family time

As Grandma and Grandpa explored Cambodia (and reported having a marvelous time!), Greg was home Saturday and Sunday this weekend! We pretty much relaxed at home and took a family dogwalk once again -- Greg "wowed" (rather entertained) the neighborhood with his roller-blading skills (and sufficiently wore out Finn and Bonny).... Cora seemed to like the ErgoCarrier.

Cora's posing with her new doll that was sent by Auntie Allie, she loves to put it in her mouth (oops). She's really more alert now and loves to look around. She's tolerating baths a bit better and still sleeps for about 6 hour stretches at night. We have her first doctor's appointment tomorrow morning and are excited to learn how much she's grown.

take your daughter to work day....

well, NOT REALLY. Greg had duty today and we stopped by the ship for a quick visit and photo op with daddy in his coveralls!

our little fashion model...

Oh having a girl is so fun!! We love to dress her up and she's pretty good at striking a pose on day #9! These are all hand-knit outfits by mom, grandma and aunt Becky...

now that we know she's a GIRL we've already started on some pink and purple treasures!

a lot of firsts...

Cora experienced her first "storytime" today by obaasan (grandma) and her favorite book was our Boston tribute -- "Make Way for Ducklings." She also got her first sponge bath and shampoo. She also slept in her Moses basket without complaints. Finally, so mom and grandma could go wardrobe shopping for her, she hung out with grandpa and watched baseball and hockey!

Mother's Day and more...

Thanks for all of your kind comments! We're still loving our lil girl and trying to figure out this parenthood thing... We came home from the clinic on Sunday afternoon and Greg left this morning to re-join his ship and face some tough inspections over the next few days. He said he hasn't had this good of sleep since moving to Japan, though! Who'd of thought with a newborn?

The above pictures show proud grandma and grandpa, Cora's first doll (bought by her daddy -- a Kokeshi doll), Cora's going home outfit, Greg MUCH less creepy in no mustache, and our family picture outside our house.

71% of you were wrong...

But so was Greg… IT’S A GIRL!!!

Cora Kameko Madea made her appearance at 3:20 pm (that’s 2:20 am Eastern Standard Time) on 5/7/9! She’s been a joy and is proving to be a really good baby (I know, it’s a biased opinion, but she who writes the blog gets her opinions published as fact)!

As you know, labor was planned to be induced the night of 5/7/9, but our prayers were answered and natural labor began once Greg was safely home. I started to feel some strong, but infrequent contractions on my way to pick up Greg at the train station (who was wearing a mustache that almost made me go into labor right then and there) in the early evening of 5/6/9. They remained infrequent through the night of the 6th, which allowed (almost) everyone to get a good night’s sleep. For all my midwife friends, here is the quick “shift change report:”

- Around 4 am, contractions started to hurt a lot more and were occurring about every 10 minutes.
- By 8 am I called the birth center and told them I would be there soon.
- Right at 8:30 am, we arrived at the clinic and I was already 7 cm dilated! Baby’s heartbeat was strong and we were all pleased with the progress.
- Around noon I was 9 cm dilated and Dr. Higashijima decided to break my water.
- I was ready to push around 1 pm. Because of baby’s size, pushing was very challenging (learned a few tips for the next time I’m coaching though – especially one from Dr H’s 85 year old father who came in to assist).
- After about 2 hours of intermittent pushing, baby arrived without intervention.

I was so relieved I forgot to ask about sex…. And Greg, who was so certain it was a boy, was staring at me more than the new member of the family – so we were both quite shocked when we caught Dr. H referring to ‘lil M as a she… that’s right, ‘lil M IS A GIRL!!! She weighed in at 3994 grams (8 lb 13 oz) and 54 cm (21.26 inches).

Cora has allowed us to sleep through her first 2 nights – 10 hours, then 7 hours. She’s breastfeeding like a champion and is alert to both ChiChi and HaHa’s voices (that’s Japanese for daddy and mommy).

We are so impressed with the care received here at the birth center. The chef is amazing and the meals are quite gourmet (and at least 4 courses…). Wine is served with dinner. The first dinner was steak and the second was excellent sushi. We are allowed to stay up to 5 days here and we are truly left alone. This respite is quite nice. Cora stays in the room with us the whole time and we do her diaper changes and check her temperature.

I take my own medicine and was pampered with a hair shampoo and style the day after delivery. If only this service were available in the states!

FYI, Kameko is Japanese for “turtle child” and also means longevity. We chose that name since Greg is stationed on the USS Tortuga out here; we thought it’d be a neat reminder of where she arrived.

We promise to keep the pictures coming and apologize for the delay in this announcement as we don’t have internet access at the birth clinic.

A note from Greg: My one job is take this entry that Meg typed back to the house, upload and run back to the clinic where I’ve been crashing for the past couple of days, but I just got to throw a little more detail into this entry (especially since this entire portion of our lives is more or less told through Meg’s eyes due to necessity).

Yes, I was able to make it back for the birth (a true rarity in this neck of the woods) and Cora was kind enough to not only wait for my arrival, but allow me to have a full night’s sleep (OK, perhaps that had as much to do with my ability to sleep through Meg’s moaning that was loud enough to wake up her Mom downstairs… we have a REAL comfortable bed)!!! I must admit I did a good job driving to the clinic (I know because Meg didn’t yell once) and then got to sit around for the next 7 hours watching my wife writhe in pain (guys, if you EVER get to go through this, bring a flask – I know I will next time). Doc kept trying to give Meg an epidural or suck Cora out (I know, I had no idea they use vacuum cleaners either) not to mention an bunch of other things that Meg flat out refused (I was a little perturbed at her stubbornness, but after it was over Doc went on and on about how “truly dedicated” Meg was to a natural birth… all I’m saying is that since he was complementary, I’m assuming she made the right choices).

And for all you guys who have never seen a birth… well, think about how blown away you were when you first learned that Darth Vader was Luke’s father and multiply that by 100… words cannot describe… I am truly blessed to have been here…

And we have been chilling ever since!!! OK, now I have to run back to clinic – hope all is well wherever you are!

FYI....

As you can see, we are now overdue in awaiting the arrival of Lil M. S/he is behaving self as we await Daddy's return to Sasebo! Greg's scheduled to arrive tomorrow (Weds) afternoon and will be here for 5 days. We're very blessed that he's been granted this leave, as his ship is short-staffed and not in the greatest condition... but we're not looking a gift horse in the mouth!

Because of Greg's brief visit, we've (Dr. H, Greg and myself) decided to induce labor on Thursday evening, May 7th. Hopefully this will lead to Lil M's arrival sometime Friday the 8th. Of course, it'd be great to go into natural labor before needing a medicine "boost," but we'll take what's necessary.

Who knows, maybe we'll do some power dog walks in our hilly neighborhood to start it up naturally!

Our clinic doesn't have internet access, so we'll try to get the news to you all as soon as we can...

STANDBY!