It sure has been a while since our last post. So many things have happened so I am going to take it a bit at a time...
On May 18th, we were blessed with a daughter! Baia Lea DuBois arrived happy and healthy... Our wonderful doctors and nurses treated both Laurie and Baia wonderfully as well. However, the day was filled with memorable moments.
That morning, Laurie woke up feeling a bit different. She was beginning to have more frequent contractions that were yet bearable. As she did with Kellan, Laurie wanted to go to school that day. Now, I don't have the faintest idea what it felt like to have contractions or any of that stuff. But I knew that it was going to be a tough day for me to go to work and stay focused on my job. In fact, that day I was scheduled to be in some technology training for school. I can honestly say that there was not a whole lot retained as far as technology goes... Please don't tell my boss!
Throughout the day, Laurie and I exchanged emails detailing the latest change in her status. The contractions became irregular for a bit, then they came regularily and a bit stronger. I would respond to her that I had just finished my 6th cup of coffee and felt like I was in cardiac arrest. Not to mention that anything that had sugar on it and sat on the "treat table" was ingested by me within an hour of it's arrival. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out what I do when I have something on my mind. Those of you who are parents probably understand this all. If you're not a parent, you may be so lucky to go through this at an appropriate time someday.
My beautiful bride walked into the training at about 2 pm and informed me that we should head to the hospital. Any and all unused caffiene and/or sugar I had previously ingested released it's energy once she arrived. I promptly executed a perfect layout backflip outta my seat, stuck the landing, grabbed my backpack, and was out the door quicker than Usain Bolt.
Other than the health of Laurie and baby, I had one major worry about this whole pregnancy. You see, Kellan arrived 57 minutes after we walked into the hospital in Waconia 2 years ago. The drives to the respective hospitals is roughly the same distance. However, the traffic from Delano to Waconia isn't remotely similar to that of Beijing. Unless a Shunyi area shepard loses track of a rogue sheep, and a Scandanavian farmer (with a name ending in son) has a dairy cow who decides to make a break for it, we have COMPLETELY different driving conditions. I was worried about the traffic that we could encounter in Beijing.
We set off for the hospital in our 1990's era Jeep Wagoneer. Laurie was in a pretty good state and traffic was not bad, so life was good. We arrived at the hospital and were ready for this baby to come! As we arrived, we both had our body temperatures taken, just to be sure that we didn't have the H1N1 virus. I wonder what they'd do if we did??? I'll just keep wondering about that one.
Dr. Farzai checked Laurie over and promptly told her that she wasn't ready to have the baby. Then the dreaded words that we had been lucky enough not to hear with either Kieran or Kellan's entrance to this world, "Go home and let's see if anything progresses from here," were spoken by her. Now all along, I had a hunch that we were going to have a girl this time around. As I heard those, a few more gray hairs developed upon my head, and I said to myself that this baby is DEFINITELY a girl. She's causing daddy fits already...
We set out to set back home. Please note that this is about 5:00 pm too. Rush hour..... We must have found a vein of traffic where the traffic wasn't too bad, so I made my move and began to pray. Suddenly, right in front of us, a taxi decided to swerve over into the far right lane and stop. This is the lane that we were in. I promptly slammed on my brakes. Please know that these brakes are not anti-lock. We began about a 20 foot slide that stopped about a quarter of a millimeter from the taxi's rear bumper. I was not able to swerve into the center lane as there were other cars. I'm not proud to say that I took it upon myself to teach that taxi driver (and any other people in the general vicinity), some of the choicest foul American words at the top of my lungs. Then we headed home. I had those tingly and shaking hands and feet. Laurie had a few more contractions. Life was great....
Upon getting home, we ate, went for a walk, watched the boys eat, and relaxed a bit. At about 8 pm, Laurie's contractions were coming hard and fast, so we got the boys situated with our wonderful ayi and took off again for Drive to Beijing United Hospital Part II.
We arrived for our encore and made our way up to the second floor again. A midwife checked on Laurie and said that it's time to deliver!!! Amen!!!! They moved us into a nice room where Baia would arrive. Big and comfortable, and nurses who make it to your room in about 7.5 seconds on average once the call button is pushed.
Soon after settling in, Laurie's pain became intense enough for her to call for the epidural. Doc came in and began to do the procedure in between contractions. Right in the middle of it, Laurie's water broke and the midwife said that she has to push... The plot thickens. So, with a half epidural in place she began to push...
We were informed a month or two before Baia's arrival that her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. Although we were told that this is not an uncommon thing, it weighs on the mind and is not forgotten about. At least it was on my mind... And definitely was once she began to push...
As Laurie pushed, I noticed the doc, midwife, and nurses continuing to look at the monitor strapped to Laurie's stomach that measured Baia's heartbeat. So I began to watch it as well. After about 10 minutes of pushing, I could see that Baia's heart rate was dropping, and that the med staff were getting concerned. After consulting with one another in Mandarin, they told Laurie that she had to get the baby out of her, or else they were going to get it... Laurie found it within herself to bear down and really push.
By and large, Chinese people are much smaller in stature than Laurie or I. This was the case with the nurse who was holding Laurie's right leg when she began to push. Upon finding that extra gear and pushing with all she had, she launched the poor nurse manning her right leg nearly across the room. To the nurse's credit, she clung onto Laurie's foot keeping herself from crashing into the wall on the other side of the room. And, being the industrious nurse that she is, she wedged herself between the stirrup and Laurie's leg. For the next two rounds of pushes, she was crushed into the stirrup by Laurie's brutal force... I wonder if this hero loves her job.
Baia Lea arrived shortly thereafter. The cord was wrapped, but they promptly unwound it, cut it, and got her going. After a few moments, all was well, and she's been extremely healthy since then....
Laurie and Baia stayed in the hospital for 3 nights and were treated like royalty. Although we missed our Cheryl from back in Waconia, we couldn't be happier with the way everyone was treated. For example, Laurie had a manicure, Baia was oogled over constantly, and we were treated to a candle-light lunch.... Royalty....
Upon being discharged from the hospital, we went straight to the U.S. Embassy to process the paperwork for Baia's passport. This all went smoothly, and Ada from ISB got us our visa so that we could get home to friends and family this summer.
A few weeks later, Baia took her first flight. a 12.5 hour, over 6,000 mile flight over the top o the world to the U.S.! I was almost out of high school before getting into an airplane! She flew at 3 weeks! Amazing!
More blogs to come as we reflect on our amazing summer... We are truly blessed and very thankful for these blessings!
The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine
