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LABOR AND DELIVERY
E
mily Jiamin Hsu arrived at 7:44 AM on
August 29, 2007 via a normal vaginal delivery. Yes, it’s all
worth it. However, prior to all that Grace had to endure about
30 hours of labor. Twelve of those hours were spent in the
hospital, of which 6 was with (thank God), epidural anesthesia.
Emi was 8 days overdue and as a result, was a meconium baby,
i.e. she was born smothered in her own poop, which required some
special care immediately after birth. Vince’s highlight was that
Grace’s obstetrician actually offered Vince the opportunity to
deliver Emi, which he did!
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
The name Emily is a classic—I’ve always liked the name, and
in my opinion, “Emily Hsu” sounds pleasant when spoken together.
It is, however, a very common name these days and she will no
doubt have 10 classmates with the same first name. Thus, we
decided to shorten it to “Emi,” which gives it a distinctively
Asian flavor and gives us the option to reserve the three
syllable “EM-I-LY” for times when she knows we mean business. By
the way, Emily has its origin in Latin and means “industrious”
or “striving.”
 Choosing
her Chinese name was more difficult, which was not decided until
the day of discharge from the hospital. We consulted Vincent’s
father, grandfather, and Grace’s mother for suggestions, in
addition to some Chinese astrologers (last part, just joking).
We finally decided on the characters Jia, which means “good” or
“excellent”, and Min, which means “clever”, “smart”, or “keen”
depending on context.
 WELCOME
HOME: THE FIRST DAYS
I now understand the joys, exhilaration, and
responsibilities of parenthood. You can say all you want about
trying to understand it beforehand, but it is so much more to
experience it in order to really understand it.
At the time of this writing, Emi is 4 days
old. Emi is probably a typical baby in terms of her needs. Grace
breastfeeds every 2-3 hours on average. She pees and poops
regularly, and cries when she needs something, such as a diaper
change or nutrition. Not particularly overly high maintenance,
but occasionally she is beginning to cry a bit more for no
apparent reason, which stops as soon as we pick her up. Which
brings me to a question: is it possible to spoil a baby at this
age? She obviously knows when she has human contact, and it is
not that we don’t love holding her, but is it wrong for us at
her age to feel a bit guilty if we don’t respond to her cry
within a minute or two? Please let me know your thoughts.
We look forward to seeing Emi grow up and
although we are dealing with interrupted sleep like all new
parents do, we realize that time will pass quickly, and she will
no longer be the newborn. So we will cherish and treasure these
moments with Emi. But for right now, we're just so happy she's
here. |
