Visiting Regulations

I wouldn't take any notice of these. Errrr........ on second thoughts, definitely no durian!!!!!!!

Charlie with Mark

Charlie is tired of having so many women around and wants to bond with his father.

At Hospital

Hien is feeling better and is more up for receiving visitors now, but doesn't want to be inundated with them. I am not sure at present how much longer we will be at the hospital, but think we will be here until the morning of 2 January. We are in room 532 on the 5th floor.

Hien, Charlie and I wish to thank everyone who has visited, inquired, texted, emailed, sent flowers, sent cards, etc.

This blog

This blog was set up primarily to inform my family in England, Hien's family in America and a few close friends about the progress of Hien and Charlie over this interesting period. However, over the last couple of days because of countless phone calls, text messages, requests for photographs etc. it has been easiest to direct people to this blog.

Because of this there are probably more than a 100 people with this blog address (whether they want it or not) at the moment and I assume that this will only escalate so I have decided to make this blog slightly less personal. At present this blog is open to all, but I will probably be restricting access to just a few close friends and family in a week or so. I will also be disabling the comments function so this blog will only be one way communication for now.

Monday 31 December

Hien and Charlie both had a good night's sleep. Upon awakening, Charlie was asked "Vu trai vu phai ai phai vu nao?". Charlie was greedy and went for both. I am glad to say that Hien successfully started breast feding Charlie this morning and that both mother and baby are doing well.

Charlie is in our room at last

It is almost exactly 48 hours since Charlie entered this world and he has just been brought in to our room. At present he is being stared at by about half a dozen women and seems to be coping quite well.

Charlie Feeding

Hien and I have just visited Charlie again. Above are pictures of Hien feeding Charlie whilst he is taking a well earned rest from the sunbathing he was doing when we entered the room.

Nurses say that Charlie is feeding well and they expect that if he is still feeding well in a few hours' time the doctor will let Charlie transfer to our room.

Looking around the room at the babies I summise that Charlie looks in better shape than most of the other babies.

Hien goes to visit Charlie

As Charlie wouldn't come to Hien she has decided to go to Charlie. She is feeling much better and she suggested walking to see Charlie, but we insisted that she went in a wheelchair. She has gone down there (2nd floor) with Chi Hai and another one of her friends (Diem) and I am left guarding the room.

Chi Hai and Diem have arrived back and are taking loads of baby things away so something appears to be happening. Apparently Hien is in with Charlie at the moment.

Hien has just arrived back in the room and is delighted that she has seen Charlie. She is glowing and can't stop talking about Charlie.

Latest news is that Charlie:
is doing very well
didn't need to go under those funny sunlamps
so far has supposedly been a very easy baby to manage
had a birth weight of 3.535 kg's (7.81 lbs)
had a birth length of 50 cm's
has today drunk 25 ml's of milk (this is supposedly good)

Still not sure when Charlie will join us in our room. Now they are saying that this may be as late as tomorrow.

Mum/Dad: if you click on the photographs they enlarge. Then click on the back arrow to go back to the blog.

Hien is up and about

For the first time since giving birth to Charlie, Hien has gotten out of bed and, with help from myself and Chi Hai (her eldest sister), has managed to shuffle around the room. As I write the shuffle has progressed to unaided walking.

This morning Hien has definitely been in high spirits and with her two mobile phones going like crazy is beginning to feel as if she is at home.

Hien still doesn't want to receive unexpected visitors but that doesn't stop them coming. Flowers aren't allowed in the room so the corridor is filling up quickly.

Hospital is deserted this morning as it is a Sunday and still haven't seen a doctor or Charlie this morning.

Charlie is OK

The doctor has just come in and let us know that everything is OK with Charlie, but he is still feeding so he won't be brought in to our room this evening. We will have to wait until tomorrow until he is brought in.

Hien's mother and one of her sisters will stay with Hein at the hospital tonight and as it is Saturday night I will probably go out for a few beers. I will stay at home again tonight and will hopefully manage an alcohol induced sleep.

First Pictures of Charlie

Last night I believe I sent about 150 text messages to various people letting them know about the successful delivery of Charlie and was inevitably bombarded by reply text messages and phone calls. Apologies to the 30 or so people whose text messages I didn't reply to.

Now it is 6:15 pm and Hien still is yet to see Charlie. Understandably she is getting frustrated. Do believe the doctor is going to come and see us soon and hope to have Charlie in our room with us tonight.

I was let in to see Charlie late this morning and took these pictures. Yesterday, Charlie had some initial breathing problems but these have gone and he appears to be fine now. We have been frustrated by a lack of information from the staff at the FV hospital, but numerous members of Hien's family have been with us for most of the time we have been here and they have been very supportive.

Late this morning we were moved in to the VIP room (532) which we should have been in yesterday. The room is spacious with: a spare bed for me, flat screen TV, DVD player, fridge, safe, additional absolutely useless miniature room, daily newspapers, fruit and probably a few other things to boot. May send a picture later.

And then there was Charlie.......

28 December 2007


Hien and I checked in to the FV hospital http://www.fvhospital.com/en/, which is only a few minutes drive from our current rented residence in Ho Chi Minh City, around noon on Friday 28 December. After having various tests, etc. Hien was scheduled to have her C-section at 5:00 pm. At 4:30 pm she was wheelled in to the operating theatre and I lost sight of her. Soon afterwards I was following the surgeon in to the changing room to get togged up in sterile gear and masks, etc. Wasn't allowed in to the actual operating theatre until after Hien had had her epidural.

Wow!!! I had been warned by a friend that it was a major operation and now I can certainly back that up. This was definitely the closest I have ever come to fainting. I really had to concentrate on my breathing to try and stay conscious. I don't remember much about the operating theatre, but do remember at one stage thinking that the operation was taking a long time and that something must have gone wrong, then a few minutes later remembering that they had already shown me Charlie and he had already left the theatre. Upon realising this I exited the theatre with haste.

After changing and re-emerging in to the public area I was immediately hit with a barrage of questions from several of Hien's family that I was in no state to answer very well as I still felt very faint and just headed straight for the water fountain. Upon gaining my composure I answered some of the family's questions and it was then that it really hit me that I had little recollection of the last 30 minutes of my life and the first 30 minutes of Charlie's. One thing I did remember from the theatre was that they said "5:30" a few times as I have no further information on this so far I am assuming this was the actual time that Charlie came out in to our world.

Was probably about 30 minutes after this that Charlie was wheelled out, much to the delight of everyone in the public area all hoping it was a new member of their family. Upon asking we realised that it was indeed Charlie. I followed him in to........wherever he was taken and this is where I had my first good look at him. Had more hair than I thought he would have had, opened his eyes and responded when I spoke to him. A few minutes later I was told that he had a problem with his breathing and even though the doctors didn't seem overly concerned they still rushed him off to some other room that I was not allowed into. A total lack of tangible information had us all worried.

It wasn't until 9:00 pm that we got our first sight of Hien as she was wheelled out of the operating area and up to our room. She seemed remarkably lucid considering what she had just been through. Family and I were there to comfort her until a friend of mine arrived at the hospital and we went outside to celebrate with a few beers. In the process of consuming these beers we were bitten to pieces by from what I can gather must have been absolutely starving mosquitoes.

Chi Hai, Hien's eldest sister stayed overnight with Hien and I went back home for a sleepless night as I still didn't know anymore about the health of Charlie.