Second Daughter Born

Update 4, Monday 25th: Elizabeth gets a brain scan and retina check tomorrow, but that’s routine for premature babies, and meanwhile she’s crying, kicking and eating much more than most premature babies the same age. On the home front, my sister-in-laws have already returned to their own homes, my mother-in-law goes back to hers tomorrow, my laptop is back from the HP service center, my cold is gone, I’ve just returned to a normal evening schedule (and less hours) at work tomorrow…and so, all in all, I can return to normal blogging now.

It makes August look pretty sparse, but I’ve deleted the posts about my computer problems and looking for work; given the circumstances, I’ve wisely decided to stay at my somewhat uninspiring but otherwise stable job for now. But thanks for everyone who offered help with that, and I’m still always up for firm offers of non-ESL jobs!

Update 3, Saturday 23rd: My wife is now back at home, and is doing fine, although it feels very strange to have a baby daughter but not bring her home with us. Not having given birth to her myself, and with her a 15 minute taxi-ride away and only viewable on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, then I confess that Elizabeth feels less like my daughter and more like an abstract concept to me at the moment. It would be really nice to be able to hold her hand or something.

My wife’s five day stay at the hospital cost something like 900,000 won. Elizabeth’s five week or so stay in an incubator will cost something like 2-3,000,000 won, and that will be with our insurance already covering 70% of the costs. My wife thinks that the government has a policy of covering the additional incubator costs of premature babies, and will investigate once she’s up to it.

Neither of us had any problems with the hospital or staff, although it was annoying that it took 1 hour of waiting in the hospital reception for them to calculate that 900,000 won and type up a birth certificate. One strange thing though, is that the maternity ward requires us to provide Elizabeth’s supplies of diapers and surgical tape and so on, and will call us as fresh batches are needed. The cost is minimal, and it’s easy enough buying them from the store at the hospital, but it seems like a very inefficient and time-consuming way of doing it: couldn’t the nurses just use the maternity ward’s own supplies and then bill us the extra 25,000 won?

Meanwhile, the combination of the stress and the unseasonably cold weather has given me a bad cold, but I’m almost back on my feet now.

Update 2, Wednesday 20th: Unfortunately photos aren’t allowed in the incubator room, so I’m afraid there won’t be much more to report for a while. She’s good, albeit crying and kicking a lot, but I’m told that that’s a very good sign.

My wife will be back home later this week, and her mother and sisters will be staying with us for a while to take care of her and give her a shoulder to cry on. First-time feminist fathers thinking that you’re the best person to take care of your wife/partner’s postpartum depression instead, in all seriousness learn from the mistake I made with my first child and gracefully stand aside: sometimes, people just need their moms.

Update 1, Tuesday 19th: Thanks for the messages everybody. Elizabeth was born at 3:33pm, weighing in at 2.17 Kg. Fortunately that’s a little heavier than expected, and she’s breathing on her own too. She still has to be watched closely for a few days, but she seems fine, and will probably be quite happy to relax in the incubator getting bigger for the next month or so.

My wife is fine too. As for me, I’ve been up for 20 hours and smell like it, so I’m about to hit the shower and then crash. I’ll take photos and try to post them tomorrow.

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Well, the good news is that by the time most of you will read this, Elizabeth Jeong Turnbull will have arrived to join her sister Alice, but the bad news is that she’s almost two months premature. At the very least, she’ll have to spend at least a month in an incubator with an oxygen supply.

More details soon. Obviously the blogging will have to be put on hold for a little while!

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