Golden Dragon drama

This year is an auspicious year for the Chinese -- not only is it the dragon year, it is the "Golden Dragon" year. I was told the birth rate in Taiwan went up as much as double and Hong Kong is probably experiencing the same phenomenon. We did NOT plan for the arrival of K for the dragon year. On the contrary, I always thought of the poor babies born in these so called "good luck" years had to face so much more competition from their peers and may not be so lucky after all. However, we were just trying to beat the tick tock clock to get pregnant as quick as possible so that we don't get any older before we become parents, and, we got lucky at our first shot of IVF.

I am already feeling the golden dragon craziness as I am having trouble finding a hospital and a confinement lady.

In Hong Kong, unlike Taiwan where people go to a confinement center (月子中心), instead you hire a confinement lady (月嫂) who will stay at your house 24/7 for a month or more to cook the right food for you and help take care of the baby. Usually people book around the end of the first trimester when the pregnancy was more stable, so I thought I had time.

The other day being reminded that given the dragon year I might want to start looking a little earlier for these things, I started to call around a few friends who had babies recently for a few recommendations and to help me check availability of these popular ladies.

The result was shocking. All of them were already booked through November, and some even through December and January -- I mean, the December babies are not even conceived yet!!! So now I am down to two possible options -- one that my friend E highly recommended but only available in December, will probably need to find someone to tie over the two weeks in November, or another one that was a second choice for my friend K when hers took a few days leave to attend a wedding. I probably need to make a decision and pay a deposit soon before these two options disappear.

I still find it a bit insane that I am doing all this research so early before I even saw my own baby's heartbeat, but I think with the nausea I am experiencing day and night our little K is probably hanging on very tight and we might as well plan for the best outcome and give out those shiny golden dragon coins to these very popular ladies.

ps. I will report back to see if I finally get a room at the hospital when I hear back from the nurse!