Where do I even begin? The last 24 hours marked another milestone in my life. I became a father to a girl. :)
The last time everything happened too fast as we only rushed my wife to the hospital by the time she had dilated to 10cm! All I remember was just holding her hand and the next thing I knew, our baby boy was born.
This time we went in early so I had time to settle everything. Register. Get a room for my family. Prepare my wife emotionally. Ask the doctor and nurses the procedure. Informed that I would like to cut the umbilical cord this time after DCC (delayed cord clamping).
The it started to happened. My wife began pushing and I reminded myself to absorb everything in this time. I saw the head pop out for the very first time! But this being a bigger baby made it much harder for my wife. To make matters worse the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck twice. So the doctor had to clamp the umbilical cords and I couldn't care less, as long as both my loved ones are safe! Finally we managed to push through, and among all the commotion I recall anxiously looking whether it was a boy or girl as we wanted to surprise ourselves this time. You've got it wrong if you thought it was like how it is in the movies where the doctor says, "Congratulation! It's a boy/girl!" It's a war zone in there! ><
The stitching part afterwards was the most heartbreaking as I could really hear the pain and agony from her screams. My firstborn son was just 2.9kg while this baby girl is 3.4kg, much bigger. After what it seemed like an eternity, the doctor was finally done. And if you're wondering, we have not got a name yet! It's like wanting to find that perfect name as we go through all the possible girl names with our friends.
All in all, I really thank God for keeping both mommy and baby safe. In Chinese the word good (好) is a combination of 2 words, girl (女) and boy (子). God has indeed been very good to us. What a way to start off my 2018! As they say, a dad is a son's first hero, and a daughter's first love. I've got much to live up to and fatherhood will never be the same again!
