BESRA AI-YING WILES!

The most AMAZING thing has just happened in our lives.. one minute i'm 7 mths pregnant and STILL having morning a.k.a. 24-hour sickness.. and the next our little baby girl has decided to pop into this world! Yup... I actually woke up pregnant on Thursday (26 Oct 2006) and by 10.15pm baby Besra Ai-Ying Wiles was screaming her way into this world, loud and clear! So incredibly amazing!

To start from the very beginning..Martin had been away at sea for almost 2 weeks as of that Thursday. I picked him up from the marina late in the morning and by noon we were at the resort. I stuffed my face with a huge beefburger and boy was i glad cos i then had nothing to eat until the next morning about 5am (Starving by then!) Anyway.. we got home and talked about how his trip went.. and he said he thought he photographed a beautiful falcon called a Besra.. and i immediately said that sounded like a great name for our baby...Martin said he was just thinking the same thing about a week ago. we looked it up in his many books, and were quite seriously contemplating throwing out both 'anya' and 'georgia' in favour of Besra!

anyway, that afternoon, we did what husbands and wives normally do and then i fell soundly asleep... by 5pm i was awake and about to make fries (of all things!) for martin's dinner when i felt something strange... i walked to the living room and looked at martin and the first thing that came out of his mouth was: "Dont tell me your water broke?" and BINGO, that's exactly what happened! Oh my god... we got into the car and drove past the house we were supposed to visit for Hari Raya..(Malay New Year Celebration.. there goes our free dinner!) and headed straight for the private clinic.. Doctor Sarva was at hand cos there was another delivery... and as soon as he examined me he confirmed that the water bag was ruptured, i was about 3 cm dilated and delivery was imminent and that i had to rush to the govt hospital at Likas cos he didnt have the facilities or specialists to handle such premature cases... yikes!

So we drove over to where the hospital was.. and managed to drop by the MacDonald's drive thru cos Martin was starving (as you do! hehe..) and he ate his fish fillets while i had my first very mild contraction.. hehe.. even sounds funny to me now that i think of it... ;-) anyway, that out of the way, we headed for the emergency ward and they checked me in, asked me to fill in forms n wait for doc while martin was supposed to just take a seat outside. mind u this was a public hospital so we were never going to get star service anyway!

contractions started coming stronger but they didnt strap on the contraction detection thingy properly thus couldnt tell that i was actually having contractions.. baby's heartbeat dipped from 150 to about 60 every time i had a contraction and the docs couldnt figure it out.. they were debating among themselves (there were many.. and young!) if i was a Type 1 or Type 2.. i presume type 1 is normal and type 2 is more complicated.. and they got me to turn left and turn right and restrap the thingy to figure out why baby had such an erratic heartbeat.. anyway, this was 7pm onwards.. and by 9 something they were wheeling me into the labour room (alone!) and i passed my whole family and some close friends standing in the waiting hall and the doc was speaking to martin so i assumed all was well.

the service in the labour room was pretty good despite all those young doctors zooming in and out.. and abt 5 different nurses.. Dr. Angeline and an indian doctor (one on each side) talked me through it.. and literally after a few more contractions which were tolerable (i'd heard and seen worse before!) and one great big push (which the doctors both shouted for me to stop pushing cos it was coming out too fast, yeah right, as if i could stop!) our little girl practically SHOT OUT into this world crying her lungs out! Dr. Angeline said thank god for the cord and called her a little flying angel... and that she is..that she is.

anyway.. the downside was that being a public hospital on holiday mode.. no one actually told martin and my family that i had given birth.. they were dozing off in the waiting room and it wasnt until martin managed to ask the doctor who was passing by and he replied: "Oh, she had it about an hour ago!" so u can imagine martin was not a happy chappy.. but all turned out well cos everyone was so happy that Besra had arrived! They were a bit shocked at the revelation of her new name but we figured she chose it herself by coming out the very day we mentioned it!

Lil Besra was put in an incubator at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Level 2 and transfered to a normal cot less than 24 hours later. Her lungs passed the test, and later after 2 days more of NICU Level 1, she was cleared for jaundice and discharged home! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! meanwhile her daddy was running around town with my fabulous sister Michelle buying stuff like clothes, bedding and car seats and finally picked us up and drove us on her maiden journey home sweet home...

she's since settled in and daddy's taken lotsa pics including one of her smiling like a million dollars and a comparison shot with his beloved penn international(50) reel. also an adorable shot is her little fingers compared to daddy's...

needless to say it has been unbelievable... fingers crossed that it will be smooth sailing from here.. lotsa love to all.. xxxxxxxx