The Bean has Sprouted.

Although we have already made our big announcement by phone, email and on facebook, it is only fitting that the Hirano family blog be updated with the news...

The Bean has sprouted!

On February 11th at 5:21 pm, after 18 hours of labour, Shin and I welcomed our son Kio Aaron Hirano / 平野 希於 アーロン into the world. 3530 grams and 52 centimeters of beautiful!

Of course I am rather biased.



3 hours old 

 

Every birth has its story and Kio's started with a hair cut...

 

I mentioned in my last post that there were a three things that we needed to sort out before the Bean made his grand entrance (we didn't end up doing any of them). In fact, there were four. The final one was to get my hair cut.

 

I made an appointment for the afternoon of February 10th, a week before the Bean's due date, thinking that there wasn't much chance I was going to give birth early. I'd read somewhere that labour patterns are passed down through the family - if your grandmother's children arrived early then it was likely that it would be the same for her daughters and so on.

 

My sister and I were both late, and all of my sister's children arrived after their due dates. So I figured that our baby would also be late.

 

That bit about labour patterns is all lies.

 

On with the story.

 

I got my hair cut and was feeling rather frisky afterwards so I decided to walk from the hairdresser's into Umeda and treat myself to some lunch. I poked along, wandering in and out of shops and an hour later was seated in a cafe enjoying my lunch.

 

Wish I'd saved my energy.

 

After lunch I did some grocery shopping and headed home. I was feeling pretty exhausted after my long day out (being nine months pregnant and all) and had a long nap once I got in.

 

The evening was pretty normal. I made dinner, chatted on Skype with a friend in England and watched some TV. Shin had been out for the afternoon working on his bike and came home to grab a quick shower before heading to work. It was then that I started to feel 'strange'. I shared this feeling with Shin but as I wasn't in any pain we decided that he should head to work.

 

He was home again two and a half hours later.

 

At around 10:30 I started having contractions. From what I've read and experienced as an official contraction time keeper for my sister's first two babies, is that contractions start far apart and get closer together as they increase in intensity. Mine started at three to five minutes apart.

 

And stayed that way for the next eighteen hours.

 

At around 1:30 I decided that I was in labour and that we should head to the hospital before things got going too far - after all, nobody wants to have their water break in a taxi. Not to worry, mine didn't. We grabbed our bags (which I had packed while waiting for Shin to come home), emailed my family in Canada and were off!

 

We were home again an hour later.

 

The midwife on duty checked me out and informed us that I wasn't really in labour, that my contractions would stop, that I wouldn't give birth for another couple of days AND that I would be in much more pain if I was really in labour.

 

She was right about the last part!

 

So home we went. Emails were sent to my family and we tried to go to bed. The midwife had also told me that I should try to do things as I normally would - clean the house, make breakfast etc. She said that staying in bed wouldn't help my labour to progress.

 

In fact, that wouldn't be a problem.

 

As Shin slept my contractions stayed three to fine minutes apart and got continually stronger. By about 8:00am I was pretty sure that the midwife had been mistaken and I would in fact be giving birth that day.

 

I held out at home until 11:30 and then we called a taxi - the same driver we'd had before! This time things weren't so calm in the taxi. I was in a lot of pain and not doing a very good job of hiding it.

 

And man, did that taxi driver drive.

 

This time we weren't sent home. I was five centimeters dilated and definitely in labour.

 

The rest of the afternoon is somewhat of a blur. My lovely English speaking midwife was on duty and she and Shin put up with my incoherent ramblings peppered with the occasional expletive.

 

At 2:30pm I was told that I could start pushing and that I would be able to meet my baby by about 5:00 - to which I replied "two and a half hours! I can't do it."

 

But I did.

 

And our wonderful baby boy was born.

 

Amazing.

 

 

1 hour old

 

Nesting.

Of all the 'symptoms' that accompany a pregnancy, nesting is the one that I've looked forward to the most. According to Pregnancy Weekly, nesting is "an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world."

Other than the 'new baby' bit, it sounds like a regular day off in the Hirano household.

As many of my friends and family know, I am a bit of a neat freak. Some (like my mother, for example) might go as far as to call me anal. I don't do clutter. I don't do dust. And I don't do 'nothing'.

Obviously, the concept of nesting totally appeals to me.

In mid-January I cut back my hours at work and at the beginning of February I officially started maternity leave. To be honest, I was rather worried about spending so much time around the house; I thought that boredom would set in rather quickly. As such, I made sure to have lots of things planned to keep me occupied: lunches with friends, weekly doctor's appointments, even a few trips back into work to tidy up some loose ends. But between outings I've been doing some 'light cleaning'.

As the saying goes, "idle hands are the Devil's workshop."

I'm not sure if I am truly experiencing the nesting phenomenon, or if my cleaning is the bi-product of being a neat freak with too much time on her hands. Either way it's starting to become annoying.

Since the beginning of February I've scrubbed every surface that I can safely reach. While doing so I have been careful not to do any heavy lifting, stand on chairs, or use overly stinky cleaning products. But that means that SOMEONE has to pick up the slack.

And by someone, I of course mean Shin.

Of all the 'symptoms' that accompany a pregnancy, nesting is the one that Shin has feared the most.

Where I lean more to the OCD side of the personality scale, Shin is definitely on the laid back end of things. He doesn't really do cleaning and he certainly doesn't do it to the point of obsession.

Bless him for being such a good sport.

He's assembled baby furniture. Cleaned all of the air conditioners inside and out. Reorganized our storage shelves. Moved the fridge so that I can clean behind it. And even gone as far as to vacuum the balcony at my request.

Generally when I blog, I like to include some pictures to go along with my ramblings. You may have noticed that this entry is somewhat lacking in that department. After crib building session I decided that it was best that I leave the camera alone.

A good start.

 

 

A rather irritated ending.

 

 

Perhaps Mikan and I were being overly 'helpful'.

 

 

After vacuuming the house for what feels like the hundredth time this week (being home all the time sure makes things dusty). I realized that not only am I annoying Shin, but I'm annoying myself. So I stepped away from the vacuum and made an Important Things To Do list:

 

1. Finalize a name for our son.

 

2. Pack my bag for the hospital.

 

3. De-cat proof the baby stuff.

 

Now that seems like a productive use of my / our time.

 

 





The Final Countdown.

It's February! I'm no longer counting the months. I've even given up counting the weeks. Yes ladies and gents, the final countdown has begun. Before I get started, a little something for your listening pleasure...

Seventeen. The number of days until the Bean is due to make his grand entrance.

Ten. The number of things on Shin's "To Do Before The Bean Arrives" list. Most of them are typical 'fix the leaky facuet' type jobs, but there are also more pregnancy related tasks. Painting my toenails is one such example.

Nine. The number of times I've had to reattach the wall decals around the Bean's crib. "Attaches to Any Surface Except Walls" should be how the packaging reads.

Eight. The number of baby essentials I have left in their original packaging / wrapped in garbage bags / covered in tin foil so that the cat doesn't sleep in them: stroller, car seat, Moses basket, crib mattress, diaper bag, nursing pillow, babysitter seat and crib bedding. Of course this is a losing battle - eventually we will need to use these things. Might give it a week or so and throw in the towel.

Seven. The number of pounds the Bean weighed as of his last growth scan.

Six. The number of stretch marks on my belly - three on either side of my belly button.

Five. The number of times I woke up to pee last night.

Four. The number of pairs of shoes that our son already owns. This makes me proud.

Three. The number of attempts it took to successfully put on both of my socks this morning.

Two. The number of items packed in my hospital bag. In case you were wondering, the two items are both towels. I suppose I should think about gathering up some clothes, maybe a toothbrush one of these days.

One. That would be tired mama to be. Don't seem to be able to do anything without taking a nap afterwards. Clean the bathroom, nap. Eat lunch, nap. Vacuum, nap. This is actually what I did today.

Zero. The number of centimeters I have dilated as of my OB visit on Wednesday. Boo.

I realize that this countdown went from seventeen to ten and then down to one. Cut a girl some slack - I had to nap twice just to get this much out. Plus there was all that time I spent rockin' out to Europe.