This morning my wife gave birth to our second child, a healthy daughter. Her full name is Elaine Claire van der Chijs, she was born on May 21, 2009 at 9:15 AM. Birth weight 3270 gram and a length of 51 cm. Both mother and baby are doing fine, but will need to stay at ParkwayHealth in Xintiandi for a couple of days to recover.
Just like when Scott was born in December 2007, I Twittered a bit before and after the delivery (not during the actual delivery, I was too nervous watching the whole procedure), an overview of the main tweets with the approximate times during the past hours:
6:45 AM Good morning Shanghai! Packing some things to take to the hospital, if everything goes wel’ll have a second child in a few hours!
7:15 AM Driving to ParkwayHealth, bit nervous but also happy. First time in my new car, good timing 🙂
7:15 AM Very busy on the highway into the city already, and it’s only 7:15AM. Hopefully no police yet, we’re driving without license plates.
7:25 AM Did a short video interview with my wife, she says she is not nervous for the delivery. Well, I am. We should be in hospital in 15 min.
7:45 AM In the hospital filling out all kinds of forms about the risks involved in a c-section. Does not make me feel more at ease to be honest.
7:50 AM My wife is now connected to the heart monitor. Our future baby’s heartbeat is 147, she must be nervous as well about her upcoming birth.
8:15 AM Things are going much faster than I imagined. My wife was taken to the operating room already for the epidural.
8:25 AM Going to the operating room myself now!
9:40 AM We have a healthy daughter! Elaine Claire van der Chijs was born at 9:15 AM, 3.270 kg, 51 cm. Happy!!!
10:30 AM Thanks everybody for the congratulation messages, too many to separately answer today. My wife and I read them all and are very happy!
11:15 AM Taking a short break from the hospital to drink a coffee in Xintiandi. Didn’t have time for coffee yet this morning 🙂
11:45 AM Put a few pics of my new daughter Elaine online just now at http://www.flickr.com/photo… Still cannot believe how quick it went today
yo marc and grace, congrats with Elaine and good that everything went smooth.
All the best!
Thijs
Happy for you and your family that everything went well. Welcome to the world, Elaine / Wang Xin Lan! How pretty and fitting for a half-Dutch girl to have Lan as one of your names.
Gongxi gongxi to Marc & Grace!! Now with a family of 4 be sure you start early training for Scott and Elaine to play bridge or Chinese ma-jong together. Congrats!!
Anita
Marc, congratulations with your newborn daughter!
Elaine is gorgeous! Congratulations to you all, good work mum!
/Susanne
Dear Grace and Marc, congratulations with the birth of Elaine! Like her name. Wish you lots of luck together. Elvira & Boelo
Hello Van der Chijs family! Once again our congratulations. We welcome Elaine and wish her a long and happy live. We are still counting the hours until its our turn. Best from Marije, Bas & Lola.
Gongxi ni! Van harte gefeliciteerd! Had eigenlijk wel een videotje van Elaine op tudou verwacht 🙂
wow, congrats. such good news.
Hey, man, you've got quite the life don't ya?
Co-founded a fairly succesful web 2.0 site with great market penetration in China (tudou) and now a father of 2.
Congrats! What's the secret?