The Price to Pay

We left the hospital on May 26th. 21-day stay with 5 meals each day and nurses taking care of both mother and baby, here's the price: NT$85913. Averaged 4000 a day is not as expensive as it seems, compared to one of my friend who spent 1500 for a room and 1800 for meals with absolutely nobody taking care of them.

Full-Month Greetings

Like Father Like Son?

My son and I, photo taken in the hospital. My family said he looks like the mother, but my wife's family said he looks like the father. I can't tell who he looks like at all. He just looks like a baby.

Caught Off Guard

I took this picture when I was waiting for Rex to pick me up to the office. It was raining that morning, and it was sleeping so well dispite the noisy traffic.

Challenge Begins

Today we got the final confirmation. Our son has G6PD deficiency, a disease that caused by a defect in his gene which still has no cure today. We'll have to be very careful not to let him contact certain food and medicine that can cause accute reactions or even endangers his life. We got a reminder card to present to doctors when he goes to a hospital from now on. He's also not allowed to take medicines not prescribed by a doctor. Maybe he just wants to make sure he'll get enough attention from his parents, nannies and teachers.

First Mother's Day

Today is the 15th day since we have a new member in our family, and also the day before the very first Mother's Day. Josh and HJH came to the hospital to see the brand new mom and brand new baby. We then had lunch together at Ximending. In the afternoon, Allie's family came with a cake to celebrate Mother's Day. Their one-year-old daughter is so energetic and vigorous; she ran all the time and screamed loudly. I hope our son can grow up as strong as his sister.

G6PD? The Jury is Still Out

Today three of us all got a venipuncture for final tests to determine if the baby has G6PD deficiency and, if so, the genetic tree that got him this disease. Although we've gradually prepared ourselves to acccept the result, there's still a slight chance he'll walk away freely. Just keeping our fingers crossed until the jury reach the verdict.

New Worries

The screening result says our son may have G6PD Decicciency and further tests are required to confirm. Although noboby in my family or Allie's have the record of this inherited disease, and false alarms in the screening are common, we still have to worry if our son is one of the 3% victim of this disease until we have the results of further tests. I'm especially worried because he still has high bilirubin levels, which may be just because he's prematured, drinking milk from his mother, or a symptom of G6PD Deficiency.

Touch Down

Today he's even much better. The oxygen dome was removed, and the Bili Light was reduced to one instead of two since his bilirubin number dropped to 12. Above all, he was ready to be fed from breast directly because his resparitory was much improved. After two failed attempts in four hours, he finally began to drink from the breast. He seems content with the meal, but his mom was exhausted.

Looking Good

Fifth day on this planet, our son gained a little weight from 2325g to 2388g. He's under bili light treatment for neonatal jaundice, and sometimes his respiratory rate is not very stable. Depite these, he looks a lot better than the first day and is sleeping a lot and eating a lot (45 cc every 4 hr).

Finally Home

14 days away from, we're finally home on the 15th day. Our son is still in the hospital waiting for the results of his exams to come out. Depite that he's born 6 weeks earlier, he consumes 40 cc of milk each time now and is obviously growing fat quickly -- too fat so that his face looks like Matsusaka Daisuke.