Emily Mei Ling ten Bos

28 april 2007: Birth of Emily

28th April 2007 at 13:37 (Malaysian time) our daughter is born: Emily Mei Ling. We'll call her: Emily

Around 11pm Friday evening, we drove to the hospital after Jenny's water broke. After lying on the heartbeat monitor in the hospital, the nurse confirmed that labour had started and that Jenny had to stay in the hospital. Because she expected that it could take quite a while before the baby would be born, Henk and Jenny's mum returned home to get some sleep.
Saturday morning around 6:30am, Jenny called that the nurse wanted to take her to the delivery room. Therefore we rushed back to the hospital again (without a proper breakfast). Jenny's labour pain was beginning to get quite annoying and had kept her awake for most of the night, therefore after some consideration she decided to take her epidural. Within 20 minutes the anaesthetist was ready and immediately the pain was gone. Because of the lack of sleep, Jenny almost immediately fell asleep untill 11am.

Around 1pm Jenny was ready to give birth and could slowly start to push. At 1:15pm Dr. Guna arrived and within 20 minutes of additional "work", Emily was born at 13:37.

For a number of pictures around the birth of Emily, please click the following link: photo's

Hospitalcard of Emily
Click on the card for a larger version

30 April and 1 May 2007: Emily home

Monday morning 30 April, Emily was allowed to go home. After a last check from the pediatrician at about 11am, after the necessary paperwork and of course after settling the bill (here in Malaysia you have to pay cash in the hospital), we could take Emily with us in the car.

Since the first day, her voice can be heard quite often in our house. Every now and then we have to take her our of her bed because she is crying. Jenny tries to breast feed her, but usually the little girl falls asleep again......
Yesterday our Chinese confinement-lady arrived as well; she will be taking care of Jenny and Emily. She cooks vegetarian, which is extremely comfortable for Henk: three decent meals a day without any effort !

As usual, we have taken a number of pictures of Emily. Click on the following link for photo's of 30 April and 1 May

2 mei 2007: Confinement Lady

In accordance with "Chinese tradition" the first thirty days after giving birth we have hired a Confinement Lady. This period, she will take care of Jenny and Emily. Jenny has to rest as mucht as possibe to regain her energy and is not allowed to go outside. In Malaysia, a number of Chinese ladies work as confinement lady to earn some extra money. We use the services of Mrs Leung; she was recommended to us by the 'relatives' we have in Klang. She was especially recommended because she can cook vegetarian food (very well !)

Because Jenny is somewhat struggeling with breastfeeding of Emily, we decided to drain the milk with a breast pump, and give it to Emily using a small cup. Tomorrow morning a nurse from the hospital will visit us, and Jenny can enquire if everything is ok with feeding Emily. Feeding with a cup has at least one positive side effect: during the night it's a bit easier for both of us and we hopefully can get a bit more sleep...........

3 mei 2007: Maternity care

Today the maternity assistent has visited us to check on Emily and Jenny. In Malaysia you can choose your own service, and we have selected the service from Damansara Specialist Hospital where Emily was born because that's very convenient for us. We pay for the number of visits and there is a large selection available: we have selected a package for seven visits.

The first week, she concentrates on breast feeding of Emily, development of jaundice and her overall health. We can also ask the assistent everything we'd like to know. Next week on Monday will be the next visit. Apart from that, Jenny has to see Dr. Guna in the hospital on Saturday.

4 mei 2007: Registration of birth

Yesterday I have registered the birth of Emily with the local authority. In contrast with The Netherlands, where we have to register within 3 days, in Malaysia you have 2 weeks time to register. Because all the forms needed for registration are in Malay, someone at the hospital was available to help answering all the questions on the forms. To register the birth, you have to take the forms, passports of both parents and the marriage license to one of 3 locations in KL that are officially available to take registrations. The nearest to our home was the one in Kepong: about 20 minutes drive. Registration was fairly easy and fast: it was my turn almost immediately, and after someone keyed in all the info in a computer, I just had to wait for 20 minutes before I got a nice laminated birth certificate to take home.
This certificate will have to go to the Dutch Ambassy, together with a photo of Emily, so they can make her a Dutch Passport. That I will do in about 2 weeks: the main challenge will be to make a good photograph of little Emily with her eyes wide open..........

Birth Certificate of Emily
Click on the photo to see a larger version

5 May 2007: Check-up Jenny

Today nothing really special: Jenny has been to the hospital to see Dr. Guna for a check-up. Everything looks ok and the next appointment is only in 6 weeks time. Emily is also fine, she has been sleeping, drinking all day.......

7 May 2007: Night in hospital

Today, the nurse from the hospital has visited us for a check-up on Jenny and Emily again. Because her skin and eyes are still a bit too yellow, she adviced us to do a blood test at the hospital to make sure the jaundice is not too bad. Although the testresult showed that the the level in her blood was just slightly too high, the doctor advised to keep her in the hospital over night, so she could sleep under a special light. We therefore left her at the hospital with the special care unit, together with sufficient bottles of breast milk. Tomorrow morning they will test her blood again, and if everything is ok she can go back home in the afternoon.

8 May 2007: Back home

This afternoon, Emily was discharged and could go home again. After spending the night in the hospital under a special blue light, her blood was tested again. The value for jaundice was low enough, so after paying the bill, Jenny could take Emily home again.

The colour of her eyes and skin are indeed far less yellow now, and with sufficient daylight after a couple of more days she should be completely healthy again !

12 May 2007: Video

This morning, the nurse from the hospital has visited us for the third time. She has checked on Emily en Jenny and everything is fine again. For the first time after she is born, she has been weighed by the nurse. She has gained 200 grams since birth and weighs 4kg now.
According to the nurse, in the first month she should gain roughly 1 kg.

Just before the birth, we have bought a new videocamera (obviously a "must" for new parents .....)

At the right you can see a short movie (via YouTube) from Emily on the day after she war born in Damansara Specialist Hospital.
Click on the movie to start.

15 May 2007: Dutch Ambassy for a passport

Today we have visited the Dutch Ambassy in Kuala Lumpur to apply for a passport for Emily. It's much easier if she gets her own passport, so we can always arrange something when we have to go back to The Netherlands on an ad hoc basis.

Because the passports are created in The Netherlands, we had to fill in a number of forms, and give these together with our passports, the birth certificate and our marriage license to the Ambassy. They will translate the Malaysian certificate into English and legalise it, and using the weekly consulair mail everything will be sent to our home country. After about 2 weeks the passport should be ready for us to pick up !

Of course the most difficult thing is for us to get a set of photos of Emily that comply with the Dutch rules: look straight, eyes open, both ears visible and mouth closed. After about a quarter of an hour we finally had a photo that sort of complies with the rules and could be given to the Embassy ..............

20 mei 2007: Emily @ home