This is both Solange and my first child, so we have really no expectations for our kid. I think that is a good thing. Solange brought Teddy to the doctor for cradle cap, and the doctor also exclaimed that Teddy looked big for his age. This does not make sense since Solange is petite, and no one in my family is above average in size. I found a chart on the internet, and Teddy is OFF the charts!

Check out this chart, that plots his growth since birth versus the percentiles. He is over the 99th percentile. We have not been tracking height as much but Teddy is not fat, he is also in the 99th percentile in height. I have visions of the NBA in my mind. Or maybe an NFL lineman. I sure hope that he doesn’t become a Sumo wrestler.

My Dad says that maybe we should sell Solange’s milk!

Teddy’s Growth Chart

It was truly one crazy day at hospital for the birth of my first son, Teddy Cheng.

We went into the hospital at 11 pm on 7/2/2007. As soon as we go into the hospital, they assign a doctor to us, and they give us Dr. Forbes. I say “What?” Both Solange and I are surprised because we had been going to a place called the Women’s Wellness Clinic, and had been seeing three different female doctors, with the promise that one of them would be at the hospital during the delivery. The attending nurse goes on to explain that all three of doctors had recently left the state. Wow. Things just keep getting weirder.

We meet with Dr. Forbes, and he seems like an OK guy but there is an air of strangeness since we were expecting someone else. He then breaks Solange’s water and we are in business. About an hour later, a nurse comes in with a big bag of antibiotics. I say “What?” They proceed to explain that Solange had some blood work for strep, and there is no record that the results came back. So they were going to assume that she had it. But it gets better.

It is now 6 am and Solange has been pushing for over 2 hours without result. Note: Doctor Forbes was not present during all of this time just the nurse. Solange is getting tired, as am I. Then the door bolts open and one of the doctors from the Woman’s Wellness Center appears quickly putting on a gown. “I’m here!”, she announces. I get a weird sensation because of all the doctors at the clinic, she was by far the worst.

But stranger yet, the nurses just totally ignore her. They don’t answer the doctor’s questions nor do they respond to her commands. Then the doctor from the clinic disappears. I ask her what was going on. The nurse replies “She is not a doctor.” Now it is totally weird! In the last 4-5 visits to the clinic, it was always the same woman doctor, and now we learn that she was not even a doctor. But my head is reeling.

All this time, Solange is pushing and pushing and she is getting tired. Then it is shift change for the nurse and she leaves. Then the other woman (who we previously thought was a doctor) left. It was just me and Solange pushing. Now all weird thoughts are going through my head. What if the baby is born now? What would I do? I just hung in there and helped her push and jammed her knees to her chest.

It is going on 3 hours, and the next shift nurse comes in and says that it is taking too long. She is thinking ceasarean. Now I’m getting mad. Solange nor I wanted a ceasarean. I demanded to see the real doctor. They told me that they could not find him. I told them to go find him.

After some time, he finally arrived. He said that he had a little vacuum device that would help. It was just a little battery operated thing. Within 10 minutes the baby was out. Tears started streaming uncontrollably down my face. Solange too. After all the weirdness and stupidity, everything turned out fine. God Bless.

Here is the link of the photos Though it sounds cliche, all’s well that ends well.