We welcomed our sweet angel Ashlyn Anne Zufelt into the world about a month ago on March 06, 2012. Because it was my fourth C-section the doctor advised a scheduled C-section at week 38 plus or minus four days according to my superstitions. He said that with a straight face though to my American mind it sounded like it should be a joke. Nope. He is just very sensitive to the fact that luck and numbers mean a whole lot to many cultures here in Singapore. Brian and I poked around the internet looking for auspicious days to have a baby and joked for months about it. In the end I was pushing for a leap day baby, February 29 but it was just out of reach being three days outside my approved window and the doctor wouldn’t budge.
Everything went according to plan with the pregnancy and she measured 50 percentile until about week 30 when she hadn’t grown quite as much as he would have liked. She had a fairly dramatic dip to the 20 percentile line. No big deal yet, Dr Loh noted to watch things more closely and try to rest more. At 32 weeks she measured back to the 50 percentile line and we thought we may have just got an off measure once. 34 weeks put her back down again and we started tracking more closely and going in more often to make sure we didn’t have a problem meaning we would have to deliver early. He began having me do 30 minute scans to track heart rate and make sure she was okay that way as well starting at 34 weeks. Weeks 35, 36, 36.5, 37 and 37.5 brought the same results that she was growing slower than she should and I was relieved to have her coming in just a few more days since I was getting a bit nervous.
They planned to do my bloodwork to make sure I was healthy enough for the surgery and check their regular stuff the Friday before my Tuesday delivery so of course the preceding Monday I came down with a rotten flu type bug with a nasty cold and congestion. I knew she needed to come out and I had to pass my blood test for the surgery I spent Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday sitting on the couch resting. I watched cartoons with Jacob, checked my email and napped. This was the first time of many that I was deeply grateful for Gina’s help in our home. Before that week it was nice to not have some of the house responsibilities but it wasn’t needed. Gina ran the house and started dropping off and picking up Maddie from school so I didn’t have to walk in the heat so far. She took care of dinner and played with Jacob. She was an angel.
Saturday morning I got up and went to the kids room to turn off their air con about 8am since I heard the cartoons on the TV downstairs and was startled to see Ben pop his head over the edge of his loft bed. “Mom, I don’t feel so good.” I helped him down from his bed and he went straight to vomit in the toilet. He rested that day and was better Sunday but Monday had a fever again. Not good. He couldn’t go to school and Gina had her university exams that day so I took him to my last baby scan the day before the scheduled delivery. We enjoyed the time sitting listening to the baby’s heartbeat for thirty minutes watching the print out slowly come out of the machine and guessed if the baby would be a boy or a girl and tried to choose cool names for him or her.
In the back of my mind though was what in the world was I supposed to do with a fever child when I was supposed to go deliver a baby!! I kept thinking maybe Brian could stay…NO…but what are we supposed to do? Could he wait in the lobby? He’s old enough. But he can’t come in. He’s sick and it’s a newborn baby! Maybe a neighbor could take him for the day. Except if we’ve got this nasty bug that has been going around the neighborhood for months no one in their right mind will take him! It’s a fever one day, fine the next fever one day type thing that lasts two to three weeks, the kids are missing tons of school and it’s hitting families one victim at a time and taking months to clear a single house. No one will take this kid. I asked one friend that was already planning to take Jacob for the day (Gina had exams again). I knew full well her family had just rid themselves of the bug and it had been about 10 weeks there. She was also delivering a baby about 6 weeks after Ashlyn and she politely and understandably declined knowing she didn’t want that back. I figured I’d call my visiting teacher. She was the only empty nester I knew in Singapore and would be willing I knew.
Ben stayed home and I took Maddie to swim lessons and mentioned my trouble to my mommy friends at the pool and instantly had two volunteers to take Ben. Grateful to have that managed I went home and made my final arrangements, wrote out lists of where the kids would need to be each day and who was helping with different things and left it for Gina. Then I began to feel anxious about the surgery. All the worry over the babys health had distracted me from the fact I had to have another C-section and all of a sudden I was worried. Brian called Mike Daynes over and they gave me a blessing and it helped calm my nerves. Then it was hugs and kisses, scriptures and bedtime goodbyes to the kids and promises that Dad would bring them to come see me and the baby girl or boy after school. Off to bed with the kids and I packed my bag for the hospital ready to welcome a new baby from heaven early in the morning.
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