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birth

The gestational journey ends

18 January 2010 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

Thank you, everyone, for sharing advice, for the visits, calls and gifts, and all the well wishes! We’re still catching up with baby and sleep so for now, just a quick update :-)

Christmas Eve 2010
2 days old

 Above is his first passport photo, taken by the hospital’s photographer at about a day old.

We flew to Bangkok at 35 weeks, since the airlines don’t let you travel any later into the pregnancy than that as a precaution against having to deal with a woman in labor on board. Other mothers in Phnom Penh have driven either down to the border at Koh Kong (via a road that goes off the grid for a solid hour, as of 2010), or else up north through Poipet into Aranyaprathet, Thailand, and then bus/train it to Bangkok. But I just didn’t think I could handle that! The road to Poipet border crossing has much improved since I’ve been through it last, but decreasing the number of uncertainties while I’m heavily pregnant is a good thing!

My first groggy thought after waking up out of anesthesia and meeting our son was a dismal, “they mixed ours up with this cross-eyed Chinese baby”, but Hubby reassured me that from the time they took him out the Chinese-looking baby hasn’t left his sight. The baby’s filling out his features now, so my mixup worries are going away :-)

We had an unplanned c-section. First contractions were at 8am and by 1030am when we arrived at the hospital I was already 6cm. Between the pelvic girdle problem I’ve been having in the last trimester and the contractions, there was no respite from the pain so I asked for an epidural. Three hours later I was fully dilated but he wasn’t coming down fast enough and his vital signs were rapidly dropping, so I was wheeled into the OR. Apparently the cord had wrapped around his neck and arm, and he was losing oxygen rapidly. WHEW!

He came with big lungs and a small stomach – they say this is normal :-\ Thankfully he doesn’t use his lung power much :-) except when he’s getting his BCG shot :-(

Here he is in his bassinet :-)

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: baby, Bangkok, birth, delivery, pregnancy, Thailand

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Those little feet pitter-pattering about rule our lives lately. But on the occasional free moment I get to tap out scatterbrained bursts of consciousness about raising toddlers in Cambodia, traveling with them and working abroad. These posts are my personal updates to friends and family. But since you’re here, have a look around. Thanks for stopping by…

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