January, 2008

I’m not writing this to complain about what is essentially a luxury service that not everyone, especially here in China, can afford. Nor do I intend to discount what I have seen for myself to be a huge help to young families “in need.” But all the same, we have come to feel a bit disappointed and frustrated over the differences between What We Were Told vs. What We Actually Experienced.

For starters, the bit about “taking care of baby and mom” was definitely not the case. The curt, minimal attention my wife received at the hospital was dismaying enough (we were booted out after four days and a total of perhaps 20 minutes of actual attention to mom’s condition and c-section wound. The rest of the time was spent by hospital staff on a few diaper changes and an alarmingly immediate and old school reliance on bottle feeding).

• Read more

Jerry Chan's Baby Blog -- Chapter 6

It’s been almost two weeks since our daughter Marianne was born. Thanks to our yuesao (maternity maid, 月嫂), things at home have settled into a steady routine of feedings, diaper changes, baths and intermittent intervals of sleep. Having someone on hand 24/7 has definitely been a huge help – it’s hard to imagine how even more ragged we’d feel if we hadn’t arranged for someone with experience to assist us at this crucial time.

• Read more

Jerry Chan's Baby Blog -- Chapter 5

Picking a name for your kid is no easy task – after all, this is the moniker that will follow your child for the rest of her life. Take the States for instance, where Chinese kids with unfortunate English names abound. The Eunices, Arvids, Pearls and Eugenias that I grew up with all have their parents to blame for their awkward handles – and they would have been much better off on the playgrounds of America with just English phoneticizations of their Chinese names. Fortunately my parents had the good sense to take my Chinese name 家伟 “Jia Wei” and phonetically translate into “Jerry” (though here in China people can’t seem to get enough of the Cat and Mouse references). 

• Read more

Jerry Chan's Baby Blog -- Chapter 4

Everybody needs time to recover from giving birth regardless of whether it was a natural delivery or caesarian section, but what and how to do it varies widely from culture to culture. Take my sister in Norway, for instance, – a week after she gave birth to my nephew (also by c-section), she was up and at ‘em, and practicing rock climbing at the gym a mere ten days after her surgery.

Here in China, though, it’s a different story: new mothers are expected to “zuo yue zi” (做月子) after giving birth, which means resting at home under from very strict conditions for anywhere between 42 to 56 days.

And just how “strict” are these conditions? As I write this, my wife has not been allowed to shower or bathe since her surgery last weekend (fortunately, she’s not as naturally smelly as me). Naturally this has a lot to do with preventing her c-section scar from getting infected, but it has as much to do with the fear of her catching a cold or chill in her weakened state.

• Read more

Jerry Chan's Baby Blog -- Chapter 3

I have just eaten, perhaps, the strangest thing I have ever ingested in my life: three gel capsules filled with bits of my wife/baby’s dried, ground-up placenta. Why, you may ask, would I do such an utterly bizarre thing? To be honest, I’m not sure, but allow me to explain why I figure it wouldn’t hurt.

The night of our baby’s birth, as I was filling out all the procedural forms to help prep my wife for her C-section, the doctor asked me an unexpected question: “Do you want to keep the placenta?” (tai pan 胎盘 in Chinese). Not having any idea what she was talking about, I figured it would be best to follow my mother-in-law’s cue and nod accordingly.

• Read more

Jerry Chan's Baby Blog -- Chapter 2

Describing the feeling of what it’s like waiting at the hospital for the birth of your firstborn child is like positing what the color purple tastes like – you can roughly imagine the nervous excitement coupled with sheer terror, but trying to put it all into words is utterly futile. I was handed a small stack of documents, all in Chinese (save for one with some rather alarming-looking English medical terms like “HIV,” “Thrombosis,” and “hemorrhage,”), which I signed in a flustered flurry, half-suspecting that I was surrendering any and all form of liability on their part should something go terribly wrong with her heart. By the time I watched my wife, looking utterly pale and wearing one of those operating room shower caps, get wheeled away on a stretcher, I felt very much like vomiting, or jumping out the window, or both.

• Read more

Jerry Chan’s Baby Blog -- Chapter 1

After months of check-ups, dietary supplements, pregnancy books and gender guessing, our baby girl was finally born early Saturday, January 12^th
, at Peking Medical Union Hospital at 2:41am. As with just about every aspect of this pregnancy, we were caught unawares – due to my wife’s pre-existing heart condition, we had originally scheduled a cesarean operation for January 8 (10 days before my wife’s original due date), only to have her come down with a cold. After she more or less recovered, we then set a date for Wednesday, January 16^th (today, as I’m typing this, as a matter of fact).

• Read more

I have recently returned from the UK, where I spent an amazing fortnight in the company of my charming nephew Buddy and niece Rosie (equally as cute).

It was a fantastic experience and that instilled in my mind two very important realizations. First, I am too young to have kids of my own. Second, and on a more serious note, it resurrected from the dark recesses of my mind a fact I once learned when I studied psychology: Women have a cognitive ability that men just do not have.

Women are adept at performing two tasks at the same time, whilst men, unfortunately, can only be trusted to do one thing. OK, cue all obvious jokes about men’s probable inability to do one thing well. The reason, I learned, is because during the millennia that helped shape our mental processes, women would be required to simultaneously work and supervise children, meaning they needed to develop this skill.

• Read more

It’s the season for skiing! If the dry weather inside Beijing isn’t satisfying you and your kids’ desire for snow, hit the slopes with tbjkids at Nanshan Ski Resort --- the largest in the area and only 62km from Beijing! One of the area’s top ski resorts, Nanshan has ten well-groomed trails for skiers of all levels and a snowboard park (Nanshan Mellow Park) with a halfpipe, four kickers and six rails – all served by a quadruple chairlift, a double chairlift and nine T-bars. You’ll also discover a 1,318-meter-long toboggan run and even a snow football pitch!

No need to worry about the effort required for organizing the trip for your family, just hop on the bus and join other Beijing families for a fabulous day out on Sunday, January 20th! At only RMB 400/person, the ticket includes shuttle bus to and from the ski village, breakfast and lunch, equipment and outerwear rental, fully day lift pass an locker, all day access to tbjkids’ snacks, free beginners ski or snowboard lessons (advanced signup required), tbjkids hat and scarf, and a goodie bag full of surprises! Call tbjkids at 5820 7700 ext. 853 or email marketing@tbjkids.com for details and tickets. A few spots are still available, so what are you waiting for? Sign up now for an exciting day of fun in the snow!

For more information about Nanshan Ski Village, see www.nanshanski.com.

My wife’s due date is drawing ever nearer, and we are now down to just a few days until our little one arrives. Unfortunately, as bad timing would have it, both my wife and I have come down with the flu, and we spent the past holiday week wheezing and coughing in bed.

What’s been more worrisome, however, is the slight fever my wife has been running the past few days. It has come in spurts and has seemingly improved in the past two days (knock on wood), but it’s hard not to fret over any potentially adverse effects on our baby.

Of course antibiotics are out of the question, as are most cold medicines, but after consulting with a doctor, we felt it safe for her to take a little Tylenol to keep the fever in check. She’s taken no more than one a day for the past two days, but as anyone who has had a baby can attest, each little pill that goes down travels with a twinge of uncertainty.

• Read more

Did you know that your eyes always stay the same size as they were the day you were born? And that your nose is the same length as your thumb? What about the fact that your height is the same length as your arms stretched out, from fingertip to fingertip? And your foot is the same length as your forearm? Get out the measuring tape and check!

The human body is a fascinating place to live in. It can also be an icky one. If you were freeze-dried, for example, 10 percent of your body weight would be made up of parasites and other cling-ons like bacteria and mites! During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. And how about your sweaty dad? He perspires enough sweat each day to fill six soft drink cans! And did you know that your stomach has to produce a thick of layer of mucus every two weeks – otherwise it would digest itself?

• Read more