Daddee Yah!

I arrived Sydney to be with Mummee for his birth. It was an overnight flight, arriving Sydney at 0935-ish. Unbuckled my seat belts, put on my backpack, joined the rest of cattle-class waiting to disembark.

Switched on my mobile, to find 2 text messages.

1. Water broke overnight, going to hospital..
2. Got sent home to monitor, come home first..

.. or words to that effect. Mummee and I jested afterwards what I would have done if I had only received the first message…

Mummee’s water broke around 2am on Sunday. Her and mum-inlaw went straight to the hospital. I was later told that they were told to go home but to keep a close eye on things. I arrived later that morning, and Mummee was having sporadic gushes- water was still coming out in that fashion. Given it was already so many hours since, we debated and decided to call the hospital.

Advised to go in again, Mummee was then advised instead to stay. This was late in the afternoon already. The midwife suggested that inducing was going to be required, given Mummee’s water broke so many hours ago already. A decision was then made to induce her at 7am the next day. Daddee remained and slept on the spare fold-out mattress on the floor, after swatting 2 cockroaches, mind you. I don’t know how many else ran across my chest on the floor- remember I wasn’t able to sleep much on the crowded flight and this was my first chance for some serious shut-eye.

I was awaken by chatter. The midwives were in getting ready to begin while I was still on the floor in the most uncompromising manner. I guess they see this all the time; either that or I am a man, and this is a women’s hospital after all- men don’t exist in this pocket of the universe.

Inducement started, contractions really came on strong, as compared to Caitlin’s experience. Again, so strong that epidural was required. Where Caitlin took some 7-8 hours before she was ready to meet us, Caleb only took some 2 hours. And I guess practise makes perfect; Mummee really needed to only push 2-3 times and Caleb was out…

By the way, practise was used sarcastically. Mummee is adamant we are stopping at two kids.

Because Mummee’s water broke so many hours ago, Caleb’s skin is still somewhat dry- to this layman’s deduction. I was surprised the midwives didn’t seem to think it was an issue (that the water broke so many hours ago). They advise to use grapeseed oil to moisturise Caleb’s skin- yes grapeseed oil, that found not in the baby section of the supermarket, but in the cooking section.

Little man is looking a little too scrawny for my liking, but the ladies at the breastfeeding support unit assures us that they usually drop slightly in weight, and then starts gaining from 2nd week onwards…

For an Australian public hospital, I feel the support given by the Randwick Hospital for Women is actually a lot better than that of a Malaysian private hospital. And this is only from a man’s point of view, for a women’s hospital.

I hope his looks changes soon, this isn’t a very good looking boy at the moment! But like older sister Caitlin, I am sure he will soon look different and better! At least be a lot better looking than his old man!

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