Sudden onset of unstoppable labor early Sunday morning and a rush to the hospital. A few hours then a relatively uneventful delivery brought a beautiful baby boy to this world.
The mother exhausted and resting, the ecstatic father phoned everyone in his book, including this fellow expatriated American, with the good news.
Fortunately, the newly born baby is my friend’s, and not Beta-chan, still safely tucked inside her mother’s womb.
With her due date of Oct 9th, we want her to stay put until at least Oct 1st for several reasons.
- Her health!
- Grandma is coming from the States on the 1st.
- Our doctor is on vacation to Vietnam at the end of September
- My wife will be eligible for up to a year of (unpaid) child raising leave of absence if Beta is born after that date. (My wife will have worked for one year.)
My friend, your typical guy, professed both a previous indifference to children in general and offspring in specific, but also reported his surprise with the suddenness of the attachment to his son.
Perhaps rare for a man,* with my friends’ children and babies fair game, I’ve always been drawn to caring for the tiny ones. An adapted uncle to not just a few, it is time, though for me to care for my own.
*(perhaps not so rare, although certainly rare to admit)
We are starting to believe. The dreaded but unspoken ifs are fading, though not ghosts yet. Fervent appeals to fate less frequent. Please, please, a healthy child. A living soul. Now, not the far-off dream but a growing reality.
“Unconscionable,” defined the attorney teaching my business law class and vividly remember from some 20 years ago, “is a kick in the gut.”
“Pregnancy,” defines my wife, who will not doubt vividly remember this some 20 years later, “is a kick in the gut.”
Stronger by a magnitude than Ian’s taps, Beta’s jabs, smacks and well-placed kicks are a hard, but joyful reminder of our growing baby. The joyfulness felt by both parent, the pain by just one.
Tomorrow, the morning will bring the next routine exam. Tonight may be the night when we are finally able to sleep before an appointment, but likely not. Either way, we expect – no, demand – good news for our family and friends throughout the world.
Seven months of worries and tension is fading. Still, tonight we will again repeat our daily refrain.
“Stay sticky. Stay sticky Little One. Soon the world will be yours, but tonight, Beta-chan, just tonight, wait another night.”
