The Night I was Born

2007-11-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

This first page of Woon Shuan is contributed by his Father on Shuan's 15th birthday.

The following is a true and accurate account taken from the journal of Shuan's father on the night he was born:

The highlight of the year would probably be the birth of our 4th child, Chong Woon Shuan, at 11.45pm at the Pantai Medical Centre on Nov 8th, 1992. Woon Shuan's birth is probably the most the most spectacular and the following is the account :

Just a week earlier on Oct 31st, Geok Lee experienced labour pains on a Saturday afternoon at Church right in the middle of a Relief Society service project. The 3 children had to be passed to Rodney and Susie How as we rushed to the hospital. The labour pain unfortunately subsided by night time and she returned home a night later costing us RM600 plus with no baby! District Conference fell on 7th & 8th November with the first Chinese General Authority Elder Tai Kwok Yuen visiting us. Elder Tai is originally from Hong Kong and had served as the mission president before being called to the second quorum of Seventy. He had directed our conference program and on Sunday and Monday evening, he had requested for home teaching visits to the inactives.

That Sunday night of Nov 8th was the auspicious night when I was driving him, his wife and Richard Ritchie to visit four homes. We had just left Ritchie's home past 10.30pm to head to the PJ Hilton from near the Zoo, Ulu Kelang area when my handphone rang from Geok Lee. We sped to the home immediately from a U turn and arrived to find her in deep pain. Sis Tai comforted her in the back seat while I drove with Elder Tai in front to the Pantai Hospital as quickly as possible. It was a miracle that all the city lights were green as we sped past them, about at least eight of them!!

We reached the hospital at 11.30pm and the baby came out at 11.40pm. We had previously scanned the baby twice, once at 6 months and the last was just after the false labour. Dr. Chew, the same gynaecologist of our 3 children could not see any male testicles and informed us we will have a girl. We were looking forward for a boy for Woon Han as a companion but accepted the news gleefully despite some disappointment. That night in the delivery room, our first responses were:

Geok Lee : "Surprise! Woon Shuan!"

Sun Fu : "What happened? What's going on?"

It was a Boy! I thought that Geok Lee knew all along from the last scan and was trying to fool us but she was equally surprised. Actually she had dreamt of having a little boy early during the false labour and claimed receiving manifestation from the scripture in the early months of the pregnancy.

Joyce Yong, our church friend called up just after the false labour to share her dream with us to say she saw a little boy as our 4th baby and wondered whether Geok Lee had delivered. We informed her and others of the false labour and of the latest scan results of the doctor that we were going to have a girl.

It was a definite surprise for every one and so that is the start of the life here of Chong Woon Shuan whose Chinese name means 'choice collection of literature' in Chinese. He was 7lbs at birth with a good rating of 8 out of 10 according to an international standard recorded by the hospital.

14 hours old at Pantai Medical Centre
Two weeks later

Also at 2 weeks old

At the full moon party, a month old

Shuan not Shaun

The Night I was Born