Baby Update #3

Archived from October 30th 2006:

Hey folks,

I can almost hear some of you now… not another damn baby update from our long lost friend in the vast jungles of Vietnam. (Concrete jungle is more like it, but I’ll work with preconceptions for now)!

Happily announcing… It’s a girl! I’m ecstatic. Not only do I NOT have to deal with a baby boy with a baby penis… with pee shooting upwards and dirt all over the place, but I get the joy of being able to at least pretend to understand what my teenage daughter will be going through. I can almost see and hear my mom rolling her eyes and yelling “Hey Steven, come and read what kind of delusional thoughts that lunatic daughter of ours is thinking about her own child!” For those of you who’ve known me for a long time (which is pretty much everyone reading this) then you’re probably thinking along the same lines I am coming to accept… OH GAWD, not another Alisa. Seriously, it’s not exactly the thing I’m looking forward to, but she’s on her way, like a runaway train. I’ve been casually warning Duy for the past few months that he’s in for trouble with any child of mine, but he’s not heeding my warnings. He keeps saying that he hopes our daughter is like me; stubborn, aggressive and feisty. All I can think of is that he has the patience to deal with two women in his life remotely similar to me, then he is an angel in man’s clothing and I am TRULY the luckiest woman alive.

I’m like a ticking time bomb… I can almost see the LCD count down, but I’m helpless against it. Little Eliina Mai Nguyen will be coming out in the beginning of next year whether I want her to or not. Duy’s family’s adorable… before he proposed to me we consulted a fortune teller (normal for Vietnam). She approved of the wedding (whew) and said if we were to have children, if it was a girl first then we would be wealthy but if it was a boy then we would be okay. When we told them the good news about the girl on the way they were very VERY excited. Also, it’s considered good luck here in VN to have a girl first and a boy second. Not sure where that comes from, but my guess is that after centuries of war upon this beautiful country, birthing a child that could reproduce another generation instead of being shipped off to yet another bloody battle would be considered a blessing. A boy is hoped for the second baby, so cross your fingers for me folks.

All in all, the three of us are doing just fine. We’re working on a six month travel visa to visit Canada for the birth of baby. Pending approval the two of us will be arriving on January 15th/16th in Halifax, Nova Scotia to meet the doctor that will give birth to our child approximately 1.5 months later in Middleton Hospital. I hope to get the chance to see a lot of you while I’m in Canada but with a newborn don’t expect the three of us to embark on any major road trips (BC, Calgary, Ottawa or otherwise). I want to wait until Eliina is at least 3 years old (2010 Olympics bay-bee!) The plan is, after showing Duy how quickly air can freeze as you breathe out, and he gets to witness the miracle of birth followed by the miracle of spring in the same two months, we’ll be back in Vietnam for the 30th of June. It’ll be a short visit, but worth it to see Canada again after a year’s absence.

It’s been an amazing experience so far, this miracle of childbirth thing. I admit I hated my first trimester, but love my second and am looking forward to my third. If you feel inclined to sharing your birth horror stories with me; Please. I beg you not to. As my first childbirth, I am going to work under the assumption that the pain is intolerable but forgettable and the baby itself makes it all worth while. How’s that for positive self-delusion? I’ve always been good at it (ask Carla).

Gotta run, gotta eat, pee, shower and take my time doing all of those things that mothers of newborns don’t have the opportunity to enjoy slowly. So cheers all. I wish you all of the love and happiness available to you – and then more.