the missing birth story

i thunk a thought the other day.  i know.  that often gets me into trouble.  it causes me to remember things i’ve forgotten to do, like missed doctor appointments and late bills and such.

so it’s best that i limit that activity as much as possible.

:p

however, this particular thought had to do with thankfulness.  so i think (there i go again!) i was pretty safe from getting into trouble this time around.  i was thankful mainly for this blog and all the years of family memories i have recorded.  and i’m thankful for YOU, for reading along and sharing in our joys and supporting us in our sorrows (and for comments both here and on fb, emails, and in-person encouragement- it all means more than i can say).  it has been one of God’s major blessings in my life.

and i was thankful that i have the story of each of our children’s births written down pretty soon after their arrivals so that little details were preserved and now they each have their very own story to enjoy and giggle over.  to know that each of them are precious to us, and that each of their stories have God’s handiwork and protection and fingerprints all over it.

until.

i remembered that mikey has no such story.  i started my blog when he was three months old and it never occurred to me to write down his birth story.  mostly because he was our firstborn and all the details were seared in my memory and still feels like it happened just yesterday, not almost eight and a half years ago.  also because i was pretty jacked up and had a longer recovery time than i did with the others.

you know how in most families, the firstborn has everything saved for them, has the completed baby book, and most importantly, has the most pictures of their babyhood?  it was true of my family growing up– there are tons and tons of pictures of my big brother, tons and tons of slides of him, tons and tons of 8mm videos of his every baby move.  and a completely filled in baby book along with clippings and other photos jammed in there.  me?  i have a whopping three pictures of the first year of my life.  and a depressingly blank baby book that i asked my mom about when i was 6.  she must have felt guilty over it because she took it and later proudly showed me what she had done- hastily gone over it, wrote in a few facts, and wait for it… drew in an outline of an imaginary baby’s hand and foot.  “that’s roughly the size of your hands… when you were a baby,” she said with a hint of vagueness in her voice.

thanks, mom.

i vowed that day that i would have filled in baby books for each of my babies to spare them the feelings i felt for being the second-born.

and now here i am.

with a nearly-filled in baby book for my first, a partially (and that’s a generous statement) filled in book for my second, a blank one for my third, and still have to get one for our fourth.  who is 19 months old today.

God, thank you for lessons in humility and teaching me to never say never.

but!

thank the good Lord for this blog wherein i DO have many stories preserved of each of our kiddos and puh-lenty of pictures of each one.  so much so that we actually are the opposite of my own growing up experience.  i actually have more (and better!) pictures of each successive baby.

so the baby books may actually be a lost cause at this point, but they each WILL have their own photobooks telling the stories of each of their first year of life.  at least that’s my goal for this Christmas.  we’ll see.

but for my sweet boy, mikey?  no such mommy-written birth story exists.  boo.  but!  thank the good Lord again for my sweet hubby who was a proud first-time daddy and emailed our friends near and far about our baby son’s arrival.  and!  we just happen to have those emails saved.  whew.

so, here is mikey’s birth story, in his daddy’s words.  following that are a few pictures.  (of course!)

Hello to all,

   I just wanted to report that on May, 8th, 2004, at around 4:30 am,
Michael Kyle Tsai was born.  He weighed 6 lbs. 1oz., and was 20 inches in
length.  His best features so far have been his lungs, as one nurse
described him as, “the smallest baby in the nursery with the loudest
cries…”

   Michelle first started having contractions at around 11:50 pm, on Friday
May 8th.  At first, they were approximately 10 minutes apart.  They timed
down rapidly, and around 2:30 am, we thought, “Hey, they are around 3 – 5
minutes apart, maybe we should go to the hospital.”  Michelle was worried
that the staff would send her home for false labor!

   We checked in around 3:00 am, and the nurse who first examined her
announced, “You are around 6 cm dialated.  You will have the baby before
this morning is over.”  Good thing we came when we did!

   The staff thought that an epidural would take too long to take effect, so
Michelle was ordered an intrathecal shot of morphine, which is supposed to
take the edge off of the contractions, but leave her enough sensation so
that she could move around and feel when to push.  Unfortunately, the shot
only seemed to work minimally, but the side effects came on maximally, so
Michelle got nausea, shakes, chills, the whole spectrum of stuff.

   Within minutes of receiving the shot, Michelle was ready to push (We
waited forever until the anesthesiologist came in and administered the shot
at the height of what seemed like the transitional phase.  Those
specialists…)

   The baby’s heart rate started to drop after a while, so the ob/gyn did an
episiotomy to help get him out.  The next push, Michael Kyle came into the
world, crying his head off.  We were blessed because Michelle only had to
push for around 15 minutes!

   Phil used his med school connections to get a private corner suite with a
double bed.  Actually, I think the room was open at the time, so they just
gave it to us, but I prefer to think that the ob/gyn, who was terribly
impressed that I was in the MD/MPH program, and conversed with me about
epidemiology in-between Michelle’s contractions, pulled a few strings. 🙂

   Michelle is doing well, but she has to recoup from a tear which came in
addition to the episiotomy cut.  Michael is settling down a little, but he
still likes to show off his lungs.  (We think Michael tends to look more
like Phil, but there are definite Michelle features which are evident…)
Phil has two finals this week, and good thing public health grades do not go
into his med school record!  Unfortunatley, he has had a hard time studying,
preferring to hold Michael as well as design stupid things to send to people
(see attachments).

   If someone could forward this to the unity-line, that would be
appreciated. (I don’t think I have exclusive membership…)  Anyways, we
appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and most of all praises to
God…

Proud Parents
Phil and Michelle Tsai

and a shorter email sent to our small group friends:

From: phil tsai 
To: ***
Subject: New Addition to Tsai Household
Date: Sun, 09 May 2004 05:50:27 +0000

Hey old small group posse, 

Just wanted to let everyone know that at approximately 4:30 am on
May 8th, Michael Kyle (99% sure that’s the name) Tsai was born,
weighing 6 lbs. 1 oz, and 20 inches long.  Michelle did a wonderful
job, and Michael came out after only 15 minutes of pushing…  Mom
Michelle is resting up and recouping from an episiotomy and fighting
an allergic rxn she had earlier from sun screen, and Father Phil is
burning the midnight oil changing diapers, and hoping to get some
study time in for his two finals this coming week.  We are at
Fairview Riverside Hospital, room 583, but will probably be home by
Sunday night/Monday morning…  We appreciate all your thoughts and
prayers…  Well gotta go.  Fortunately, we have a double bed in
Michelle’s room, so I don’t need to sleep on a cot…

We’ll be sending out pictures when we get home 🙂

Phil and Michelle Tsai
“Sleep Deprived Proud Parents”

********

the part about “design[ing] stupid things to send to people” from the first email?  well, look what i happened to dig up!

a “redesigned” pamphlet.  see a familiar face in there?

and another “redesigned” pamphlet.

a page from mikey’s baby book.  up on the left there is his daddy-designed birth announcement.  before costco and other websites offered birth announcements. or, maybe before we were aware of them.  and on the right is his newspaper birth announcement.  the only one of our kids we did this for.

my sweet boy on the day we took him home from the hospital.  taken with our first digital point-and-shoot camera complete with date stamp.  phil still misses this feature on the pictures i take now.  i don’t.  

so very, very thankful for this written account of mikey’s birth.  such happy memories.  except for maybe the “allergic rxn”, “episiotomy”, and “[4th degree] tear” parts…  those i could maybe have done without.  :/

ps- this post is brought to you today due to yet another forgotten swim lesson.  oops.