Black rain and Spring flowers

The plum blossoms are out, and smell heavenly. This photo was taken yesterday a few yards down the road.  The weather has been cool, sunny and quite windy.  Very refreshing.  There is a small organic farm in our neighbourhood owned and operated by a guy our age.  He has a self-serve road-side stand for neighbours.  Strawberries are in season here and his have the most exquisite perfume.

We’ve been looking for informed expert opinion about the radiation risks for our area given the reactor trouble to the North.  Via The Guardian, a British expert panel discussion at the British Embassy in Tokyo is extremely reassuring. The short story: the worst case scenario is long term contamination of a 30km radius, with no health effects in Tokyo.  If you are worried, it’s definitely worth reading the transcript.  The modelling results from the Nulear Regulatory Commission in the US that led to a recommended exclusion area of 80km do not seem inconsistent with the British evaluation.

Also via The Guardian, a blog post at Nature provides a quick, technical-but-plain-language refresher on what radiation is for those of us who slept through physics class.

In spite of the absence of a radiological risk to Tokyo residents, several embassies, including the British, French and Australian, have recommended that their citizens consider leaving the Tokyo area.  This is because of infrastructure concerns, not radiation. Also keep in mind that Tokyo is in great shape compared to the humanitarian crisis along the North-Eastern coast.  Infrastructure damage,  the large affected area, and the large number of evacuees have led to unmet need for warmth, food and medicine.

An electrical blackout is imminent here, so that’s it for now.  Also time to change a diaper.  Again.

The good, the bad and the ugly

We’ve been asked about labour and the early weeks. Now that the early weeks are ending, here’s a little bit of enumerated and unvarnished history. The bad stuff first:

1. We both had the worst colds ever the week she was born. 
2. We spent much of labour in a crappy triage room because they were busy when we arrived. By the time we got a room, Ayako was desperate for an epidural (which was provided very quickly and without complication, and Ayako slept through transition).
3. Ayako had extensive 2nd degree tearing, a bunch of stitches, and then slow (but steady and uncomplicated) healing.
4. Ayako had two catheters: one with the epidural and the second because of the swelling from the tears.
5. The catheters caused a bladder infection.
6. Antibiotics for the bladder infection caused a yeast infection in her breasts. 
7. An initial bad latch caused blisters and pain, as did the yeast infection. Nursing was painful for the first 5 weeks. Sawa lost a bit more weight at first than normal, but then took off like a bamboo shoot and is now a happy fatso. We learned that lactation consultants are far more interested in infant weight gain than in mothers’ pain.
8. Ayako did well and was usually in good spirits, but was sore and exhausted much of the time. Early on she had weird dreams and a bit of sleep walking. She once thought the baby was vanishing into her dresser drawer like a Cheshire cat.
9. Both of us had grumpy moments and failed to be sympathetic at times. But these were moments, not the norm.
10. When I went back to work I camped in the living room in an attempt to get enough sleep to function. Sawa was sleeping with Ayako and I really wasn't needed during the night. But I became sore sleeping there, and felt a bit detached from Ayako and Sawa.

Now the good stuff:

1. Sawa is healthy and strong and pretty darned cute. She's growing like a weed and racing up the percentiles on growth charts.
2. She seems unusually well-baked for a newborn. No jaundice, no crying, no spit-up, lots of quiet alertness, lots of social smiles, lots of strength and head control.
3. To the extent that she has personality, she seems delightful. Through our biased eyes, she has a good sense of humour and play. She’s calm except when hungry, and when hungry is very determined. She’s been amazingly social during the past week.
4. Ayako's mother came two weeks before Sawa was born, and cooked all meals, did all laundry and cleaning, and bought all groceries. She then flew to Japan with us, and the care continues. We’ve never eaten so well (except when we visit her in Japan, and I suppose Ayako grew up this way). Keiko is the best cook I have ever met. I tried so hard to help at first, but she's so much faster than me that things were always done before I'd get to them. It is far too easy to get used to this care! 
5. I took two weeks off, then worked for four, and am now in Japan for a month (radiation permitting). This will be my first Spring in Japan. We’ll all be here for cherry blossom season!
6. We inherited a complete set of everything baby from friends with great taste. We've barely bought anything and have everything. It's an odd and slightly guilty feeling, but wonderful. We could not have afforded to be so well-equipped, and wouldn’t have known what to get.

The good list is shorter, but we couldn't be happier. We have no idea what we did to get such a nice kid. [knock on wood...]

The ugly:

Wow. This morning Sawa was in a carrier and had a quick series of large, explosive poos. She just went up a diaper size, so they’re slightly loose fitting. In the carrier there is pressure on the bottom and front, reducing the available storage volume. There was a little side leakage, but most of the explosion vented up the back. Way, way up the back. That was my first experience of Total Diaper Failure. I remain alive because she’s breastfed, and the ejected material was pretty friendly. Friendly enough for me to leave washing her outfit to Ayako when she woke from a nap. I don’t want her to feel left out of the parenting experience.

For better or for worse

View Larger Map

We had tickets to travel to Japan on Sunday, March 13. On Friday, there was a large earthquake and tsunami near Sendai, about 300km North of Tokyo. On Saturday, Narita International Airport and the trains were running, and we decided to board our flight. As we were leaving, news of problems at nuclear reactors in the Sendai area broke. After we landed, this news has only become more alarming. The map above shows Kagawa Train station, which is a five minute walk from our house (which google can’t seem to map).

For now, we are fine and enjoying the company of family, all of whom are well. There has been a bit of panic hoarding by shoppers, so we had to check several stores before finding diapers (including some awesome ones with Anpan Man on them). There are scheduled electricity black-outs, and most gas stations only sell 20 litres at a time, with long queues at the pump. The beautiful bird in the garden eating grubs doesn’t seem to care about any of it.

If there is a radiation risk in this area in the coming days or weeks, we will have to do our best to leave promptly, but for now, we’ll enjoy Spring blossoms, family feasts and the luxury of Japanese bathing. Our feasts are being constrained, however, by the hoarding. We can buy fresh meat, fish and vegetables, but milk, eggs, bread, tofu and natto are sold out. Cup Noodle is also sold out, but this affects us less.

Another man’s poison

Female colleague: So how’s your baby?

Jacob: Oh, she’s doing very well. She’s not a wailer, has no health problems, and is gaining weight quickly.

Colleague: Sounds like me!

Lessons from George W Bush

The impressive thing about George W Bush, you may say the only impressive thing, is that he lowered expectations so much that anything better than catastrophe was celebrated as success. Ayako and I were very much from the Managed Expectations school during pregnancy. Unrealistically high expectations could only lead to disappointment, or so we thought. Little did we know of the powers of babies to woo their parents into labouring on their behalf. Great expectations, it turns out, would not have led to disappointment at all.

Sawa is one week old!

Sawa’s first week was pretty standard for Mum and baby. Ayako was in considerable pain and having trouble peeing. Sawa was a bit dopey and hard to rouse at first, and then frequently irate at the breast because colostrum, of which there was lots, didn’t flow fast enough for her liking. These problems resolved fairly quickly, but even at their worst, we were a bit surprised by how little we resented our efforts to bring her into the world. She’s a charmer. More photos illustrating her charmingness are here.

Sawa Kitta Etches

Sawa Kitta Etches, a.k.a. 橘田咲和 (Etches), was born Thursday, January 27 at 02:19, weighing 3415g, and measuring 52.5cm. Sawa and Ayako were both calm, happy and healthy. Ayako says more dazed than calm. More photos from the hospital are here.

If you want to understand the meaning of her name, the short story is that Sa means blossom and Wa means harmony, or peace, or Japanese style.  Kitta means mandarin orange-rice paddy. Kitta is Ayako’s surname, and Sawa’s middle name in Canada. Her legal name is Japan is the way it’s written above. We wish it were simpler too!

If you want extra details, and animations on how to write it properly, here are the links:

Kitta = 橘田
Sawa = 咲和

Once you follow the links, you’ll need to click on the Chinese characters (called kanji in Japanese) next to the correct reading of those characters, since there are multiple readings for most combinations of characters. I’m afraid that the cost of layered meanings and beauty is complexity. If you see crazy symbols, you may be missing the required fonts.

The washing of the socks

We’re blessed to have friends with little girls who have just outgrown their newborn clothes. Ayako looks like she’s about to explode, so we’re washing the newborn stuff, including this army of socks. Our child will have many feet, apparently.