Taking another break

Yeah, I know I haven't been posting all that much lately. And now you're going to be starved some more. We're heading back to Australia on Sunday (six sleeps to go! Woohoo!) for Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, and are bunkering down this week in preparation for it. Cassia and I will be back home for three weeks and I don't know if I'll be online very much during that time, as it's going to be pretty busy with visiting people and stuff. So, have a lovely April everyone! I might see you around, but then again, might not. Mwah.

What's mine is yours

Poor Cassia. Have you ever tried to teach a toddler the concept of mine and yours, me and you? I must say the thought had occurred to me as I watched my nieces grow up that it must be a difficult one, but they appear to have caught onto the idea OK. But Cassia's having trouble at the moment. Anything I sit on, hold, touch or otherwise engage with is "mine". As in, she says "mine chair." And yesterday we had an unfortunate nappy-changing accident in which I scratched her on the leg and she went around saying "cetchoo, cetchoo" ("I scratched you") while pointing to her injury. How exactly am I supposed to deal with this one? I think it's probably best to just leave it and she'll get the hang of it by osmosis eventually.

My most favouritest birth story ever

Is a homebirth possible in any of the following circumstances?

* two previous C-sections
* being told by a doctor that you should never have another child and certainly should never labour again and that you have a small pelvis
* a previous inverted T incision (one of the variations of the so-called classic vertical cut; it carries slightly higher risks of uterine rupture)
* an 11 lb 12 oz/5.2 kg baby
* over 42 weeks gestation
* a knot in the baby's cord

What if all six of those circumstances apply to you?

Recently I heard the most triumphant homebirth story ever and it gave me such pleasure to read, I feel compelled to share it with you (I have the woman's permission). It's long however, so I'm just going to give you a few tantalising quotes. If you want to read the whole thing, you will find it here.

At 45+ weeks pregnant*, Thursday the 12th Feb 2009 - I was having small contractions all day which ramped up round 7pm.

This is the longest gestation I have ever heard of! The previous one I'd heard was 44+4. Wow, the woman's patience and courage are phenomenally inspiring.

The MW listened to the baby's heart rate through a few contractions and it was low. She suggested we go for a walk and come back and see where we were at. So we went for a walk, made it down the street but I had to wait there swaying and making quiet (totally insane) noises. I decided I couldn't be outside any more because I was tired and it was starting to rain, so we walked back up and I had a contraction in front of every house we passed. The closer we got to home the more they hurt and the more terrified I became, thinking - "Crap, if this is early labour I'm going to be a wreck in second stage and broken for transition!!"

I just love this midwife's attitude! No fear. No scaremongering or undermining the mother's confidence. Just a wait-and-see approach, with a sensible suggestion to get moving around to help the mother refocus. I also had to laugh at the mother's thought process. That's exactly what I thought too. (It wasn't early labour -- for either of us.)

We managed to make it down and our MW met us at the door (I thought we'd been gone 10 minutes, we'd been gone over an hour). I saw her and told her something 'terrible' was happening and then the pushing/grunting thing happened again and she said "you are going to have a baby" which I didn't believe! Whilst we were out, with her magical MW intuition powers, she had known I'd need it and filled our pool with beautifully warm water, so I got in but didn't undress entirely because I couldn't be bothered. My body pushed and I tried to believe I was having a baby, that this was it!

Midwife means "with woman" and this is the very embodiment of it. I love this midwife, and I don't even know who she is.

Then I felt what HAD to be the ring of fire and I tried to avoid it - couldn't, felt between my legs and found 'something' (that turned out to be the back of my baby's head!) my body kept pushing until there was a huge rush of a body gliding out from between my legs, I thought 'head-shoulders-legs!' and then a RUSH of fluid and a pulling sensation, it was so intense and I was still so shocked I didn't turn to see the baby who really shot out and slid along the floor of the pool.

Ahhhhhh, I just love birth!

I just wanted to add this little bit in, because it was something I always wondered about. Having had two c-sections and being told I could never expect to have a vaginal birth, I internalised the idea that I would never use my body in this way and that conditioning is hard to overcome.

Yes it is very, very, very hard to overcome. But I applaud this mama for overcoming it, and I encourage all mamas out there to do the same. Our bodies are amazing! (Well no wonder, cos God made 'em!)

This has been one of the absolute best things to ever happen to me. Despite all the regret I carry from my first births, and always suspecting what I missed out on, I could never have know how fantastic it could be till it happened and I just feel so so grateful that it did... I hope my homebirth after two caesareans with a t-scar at 45 weeks helps other women seek out this experience for themselves with confidence and excitement.

It's just such an awesome story. I really really really recommend you read the whole thing. It'll brighten your day. The story of how they ended up naming their son is lovely too.

Springtime is HERE!

YAY!

For the first time in a long time, it was actually kind of warm today! I think it reached 19 degrees, which in the grand scheme of things ain't that warm, but when you've been used to 10, 11, 12 degrees, 19 is just balmy.

Ahhhhhhh, that's better. Bring on the cherry blossoms!

Senkoo

I have to record this. Today Cassia said "thank-you" in the correct context for the first time. (I had just handed her a piece of strawberry.) Melts my little heart, it does.

Awashima Marine Park

We took another Sunday excursion yesterday, this time to Awashima Marine Park. Awashima is a tiny little island not far from here which had nothing going for it until someone decided to build an aquarium there. So now you pay 1200 yen for the privilege of jumping on a small ferry which paddles for about five minutes to the island, and being able to stay there as long as you like. (And if you miss the last ferry back at 4:45 p.m., there's even a swank hotel on the island that will no doubt be happy to take your business.) I'm not sure if they have a problem in summer with people attempting to swim to it. As the crow flies the distance is less than 100 metres.

Anyway, it's a pretty cool little place. They have an aquarium, a dolphin display area, a seal display area, a penguin area, and in the last few months they even added a frog house which you pay an extra 100 yen to go into (definitely worth it). There's also a salt water swimming pool which is evidently open in the summertime only. The whole island is about 2.5 km in perimeter and has a nice cut path all around it which takes about half an hour to stroll.



My favourite part was the new frog house, because they had heaps of really groovy lookin' frogs in there, including beautifully coloured poison dart frogs. The dolphin display wasn't too bad although nothing spectacular. They had two dolphins performing a few tricks -- fetching balls, jumping over poles, jumping up high enough to touch a ball suspended from the top of a ladder, waving their flippers at the audience, etc. No human pyramids skiing on their backs or anything fancy-pants like that. But still enjoyable. Unfortunately the seal display area was out of action for refurbishment, although we still got to see the seals mucking around up reasonably close. The aquarium itself has a small hands-on display area where you can pick up starfish and sea urchins, and touch revolting slimy things that live in the ocean if you feel so inclined (for the record, sea slugs feel like jelly). We also happened to arrive just in time for the 12:15 feeding of the penguins -- another little 300-yen diversion which gives you the ability to drop a few fish over the gate and watch them being devoured by the first penguin that grabs them from you.



We really enjoyed our day. It's a simple little place, good for young kids, because you only need a couple of hours to see the whole thing. I'd recommend it especially for one of those days when you just want to get out and about but can't think of anything else to do.

***** ***** *****
How to get there: Take the Kisho bus (it doesn't have a number) from stop number 8 on the south side of Numazu Station. The trip takes about half an hour, and the bus stops just outside the mainland entrance to the park.

Nihondaira Dobutsuen (Zoo)

We like to try and get out and about on Sundays; it's our only chance to do something interesting and a bit different during the week. Craig had heard from a work colleague that there was a zoo in Shizuoka, which is the capital city of the prefecture we live in, about an hour's local train ride from Numazu. We're a bit partial to zoos, so last week we decided to check it out.

I think probably the best word to describe Nihondaira Dobutsuen is functional. As far as zoos go, it would be on the small side of average. The displays tend to be very simple and not an awful lot of effort has been made to recreate the animals' natural habitats. It's not quite as bad as being stuck in a small cage with a concrete floor and nothing else, but if you're used to zoos that go all out for their animals, this one will come as a bit of a surprise. As an example, the black leopard had one long plank of wood propped at about a 30 degree angle to pace up and down on, but an otherwise bare concrete enclosure. Most of the animals got a bit luckier and at least had dirt or grass floors. The polar bear had a reasonable amount of water to swim in.

It has an interesting and generous collection of monkeys and apes which sets it apart from any other zoo I've been to. I realised that I must have never actually seen an adult orangutan in real life before because I was blown away by how huge the one they've got is. It also has several of the usual African suspects - a lion (which roared at us a couple of times), elephants, giraffes and rhinos. No zebras, though. One of the most interesting displays which greets you as you enter the zoo is the flamingo area. Did you know there is more than one type of flamingo and that they come from Africa and South and Central America? Neither did I, but this place has three species in various amazing shades of pink. I was amused in an indignant sort of way to see that one of the species is named the Lesser Flamingo. How would you introduce yourself at parties with that moniker, I wonder? Don't mind me, I'm just a Lesser Flamingo...

Anyway, the zoo also hosts a small children's park with dinky little train rides, a merry-go-round, go-karts and the like, all of which cost extra. I'm sure this is how the zoo makes its money, because the entrance fee is a measly 500 yen. We didn't hang around in the kids' area for long, but we did shell out the extra 100 yen each to ride the chairlift to the top of the hill at one end of the zoo. The brochure boasted a reptile house on the hill, so we figured it was probably worth it. Well... maybe it would have been if we didn't have to fork out another 100 yen each to take the chairlift back down the hill. (You can actually walk down too, presumably for free although we didn't bother to find out.) There was a big jumping pillow on the hill too, which had an awful lot more people on it than the reptile house had in it so it wasn't a total loss.

It's not a bad place to visit if you're looking for something to do with your kids for a day. The cheap entrance fee is certainly a drawcard. If you're hoping to immerse yourself in a wonderful zoo experience, however, you'll probably be disappointed.

***** ***** *****
How to get to Nihondaira Dobutsuen from Numazu: Take the train to Shizuoka station, then the north exit to bus stop number 13 (go down the underpass and take the second left exit). You can take bus number 40, 41 or 42; they all go to the zoo -- and you can't miss the stop because the bus actually goes up the zoo's driveway and drops you off right outside the gate. The sneaky alternative which saves you a small amount in bus fare and negotiating the Shizuoka interchange (worth considering, especially if you're in a hurry) is to get off the train at Higami-Shizuoka, which is one station before. The bus also stops there but I'm not sure which stop number it is. Just look for bus number 40, 41 or 42 I guess.

Ummm... thank you?

Whoever you are.

Could the person who was kind enough to send me a box of chocolates from England please identify themselves?

Thank you!

ETA: We have our suspicions...
ETA even later: Suspicion overruled! But thank you anyway. :) Mwah!

This is definitely worth sharing

Especially in light of my recent post about Cassia's personality. This was part of an email I received from a wise and experienced mama, in relation to motherhood.

Indeed, it is hard work, and be fore-warned, it remains hard work but joy-filled work as well. Forgive me if I told you this before: my epiphany about our children that came when they were much older teenagers and young adults. It occurred when I saw a short video that my father took of us all on one of our visits to my parents... It was startling. M1 was about 8 years old and D was just learning to walk. M2 was around 6, R was about 4. The amazing truth was their personalities at those young ages were so much the same and more so as when they were older. M1 was very talkative, M2 was self-conscious and proper, and R tried his hardest to keep up with M1 when they played football - a real display of all-out drive. D was too young to decipher. My point for you is this: how Cassia is today is really how Cassia's personality will continue to be. If I had known that fact when my children were younger I would have been more alert for their strengths and weaknesses and hopefully would have been a better guide. I hope this insight is helpful to you and Craig.

... and anyone else who happens to read it. Enjoy.

Crash and burn

I'm going on hiatus again.

It has been a really suckful few weeks and I'm drowning.

Until later...