Been a bit of a busy time these days with the new baby, the older sister, the hospitalized mama and the return to work after the holidays. Luckily, we’ve been surviving so far.
Tamie and Julia got discharged on Wed, Jan. 12th and have been staying at the grandparents’ house since then. Layla and I have been staying there for most of the time since then, although we are back home for the time being so I can get to work at a decent hour and Layla can go to daycare.
I’ve posted pictures, a LOT of pictures, in the gallery so take a look. They’re all dated so it might take some browsing to find them all.
We brought in the new year with Tamie’s folks in Isehara with a traditional Japanese Osechi meal. I was hoping Julia would pop out on the first, making her birthday 1/1/11. It almost happened.
After spending the day out shopping before returning home to a meal of leftovers (happens in all countries during the holidays, it seems), Tamie’s water broke that evening. It was a few hours before midnight when we went to the hospital, giving me small hope that her birthday of one’s would happen. Thoughts of birth times of 22:22:22 danced through my head as we signed in and Tamie got examined.
She was only dilated 3 centimeters. We still had a ways to go… and it was definitely not a great experience in any sense of the word, thanks largely to the nurses who were “watching” us. I won’t get into the details here, but it wasn’t until the next shift of nurses came, some 8 hours later, that things started happening…
One thing I did want to mention here, to keep a record of for all time, is the comments Tamie made during the delivery. “嘘つき!” she yelled at me, much to the surprise of any Japanese within earshot. The rest of the Japanese was too fast and too complicated for me to properly translate, although I do know what it meant. “LIAR!” she yelled at me. I told her it should be an easier than the first. I was wrong. Really wrong.
After more than 12 hours of grueling labour, they wheeled Tamie away for a C-section.
Apparently the baby had turned and it was impossible to have a natural birth that way. They’d been waiting and monitoring the health of the baby for a long time but it didn’t look like she was going to turn back around so they had to do something.
The surgery started at 10am. I waited in the lobby while they did their business.
After about an hour, they wheeled our baby into the lobby and briefly showed me before wheeling her away to get cleaned up. She was a big baby. And I was as proud as ever.
About an hour after that, the nurse came and got me again. Tamie was done in surgery and would be coming out shortly. I went to meet her. While I was waiting, the doctor came and explained to me that everything went really well. She also said the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby, not once but twice. Once around her neck and once around her body. It seems like everything worked out.
After my brief chat with the doctor, I went to meet Tamie. She was being pushed in a bed on a wheels. She looked exhausted, but happy. She even smiled at me… and before I could make any kind of inappropriately-timed jokes, she said “We are NOT having any more babies.”
I went with the nursing staff as they wheeled her up to her room. As I waited outside while they transferred her into her own bed, another nurse came and asked if I wanted to hold my new baby. I put up a small argument, saying I wanted to see Tamie first but the nurse ignored me and led me to the baby room. I shrugged, told myself it was a language thing and happily met our little new Julia.
I spent some time getting to know our newest kid before going to meet Tamie again. Thankfully, both girls are doing really well.
Welcome to the world, Julia Estey. Happy 2011, everyone else.
Saturday we had to visit Layla’s doctor to ensure she is going to survive her latest onset of coughing/barking like a seal. She is. We got the latest round of medicines, in powder AND liquid form.
After the hospital, we found ourselves with nothing to do and thought of lunch. On the way to check out a couple new restaurants that were opening soon, we walked by a small park with one slide and one set of see-saws. Layla, of course, wanted to check it out and we, of course, obliged. Some playing ensued, much to everyone’s enjoyment, until Layla finally declared she was done.
We found that the soon-to-be-opened restaurants weren’t yet opened, so we walked around and ended up at a new, small restaurant to have lunch. We ate a quick lunch before heading off to Starbucks to meet Yurina, a friend we hadn’t seen in a long time. Layla didn’t remember her but wasn’t as shy as normal, which was a pleasant surprise. I think it had to do with the familiar setting of Starbucks, plus the fact we picked up some stickers to distract her. It worked.
That night, Tamie made pizza for supper and we (I) feasted. A good way to end a good day.
Sunday, I woke to an email request to get some pictures of Layla on a particular bench at the Ebina park. So I dragged the kid, kicking and screaming, to the park just to appease her grandparents. Kidding, of course. The mere mention of the word park brings visions of biking, sliding and running to Layla’s mind… it brings visions of gasping, wheezing and sweating while trying to keep pace with Layla to mine.
When we got to the park, Layla posed happily on the bench, even smiling for a picture or two. The weather wasn’t the greatest, but the upside of that is there weren’t as many kids around when we were actually playing on the slides and things. At one point, she said she needed ice cream. We made a deal, one she happily accepted – more pictures for an ice cream.
After posing, sliding, running and falling repeatedly, Layla was satiated. She saw the steam come on and kids crowding in it so had to join them. It wasn’t until today that she realized standing in steam, you get a bit wet. It also wasn’t until today that she realized that wet shoes leave footprints on dry cement… after the steam turned off, Layla finished by saying she wanted to go home to change her clothes. Smart kid.
The rest of our day was spent in Hon-Atsugi, where Tamie had a dentist appointment. We met up after the appointment and had an early dinner before coming home and chilling for the rest of the night at home.
With only two months to go before the birth, the gender of number 2 has finally been determined. After much deliberation, the doctor finally ascertained that he couldn’t find a little chinpo and the baby must be a girl. The favourite name of last seven months, Dylan, has been bumped down to the number 2 spot behind the new leading contender – Julia. But it’s a close race.
Layla is in the midst of another asthma attack which started just as she was getting over her croup. The new doctor went so far as to give her chest another x-ray. That was fun — poor kid was brave up until the point that they actually asked her to stand still for the picture. After seeing the results, the doctor increased her medication – now it’s 5 separate medicine packets, and a (bigger) sticker on her back.
At least I know if she tries drugs when she’s older, she’ll probably be immune to their effects.
