Wata-wata Humba-humba

Palangga is a Bisaya term that means beloved, precious, darling, or sweetheart.  Our son — my palangga — is a third-culture child, born in Islamabad to an American father and Filipino mother (who were married in Thailand).

J was delivered by C-section on November 4, a week after I was admitted due to preeclampsia. He weighed 1.6 kg and spent a week at the NICU for jaundice and antibiotic treatment.

I call him “God’s little angel on earth,” because we almost lost hope that we’d ever have a baby at 41 after I had a miscarriage two years before. But thanks to Clomid and a fertility specialist with a sense of humor, we conceived without having to go through intra-uterine insemination or in vitro fertilisation procedure. He happily turned us over to his wife, the best OB-Gyn in town.

The first trimester brought back old fears when I started to bleed. The doctor solved this by putting me on Duphaston (progesterone) and Pregnyl (hCG). Ultrasound tests also revealed three fibroids in my uterus, but my doctor did not appear concerned. After that I had a wonderful second and third trimester, everyone said I glowed.

So while we were prepared for premature labor due to the fibroids, we were still surprised when my blood pressure went up. I thought I felt fine until they wheeled me to the delivery room because my BP went up from 130/80 to to 170/120 within 30 minutes. They gave me a stronger dose of anesthesia to get the baby out as quickly as possible, rendering me unconscious for a few minutes. When I woke up the baby was already at the NICU and we didn’t get to hold him until four days later.

I don’t have an issue about having a baby in a developing country since I come from one myself and have four doctors in the family. We had excellent and affordable medical care in Islamabad. The difficulties I went through was what all parents of premature babies everywhere experience: fear, depression, self-pity, frustration with breastfeeding … but having a loving and supportive husband helped tremendously. We also hired a nanny the day our baby came home. This makes up for the fact that we live far from our respective families and don’t have the usual support. Our colleagues also extended a lot of emotional support and advice, from the superintendent who threw the baby shower to the school nurse who monitored my blood pressure. My birthing coach was my husband’s pianist, who is also a registered nurse.  Some of my students and their parents also came to visit and offered their services as babysitters. Family and friends from different parts of the world were regularly updated of our progress through e-mail and a photo blog that is updated daily.

Everyone rejoiced and heaved a collective sigh of relief when J reached his due date on December 17 weighing 2.2 kg.