The entry of 2021 was met with full of hope, anticipation but not without fears and worries. I must say that the first quarter of 2021 is a special one. A silver lining in the middle of a global pandemic.
December 2020:
After staying in Baguio for 5.5 months, the family decided to go home. Family arrived in our Tarlac City home last December 27 to spend the new year and prepare for the birth of our 3rd child. It was not a strict as it was when travelling from one province to another. Our hard-to-get travel requirements were not even checked at the borders of Tarlac. Travel was breeze and we arrived in Tarlac around noon. The whole afternoon was spent cleaning our house from usual dust and few dead rats brought by some pesky cat. We had a new year celebration that was short yet sweet. Expecting a new year hoping for a COVID vaccine.
January 2021:
The first two weeks of January was dedicated with the preparations for the birth of Buzz. My wife has to go through almost weekly consultations with her OB-GYNE. The pregnancy is quite different from the other ones since she is having consistent high blood pressure. It was well managed though by our brilliant doctors.
January 10 happens to be the 4th birthday of Bubu, our lovable, hyper-active and pesky pre-schooler. Pandemic birthday celebrations style: at home, food is cooked or delivered, no going out in malls, toys bought and delivered by online shops. He was a happy kid regardless.
The week of January 11-16 is the "calm before the storm" week. I was scheduled to present a paper in an international conference in line for my doctorate and the much awaited delivery day of my wife scheduled on January 18. We decided to have a one-day staycation in La Maja Rica hotel.
The 7th International Conference on Computing and Data Engineering (ICCDE 2021) has accepted my paper entitled "BlockNCD App: A Rule-Based Decision Support System for Non-Communicable Disease Risk Assessment" for presentation. This would be my 4th conference presentation since October. It was a breezy Saturday afternoon when the presentation happened. It was smooth-sailing presentation and even got the best speaker for our session.
I was about to treat the family with a sumptuous McDonalds snack when my wife's blood pressure shoots up. Upon consulting her doctor, we immediately ran to the hospital. It will be an emergency caesarian delivery in the evening of the same day!
The moment has come.
At Central Luzon Doctors Hospital, we were asked to proceed to the emergency room for some initial protocol checkups. First thing that the nurse asked was the COVID 19 test result. I fetched it from the laboratory while my wife being attended to. My heart was pounding as I am about to open the result, and voila, NEGATIVE for COVID 19.
As I returned to the emergency room, a variety of electronic medical devices are already attached to my wife. We had a brief pep-talk and reminded her not to be afraid as the pregnancy journey will be over in few hours. I was asked by the nurse to proceed to the admitting section to get a room. At the admitting section, we were offered a private room on the CLDH new building which I immediately reserved. When I returned to the emergency room, my wife is being carted out to the operating room. I proceed to our assigned room to wait for the delivery to be over.
I had a quick field trip outside of CLDH to look for something to eat. I am walking at the street where everything has started for me in Tarlac in 2009, the hospital drive. Old stores are gone, new eateries and barbecue stands are dominating the sidewalks. Busy street despite the threat of COVID 19. Got some lumpiang shanghai and isaw. I am back at the round 8:00pm.
I was called by the nursery and said that wife has already delivered safely and successfully. Thank you God! Instructions have been given by the nurse on what are needed in the nursery. She also reminded me of the post-operation activities such as no food intake for some few hours, lying position and medications that must be taken. I immediately proceeded to the nursery to glimpse at our newborn child.
Weighing 3.5 kilos, welcome to the world Alexander Isaac D. Perez. Around 12MN, my wife was already brought to the room for post-op recovery. For the next two days, it was a series of visits from our doctors. We were advised that as soon as things are progressing from my wife's end, we can go back home. This is a normal safety precaution hospital are doing to prevent COVID 19 spread.
Come January 18 or just two days after the birth and delivery, we were fetch by a friend's car and already at home. Ate Yza and Kuya Bubu were too excited to see Baby Buzz.
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