MING LAN

Chapter Nineteen: Third Baby

In the middle of a busy schedule, Ming Lan’s due date comes. She has the signs and alerts me. It happens to be not on a school day. I accompany her like before, for the third time, watching her enduring the contraction pains, talking to her. She only listens, and lastly tells me not to talk anymore as the contraction is getting worse. She needs to keep calm, enduring it quietly. My heart aches for her.

    I stay by her side in the labour room, holding her hand until delivery time. Ming Lan safely gives birth to a baby boy crying aloud in mid-wife’s hands.

    My wife and my baby are both discharged the next afternoon since they are doing fine. I drive them home with a smile on my face. My heart is glowing. I have three sons now. “Are we going to have more babies? If it is tiring, three is enough. Don’t you think so?” I turn to Ming Lan.

    She just looked at me. “We have to reconsider this. I don’t want you to get too tired taking care of the kids. We need to have our life too.” I touch her cheek and she leans her head to me. I love my wife.

    My father stopped going to the construction site daily, staying at home four days a week for his third grandson. Ming Lan’s school friends and students come visiting her baby. I named him Ong Teck Cheng. He looks like his two brothers. I hope he is as smart as his brothers.

    Ming Lan and the baby are occupying the same room as before.

    Sometimes I take my sons to sleep in my room. I can sleep better, missing my wife. Appa is very strict about me sharing Ming Lan’s bed in that room. Not that I’m doing anything to her. He always wakes me up to sleep in my own room whenever I fall asleep on her bed, before he goes to the bedroom himself.

    Sometimes I come back to her room when everyone has gone to bed. I miss hugging and kissing my wife. Ming Lan does not mind me sleeping beside her hugging her to sleep, knowing that is all I need for my sleep. Sometimes I wake up to help with the crying baby at night.

    I remember how I talked my wife into taking birth control methods for both of us. It can last us that long, seven years of good time together. Now I have to sleep apart from my wife again for her own health benefit. Giving her body ample time to slowly recover after the long pregnancy and childbirth.

    My father gets a new nanny for his two grandchildren to care for their daily needs. My sons refuse her for the first week but she tactfully handles them and slowly solves the problem. They are getting along fine with the new nanny. The old nanny has to take care of the newborn and Ming Lan.

    The boys join their grandpa to see the baby in the room, missing their Mom too.

    “Goodnight, baby. Goodnight Mommy.” say the boys as they climb up the bed to hug their Mommy. I kiss her goodnight too, after the boys.

    “Goodnight Teck Huat, Teck Lee. You have school tomorrow.” Ming Lan kisses each of the boys' cheeks and hugs them. Then they followed me out of the room to our bedroom. The three of us sometimes share my bed, most of the time they prefer their own beds.

    My father goes back to the construction office the second month, that is after his grandson’s first month ceremony. Bringing lots of red cake for the workers to eat. He is a happy man, coming and going seeing the progress in the project and playing with his grandsons at home in the evening.

    Sometimes he watches my sons playing a football game in the front yard which he keeps empty with grass and a little landscape in the corner.

    He asked the landscape guy for a small red bridge over the small carp fish pond. The willow tree is kept small with its leaves towering over the pond’s side. That corner brightens up the empty yard. My father looks stronger and tougher after half a year in and out of the house, to see his housing project.

    Dad told me he had the idea since he was young but not having the skill and knowledge, he delayed it, concentrating on earning more money. He reads little by little, reading people’s experience and talking to contractor friends for information. He roughly knew the risk in this business. The key is to get a trustworthy contractor and good and responsible engineer. He has both now.

    Ming Lan goes to school again after three months. She is well and fine under the nanny’s strict watch.

    She leaves the house after breakfast, that is before my youngest son wakes up. She has to be early for school and I asked her to leave the boys to me. I sometimes go to work late attending to my eldest son’s nagging. He is going to be eleven soon.

    Normally my two sons go to school with Ming Lan but sometimes there are problems with his mood and I have to send him to school. However, I am glad that my three sons are healthy, and so is my wife.

    We are back to sleeping together in our own bedrooms. My two sons are in their shared room. My third son is sleeping in his cot, with the nanny. My father arranged it that way although Ming Lan does not like it. She is used to sleeping with her baby in the same room. I persuade her to agree as she can sleep better, waking up feeling fresh for school.

    “Can you sleep well at night?” she asked me.

    “With you by my side, yes.” Thinking of the past years waking up at night for the baby.

    She pokes me, “I mean with our baby sleeping in the other room.”

    I hug her, kissing her cheek, “Nannies are doing their work, let them. I need you more by my side. Appa understands that.” I kiss her passionately after I answer her. “After my workout together, I surely can sleep well. We’ll see if I’m telling the truth.” (She chuckles) I fondle her and give her what she deserves.

    Our bedtime is much better by ourselves of course. No disturbance at all after three months sleeping in separate rooms. We have a good sleep too, feeling fresh the next morning. The more I love my Ming Lan.