It started to get a little different at about 6:30. SY called, saying that I should keep an ear open for my cell phone – she thought that her water had broken. She took a shower and made some calls to her friends to confirm what she thought was happening.
At 7:30, I got another call – she was going to go to the hospital, and I should meet her there. So, I cancelled the rest of the class and got on my way, still not sure if “this was it” or not.
At the hospital, I had a hard time finding her, because she wasn’t registered with the front desk. She said she was on the third floor, but I wasn’t familiar with the layout, so I couldn’t find the place easily. I finally found her at about 8:20, a few minutes before she was to get wheeled away for the C-section procedure.
So while she went to surgery, it was my job to get her registered, which was surprisingly difficult – I just didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t know how to react as people sent me around to all kinds of different places. Finally, someone took, me to the international services desk and had one of the nurses there accompany me.
It turns out the the problem was that she had been registered as an emergency room patient – there was no need for me to register her in the first place. This was about 9:10. It just so happened that at that point, in the a hallway on the third floor, a nurse was wheeling a baby down to the nursery. Almost in passing, someone said to me, “That’s your baby.”
He (didn’t know the gender at the time, though) was covered by a blanket, but I could see his face, and it looked pretty good. How about that.
I sat in the waiting room for a while, and while I was there just watched the notification screen. (I didn’t have my camera with me at the time, so I couldn’t take a picture of it, but here’s what it looks like)
It wasn’t until about 10:50 that I was allowed to see SY in the recovery area of the operation room; she needed to rest and had to recover from her anesthetic. At 12:30, they moved her to her room. Though we had planned to take one of the normal beds, there were none available, so I got her only thing available – a private room.
Though I was able to cancel the Friday morning class, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out of my evening job. So, I stayed with her until her mother came, then left for work at about 1:30. As soon as work was over, though, I grabbed a few things from the house and came back. SY and I talked for a while – until about 1:30 – then finally went to sleep for the first time as parents.
Seoul University Hospital apparently contracts out photo services for new parents. Here are a couple of the the photographer's photos:
From these pictures, you'd think the kid was the best-looking baby in the world, but compare those pictures to my own, and he looks pretty normal:
In the second picture I think he looks like a burrito, but that's what they do to keep him warm.
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