Starting Out With Solids

Happy 5th month Leo! We celebrated by introducing rice porridge. Unlike America where they begin with cereal mixed with milk or formula, Japan starts babies off with rice. Poor Leo didn't care for it much.

About to get his first spoonful.

In Japan they start off by only giving babies a spoonful a day, preferably in the morning. Once they get used to the one spoonful, you increase it every couple of days. When babies can take about five spoonfuls, then you can regularly feed them. I forgot the amount, but I think its something like fifteen to thirty spoonfuls per meal.. not quite sure. Anyway, it's a bit different than America.

Also in Japan they introduce a medley of veggies mashed or just the broth instead of introducing one veggie at a time like they do in the states. My Mother was surprised to hear this! I agree though, it's better to try one veggie at a time to see how the baby reacts to it. I'm excited to try sweet potatoe because I think Leo would really enjoy it!!

Leo's reaction to the rice porridge! lol

I don't blame him!! It was quite bland!!

Making rice porridge is really easy! Time consuming..well, a bit, but some rice makers have a rice porridge function, so you can just set the timer and have it ready for breakfast. That's what we did. It's called okayu. (おかゆ)

Japanese Rice Porridge

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of rice
• 3.5 cups of water

Directions:

1. Wash the rice well and let it soak in the water (3.5 cups) for 30 minutes to an hour.
2. Move the contents to a pot and turn the heat on high until it reaches a boil, then lower the heat to low.
3. Let it simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. You can add more water to reach the consistency that you like. (For adults, season with salt.)

*Try to mash any pieces of rice before feeding to your baby, or just spoon off the top layer of the porridge, the paste part, not the rice part.

**It's nice to top the porridge with pickled plum, salted salmon, konbu seaweed, spinach marinated in soy sauce, or anything pickled. :) For adults that is!

Leo's Birth Story

Three days after birth and already smirking!! :)

I started to get light contractions at around 9pm starting on the 25th of August. On my due-date the 29th, the day after my Mother and Grandmother flew in from America, the contractions got 15 minutes apart continuing on until the morning. I arose restless at 5am for a walk followed by stair-climbing. This lead to a whole day of erattic contractions, loss of appetite, and an overall yucky day. That evening, the contractions got stronger and were 10 minutes apart.. which lead to another sleepless night..zzz

The morning of the 31st I felt like a zombie extremely sleep-deprived and in pain. Could this be it? I called the midwives and they asked me to visit them, but..by foot. So here I am walking with 8 minute apart contractions, dragging along my poor worrying Mother, Grandmother and Husband on an hour and a half long walk to the birth center. It was miserable!! I was painfully stopping every contraction and snapping at my family. When we arrived, I found out that I was only 2-3 cm's apart. (?!) I took the train home, attempted to eat something and took a warm bath.

That night at 10pm, the contractions became 5 minutes apart and I couldn't take it any longer. It was time!! My husband got a taxi, and we were all on our way home. The ride was awful. Every contraction hurt as much as the last, causing me to yell out every time! To make matter worse, the ignorant taxi driver accidently got lost AND asked me, "Are you ill?".(ILL?! If I was ill I would be knocked out on the seat with a fever or something, not screaming every 5 minutes!) To which I responded, "I'm in labor!! Hurry up and find the place!" Yes, by this time I had lost my usually cheerful self and been replaced by that ghost from The Grudge (呪怨).

Upon our arrival, I was rushed into the tatami room labor room with my husband while my Mother and Grandmother were asked to wait upstairs. (Probably for the best because they were extremely worried for me and not very accepting of my giving birth outside of a hospital.) When you're in labor, nothing can really make you feel better and I was so impatient with the poor midwives who were so helpful by massaging my lower back. One of them put a warm compress on my shoulders and I just remember launching it across the room because it was too hot. (Labor really brought out the worst in me.) After about four hours of unbearable contractions, my water finally broke, and in three pushes my baby was born. I should have listened to the midwives when they told me to push slowly, but I really couldn't handle it anymore and it led to me having to get two staples. (Ouch!!)

Leonardo was born September 1st weighing 2910g and measuring 48cm.

Overall, my stay at Matsugaoka was a nice four days. The food was good, the midwives were very kind and helpful, and on my third day, I was given a full body massage. My only misfortune was that I wasn't able to exclusively breastfeed so I had to substitute with formula. I had a hard time accepting this because it was something I had no control of. Regardless, Leo was healthy and that's all that matters! :) Yea!! I'm really proud of myself to have had a natural birth, but I completely understand why women choose to get an epidural!!! lol

My Baby Bump Adventures in Pregnancy Bootcamp

My little Prince was born on September 1st of last year. After watching the documentary The Business of Being Born I was scared into decided to have a natural birth. (It's a wonderful documentary, and I really recommend it! You can watch it here.)

After some online researching, I chose the Matsugaoka Birth Center. It's run by Midwives, so that means no Doctors or medication. The birth house has a really nice and cozy atmosphere! They practice active birth, so you can take your time during your delivery. The delivery room is a tatami room with a futon and a couple of chairs. They make organic macrobiotic (a diet based on grains and root veggies) meals, which are very delicious and healthy and a little bland.

The head Midwife, Sou-sensei, can speak pretty good English and the rest of the Midwives are very friendly and helpful. They all practice Moxibustion, which is a form of Chinese acupressure therapy where they place burning incense on pressure points. There are certain points on your ankles that help your womb stay warm and at Matsugaoka they are very adamant on keeping your womb warm!

I was pregnant throughout spring and early summer when the weather is very hot and humid!! Regardless, I was forced advised to wear a tummy warmer, leg warmers, spats, and long sleeves in order to keep my tummy warm. It was agonizing!

Here's how I kept my womb warm in the summer.

Apart from the strict dress code, there was a stict diet. Pregnancy is all about cravings, right?! Wrong! I couldn't eat sugar, flour, dairy, beef, fruit, or any veggies that make your body cold (summer veggies like tomatoes and egg plant). Yes, in the summer I wasn't allowed fruit or summer veggies. (I cheated on my diet a couple of times though. How can you avoid ice cream and fruit in the summer?!)

My pregnancy diet.

But I was a trooper! Still very adament about giving birth at Matsugaoka. And for the most part I stuck to my Pregnancy Bootcamp routine.

With such a strict diet and dress code, you would think that I would have a perfect, trouble-free, healthy pregnancy, right? Well, surprise! At 35 weeks, I was diagnosed with anemia. My little prince was leaching all the nutrients out of my body! Of course, being anemic isn't such a big deal, but if you want to have a natural birth in a birth center without any medical attention, then it can be dangerous and can sometimes cause you to hemmorage during delivery.

I was put on iron pills, and an iron-rich diet (lots of spinach and liver..yuck!). If my iron didn't go up in three weeks, then I would have to give birth at a hospital, and my Pregnancy Bootcamp would have been all in vain. Two weeks later my iron level didn't change (?!) so I was to go the birth center everyday for a week to have an iron injection on top of all my pill-popping and liver consuming. Finally at 38 weeks (with a collapsed vein and track marks up and down both of my arms) my iron levels reached the minimum amount, and I was given the OK to continue with my original plan to give birth at the birth center. :) Yea!!

Overall, my pregnancy was pretty good though. I was lucky enough not to have any morning sickness, just some minor nausea. And I was able to work all the way until my 35th week. In total, I only gained 8kgs, which is a little low (blame the Pregnancy Bootcamp diet for that) but in Japan "normal", or so the OBGYN told me.

Stay tuned for my birthing story.

kuu♥

Down the Rabbit Hole

Welcome to my first blog post. I'm an American mommy with a wonderful Japanese husband and darling four month old son. I've been living in and out of Japan for roughly eight years. Preceding the birth of my son, I've become a stay- at- home mom. I admit that I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would! I love being a mommy!! Queen to my little Prince. I'm excited to start blogging my adventures in babyland!!

So to begin my journey down the rabbit hole, I'd like to share what happened today at the grocery store. While shopping with my little prince, an elderly lady approached us and started saying how cute the baby was. Then she continued to follow us and would remark on how I dressed him up saying things like, "Isn't he cold. I feel sorry for you (baby)..". It started to irritate me so I had to made shopping trip quicker than I intended. Unwanted advice isn't fun..lol Poor lady, I know that she was just being friendly, but I didn't have the patience. Please don't give me mommy advice when I'm not wearing make up and in a hurry. :)

 ♥kuu