Ponyo's 1st 3 days

Eager family and relatives came to visit 12 hour old baby Ponyo

 Trying to stay awake while breastfeeding

 Cliff daddy's turn to keep Ponyo company while I catch some snooze time

 Glowing & singing Seahorse keeps Ponyo calm

After 3 days at the hospital in Taipei, I was being discharged, while Ponyo had to stay for 1 more day under special treatment light due to a 15.9 index of jaundice. 95% of asian babies have jaundice showing after 3 days of birth.  Cliff and I had to stay in Taipei and send milk over to the hospital daily to ensure Ponyo has her food! Not seeing Ponyo for a day was weird, we missed her so badly.. Cliff called the hospital the next morning and heard good news that her jaundice index is lowered to 13. Ponyo was discharged and we headed off to the after birth care center in HsinChu.

D-day: Baby Ponyo's arrival

At 38 weeks pregnant, weekly travels between Hsinchu and Taipei was put to halt. I stayed home at Taipei, took daily walks, ran errands despite carrying a bigger tummy than before. Cliff wanted to travel to work by the high speed rail from Taipei everyday, but I assured him that Ponyo will not arrive when papa is away! On the Friday night when cliff returned from Hsinchu, my contractions increased in frequency and intensity through the night that I couldn't catch any sleep. We timed the contractions at 3am, which was once every 15 mins, at 5 am, once every 10 mins, at 6am, at least 2 contractions lasting 60 secs every 10 mins. It is about time to head to the hospital! Contractions were bearable with the help from Lamaze breathing methods and I took chances to eat my Starbucks Belgium waffle when contractions ended, as I feared not having enough energy while giving birth. Instead of rushing to the ER, we decided to wait at home until our doctor's appointment at 10.30am. Took a quick shower, grabbed our hospital bag, and cabbed directly to ChungShan hospital. Regular check up was done and I was admitted that morning of dec 17th, expected to deliver by 6 pm that evening, before our doctor head off to dinner! I was still in shock, is this really happening today? Admission process began with applying for birth certificates, picking the room type, running blood tests, checking fetal heart rate... etc. We were guided to to room 213, single room, and nurses came in to do more prep work, my tummy was attached with 2 monitors- fetal heart rate and  my contractions. From then on, I was bounded by the hospital bed!

I requested to be able to walk around, but since my water broke, it was better to lie down and wait...nurses came in every hour to check on me and by 6pm, not much progress was made, our doctor headed to dinner, the intern recommended induction and antibiotics (via the intravenous drip- to prevent infection, since my water broke for more than 18hrs).  A Skin test (>_< Awfully painful) was performed before antibiotics can be administered. I asked to wait for 1 more hour, and I finally gave in at almost 9pm, I agreed to be induced. Contractions increased in frequency and intensity within 15 minutes of induction, Yes, i feel the pain now that Cliff had to breathe with me to alleviate the contraction. Tick Tock, it's past midnight, Ponyo probably wanted to arrive on Dec 18th instead.  My doctor, the intern and a nurse came in, and I was taught to practice pushing against the contraction by looking at my tummy.  At 12.30am, I was pushed into the delivery room, I guess it is about time!  Never did I realize, the last stage was such a long process, I lost all my energy and felt so sleepy, but the contractional pain kept me pushing.  After an hour, nurses helped push baby Ponyo out, and I felt her down the canal.  All I felt was that I can finally take a nap.

Baby ponyo cried and the doctor assured me to take a rest after she announced its a girl, 2531g, born 1.52am!  Ponyo was cleaned and placed on my chest. This is the moment when I felt relieved and all the pain was well worth it.

Say Cheese, it's our 1st family photo