Gotta love Japan. This lunch, $25 for 50 pcs of freshly rolled sushi. My favorite right now, Crab salad and Salmon with onion. More please!
A little bit of fishy heaven 10 December 2009
When it rains… 10 December 2009
..it certainly pours. I’m starting to feel like the Pink Panther, with the constant rainy cloud over his head.
Mikey is coughing up his lungs, has a sprained ankle and back problems. He’s gonna go get a steroid shot in his ankle tomorrow. He already got like 3 in his back.
All the stress with Hanna’s hospitalization, it has caused my eczema to go through the roof! My whole body is itchy but my hands are the worst. My fingers are swollen and the skin is thick and so itchy I can’t even describe it. I scratch them till they bleed and some days it’s even hard to use my hands.
And to try to relax after the past week, I thought morning bike rides along the river would do me good. No. It did the complete opposite actually. Yesterday I got a slight bleeding. Went to my OB/GYN, Dr Sakamoto (same guy that delivered Hanna by the way) and he told me to REST!! Baby is doing fine but no heavy lifting, no jumping or running, not even walk to long, NO BIKE RIDING! No sex, no nothing for at least 10 days.
So all day I’ve kept imagining my annoyingly concerned neighbour lady tell me “I told you so you stubborn bitch!”
Alright I overdid my self, I admit. I won’t lift a freakin finger from now on. Aight! (Although I was riding my bike my whole pregnancy with Hanna, so I really didn’t think it was gonna be a problem) Aaaanyways…..
I’m 13 weeks today by the way, one third of the way, yay!
Dr. Sakamoto also calmed my nerves by telling me that my baby would not be born a complete nutcase cuz of me being stressed over the past weeks chaos. That’s nice to know. And then he gave me 7 days of oral steroids to help my eczema. If that helps it’s going to be huge for me! I might even be able to bend my fingers like a normal person and the red itchy blotches on my forehead might disappear. That would be nice.
Hanna is doing great though! We’re starting to think that this Meckel’s Diverticulum might have been a reason for her not being a big eater before. That her tummy has always been bothering her in some way. Cuz ever since the surgery she’s been eating like never before, she’s eating four times as much as she used to eat. And she even eats chicken and pieces of steak, that she never really wanted to touch before. It’s lovely to see. So, yeah at least Hanna is doing fine and that makes me happy.
And no, this is not a picture of an expired cracker, it’s my hand. Goodnight.
Baby Elmo 07 December 2009
Hanna absolutely loves Elmo and Sesame Street! So maybe it wasn’t such a surprise that when I asked her what she thought her baby brother or sisters name should be, she said “Elmo” and then she added “toffeln” (slipper)
So if Hanna gets to decide the baby’s name should be “Elmo toffeln”…..I’d like to see that kid grow up without getting picked on.
Worst week ever! 06 December 2009
I’m back! Had a shitteous week last week! To try (might be impossible) and make a long horror story short….
Friday Nov.27th
Hanna woke up at 7.30 as usual and drank her “baba” in front of the TV watching the Disney Clubhouse Channel. Then she comes to me and says “Mama, tummy bombom”!
She seemed fine except from that so I didn’t think anything of it. Maybe just gas i figured. Then 10 minutes later she starts vomiting and her tummy really started hurting, she was rolling around on the floor screaming in pain. It didn’t last for long though. Maybe just 5 minutes and then the pain seemed to subside but she was still throwing up. he had no fever so both me and Mikey thought maybe it was just a stomach bug, that would pass. Mikey was leaving for the weekend to go to north-western Japan to play so I prepared myself for a weekend alone with a sick child.
At lunch time I took Hanna to the pediatrician down the street and she said the same thing. Stomach virus going round. She gave Hanna a suppository to stop the vomiting and said to keep giving her small amounts of water to keep her hydrated.
Once we got home again, Hanna’s condition deteriorated pretty quickly. The vomiting didn’t stop. Every little bit of liquid I tried to give her, came right back up and she started getting lethargic. When the bloody diarrhea diaper came I knew she had to see a doctor again, urgently. I called Mike’s auntie who came and picked us up and drove us to a nearby hospital. I’d saved the bloody diaper for them to check and that was a smart move cuz once they saw it and Hanna they mediately decided to give her an X-ray and ultrasound.
The ultrasound revealed that Hanna’s was suffering from a intussusception of the intestines. The doctor said this happens every now and then in children and is solved by giving a water enema to push out the intussuscepted intestine again. The risk however is that the intestine itself might get penetrated and then emergency surgery would have to be performed.
I do not need to tell you that I now was CRYING! Hearing this and seeing my little girl just laying there on the hospital bed. Pale and not moving at this point. You know Hanna is in bad shape if she let’s nurses and doctors do their thing without her protesting.
With this knowledge of Hanna’s problem the doctors wanted to send us to another hospital, with a pediatric surgeon to perform the enema, just incase something would happen and I’m so grateful that they made that decision.
So me and Hanna can now check “Japanese ambulance ride” of our list. Sirens and lights the whole works. It’s like 5-6 in the evening now and at the new hospital they quickly give Hanna another ultrasound and MRI, that determine the same thing. Intussusception.
Hanna is asking for water every 5 minutes and it was breaking my heart to tell her she couldn’t have any cuz it could make it worse and also because we didn’t know yet if she would need surgery or not.
She got hooked up to an IV and round 8 they performed the enema.
The surgeon, was a younger man and rather serious in his way of talking. It scared me. It felt like he would give me bad news every time he opened his mouth. The enema took about 45 minutes longer then they had told me so I was shitting bricks by the time they brought Hanna back out. They said the procedure was a success BUT, they’d found something else on the ultrasound.
Not the thing you wanna hear and my heart dropped to the floor. I was thinking the worst off course. And I felt so lonely. I really needed my husband right now and I knew he was sitting in some shitty hotel up north worrying about his little Hanna baby. More crying from my part.
Doctor explained to me that Hanna had something called “Mecel’s Diverticulum” and that was the original
cause of the itussusception. She would need surgery for sure or this problem would occur again. He said they were lucky they found the “Meckel’s” now, or she would have been a frequent visitor to the emergency room.
So Hanna would have to stay at the hospital till further notice. The weekend was coming up so Monday they said would be first possible day for operation. They wanted to give her a couple of days to recover before surgery.
This whole time I’m updating Mikey over the phone. My mom is calling every 10 minutes and all I can think about is trying to be strong for Hanna. Although I felt so alone!
They show us to the ward and Hanna’s bed. And she kept asking for “baba” and all I could tell her was later baby, later. They’s told me that she would not eat and drink untill after surgery! How do you explain that to your 21 month old? We were both exhausted after a long day and when she fell a sleep my friend drove me home to take a shower and pack an overnight bag. I’d never leave my baby so I was gonna stay for as long as she was.
My mom called and told me that she would come if I wanted her too and all I could do was give her a “hhyyyeeessss ppleeaassee!” in between my sniffles. And on Sunday at lunch she walked through the door to our hospital room. Best mom ever!
Sunday Nov 29th
My mom came, like and angel on an airplane. We’d upgraded ourselves to a private hospital room. Mikey came later that night and it felt so good to have someone to lean on. Hanna had not eaten or drank anything since Friday morning. We were hoping they’d operate on Monday so that Hanna could start her recovery. The days were long but Hanna was tough, she dealt with the IV and she eventually stopped asking for food and drink. We had explained to her that if she ate her tummy would go “bom bom” again and she got it. She did not want that.
Monday Nov 30th
Another x-ray told that the intussusception was happening again, so they’d prepare her for surgery asap. The surgery took about 2 hours and around 7pm she was back in her room. Knocked out from the pain medication and anesthesia.
For the first time in 4 days I felt like I could breathe again. She was going to be ok. I’d been stressing so much about Hanna that I’d almost forgotten that I was pregnant. My poor unborn baby, I hope he or she is as tough as Hanna cuz it has been on one hell of an emotional ride this past week.
The surgery had been very successful and Hanna was recovering really well, so now we were just waiting on getting the green light on her first meal and drink. Thursday they said.
Thursday Dec 3d
Hanna finally got to eat and drink a little. It had been 6 days! She got pudding and grape Jellie and a whole can of sport drink. 
Friday Dec 4th
Hanna got a huge breakfast with Miso soup, potato and scrambled eggs with ketchup and she ate it all. She was almost recovered according to the doctors. She was eating and pooping and we could not wait for them to tell us we could go home. My mom refused to leave the hospital even for one night. She said she came there to help us and she stayed with Hanna every night. I can’t thank her enough. It was so emotionally and physically draining to see my baby so sick so to be able to go home during the night and regroup was huge.
Saturday Dec 5th
Hanna got discharged. Yay!!!! I’m so grateful to the wonderful doctors and nurses at “Kokuritsu Seiiku Iryo Center”. To my mom for coming all the way to Japan and Mike’s auntie and her husband. They really helped us out and I’m scared to think what could have happened if they didn’t take us to the first hospital.
And now we’re home, Hanna’s doing great! I think she’s got a new appreciation for food. Everything is going down and she’s got the sparkle back in her eye.
And if you think this version was long, I can guarantee you it’s nothing in comparison to how it was.
I’m still exhausted so now I’m gonna try and focus a bit on relaxing, for my and our unborn little bundles sake.
Beep beep beep beep! 26 November 2009
Annoy alert! I love Japan, it’s great. But some times the cultural differences can get a little much.
Being pregnant in Japan I have never really had a problem with. I though it was great when I expected Hanna. People are really helpful and concerned for your wellbeing. But it can get a little much. Japanese women have this attitude that you should not do things when your pregnant. Anything it seems like. Don’t ride your bike, don’t work to hard, don’t walk to far, don’t run, don’t do this and that. You should just sit and grow like a potato.
I like to walk and ride my bike. Be active. I take out the garbage, like I always do. I go to the grocery store, I kick ball with Hanna, I get in the Jungle Jim with her. Simply put, I live my life, healthy and safe.
Mike was off today and we decided to clean out our downstairs storage room. I’d packed up Hanna’s old crib to put in there. So there’s some wives outside with their kids and Hanna is there playing with them, while me and Mikey are moving some stuff, and when Mikey goes to get the box with the crib, me and Hanna kick some ball and I chat a bit with one of the wives.
We’re done in less than 30 minutes and as we say bye to everyone outside, this one wife gives me a serious look and rubs her stomach. Saying “you should not work so hard” and gives me this look like I just landed with a parashoot in front of her.
Work so hard?! I mean thank’s for your concern but I’m a grown woman on my second pregnancy, don’t get in my business and tell me what I can and can’t do… Geee!
Even Mikey was like what she mean by that?! Like she was insinuating that I shouldn’t even be helping my husband carrying an empty box to the trash…! Common!
If I was telling you I was planning to race in the Indiy 500 or climb Mount Everest in my 7th month. Then please say something or slap me straight but other then that, just be happy for me and trust that I know my own best.
Just gotta say 25 November 2009
There is nothing better than being a mom. It’s like life finally has a real meaning. I can be tired to the brink of insanity but I’d never in a million years change it. When I look at Hanna, listen to her talk or watch her play, eat, sleep or her corky ways and funny faces. I’ve never laughed as much as I do today. Or loved. The love I have for my daughter, my husband and our growing little seed. When Hanna comes and puts her tiny little arms around my neck for a hug, or when she kissed her papa goodnight and says “I lobe you papa”, I melt. It’s so awesome! 
busy week ahead 25 November 2009
Apart from that I’m very anxious about getting on the airplane. I’m very excited to go home for a few days. Mikey’s going to Niigata this weekend for games, come back home Sunday night and then we leave on Monday morning. We’re only gonna be home for 4,5 days, so no need to pack very much. Although I’ll be packing an extra suit case with Hanna’s old clothes to bring back home. Less to pack and ship at the end of the season.
In these 4 days we’ll also be taking Hanna to the doctor for her 2 year check up, catch up on her vaccinations, I scheduled the “NUC” ultrasound, Mikey wants to go shopping, I wanna go shopping for a nice pair of maternity jeans and other clothes to “grow” in. Hanna needs winter boots and t-shirts. We wanna try and catch up with friends and family and off course catch up on some delish American and MEXICAN food!!
Aaaalright, bring it on!!
Adapter 23 November 2009
I’m in awe of how well this whole switch from crib to “big gil bed” went. Hanna loves her bed and she lays in it as much as she possibly can. Sometimes she says “nite nite” 10 minutes after she woke up from her nap. Cuz she just wants to lay in her bed. I try to get her dressed at times to go out and play but she’s like “naken fis i sangen”. Basically saying she wants to lay naked in her bed instead. She cuddle up next to all her stuffed animals and watches “Elmo” on Mikeys Ipod.
She just seems to be adapting to things very easily, which is great. When we switched her from bottle to “sippy” she didn’t say anything. I gave her milk in a new sippy cup and told her, “you’re a big girl now so no more baba ok”. She just looked at me and was “Ok”…and started calling the cup “baba” instead.
The biggest test is gonna be to give up the binky’s. We’ve hung a “binky bag” on the bed, so when ever she gets out of bed, she’s suppose to put them in there and so far it’s going ok. But just ok….we’ll see.
