Ethan Tsai

Ethan arrived 7 weeks early, on April 4 2009, 2:22pm, at 1.55kg, 42.5cm (3 lbs. 6oz., 16.7 in.).

Ethan in incubator.

We used to joke that when “it” happened, Patrika would be in her office working. She’d finish up e-mails and phone calls in between contractions, then finally calmly and slowly walk across to the street for admission to Labor and Delivery.

Of course, things did not happen as planned.

Last weekend, Patrika decided we should clean the apartment and pack our bags, even though the big day wasn’t for almost two months (May 21). During our various pre-parenting classes, and in some stuff I had read, expecting mothers will have a “nesting” instinct that will motivate them to do lots of cleaning (or tell their spouse to do lots of cleaning), so I thought:

No big deal, I’ve read about this.

Today at 4 in the morning, Patrika woke me up and said:

We need to go.

With all the joking about mid-phone-call and mid-e-mail contractions, I had never really considered the possibility of a midnight run to the hospital, so I was not really feeling very prepared. We got in the car; Patrika using her cell phone to call ahead to the hospital to let them know we were coming.

We had been having some complications during the pregnancy, so I wasn’t completely alarmed at everything I was hearing, but some things did stand out:

… there was a basketball-sized amount of blood.

I would later realize this was a two-dimensional description (area of spotting), as opposed to my initial three-dimensional interpretation (a big gushing volume), but it was not good to hear that as I attempted to continue calmly driving to the hospital. We were admitted to Labor and Delivery, and Patrika requested monitoring to confirm the baby was still OK (he was).

We received medication to try to control the bleeding and to try to buy time for the baby to come out on his own. However, after about 8 hours, around 1:30pm, it was decided that the risks of continued blood loss outweighed the benefits (and decreasing likelihood) of a natural birth, and Patrika was wheeled away to the operating room. I was told to don a set of scrubs and wait; after a very long 15 or so minutes, I was brought to the head of the operating table to sit next to Patrika during the procedure.

At 2:22pm, a baby, crying with eyes open, was delivered via unplanned Cesarean section, and we proudly announced his name:

Ethan

At UCSF, one makes the transition from obstetric-fetus patient to pediatric-baby patient by being literally passed through a deli-style window counter; I had to go out in the hall to walk next door to perform my first fatherly duty of cutting the umbilical cord:

• The umbilical cord is tough. I felt like I had to saw through that thing with the small scissors they gave me.
• We had planned to donate our cord blood; we were going to fill out that kind of paperwork next week. Since we never got to do so, I think our cord blood ended up getting disposed of (the default course of action).

I think every new parent feels extremely blessed. I feel doubly-blessed, because both Patrika and Ethan had to overcome a placental abruption (suspected, but not confirmed, until the Cesarean section was actually performed). Fortunately, mother and baby are both well, and Ethan appears healthy for a minus-7-week-old.

April 4 is the designated Children’s Day in Taiwan and Hong Kong.