day 13 of my life

Welcome to my first post! Yes, it is me, Seung Yi, writing to all of my fans and friends out there who know how to read and press buttons and use the internet. My Pa tells me that I will one day be able to do the same as all of youse, and he has offered to set up a wireless system for my cradle, but for now I am dictating this to my mother. If the satellite internet dudes make it up here today I may be able to type on my own tomorrow, but y'know, schedules are rather flexible up here on the Bruce.

Let's see if I can fill you in on what I've been up to lately. Well, of course, there was the whole "birth" thing. Now that was quite the experience. I don't know if my skull will ever be the same. I'm still feeling pretty Klingon-y. I'm very self conscious at the moment. I'd appreciate a toupee if anyone's got one available. But not if it's orange or blonde. I'm kind of medium brunette for the moment. Anyways, aside from the head squishing, the birth was not as bad as it might've been. However, after the birth was not so much fun. Right after I started to breathe on my own, the nurses started carrying on about how I was "grunty". They decided my lungs weren't quite up to snuff and they were also worried that maybe I'd gotten pneumonia because my mother was strep positive. So, instead of resting quietly with my parents the way my brother did when he was born, I got whisked off to the neonatal intensive care unit, where I had to submit to unspeakable tortures like "tube stuffed down throat to drain mucous" and "isolette chamber seclusion" and my very least favourite, "wearing an IV". My parents were allowed to see me, but not to pick me up for the first day. This didn't stop everyone from coming to the hospital and being ushered into the ICU to see me one at a time -- my Grampa, my Gramma, my Uncle Pheuy, my Auntie Jenny, my Auntie Emma, Auntie Cathie, and all of my Gu Pas, and my great Gramma Tai Ma.

During the night, while I was in the ICU, my mother had to pump some milk to get things flowing. She said that she wanted me to hurry up and get released because she felt like a cow when she had to hold the double pumps up to her boobs and listen to the steady 'squidge, squidge, squidge' of the suction cups. She said, though, that the Johnny Cash on the ipod helped her to enjoy the pace of the squidging. I started breastfeeding that evening. The nurse got my mother to come down and test me out at, like, 3 am. I wasn't overly impressed and I bit the crap out of my Mom. She had tried to get me to latch on properly instantly and kept taking me off and on when all I wanted to do was settle down and nuzzle for ten minutes. Now that she's figured that out, I've stopped attacking her and things are working much more smoothly. Although I do still prefer the right boob.

On day two, I was allowed to move to my Mum and Pa's room. Things were pretty nice at the hospital. The air con was crazy-cold, though. In the middle of the night I checked out Pa, and he was huddled into the flip out couch-chair shivering in his sleep. You'd think he was the one who'd just been ejected from the womb!

I was discharged on day three and it was a gorgeous Toronto afternoon when I first smelled fresh air. The sun was shining and it was warm and lovely. I sat placidly in my baby carseat while my Mum and Pa struggled to attach the base of the carseat to the car. They were glad that it wasn't the end of November, like the day Ji Hong was born, when they nearly froze to death while figuring out the base the first time. You'd think they'd have learned by now how to attach the stupid thing, but noooooo. By the time we were headed down to Pape, they were both thoroughly exhausted and Mum was sweating underneath her snuggly black sweater.

We spent the first few days chilling out at my great-aunts' house in Toronto. My Mum lurked by the window, lulling me to sleep, and watching the local crack dealer make sales. She also kept going on about the man who walked his pit bull around the block (and through the back alley) every hour on the hour. I don't know what her problem is. I like big doggies! Most of the time we were at the aunts' was spent watching alot of TV. I know I was still in the womb, but my Mom told me that back in Bangkok they didn't have a television. That's why she was so obsessed with watching crappy reality shows while she was breastfeeding me. She also said that the insanity on TV helped to distract her from the brutal pain I was inflicting on her nipples.

After my parents had gotten their fill of late night shows, they decided to head up to the countryside for good. Uncle Pheuy drove us up and Mum spent the entire drive obsessing about my comfort. Which was sort of dumb on her part because I was a perfect angel and slept the whole way except for a short 15 minute milk break near Brampton. By the time we got up to Howdenvale, I was extraordinarily well rested and my mother was completely wiped out after having done nothing but sit and fret for three hours. Fortunately my grandparents were already up at our countryside house and they took excellent care of my Mom and revived her with heaps of food and assistance.

Anyways, now we're up here, hanging out and playing and making fires and going hiking and having fun with Sloaner and Auntie Ashley. Check out the photos that feature my adventures from the last 13 days.

Oh, and I've been meaning to give everyone a bit more info about how to pronounce my name. My parents are a bit addled; they chose a name that has a vowel sound without any quite exact equivalent in English. "Seung Yi," they said, "You know, like 'beung' and 'meung' and 'keung'." Unfortunately those are all Lao words (though the name is Chinese...but y'know, Mum's clueless about Chinese so she falls back on her Lao) and no one on the English side of my family has the slightest idea what my parents are talking about. I've thought about it and I think the best way to remember how to pronounce my name is as follows:

First, say the word "book". Think about how the "oo" sounds. That's kind of like the sound the "eu" makes in my name. You could get a pretty good approximation by saying "book, book, book," and then change it up a little to "sook, sook, sook," and finally finish it off by switching the end of the word but keeping the same vowel sound and saying "seung, seung, seung." It doesn't sound like the English vowel sounds in "soon" or "sung". Think BOOK. (My Pa, for his part, thinks that the "eu" in Seung sounds like the "u" in "burnt", but my Mom thinks it will be too hard for our fixed address readers to isolate that vowel sound without getting the "r" as well. But, y'know, whatever floats your boat.) The final trick for my name for all you non-tonal-language-speakers out there is that the "Seung" has a higher sound and the "Yi" has a lower sound. Like, if you were singing, the "Seung" would be something like a E note, and the "Yi" would be, let's say, a C note. Just in case you weren't confused already!

Ta ta for now, and massive thanks to everyone for the great gifts!

[Seung Yi-11-September-2006]