Having a Newborn!
Hello everyone,
I finally have a little time to sit and tell all of you what has been going on. Dakota Reyes Townley was born January 4, 2006, at 11:32 AM, 7lbs 15oz, 20″ long. Vangie and I are very excited. We weren’t excited, however, that we weren’t able to take the baby the day she was born. They required the birth-mother (Vangie’s Brother’s Wife — sister in law) to stay the night at the hospital along with the baby. We were slightly dissapointed, but we were able to sleep for one more night….
Then, the next day, we were even more upset because the birth mother (Annie) was able to go home, but they said the baby needed to stay overnight for observation for possible Blood type O/A/B incompatability. I asked for an explanation and they just gave me a dumb-look. They explained, then, that there might be an incompatibility between the mother and the baby because the mother’s blood is type O and the baby’s blood is type B and that it causes jaundice (yellowing of skin) and that the baby needed to stay over night for observation.
Needless to say, I was NOT happy about this AT ALL. Don’t get me wrong, if the baby needs to stay over night because there is a problem, fine, I have no issue with that. But when there is NO information given and NO explanation just an assumption of “we’re right, you’re stupid,” I don’t play that game.
There wasn’t really anything we could do, we’re not the birth-parents. That night, Vangie and I went to an internet cafe and looked up the information about the supposed problem and it made perfect sense at that point. I was no longer mad — just mad that I had to go and find the information myself rather than receive an explanation from the Dr. The Drs in the Philippines, based on my experience, really assume that their patients are stupid, pretty pathetic.
Anyway — everything is fine, the baby was a little yellow the following morning when we got there, but they said they would release the baby around 1pm (mind you, we got there at 8:30 and waited until 11 to hear this news). We went to an attorney’s office, in the meantime, and had a document drawn up that the birth parents signed saying that they give up all of their parental rights for the purposes of adoption and give the child to us in the interim.
Once we accomplished this, we all went and had a good lunch. We arrived back at the hospital around 1:30 and they finally released the baby to the mother (after 45 minutes). The mother walked the baby down to our car and gave us the baby and we went our separate ways. The rest of the day, Vangie and I spent spending all of our time with our new baby girl. She is precious. Very cute, and I can already see some of her traits coming through. When she doesn’t want to eat any more, her lips are tighter than my wife’s wallet when I ask for some money!!
But, nothing could have prepared me for the torture ahead. Almost every two hours she was awake and wanting fed, burped, and then back to sleep again. It got to the point that I forgot about trying to get some sleep and just stayed up. It was a difficult night with lots of poopy diapars, lots of feeding, and lots of burping.
But, I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was/is an amazing experience to see such a fragile little life in my hands. Being able to hug and hold and touch the little baby knowing that she is mine is just an incredible miracle. When it comes time to leave the Philippines and get back to work in the US it will be a very difficult time. While I wont miss the poopy diapers, or the lack of sleep, I will miss my little angel.