took pictures of something
wonderful. I chuckled knowing they had pictures of Levi naked with each nurse
on duty. One thing I had to let go from my experience in the States was never
letting my baby leave my sight. At this hospital they never heard of this and
therefore I had to just watch my baby leave the room for things like his bath.
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| Levi and his neighbor. |
All of it was pretty fun to experience. I had 3 nights
sharing a room and the last night I had my own quiet room with no extra crying
babies or snoring families. I was excited to leave and take my baby home to be
with the family. This too was unheard of that I was leaving after a c-section
so early. The normal time is 1 week for c-section and 3-4 days for natural
delivery. Still today I get the blunt statements how I should be resting in my
house b/c that is what they do. The Asian tradition here is for the mother to
wait 30 days before taking a shower or leaving her house. Also they recommend
the baby stays home for 1-3 months. I really broke all the rules when I had to
travel to Beijing when Levi was just 2 weeks to get his passport and circumcision.
Well, we have survived the first 7 weeks of his life, so I think we are going
to be ok.
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| Meeting Levi |
Would I do it again? Um…if I had to, it would be ok, I would
recommend it to a friend, just tell her to buy pain relief to take with her!
Other than that we had some good laughs and now a precious gift, Levi John!
