Blogging the Baby - Part II
Random thoughts and observations.
I'm pretty sure this is the first Allio born in Beijing.
A thought popped into my head during labor. When Aidan was born, a group of nurses came into the room to help encourage Yang to push. It seemed like the whole floor of nurses. Today, during labor, it dawned on me the nurses may have in fact come in to watch over the elderly doctor who was rushing Yang and whose nurse disagreed with having Yang push at that time.
Yang would pretty much do anything, and i mean anything, for the doctor who administered the epidural.
Food never loses it's importance here. While Yang was making the final pushes she had to deal with her breakfast and lunch orders.
There is, naturally, special food to be eaten after birth including the ever famous and elusive black chicken. Yang's dad dispatched two young men in the western outskirts of Beijing to chase down and kill two live chickens. Yang will eat them...at least one..tomorrow.
Aidan did not fall asleep last night until 3am. He was staying up because he thought it was his job to cheer for Yang. "Jiayou Mommy, Jiayou Mommy".
Three nurses wearing face masks came into our room pushing a cart with hot water and sanitary supplies. Turns out they were there to wash Yang and clean her up. Yang had already done it herself.
The hospital is comparable to western hospitals in most regards except everyone inside is Chinese and mostly only speak Chinese. This is far better than a local Chinese hospital and far more expensive. But still less than half the cost of Beijing United which has English speaking staff. In fact, Beijing United is very much like a high end American hospital if you replace the Filipino nurses with Chinese ones.
How much does it cost to have a complication free birth at a foreigner friendly hospital in Beijing? About 20,000 RMB or or $2915 USD. Including pre-natal visits we should get out for under my benefits allowance of 30,000 RMB. Baby wellness, don't ask, it ain't covered.
Our hospital is a bit sloppy in a Beijing way. You have to be here to know what that means.
There isn't much to do in the hospital room at night. Baby and Yang are sleeping. There is one English channel TV station. I have the internet but...well, those sites are blocked anyway.
It is now the next morning. Elisa is one day old. A nurse comes to her for a bath. We follow. The nurse says Elisa looks like me. I say, looks like mama too. The nurse is very direct and says "no, not mamma". But of course mammas are always 100% sure so this is not a problem.
Aidan and Yang's mom comes to visit. Aidan is super happy with the new baby. He literally cannot contain himself.
We think the baby looks like a mix of Aidan and Lydia, perhaps a bit more like Aidan. She is really alerts.
We are not deceived that the initial days of sleeping are indicative of her behavior for the next three months.
We leave the hospital at noon. The older cleaning ladies are shocked. We should stay at least three days. Not only that, but Yang shows no interest in following the Chinese one month tradition. In the one month new mom tradition, the mom stays home, stays warm, eats like a 100 eggs a day, does not read, does not watch tv, does not shower, ...
Yang and I decide to sneak Elisa past Yang's mom and downstairs to Starbucks for a guilt free Frappacino.