# Chistmas Eve twins for China Guy **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 25, 2004, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542 "2004-12-25T01:10:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/41 "2004-12-25T17:53:58Z")
Congratulations. Wishing you all a happiness and joy. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/42 "2004-12-25T18:06:17Z")
Are you supposed to smoke _two_ cigars at once when it’s twins? 😃 Congratulations! We’ll need lots of updates and pictures! ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/43 "2004-12-25T18:16:27Z")
> [@China Guy](#): > > Saw Serena this Christmas afternoon. You had “Selena” in the title of this post. Still frazzled a bit, are you? ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/44 "2004-12-25T18:22:18Z")
As the grandfather of now 8 year old twins, congrats!!! When they were born Alicia had quite a few problems the first few days and Samantha did just fine. Alicia is now about 3 inches taller and will probably end up like her mother, who is over 6 feet tall. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/45 "2004-12-25T19:54:26Z")
Two little girls on Christmas Eve. You’re a blessed man 🙂 PS: Not to hijack but where you live in China and all, are you going to get in trouble considering you already had 1 kid and now you’ve got 2 more? How did ya’ll get permission to conceive again to begin with? If this has been covered before please forgive. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/46 "2004-12-25T20:24:22Z")
Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! I hope your daughters all live long, healthy lives and I hope they never scare their Daddy or Momma like that again! Best Wishes to All Your Family, China Guy! Audrey & Apgar would be an excellent combo. ;j ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/47 "2004-12-25T20:33:52Z")
Congrats **China Guy** and happy holidays :). - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![FaerieBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FaerieBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FaerieBeth)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/48 "2004-12-25T20:45:15Z")
What an awesome Christmas story! Congrats to the whole **China Guy** family! Wow! Three daughters, and I am positive that all three are Daddy’s little girls! Happiest of Holidays to you and yours, FaerieBeth and Stonebow ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/49 "2004-12-25T21:11:26Z")
Congratulations, **China Guy**. I’m relieved that Serena is going to be ok and here’s hoping the brain scan turns out well. Best wishes to you and your family. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/50 "2004-12-25T21:31:11Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Am I the only one that has to raise their hand and ask what “apgar” means? [A.P.G.A.R. Score](http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/3074.html) Mazel Tov to you all. A frightening ride, it sounds. Look at it this way- no matter what that kid throws at you from here on out, you can give her the sly gaze and say, “aaah…that’s nothin’. Lemme tell you about the day you were born, honey”. 🙂 How wonderful that the big sister is so excited. Nothing like babies ! Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/51 "2004-12-25T21:51:53Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > My goodness, I was holding my breath as I read your post. Dear Og, me too! The R of my apgar reading would have been -4 until I saw the part about the little wee one kicking and waving with the 🙂 . Congrats to the family! And a word of warning: Sniffs\_Markers is a Christams Eve baby – because people would worry about “cheating” her on presents, she used to guilt them into buying her really expensive stuff. Prepare yourself for really sneaky extortion! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/52 "2004-12-25T23:33:08Z")
Yes, I am still frazzled and tapping this out on a pda at the foreign clinic we are still at. They want to keep Audrey here for 72 hours, and Mom as well. Nice big room with a sofa bed, so i’m camped out and eldest daughter Jacqueline did a sleepover last night as well (‘i want to stay with my sister!’). Chinawife is having a bit of a rough time. Her body is sore and adjusting. She’s bonding great with Audrey and desperately worried about Serena. She only saw Serena as the delivery team resuccitated her - which is a mental image that no parent ever wants in their head. I’ve shown pix and short video of Serena waving her arms around and moving in her incubator at the ICU. Chinawife also spoke to one of the doctors in the ICU, but it’s still understandably rough… Cinese names are very traditional. My wife’s surname is Cao. All kids in the extended family in this generation should have the first name “Yu”, which means jade. Then the middle name is their own. For the US passport, what we did was give an English first name, then the entire chines name as the middle name. Eldest daughter then is Jacqueline Caoyutian. The family name doesn’t really have a meaning and “yutian” is Jade Sky. Audrey Caoyuqing aka Green Jade (does not translate to english well, but “qing” is a blueish-green color and a very beautiful type of jade), and Serena Caoyuyun aka Jade Cloud. Any chinese speaker looking at their names will know they are sisters/close relatives. Coincidentally the doctor I talked to at the neonatal ICU - her name was Cao Yun, same character’s as Audrey sans the “jade”. The babies at the ICU are known by the bed number. Serena is #29. One looks for good signs at times like these, and the doctor and I both thought the name was perfect. As for the one child law - it’s still in place although somewhat modified in various areas of china. Multiples have always been exempt from this law. Chinawife did get pressured by the family planning agency. What we did was give up eldest daughter jacqueline’s Chinese passport. China does not recognize dual citizenship and the US government actively ‘discourages’ the practice. To leave china, one has to go through exit formalities including having a valid travel visa. This meant we had to get a pro-forma US visa put into her Chinese passport, and the US embassy people made this a very difficult and long process. We were going to have to give up chinese citizenship anyway, so we did that a few months ago. A long winded way of saying in chinese bureaucratic eyes, Chinawife did not have a Chinese child, and therefore no problem to proceed legally with this birth. Hopefully Chinawife’s milk has come in today, and I can take a little bit over to Serena. I’ll see Serena in about 6 hours and update later. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/53 "2004-12-26T00:59:27Z")
Yes, I am still frazzled and tapping this out on a pda at the foreign clinic we are still at. They want to keep Audrey here for 72 hours, and Mom as well. Nice big room with a sofa bed, so i’m camped out and eldest daughter Jacqueline did a sleepover last night as well (‘i want to stay with my sister!’). Chinawife is having a bit of a rough time. Her body is sore and adjusting. She’s bonding great with Audrey and desperately worried about Serena. She only saw Serena as the delivery team resuccitated her - which is a mental image that no parent ever wants in their head. I’ve shown pix and short video of Serena waving her arms around and moving in her incubator at the ICU. Chinawife also spoke to one of the doctors in the ICU, but it’s still understandably rough… Cinese names are very traditional. My wife’s surname is Cao. All kids in the extended family in this generation should have the first name “Yu”, which means jade. Then the middle name is their own. For the US passport, what we did was give an English first name, then the entire chines name as the middle name. Eldest daughter then is Jacqueline Caoyutian. The family name doesn’t really have a meaning and “yutian” is Jade Sky. Audrey Caoyuqing aka Green Jade (does not translate to english well, but “qing” is a blueish-green color and a very beautiful type of jade), and Serena Caoyuyun aka Jade Cloud. Any chinese speaker looking at their names will know they are sisters/close relatives. Coincidentally the doctor I talked to at the neonatal ICU - her name was Cao Yun, same character’s as Audrey sans the “jade”. The babies at the ICU are known by the bed number. Serena is #29. One looks for good signs at times like these, and the doctor and I both thought the name was perfect. As for the one child law - it’s still in place although somewhat modified in various areas of china. Multiples have always been exempt from this law. Chinawife did get pressured by the family planning agency. What we did was give up eldest daughter jacqueline’s Chinese passport. China does not recognize dual citizenship and the US government actively ‘discourages’ the practice. To leave china, one has to go through exit formalities including having a valid travel visa. This meant we had to get a pro-forma US visa put into her Chinese passport, and the US embassy people made this a very difficult and long process. We were going to have to give up chinese citizenship anyway, so we did that a few months ago. A long winded way of saying in chinese bureaucratic eyes, Chinawife did not have a Chinese child, and therefore no problem to proceed legally with this birth. Hopefully Chinawife’s milk has come in today, and I can take a little bit over to Serena. I’ll see Serena in about 6 hours and update later. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/54 "2004-12-26T01:01:24Z")
Interesting, China Guy. So if I have this straight: you’re an American(?), ChinaWife is Chinese, and kid #1 is now solely an American citizen, and the twins are Chinese citizens? Or not? Are you guys coming back here soon or staying in China? ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/55 "2004-12-26T01:05:53Z")
Congratulations to you and your entire family!!! My own little Serena will be two tomorrow. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/56 "2004-12-26T01:18:42Z")
Congrats **ChinaGuy** , wife, and Jacqueline! And welcome to the world, Serena and Audrey! ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/57 "2004-12-26T07:22:17Z")
Serena is off of cepa(sp?), which is a kind of semi-assisted beathing that keeps the lungs inflated. Now has one tiny tube in nose for feeding. 5 cc of formula every 3 hours (mom’s milk isn’t flowing yet despite Audrey’s conerted attempts). One tube for extra oxygen. Doesn’t need to be in incubator but keep her there in order to ensure they can see everything. Serena’s main physician will determine her timetable tomorrow. The cat scan to check her brain will probably be tomorrow afternoon. Serena opened her eyes when I started talking to her. Mom feels much better after seeing the short video. It’s been about 64 hours, and the pediatrician says that 72 hours without incident is a giant two thumbs up. Will know a lot more in about 24 hours. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/58 "2004-12-26T08:12:30Z")
Congrats! I’ve been through a couple of rough births too, so I know how you all feel. I’m so glad to hear that everything looks good so far. Hey, in a few years this board’s going to be just crawling with second generation Dopers! Some of 'em must be almost halfway there. You can join at 13, right? Lessee, the Dope started in '99… ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/59 "2004-12-26T08:31:48Z")
Congrats! When I saw the title of the thread, I though my boss, who is married to a lovely Chinese gentleman, had delivered the twins she’s expecting and the SDMB found out before me! I’m so relieved y’all aren’t psychic or maybe you are! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542/60 "2004-12-26T11:03:24Z")
Congrats China Family! Beautiful names for what I’m sure are beautiful babies! (My father celebrated his 60th birthday this xmas day, he’s called Noel, just in case anyone hadn’t gathered he was an xmas baby. We always spent the morning as his birthday and the evening as xmas, at least your girls didn’t come a day later, although I wouldn’t think it would be so bad in China.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chistmas-eve-twins-for-china-guy/281542.md?page=4)