Wow! What a week!
Fighting dragons! Challenging culture! Meeting old wives tales – and old wives! Struggling with emotions – hopes concerns, life and death decisions – maybe. Watching and waiting! And intense prayer!
What were the dragons? Perhaps the first blog will not reveal since there is so much to tell along the way. But first – the story of the day of his birth.
The cast:
Dr. Wu
For months we had visited Dr. Wu’s clinic for women. He had been the one who confirmed the news of pregnancy and he had been the one who spent a lot of time explaining everything along the way. I will always hold him in very high regard and feel greatly indebted to him for all the advice and practical medical help he has given – not least for his expertise in performing the delivery. I hope he becomes a long-term friend.
PeilingMy wife who has shown more patience and courage through this experience than I ever imagined she would have. Already she is a wonderful mum and the world should know it! A brief introduction – you will understand I could write many pages about her – and will when time and blog space permits. I think you will get to know her better as we continue.
Daniel
He has had the name since Monday – ‘God is my judge’. His story has only just begun – he is now one week and 3 hours old. Already he
shows strength of character in getting what he needs! Parents will understand. I leave you to decide from the pictures how handsome you think he looks!Visitors
There have been many – especially Peiling’s family and friends and friends from church who have all been so kind in their loving concern.
Dragons?
Here I shall use the metaphore in the western sense which views dragons as basically fearsome, dangerous and even evil beasts. Not that any of the ones you will encounter in the story breathe fire – but the ultimate effect might turn out the same. If you keep reading for a day or two I hope you will agree with me and maybe want to join Saint George in the fight against them.
Birth eve – Thursday 7th September 2006
It began with the decision about when he should be born. It seems strange to me but, yes, we decided; as you can if the birth is to be by caesarean section. While many people in Taiwan use this as an opportunity to find the most auspicious moment after consulting their future-teller we simply accepted the doctor’s first proposal that it be before he began his other work on Friday morning.
Even from the early stages of pregnancy at the regular monthly check-ups when the doctor had done a scan he had said “The baby is BIG.” And he reported the same in his notes each time until we reminded him that he had already said it. Peiling was starting to get a complex about producing a freak giant! His due date was around August 26th and by then he was way over the average size for Taiwan deliveries. Then he seemed to decide to stay in the womb. A week later he was estimated on the scanner to be about 4.6kg. We had gone specially to see if there were any signs that he might be coming that weekend. We saw another doctor on that occasion and returned two days later for our own doctor’s opinion – which was that we could still wait since there were no signs of an immediate onset of labour, concluding that Taiwanese data did not match western babies and this weight must be normal for my part of the world. I had to accept this having known several babies born at that kind of size. Four days later Peiling still felt no immediate signs although the mucous plug was dislodged in one big piece. This was much to her concern – though I was able to say I knew about these things and it was perfectly normal! I was starting to feel I was the expert in all matters concerning pregnancy and birth.
We had been hoping so much that it would not need an operation because Peiling suffers from a condition which causes bumpy scar tissue to develop even from a minor cut. She had even been warned in the past against getting pregnant in case she needed surgery for the delivery. But, as every woman who has been pregnant knows, those last few days can be a very testing time. Add another two weeks past the due date and you can understand how Peiling was getting somewhat desperate. Add to that the dire warnings the doctor had given about the giant that was about to come into the world and how much risk a normal delivery could carry and you can understand too why Peiling was ready to accept even the scars.
So, on Thursday, we went to the doctor again ready to share this decision. Though he said we could still wait it must have been a tremendous relief to him that finally we had seen sense to agree with his gently put advice and he immediately made his action plan. Stay or return to the clinic later in the day and the operation would take place after 7.00 in the morning.
