Married to Doc

When I brought Tin in the hospital, I wasn't alarmed about her situation. I guess it was because of the fact that I know her friends (I couldn't argue with her about her pregnancy since she knows more than I do). When she was rolled to the labor room, I just stayed for a while and left her to the care of her doctor friends.

When I wanted to stop the docs from pressing her gut to squeeze out our baby, I realized that I am dealing with professionals and I am not the expert on that room. I had to trust them that they knew what they were doing. Of course, it was more of my imagination than the skills of the docs that attended her. It was a learning experience and I admire my wife to have the guts to cut someone else's gut and the blood is all over.

They are a sweet bunch! Though when they start talking about medical goblydooks, I just stay on the corner and try to understand the cryptic language they use. Lately, I get to pick out some familiar terms but I am still a foreigner in her field (for some reason, medical industry likes words that run out of vowels).

I do find her field interesting and quite technical as well, and the sakes are higher (which I am not comfy with). But my wife, she just takes it in stride!

These are some pictures of the docs who visited her after she delivered our baby.

My kid and the penguin

One time, on our way to the hospital, Tin and I were talking about the skills that our baby needs to develop. She wants the baby to be exposed in music; she wants her to learn how to play piano (I want her to learn how to play violin).

I shared her my plan - at a very young age, I want her to learn Linux as the operating system. I told my wife that since we are going to have one TV unit in our place, the PC should be placed in our bedroom and can serve as a media server. But it should be running in Linux; this way, our baby will have to figure it out how to use it. And if she wants to play computer games (most of it are running in Microsoft operating system or Windows), she has to figure out a way how to use Linux instead. Linux do not run non-Linux applications, however, there is an application that mimics Windows and let Microsoft-based applications run; but it takes a bit of know how (which I am not even familiar with). So if she can figure this out, she'll really learn a lot about computers.

Also, Linux has a security feature that can restrict the usage of a user. So I plan to teach my kid how to use it for basic purposes; and if she's creative, she has to learn security stuff. She will learn how to run OpenOffice (instead of Microsoft Office Suite), compose graphics in GIMP (instead of Photoshop), browse the internet thru Mozilla or Lynx (instead of Internet Explorer), or archive files thru Gzip (instead of WinZip). She will definitely learn TCP/IP by heart!

By exposing the kid at the early stage, she will be more exposed compared to the other kids of her age. She might not take computer science (which I won't force her to), but it will definitely help her early development.

I joked that by the time she reaches high school, she'll know how to develop applications; and by the time she finishes high school, she can crack her way through networks. And this was the point my wife told me that with this plan, I should start saving money for our kid's bail bond!

Feeling of a new dad...

When I found out that my wife's pregnant, I really didn't want to know what's the baby's sex. For me, it wasn't important if he's a "she" or a "he". I felt that it doesn't matter if she was a boy or a girl; what's important is how the parents will raise her. And I never felt that raising a girl would stop me from making her like my profession or hobbies (I am already planning to reformat our PC to Linux so that she will learn how to use Linux at an early stage).

My friends and family members would tell me that it feels different to see your first born child. I never knew what it was until I saw the baby's head appeared while the rest of her body was squeezed out by the docs.

I was excited! I felt protective (if the docs weren't my wife's friend, I would have asked them to stop pressing my wife's gut)! I didn't want to take her with my because I felt I wasn't ready yet and I could end up hurting her.

I checked her nose if she got mine, luckily she didn't . She looks like her mom, which is just okay. What is important was that she was okay when she got out.

This is definitely a "Mastercard" (there are some things money can't buy) experience! (I told my wife that we should make 4 more (and she was there in the recovery room still sedated but enough for her to understand and shook her head several times)!

Delivery of Baby Kristine

I am writing this beside my wife's hospital bed. She's still bound to the bed due to the recent CS she had to go through - 2 days earlier than scheduled.

My wife was supposed to deliver our baby girl tomorrow. But yesterday morning, around 130am, she woke me up. Her bag of water burst; she later complained to me that she had a hard time waking me up - she had to throw a pillow at me to wake me up (to those who haven't seen our bed - it's a queen size bed due to combination of two single beds. I stay on the other end, she stays on the other normally.). The normal 45-minute travel time from Fairview to UDMC took only 20 minutes. My only challenge was that my fuel meter was lighting up from time to time (I didn't gas up the night before hoping that the delivery will be go by schedule). The gas was enough for us to reach the hospital without a glitch (according to our housemaid, who normally gets dizzy when riding an air-conditioned vehicle, she was busy worrying about my driving).

Originally, I wasn't planning to join Tin on the operating room. But when her colleague called me in our room, I decided to go and join her anyway hoping that I won't faint. Stayed on the far end of the table, staring at the back of the doctors operating her; then, I glimpsed on her stomach being cut (I almost puked). I looked like an idiot on the OR; I would glance at the operating table, and every time I saw her stomach being cut, I would lean back and grimaced (as if I was being cut myself).

The climax was when the doctors were now going for the baby; her attending physician put her hand inside her stomach (I almost fainted whan I saw her do it) to scoop out the baby. Then another doctor, Tin's friend, pressed Tin's stomach! I couldn't help myself and ask one of the docs if it was normal to squeeze out the baby; my imagination was working on overdrive giving me an idea that the baby will be crushed when the doc pressed Tin's stomach. And after a couple of minutes, the baby's head went out of the stomach. At that point, I wanted to leave the OR and puke! But there she was, her head was out of her mom's stomach and in a while she will be out completely. I didn't want to lose that opportunity. So I stayed.

The attending physician took the baby's feet and raised her (the doc's other hand was supporting the head). Later on I found out from Tin that this is a practice to ensure that the baby do not aspirate any fluid. A nurse took the baby and put her on the passinet (it's like a staging area for the baby before bringing her to the nursery) with an O2 tank beside it. I was still nauseated when the baby was being cleaned up.

The nurse pinched the baby's nipple and the latter cried. I was thinking of stopping the nurse (dad's instict, I guess), but when I saw the nurse started to press the baby's ribs that was when I realized she was actually checking for the baby' physical defects. The climax was when the nurse inserted this thin but long tube (connected to the O2 tank) to the baby's mouth; I knew she was trying to clear the baby's airway but just imagining that thing inserted in my mouth turned my gut upside down. I wanted to leave, but my baby was still there. I decided to stay on hoping I could last for another 10 minutes.