Beautiful Day

Friday, April 28, 2006

Bode, the girls and me

As seen by Susan @ 7:38 PM

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Bode

It's a boy, full name is Bode Israel Abraham Wilson. 3.38kg, 50cm. He looks like Peter, I think.

Just got back from the hospital. Everything's fine.

The pronounciation's bou--dee. two stress sound. The word in dictionary means to prophesy, fortell,etc. Bode is a past tense of bide, which is abide, to abide in Christ. John 14:23"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him." Bodi is a hungarian name, which means "God protects the king". Peter heard it when the winter Olympics were on and it was the name of the American world champion down hill skier. He liked it and the name stuck in his mind and he also thought that we would throw in the Abraham for fun...

I woke up just before 6am and felt a bit contraction, but not sure if it was just wanting to go to toilet.So I went to toilet, and had a shower, around 7am I thought I could be sure it's contraction. So I rang up some friendsto organise people taking kids to school,etc.by 8am friends came, and we got organised, got the kids ready for school,etc. I got to hospital around 9am, and still sending msg to friends, talking normal, about half an hour later the pain started to get worse, and I asked for epidural, but before they can organise someone to come, at 10:12 am the baby's already out, only 4 pushes. A tiny tear, just a couple stitches. The hospital's really nice, I had a single room. Bode was a bit unsettled for the first night, but after that he slept non-stop.The girls loved him, couldn't get them off him. Maybe they played with him too much so he wasn't settled for the first night. He was born on Thursday, and Friday is the start of school holiday (2 weeks)of Easter. public holiday for adults is Fri-Mon. then Peter's gonna ask for a week off.(I think) It worked out really well, as it looks like Peter can be home for nearly two weeks with all the extra holidays.

I'm quite tired now, so I might post some pictures later as I forgot how to do it. If you really want to see them, send me an email and I'll send some to you.

As seen by Susan @ 9:43 AM

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Overdue

My baby was due yesterday....
But I'm still pregnant.
I'm actually quite happy to wait for another two weeks or even a month(Peter was due April 4th, and he was born May 4th. His mom did everything to hurry him up, even jumping down the table...), but I get embarrased and even a bit annoyed when I have to settle everyone else's curiosity and concern....lol. Sometimes I just want to hide.

One of the biggest struggle in my mind is how I should handle confinement. You know, I have a Chinese background. The Chinese have very strict rules about confinement. Then I have lots of asian friends here, they also have their tradition and culture about confinement. And of course, there's the western care free way. I'm really stuck in between all these culture clashes. I don't know which one to follow, or how much I should follow.

Just for some example, the Chinese want you to stay in bed for 30 days, no showers, no washing hair, no cold drinks, no salt, not even drinking water.... but the western doctors will instead force you to have shower, and give you ice blocks and want you to go for walks... The Chinese recipes like you to drink lots of pork soup, especially pork liver soup, but the westerns (especailly the colour conference I just went to) think that's absolutely filth. Then there's the singapore way, the Malaysian way....

The things is, the Chinese mothers have a whole team of support: husband on maternity leave for the whole month, both sets of parents, maids.... but I have hardly any. Instead, I still have three kids to chase around. My husband didn't take any leave for my three kids when they were born, hopefully this time he can take a few days off. But for the 30 days confinement that's just impossible.

Every Chinese I met was so concerned and serious about the confinement. But every western people (especially my husband) I know just think it's such a joke and ridiculous. And I'm stuck in the middle. I really don't know how much I should follow and if I don't follow am I still gonna be alright. I was trying to find out what the Bible has to say about this and couldn't get anywhere.

Anyone has a clue?

As seen by Susan @ 10:35 PM