What's in a name...

Well, Da-Yong is now 21 days old and he is growing more active with more facial expressions by the day. We are now only waiting for him to smile socially (not just in his sleep). Hmmm..I wonder, when he smiles in his sleep, what is he dreaming about? :-)

In anycase, while he is resting a little and keeping a little quiet, I thought I might take this time to update this blog a little. I'm sure many people (especially those of the Chinese descent) might find it weird why I named my child Da-Yong which can be directly translated to be Big Courage. A little cultural background, Da or Big is not a common first name as it isn't easy to choose a middle name with that. However, in my family (Chiam), that name, Da has already been chosen by my ancestors from my ancestralvillage in China. The Chinese first name is what we call a generation name. Just like my name, Siong Heng, Siong is actually the name used by ALL my cousins (those who are still traditionalist). Thus, my brother and all my cousins will have the same first name. What makes our names unique is our middle name as in my case, Siong Heng, my brother, Siong Chin, my cousin, Siong U etc. In the case of my son and all of his generation, Da is the stipulated first name. Actually, based on literature from my home family village, my father's generation is Kong, my generation is Siong, my son's generation is Da and my grandson's generation is Keat.

Also, I do intend on registering my son's birth with my home village in China. Now, I just have to find a way to do so....

Finally, I do intend (to my best ability) to ensure that my son keep to this proud family tradition and name his sons Keat....

And....It's OFF!

A huge milestone happened today. The baby is growing like a bacterial culture during its exponential S Curve growth stage. Clothes that didn't quite fit a week ago is now too tight! It is really quite an amazing sight!

Well, yesterday, his umblical cord came undone. This is huge with Da-Yong discarding his last appendage of any linkage to another human being (the Mom). He is truly an individual able to function on his own... Errr...I guess that is not quite true at this stage. He is a helpless little biological creation that eats, sleeps and poops.

As for us, Mom and Dad, we are now getting used to the fact that we have this little one to care for. Getting more used to the task of changing diapers and bathing him.

Again, it's a good thing I suppose....

Gramps are here!

Reinforcements have arrived! Gramps are here...and they are just in love with Da-Yong. They cannot get enough of him. I personally haven't seen my parents so happy. Just like what my Dad says, "Da-Yong brings a lot of joy to a lot of people in this household..." As a new daddy, I tend to agree. :-)


Proud Grandma and Grandpa.


Sleeping peacefully in Grandma's arms.


Grandma looking very happy! :-)


Happy new Mom!


Another family shot.

It's been a week...

All, Wendy here. I'm finally finding a little time to post into this blog. It has been quite a week to say the least. Finally, we are getting into the routine of things although apart from feeding our little Cherub, changing his diapers, burping him and then making sure he sleeps, it doesn't give me time for anything else. In anycase, here are some more pictures that I thought you might like to see...


Cherub sleeping on Daddy's chest.


Here he is contented after having his dinner...having a nap.


Another napping picture.


Thought I just had to post this picture...I took this without Siong knowing. Both, Daddy and son deep in sleep.

Thank yous...

A huge thank you should go out to all the staff of Burnaby Hospital who cared for us during Da-Yong's delivery namely:
RN Janet
RN Gilles (sp?)
RN Elaine
RN Champa
RN Florence
RN Linda

Also, a big thank you goes to the Newton Centre Public Healthcare nurses:
RN Joanne
RN Maureen

You all have set an impossibly high standards for the Canadian Healthcare system. Not only did you deliver Da-Yong, but you provided us with our parenthood crash course in two days that allowed us to cope with having Da-Yong at home.

Also, thanks to Dr. Shelly Ross whose level of experience and professionalism really impressed us.

Finally, thanks to all MDA and RSI staff, friends and family. We really appreciate all your well wishes and gifts.

Its a Boy 2!

Well, it's been 5 days since Da-Yong's birth, and we are back home now. Man, that boy is a really hungry guy, all he does, eat lots, poop lots and sleep little. In anycase, this is a little quiet time that I can use to update the blog with more pictures.

BTW, just in case you are wondering, with my Father's blessings, we have named him Chan Da-Yong (Big Courage).

Do note that I have included more pictures prior to the birth as well down on the March 9th 2005 post below.

Better start posting all the pictures before Da-Yong starts crying again...


Dr. Ross getting Da-Yong ready for his first close-up shot.


RN Janet looking over Mom and newborn.


Another family picture.


Baby in the Maternity Ward the next morning. Hmmm nice swaddling technique.


Mom and Da-Yong in maternity ward.


More Mom and baby.


This what makes my heart melt. Hmmm...doesn't he look like me (SH)? :-)


Now, my turn to have a picture with Da-Yong.


Awwww...doesn't that just makes your heart melt?


Another Mommy with baby shot.


Now, this is my favorite shot of the lot!


Tua Kor just can't have enough of him!


Family shot with Tua Kor.


Here's Jee Chek with the kid.


Peter coming over for a visit in the hospital. Look at Siong Chin, all beat!


RN Florence (hopefully her last name is Nightingale?? :-)) Carrying him one last time before he left the hospital. Really, does he not look like me?


At home in his crib feeling contented after feeding.


Nice big yawn...


RN Joanne on a home visit 24 hours after birth. Isn't Canadian Healthcare system something?


RN Joanne weighing him. He's just got 100gm left to achieve his birth weight.

That's it for now. I'll update more later. Keep watching.....

IT'S A ....

BOY!!!! A healthy baby boy was delivered at 2:55am on 10th March 2005 in the midst of Wendy screaming for more epidural :-).

In anycase, I'm completely shot from lack of sleep and will update this later. In the meantime, to wet your appetite, here is a set of initial pictures. I'll enter the captions later. I'm really REALLY short on sleep here now..


Here he is, 5 mins old. He is all bruised.


Here is another look at him. Hmmm, does he look like his mom or his dad?


Lets have a look at him closer...


Lets have a look at him EVEN closer...hmmm..nope, he looks like hi daddy!


There go goes pouting his lips again...


There he is with Dr. Shelly Ross who delivered him.


Here's nurse Janet from Singapore helping him out when he just got out...


The next morning, I'm still amazed...I'm a Father now!


Here's Tua Kor visiting him for the first time. She seems more excited then us!


Our first family picture together..

Now, 1, 2, 3 PUSHHHHHH!!!!!

Well, times up. Wendy's fully dilated and its time to PUSH! It was quite a funny scene when she was completely drugged up and was screaming for more epidural when the Dr. has already prescribed that to her. She was trying to argue with the Dr. saying that he was lying to her and that she was not given any epidural when in actual fact, she got 2 tubes in her.

The birth labour experience was quite something to go through...and this is the father speaking. I can't even imagine the experience Wendy's been through.

One thing is for sure though, I'm very VERY impressed with the level of healthcare here in Canada. You should have a look at the birthing suite, complete with hardwood floor, nice sofa beds for visitors, dim lights, cd player for music, shower and toilet. Also, all the healthcare professionals take pride in their work and you could tell by how they work.

In anycase, the baby is coming out and as a father, I have encourage Wendy......."Take a deep breath, now, one, two three, PUSHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Its Time!

Well, the day we have all been waiting for (or is it Wendy's been dreading all these while) has finally arrived! Wendy's water broke at approximately 6:30pm at work! The child is coming 10 days early! We are not prepared.

Our original plan was to take next week off to prepare for the birth e.g. specify the birth plan, pick names, pack our bags etc. However, I got a call from Siong Ee at approximately 6:30pm telling me that Wendy has been stuck in MDA's washroom for quite sometime already. So, I rushed to her while dialing Dr. Shelly Ross' pager telling her that we suspect that Wendy's water was broken. The Dr. told us to go home right now, take a nice hot shower, pack our bags and meet her at the hospital at 8:30pm.

After admitting, we were met up in the Birthing Suites area by two excellent RNs, RN Janet from Singapore and RN Gilles (most probably from South Africa from her accent). RN Janet was the main labour nurse who took care of us and she was EXCELLENT. A big THANK YOU should go out to her...without her care, it would have been 10 times more difficult.

Some pictures of our rushing to the hospital:


"Stop playing with your camera and TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL...NOWWWW!"


Just finalising the admitting papers with the hospital administration.


Entrance to the Burnaby Hospital.


Burnaby Hospital where Da-Yong was born.


RN Janet looking after Wendy.


Outside of the Birthing Suite having a walk waiting for Wendy's cervix to be fully dilated.

Spoils of the day.

Just a quick note here before I hit the sack UTTERLY and COMPLETELY exhausted from baby shopping. So far, half of our shopping list has been crossed out. Another half to go..



You know what they say...no pain no gain!

Shop till you drop...

Well, pushing aside the minor inconvenience of not know the sex of the baby, we HAVE to get our act together and start our baby shopping now. I have been so busy lately with work (averaging about 60 hours per week) that I haven't started any baby shopping yet. However, just today, it shocked me that Wendy's 37 weeks going on to 38 weeks now! We really don't have much time left to shop.

So, we went to Babies'R'Us, Superstore and Walmart the other day and boy...it was really an information overload. There were rows and rows of baby products and we didn't know where to begin. I mean, just bottles alone, there must have been at least 10 brands and types out there. Wendy wants to breastfeed, so, do we need a 9 oz. or 4 oz.? What kinds of silicone nipple? Are there special types for switching the baby from breast to bottle then back to breast again? Which brands? Playtex and Avent seems to get pretty good reviews in that it will not leak so much air into the bottle. So on and so forth. At the end of the day, we were just confused and didn't commit to anything. We then came home, browsed through the Ineternet, did our research and created our own shopping list. Armed with this, we are just about to head out again to brave the baby superstores out there.

Will let all of you know the results of that soon...

Omigosh! It's coming!

Well, went to the Doctor's today and boy did the message hit home. The baby IS coming and it is coming soon as well. The doctor said that the baby's head has engaged the cervix, so he is on the way out!

A little interesting note, according to the doctor, 1% of the population has early babies, 19% are on-time and 80% are late babies. However, she said that based on the position of the baby now, it seems that the baby might be an early baby or on-time. However, apart from this, all's well.

I supposed I have to get cracking soon. This thing is coming and there is no way to stop him now!

One, Two or Three!

This blog entry was brought about through an interesting conversation I had with Wendy a few days ago. The age old question of whether we should have a plethora number of kids or maybe just cap at 1?

My god...suddenly, a picture of many running kids changing my entire peaceful existance into a complete cacophony. Personally, I don't think I'm quite ready for this level of intrusion yet. I really do shudder at this thought.

Well, we ended our discussion with an agreement that if this turns out to be a boy, we might just cap our family with this one child. However, if this turns out to be a girl, we will at most try one more and regardless of the sex of the second child, we will definitely cap at two.

Anymore, we will just have to wait and see. See how disruptive bringing up a baby will be then we'll decide if we should bring up more.

She's WHAT?

Just a quick update here. Could you imagine, Wendy's 8 months on? Does she look like it?



I think she is tiny.... but oh well...how would I know...afterall, this is my first.

Oh Canada!

Canada, its in my blood, as proclaimed by the famous Canadian songstress Joni Mitchell. After being here in Canada for the last 15 years, my outlook for this country has changed. Initially, I came out here with every intention of going home to Malaysia immediately after my tertiary education. Home was still Malaysia and my "kampung" was still Parit, Perak. However, as fate would play out, I was initially seduced to stay on in Canada by an incredible job offer and opportunity to work for Canada's only Space company with promise of sexy projects like the Canadarm. As years flew by, I finally decided to obtain my permanent residency status, initially as a form of convenience so that I do not need to renew my work visa every year.

However, after the many years I have been here, I have started to believe in this country. My political outlook turned from conservatism to a firm believer in social democracy.

Hmmmm...why am I telling you all these? Well, yesterday was another time I saw social democracy in action. Since Wendy has been diagnosed as being gestational diabetic, she has had to attend a diabetic clinic offered for free in the Burnaby Hospital. As healthcare is a public service (in Canada, there are no private healthcare facilities), a doctor, a dietician and a registered nurse was assigned to her in the class, again, for free. She was also provided with all her diabetic supplies from the blood glucose electronic testing kit also for free. What is more impressive, although these healthcare workers are public servants, you can truly feel their pride in their work and their professionalism. You can feel that they care about the wellbeing of their patients. They really do. I do feel that ALL Canadians are in good hands if all healthcare workers provide this same level of care and service. Wendy was even given emergency phone numbers to reach any of the 3 healthcare workers assigned to her. All these are public services!

That is why Canada is the country for me. That is why I believe in Canada and that is why I'm so happy that my little one is going to be born Canadian. I truly cannot think of another country that I would like to be in more than the one I'm in right here, right now.

On a more somber mood...

Well, this week has been a rather difficult one for us all here. We have just got Wendy's GTT 3 hour test back (Glucose Test for gestational diabetes). She failed the GTT 1 hour test quite a number of weeks ago. However, we thought it was relatively common to fail that and not fail the 3 hour test. Unfortunately, it was not so in our case. Wendy inexplicably failed her 3 hour test as well. That means, it is going to be a very busy final 2 months for us now. Wendy's need to attend a Diabetes Clinic and potentially, she might have to test her blood up to 7 times a day. In the meantime, she has to cut out all sugar from her diet and cut down on her starch intake (i.e. only a small cup of rice and the rest vegetables).

Thus, it is a mad scramble to change our lifestyles and start buying and cooking less rice and more of the different kinds of vegetables and meats. It might not be a bad thing, at the very least, this is DEFINITELY a heather diet.

Oh well, one more hurdle that we can definitely overcome ... Wish us luck!

Test driving...

Hmmm, I got my first taste in carrying a really young infant (1 month old) yesterday at my good friend Pam's place. She has an absolute lovely and adorable 1 month old. Well, I decided then to give this infant caring thing a test drive. Unfortunately, quite unlike test driving a car, this one, I can't just kick the tires, bring it once round the block and then just walk away if I don't like it. I'm literally stuck with my baby arriving in 8 weeks whether I like it or not.

In anycase, I picked Brett (Pam's son) up....so far so good. He then started making faces and started the Nyet-Nyet (crying) face and was about to wail. Fortunately for me, I remember how my Mom pacified by younger brother like some 20 years ago and I tried the same tactics. I started rocking Brett gently in my arms and that worked! I pacified him! Simply amazing! He started cooing at me and ... and ... do I detect a smile? :)

I started to get the hang of this...hey..I can get used to this...this isn't so bad afterall.... then .... THEN I felt some bowel movement from the little one... So, right there and then...the test drive was over... Off he goes back to his Mom. Okay, one step at a time... Next week, diaper change, but for now, I can leave Pam's place warm with the thought that I'm really not so bad with kids..

Changing lifestyles, are we ready?

Well, the weather in Vancouver has been in the extremes the last few weeks. It is either shockingly cold or so wet and warm....Regardless, both extremes just killed our appetite to head out for some outdoor activities. That then leaves a great many hours lazing around in bed at home and of course, lots of time chatting and discussing about how our lives might change once the baby comes.

Now, the funniest thing is that the strongest image that hit home with the baby was when both of us were lying in bed and then suddenly, we realise that there is going to be another person, living being who is going to be sleeping right in the middle. We both shudder at that thought ... whatever that is, we are still not used to that fact yet. Further more, it suddenly hit us, we will never again in our young lives have the opportunity to go on vacations alone. I'm suddenly feeling that we have just been robbed off our privacy...and am really not used to the fact that there will essentially be a stranger intruding into our lives. I guess this is just because we haven't met our child in the flesh yet... Maybe all these will change once we see him in person (at least I'm hoping that that will be the case).

ARRRGGGHHH... I still have lots of things to do and lots of places to see... I have not seen the waterways of Venice, the renaissance architecture of Rome, the Greek Pathanon, trekked across the Silk route, seen India's Taj Mahal, Cambodia's Angkor Watt, Guilin's majestic limestone hills, Jordan's Petra ruins, swam in the dead sea etc. I haven't lived!

So, changing lifestyles, are we ready or not? I guess the answer will come once we come face to face with the little one...

Nature or Nurture...

Hmmm....the age old question, Nature or Nurture? No, I'm not talking about the sexual orientation of a person, but rather, being a genius, is it really nature or is it nurture where the parents can influence this?

I was having a very interesting lunch time conversation the other day with Wendy and Siong Ee (sister) with regards to this particular subject. What I have heard is that most children geniuses display an intense interest in adult subjects, be it mathematics, physics, history etc., at an early age. I then wonder if having a child prodigy is a matter of exposing the child to all things adult? Force the child to bypass anything childish. For example, from an infant, only play big classical pieces to him like Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 2 & 3, Schumann Piano Concerto, all the 9 Beethoven Symphonies, all 9 Dvorak Symphonies, Puccini Operas etc. Nothing like old MacDonald have a farm crap... Or in other cases, expose the child very early on to Classical Chinese history and Classical Chinese texts, Political Science theories, read Scientific American as a bedside story etc...

You get my picture. Will this nurture a genius? Most of the time I see that children were not given an opportunity to explore their scientific/mathematical/historical etc interests because their parents do not expose these things to them at an early enough age.

Maybe I'm on a totally wrong track. Maybe geniuses are nature, hence there is nothing one can do to nurture one. Maybe Mozart was born with a very intense love for music and without that, no amount of exposure to music at whatever age can bring about this genius.

Well, anyone who is reading this, do give me your opinions by dropping a comment below. I am curious to see what you think. Also, if we have any child psychologist reading, I'm really interested in your opinions...

That Elusive Connection...

Human nature is a funny thing sometimes. I have read in many places that it takes a while for the parents to bond with an unborn child. Both, myself and Wendy have believed this fact for most of the pregnancy .... till yesterday. Actually, we have never felt much connection to the baby, so much so that both of us started to wonder if we can be good and loving parents.

However, things definitely changed yesterday. Yesterday, Wendy suddenly told me that it was very strange in that our baby was no longer active and that she is feeling few and far between fetal kicks. She felt this strange turn of events a couple of days ago and it seemed that the baby was moving less everyday. Upon hearing this, I was at a loss with all manner of horrible thoughts going through my mind, the worse (which was extremely silly, now that I come to think of it) being, "What about the umbilical cord wrapped around our baby and strangling him in the process?" I panicked. Both, myself and Wendy then spent countless hours last night coaxing the baby to give us some response. After nearly 1 hour of trying (with all manner of soothing words, poking the belly etc etc..) we were finally rewarded by a series of very strong kicks and life's back to normal again. I didn't know whether to laugh of to cry once I felt the baby movements again....This is one moody baby indeed! Or is it lazy? :-)

In anycase, my point is, for the first time in my life, I felt this parental bond and boy, is it strong!

I think we are both going to be alright afterall...and yes, I have confidence that Wendy and myself will be great parents....