Bananas

We started Emma on solids this week with bananas, and she loves them. She reaches for the spoon and open her mouth wide and makes an excited hmmming noise when eating. When she discovered that the bananas actually came from a bowl instead of a spoon, she dove for the bowl.

She was a little cranky at dinner tonight because she didn't get a good afternoon nap, so whenever I took the spoon away to refill it, she would cry. So the evenings sounds went something like this: humm, mmmm, mmm, AAAAAHHHH!!!, AAAHH - hummmm, mmm, AAHHH, mmmmmm.

Eventually the crying won out, and not even bananas could console her. Laughing at my child is probably not the best thing a parent can do, but it was just so funny. Here she is with banana mush all over her face, arms out wide searching for the spoon, and alternating frown-y face with pure joy. And if you've ever seen her frown-y face, then you know how hilarious this was. If Mark were home, I would have had him take a picture.

New Toy

For my birthday, my mother-in-law gave me a book of knit patterns for wild animals. I finished one animal, the hippo, about a week ago. It ended up being a little bit larger then I expected.

But Emma seems to like it. She especially enjoys sucking on its ears.

A Little Whine

This is going to be a "poor me" post, so if you don't want to hear it, stop reading right now.

On Thursday, Mark and I went to a clinic to get our flu shots. I don't normally get one because I hate needles; but because Mark works with a lot of kids and is exposed to a lot of germs, and then exposes me, I thought the benefist would outweigh the few seconds of fear and pain.

On Friday, my arm started itching. I didn't think much of it. I was wearing elbow-length sleeves, so I didn't have a clear view of my upper arm. I figured I was itchy because of the changing weather. But that night I saw this:

Yes, that is from a teeny-tiny flu shot!

Is it any wonder that I don't like needles, when the result is like that.

It's not just in the States

Shortly before Halloween I went to the local dollar store to look for some face paint. I didn't find the face paint, but I did find Santa hats and tinsel. There are Christmas lights up in the downtown shopping area, and they've been there for at least two weeks. I haven't heard any Christmas music yet though, but that could be because I don't know what I'm listening to. And for the majority of the Japanese, Christmas is not a big deal. UPDATE: The lights are on and Christmas music is playing.

They're Creeping me Out

They're everywhere.

I knew they were here, but their numbers seem to increased over the past few weeks.

They like to hang out in alleys and gutters and the spaces between the trees. If you're not careful, you could walk straight into one.

Kanonji Matsuri

This past weekend was Kanonji's autumn festival. Almost every weekend in October there is a festival somewhere. The first weekend was Toyohama's. Kanonji's and Siajo's were this past weekend. I'm not sure who's coming up next, but there are still a lot of cities to go. Instead of having a carnival or a fest or Halloween, the Japanese make these large wooden vehicles, with drums, to drive the neighborhood gods around to the city shrine. These vehicles are called chosa, and they are huge! There are several poles that people pull and push them with while others ride in the top, and someone else sits in the middle, drumming. At the shrine there are vendors, with food and toys, and events. Kids get to dress up in kimonos and there have some sort of pageant. We couldn't get a good enough look to figure out what excatly they were doing, but we were more interested in the food anyway. There were candied apples, crepes, corn on the cob, yakitori, taiyaki, squid on a stick, and some other mystery foods. I was not brave enough to try them, but Mark did.

Everybody Loves Her

The Japanese are all about the group. If you're not part of their group, it's possible that they will ignore you. They don't mean to be rude or callous, its just that they don't know how to deal with your foreignness -- unless you're a four month old baby.

Every time we go out, there's at least one person who stops us to chat at Emma, and many more who openly stare. They make clicking noises and call her "Kawaii" (cute). Mostly its the older woman/grandmother type who do this, but tween girls are also likely culprits. One time it was a middle-aged business man. The only age group I've not had any reaction from is the teenage boy.

Last night another grandmother type cornered me in the grocery store while I was looking for a bento for dinner. Is this a common occurrence for people with infants in the States too? Have I not noticed this before because I haven't had an infant before?

But, because I agree that Emma is kawaii, here is some video:

Its Glitter Baby!

Over the weekend I pulled out a glittery shirt that I love to wear, but haven't for a while because of the whole baby thing. I wasn't even thinking about the consequences of holding a baby and wearing a sparkling shirt. Here are the results of that decision:

Three days later and we're still picking glitter off her face.

Doctor Frustrations

Last week Emma had her 2 month check up.

We saw a new doctor at a different hospital because our old hospital didn't have a pediatrician who spoke English. When we arrived, we discovered that the specific doctor we were referred to wasn't in, so they found us the next best thing: an older gentleman who knew a few English phrases. She's gotten longer, 57 cm, and appears to be doing well in that category. Her weight is a little on the low side.

During the appointment, I was told to go feed Emma so they could measure how much food she was getting while being breastfed. It took me a while to understand what they wanted me to do too. There were four people in the room, 2 doctors and 2 nurses and they were all talking among themselves, while one nurse held Emma and Mark tried to translate. I image their conversation went something like this:

Doctor 1: We've got the baby's current weight, now we need her mother to feed her so we can get another reading.

Nurse 1: Yes, I agree. Her mother should go feed her now.

Doctor 2: There is a room we have for breastfeeding, she should go there now.

Nurse 1: I know where that room is. If she would stand up and take her baby back, I could show her where it is.

Doctor 1: We really need her to go. We cannot get another weight reading if she doesn't go feed her baby.

The whole time I'm sitting there wondering what the heck is going on and if its really important because not a one of them actually looked at me. Eventually Mark caught enough words to figure out what we needed to do and I left to feed Emma. When I came back and they weighed her again, the doctor concluded that the breastfeeding wasn't working because she had only gained 30 grams after being fed.

What he didn't know, and I wasn't able to tell him, was that she had only fed off of one breast, and that she probably wasn't done with that side either. We were able to tell him that she falls asleep while eating. She was very sleepy at that time too. She gets hungry, eats a bit, falls asleep (even while I'm poking and slapping her), wakes up 10-15 minutes later, and eats again. But we don't know how to explain all of this in Japanese.

The thing that really bothered me though was his advice. "When baby cries, feed her."

Yeah, that's really helpful. Thanks.

Intentions

I've been meaning to post a lot of things. I've been meaning to post about Emma's first Dr.'s appointment (her second is coming up this week) and her trips to the beach.


And I've meant to write about the Summer Tour that Mark's work did, which is like a kid's camp, only in a hotel and only for one night.



And I've wanted to tell you about our trip to the Kochi to see a samurai museum and the Pacific Ocean with Mark's mom.


But I haven't.

Because I'm lazy.

But I think I'll blame the heat (highs have been around 35 C) and the baby (who has decided to stay up all night, again).

See, I'm not lazy at all. I'm just hot and overtired.

My hospital experience

Attitudes about labor are very different in Japan. Before we came to Japan, we took some childbirth classes at a local San Antonio hospital. In it we learned that a woman in labor would have a nurse assigned to her to help her during labor, different labor and delivery positions, and different pain management options. After we arrived, we found another labor and delivery video course online and watched it, so we had some preconceived notions about how we would be treated.

My water broke in the middle of the night. We arrived at the hospital around 6:00 am and the first thing they asked us was if I wanted breakfast. We were surprised because in America, we knew I wouldn't be given anything to eat, only ice chips or water. I declined breakfast because I wasn't sure how long the labor would last, or if I would have to have a C-section or not. Although by the time lunch and dinner came around, I accepted the food.

My labor was long and slow. We were mostly left along in our hospital room, with few visits from different nurses throughout the day. Although we spent a lot of time walking the halls and climbing the stairs, after 8 hours I was only dilated at 1.5. At this point a nurse came to our room to show us some things we could do to help speed up the labor. I expected something involving gravity, more walking or squats or something. Instead, I was told to lay down and the nurse put a large wedge-shaped pillow under my hips and proceeded to show me various stretches and relaxation techniques. In my opinion, this did not help me at all. Every time I laid down, my contractions would slow down and this was no exception. But the Japanese seem to be into relaxation techniques more than drugs. In the delivery room they had a big, flat-screen TV that switched between dolphins or clouds with soothing music. They also did aroma therapy and I got to choose which scents they used. But I was never asked if I wanted pain medications. We practically had to beg for it, which we did around 8:00 pm. After that, things get blurry.

Sometime later that night we finally made it to the delivery room and were allowed to stay. We had gone there a couple of other times but not allowed to stay. This time I was in a wheelchair and my mouth was chattering uncontrollably. Mark had to pick me up and put me in the delivery bed too. I have no idea how long we were there. I know sometime around 1:00 am, Mark called a sister in our ward who knew English to help us with the nurses. We weren't sure what was going on or what their plan for me was. We couldn't get any information out of anyone. What we knew was that we were on time limit. My water had broken around 3:30 am on Thursday morning and if Emma hadn't been born within 24 hours of that, then the risk of infection went way up and it was now 1:00 am on Friday. We didn't know what the doctor had planned if we hit the 24 hour deadline and no one would tell us either. Luckily, by the time Sister T arrived, I was pushing and Emma was born shortly afterwards at 2:26 am.

Now if we had been in the States, we would have stayed for 2 days and been sent home. In Japan, for a normal birth, you stay for 5 days, not counting the birth day. So we arrived there on Thursday, she was born on Friday, and they wanted to keep us there until Wednesday. We managed to get out on Tuesday though.

We did get a lot more attention from the staff after Emma was born though. Every day we had nurses come in to check my vitals and ask me questions and check on Emma too. Mark was able to stay with me at night and we were allowed to keep Emma with us too. They took her away for a couple of hours each day for her vital checks and baths, and then brought her right back.

The oddest thing though was the facial. It was nice and completely unexpected, but a little odd. Have a baby, get a facial.

Half-remembered

For the past couple of weeks I've had lots of stories and rhymes from my childhood pop into my head, but I'm having trouble remembering the complete stories. Things like Are you sleeping? and Where is Thumbkin? are no problem. But there's this book that I used to read, and have my mom read to me, all the time that I can't completely remember and I don't have a copy of it. It's called Hand, hand, fingers, thumb. It is a Dr. Seuss book about monkeys who bang on drums (dum ditti dum ditti dum dum dum) with their thumbs. Its got a great rhythm and fun pictures.


We also had a lot of records when I was a kid. We had things like Tina the Ballerina, Peter Pan, The Care Bears and a lot of read a-longs like The Hobbit and The Empire Strikes Back. One of the records had Tom Thumb on it. Near the end, after Tom makes friends with the local king, he gets in an epic fight with a spider. Tom fought the spider with his sewing needle sword, but alas, although he defeated the spider, he was mortally wounded and died soon after. The best part of the story was the narration of the battle. It went something like this:
'Ug,' said the spider and 'Ah,' said Tom.
'Ug,' said the spider and 'Ah,' said Tom.
'Ug,' said the spider and 'Ah,' said Tom.



I wish I still had these, but they were probably given away to DI (Deseret Industries) a long time ago. Does anyone else remember these stories?