Our Baby Faith :)

Faith
Variations: Fay, Faye.
1. "A puritan virtue name that's begun to sound very appealing to modern parents who like the name's straightforward feminine image as well as its meaning. Indeed, it does take faith nowadays to get married and start a family — faith that you'll be a good parent and your child will turn out well. If you don't have that kind of confidence, better opt for Hope..." (source: www.parenting.com)
2. "It is of Middle English origin, and its meaning is "loyalty; belief". A virtue name" (source: www.thinkbabynames.com)
3. "Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 (source: Name That Baby)
4. "Fidelity to one's promises; sincerity of intentions" (source: Marriam Webster Dictionary)

Faith Tan arrived on the 23 March 2007 (Friday), in the early Singapore morning.

Faith's beginnings were dramatic (as you can see, we've picked up the bug of Parentsi Melodramatis fairly quickly). Eve had felt strong contractions the night before and I had come home merrily from dinner with my ex-boss. We hadn't packed our all-important delivery bag that night - yet. Because after all, Faith just turned full-term that week and we weren't expecting her till oh - three weeks later. And Faith, if you are reading this, mummy and daddy's excuse is that we've both been quite busy at work - daddy with his travelling and mummy with her IDA event on Wednesday.

I think parents develop an instinct for when their babies will come. Because for something we procrastinated for weeks, we packed our baby bag that night in half an hour. Call it Braxton Hicks or any other name, we had a feeling we'd be sorry if we had turned in without preparing that night.

At 2am on Friday morning, we decided to leave for the hospital. As first-time parents, we weren't sure what exactly constituted strong contractions or of water-bag bursting. After all, when one watches Chinese drama on Singapore TV, water-bag bursting usually means a pool of water gushing out from the pregnant mother - enough perhaps to fill a tub?

As we write this, Faith is yelling - perhaps from a nightmare or just her normal fussing before going to bed. She entered into the world close to 7am that morning with a yell just like that. Only then, she was in an operating theatre and she was probably oblivious to all the commotion going around her.

Faith arrived by an emergency Caserean-section. While Eve and I had discussed extensively about whether Eve would take an epidural to ease the labour pains of natural birth, we never once discussed the possibility of a C-section. When we were admitted into the hospital at 2am, the nurse had given us the routine check-up and informed us that Faith was due say around 11am. Fortuitously, at around 6am, our gynae came by to check-up on Eve as he had just delivered another baby in a nearby suite (we're not sure how this works in other countries, but in Singapore, gynaes tend to show-up only closer to delivery time - not 5 hours before). At first, everything seemed okay and he was almost giving the same thumbs-up that the nurses had given for a natural birth. But then he stopped very abruptly. This picture is still very vivid in my mind because I think his abruptness alerted me to something amiss. He then checked the fetal charts, put on his gloves to do further checks, and promptly told us that we had a choice: we could either deliver Faith now by emergency C-section or risk losing the baby and possibly putting Eve and her womb at risk, if we chose to continue with natural birth. Eve of course wasn't able to see what was exactly happening but in reality there was substantial bleeding occuring already. I assured her that I could see a "little blood" and that it was best to go with our gynae's recommendation.

According to Yahoo! Health, Placenta Abruptio occurs in 3 in 1,000 pregnant women aged 20 to 24, increasing to 7 in 1,000 in pregnant women over age 35. "Normally during pregnancy, the placenta is firmly attached to the inner wall of the uterus until the baby has been born. Placenta abruptio is the premature separation (abruption) of the placenta before childbirth. Since the round, flat placenta is a "lifeline" that supplies nutrients and oxygen to a fetus from the mother, an abruption can be life-threatening for the fetus, and sometimes for the mother as well".

Half an hour after the doctor's assessment, Faith was delivered in the nick of time. Within that half an hour, several things happened - and more probably did in the background. What I was aware of were the calls that the nurses made to the operating theatre to prepare a theatre and to staff an anaethetist. I had to sign a few forms consenting to the op. My paedaetrician was paged and he had come running into the changing room of the operating theatre, where I was readying myself for the clean-room environment. I was none the wiser in the operating theatre. But I take my pd's word, when he told me in the changing room (when we were changing out of the theatre overalls) that Faith was saved literally in the nick of time.