Violet Nami Klein - The Birth Story/バイオレット ナミ クライン - 誕生日の話

 

The Short Story:
短い話:

A sharp stabbing pain woke Anna up around midnight on Wednesday. We made the decision to get to the hospital to make sure everything was okay at around 1:45am.
At 8:22am Violet Nami Klein was born!!
水曜日の夜１２時頃、いきなり凄い腰痛に起こされたアンナ、そしてアンナの叫び声に起こされた僕。その後１時４５分頃一応病院に行って来ようと決め、お母さんとマディソンを家に残して出発しました。
朝８時２２分、バイオレット　ナミ　クライン　が誕生しました!!

The Long Story:
長い話: 

Around midnight on Wednesday night absolutely the sharpest pain hit the side of Anna's back and woke her up and her scream woke me up. Her whole body was shaking and she was saying how cold she was which was very strange because she had always been hot with another person growing inside her... She had been experiencing a lot of Braxton Hicks up until now, but none of them had lead to a true labor so normally we would not consider the small contractions that started at around the time of the sharp back-side pain a working labor and since we were planning on a natural birth we would not leave the house until the labor is well underway at 60 seconds contraction and 5 minutes apart. BUT THIS back pain was something new and very, very painful and although it got less painful it didn't totally go away so after an hour of laying down we decided that it's better to get sent home than this pain lead to a bigger problem should we ignore it, so off we went to Kaiser Permanente in Harbor City...
水曜日の夜１２頃 、寝ていたアンナが今まで感じた事の無いほどの腰痛でいきなり起こされ、その時のアンナの悲鳴で起こされた僕。アンナの体は痛みで震えていていつも赤ちゃんのせいで暑い暑いと言っていたのに、この時は寒くて寒くて仕様が無いと何かがいつも通りじゃないみたいでした。これまでちょくちょく弱い陣痛を経験していたので、いつもなら慌てて病院に行く事はしないし、麻酔とか何も無しでの出産を計画していたので、病院に行くのは陣痛がもっと強くならないといけません。でも、このとっても強い腰痛はマディソンの時には無かった物で、初めての経験なので１時間ほどしてもあんまり良くならなかった後、一応病院に行って看て貰おうと決めました。寝ているアンナのお母さんとマディソンを家に残して、朝の１時４５分頃出発しました...

What we were glad was that Anna wasn't in really serious pain in the car where I had to focus on driving and not needing to give her back rubs like I had to do when we took a taxi to the hospital on the Upper West Side where we had Madison. To get to the hospital we had to take Pacific Coast Highway...this may sound nice as you envision the ocean, or the cliffs of Malibu, but not this part of the Pacific Coast Highway, this part brought you through the part of Long Beach that is not known for its niceness and has tons of traffic lights and trucks. During the day this route can get really trafficky and can take about an hour to get to the hospital so we were happy it was 1:45am and can't complain about our 20 minute drive to the labor and delivery parking spot right by the hospital entrance.
マディソンの時は家から２０分ほどの所にある病院にタクシーを使って行ったから、僕は陣痛が強いアンナの腰を揉んだり面倒を見る事が出来たけど、今回は僕が運転しなきゃいけなかったので、まだ陣痛が本当に始まったのか分からないぐらいの時に病院に向かう事が出来てちょっとホッとする事が出来ました。しかも夜中の２時には日中は１時間ほどかかってしまう道も２０分ほどで病院の入り口に到着と文句無しです。

As we walked through the entrance we both felt awkward because we were casually walking in and saying hello to the security guards and Anna's minor pained face didn't scream a woman in labor... We went up to the Labor and Delivery floor and pushed a button that says "I'm here to have a baby". After the 10 minutes of really painfully annoying paperwork part we were lead to one of the triage rooms and after an exam we found out that Anna was 4cm dilated... Anna remembered from the Bradley book that 4cm is when the true labor either kicks in or the false labor dies down and since we did not want to leave and come back IF the true labor started the RN nurse suggested we walk the halls of the hospital floor for an hour and a half and see what happens. If nothing changes we could go home then. That sounded like a great idea since we liked that this was happening while Madison and Anna's Mom were sleeping at home. So we walked around the labor and delivery & Post-partem floor which took us about 15 minutes each lap. I was using my stopwatch to keep track of Anna's contractions and knew that although her contractions were consistent they were not yet long enough or strong enough according to the books we read and our prior experience to expect that they were really working contractions. Anna was able to still laugh at my ridiculous jokes so I was sure we were headed home.
病院の入り口を通り警備の人に気軽にこんばんはと言いながら、やっぱりここに来るのは早すぎたんじゃないかなと思っていた僕達 でした。出産病等に着いて面倒くさい書類提出を終えた後、とりあえず陣痛が本当に進んでいるのか確認しました。結果は４センチ...僕達が読んでいた本に寄ると本当の陣痛は４センチで始まるか止まるかすると書いてあったので、慌てて家に帰ってまた来なきゃいけなくなるより、ここで歩き回って１時間後にもう一回検査をする事に決めました。マディソンが寝ている間に赤ちゃんが産めたらそれが一番良いなーって思っていたからです。でも、アンナの顔を見ると強い陣痛をこらえている気配も無く、僕のシャレに笑ったりしていたので、まだまだこ れから時間かかるんだろうなーと思っていました。 

About an hour and a half later Anna got examined again and to our surprise she was at 6cm and 80% effaced and station+1 or -1 or something! Looks like we are gonna have the baby today:-) We settled into a labor and delivery room and since we were doing natural and wouldn't be hooked up to anything we went back to walking around for another hour or so... When we first arrived the place was pretty quiet and we seemed to be the only ones needing attention but by the time we got our room and started our second round of walking the place was just starting to get a little more crowded. Anna kept walking with medium strength contractions and only occasionally had to stop walking and relax but none of them made her feel like she needed to lay down and really try to focus and relax. We used The Bradley Method(A husband coached birth) with Madison and loved it so of course we were using the same method with Violet and in the book it talks about three different emotional stages in labor to help you determine where you are... First stage being the happy emotion stage where you are supposed to stay at home, second stage where you are working serious through contractions and during this stage we are supposed to get to the hospital and finally the third stage where you don't think you can do it but that means you are almost to the pushing part... Well with Madison, Anna went through all the stages like a textbook so when Anna stayed in the first stage and was able to smile, laugh and carry on conversations during contractions we just thought we still have a lot of work to do...  but again we were thankful that all of this was happening in the middle of the night for Madison's sake...:-)
病棟内を１時間半ほどグルグルと歩き回って、再検査の結果は何と６センチ!!やったー！今日が誕生日だー：）正式に病室を貰ってまたもう１時間ほど歩 き回って、陣痛がマディソンの時みたいに強くなるのを待ちました。僕達が使った出産方法は全部医療法無しのブラッドリーと言う方法で、それは夫が出産をコーチしながら生む方法で、その本には妊婦が経験する３ステージの感情地点というのが書いてあります。マディソンの時は本当に本に書いてあった通りにまず最初の"陣痛が始まって怖い嬉しい"ステージ、そして次の"陣痛が本当に働いている"ステージ(このステージの間に病院に行くのが一番)で、そして最後に"本当に最後まで出来るか分からない弱音"のステージです。最後のステージに着けば、もうゴールは目の前でもう少しで赤ちゃんを押し出す事が出来ると言う事。アンナはここまで最初のステージの感情のままだったので、これが起きているのがマディソンが寝ている夜中で良かったと思うばかりでした。



We realized it was going to be a busy day for the doctors when we had to wait over half an hour to get examined for the 3rd time but it was well worth the wait because the face that popped in our room was no one, but our own midwife!! We were really hoping she would be on call that day and were so glad she was!! We told her more than one doctor had been trying to scare Anna into getting a heplock put in, which was basically some plastic piece that would stick out of Anna's arm and allow the lazy doctors to more easily start an IV line in case of emergency... Unfortunately, we fell for it because Anna is notoriously difficult to draw blood from and especially now with her swollen limbs so we didn't want to take any chances, but luckily the incompetent nurse who stuck Anna with the huge needle and provided Anna with (by her own words) more pain then any contraction she suffered the entire time, wasn't able to get the thing in properly... The nurse cheerfully noted she could have another nurse try, but we quickly said, "Uh, No Thank You!" to the Heplock and are so glad we did!
僕達が始めに到着した時にはとっても静かで僕達ともう一組ぐらいしか患者はいなかったんだけど、病室に入った頃には外がだんだんとにぎやかになって来て看 護婦の一人から今日は忙しくなりそうって言う事聞きました。本当は１時間半後に再検査をして貰う予定だってんだけど、夜間の先生も忙しいのかその後もう ３０分ほど待つ事に...その３０分後に現れたのは何とアンナの担当医！アンナと僕は感激です！この日はアンナの担当医が病院に来る日か分からなかったの で、先生の顔を見た途端とってもリラックスする事が出来ました。でも、アンナは相変わらず僕と普通に会 話をしたりと本当にもうすぐ赤ちゃんが生まれるような様子を見せていません...おかしいなー

As soon as our mid-wife Kerry arrived, that was one of the first things we told her, that we declined the Heplock, and she was totally cool about it. She told us to not worry and if worst came to worst they could get it in through my hand which they were trying to avoid since we didn't want it to be in Anna's way. Then she gave us the update, Anna was now 8cm and the baby was extremely low:-) She offered to break Anna's water to speed things along, but Anna remembered how intense the pain had gotten once her water was broken with Madison, so Anna was a little hesitant and also she wanted to feel the sensation of her water breaking on its own so we decided until she is 9cm or ready to push to try to let the water break on its own...and still we waited for the really bad contractions or some kind of stage 2 or 3 emotional labor sign post to show up...
そして先生に寄るとアンナは８センチで赤ちゃんがすごい下に来ていると全部順調の用です。 でも、ステージ２と３はいつ来るんだろー!?

Well it didn't show and after Kerry broke the water Anna was ready to push... About 20 minutes later
Violet Nami Klein was born!!
7lb12oz and 19inches:-)
全然来なかったです、しかも２０分ほど押した後全部順調にバイオレットの誕生です!!
体重3516gで身長48.3cmです：）

Hooray!!
やったー!!

 Cutting the umbilical cord!
へその尾を切りまーす！

 

Getting cleaned! 

きれいに洗って貰いました!

Madison is soothing Violet with her Seahorse...
マディソンお姉ちゃんがたつのおの音楽で落ち着かせてあげてます：）

3 generations look on...
３世代で見守る...

 

Same going home outfit as Madison:-)

マディソンが来た病院退院の服：）

We were worried about having a baby at Kaiser's regular labor and delivery instead of a really nice birthing center like we used for Madison where we had a Jacuzzi tub to help the pain but after this experience we were so glad we didn't have access to a tub and enjoyed being allowed to just walk around and let gravity do its' job. If this was our first child I would have been bitter about reading all those Bradley books and learning how much work the husband has to do with the ice chips and the back rubs and the encouraging...I didn't have to do any of that this time :-) With Madison I bruised Anna's back something fierce...and she was appreciative...this time I got a little bored, only having to offer Anna a sip of water when I had nothing better to do :-) I didn't resort to turning on the TV, or sleeping though, so score for me :-)
今回バイオレットを出産した病院にはマディソンの時みたいなとっても良い出産センター(病室内にお風呂があって陣痛の間そこで浸かる事が出来た)が無かったから、とっても心配していたんだけど簡単に歩き回って陣痛を進める事が出来て、予想していたよりもとっても良い経験が出来ました。マディソンの時にはアンナの腰を痣だらけになるほど揉んだりととても急がしかったのに今回は正反対でお水をちゃんと飲んでいるように見る意外何もする事が無かったりと、ちょっと困るぐらいでした：）文句を言っている訳じゃ無いんだけど... ：）

It's funny how your mind works...as Anna went through the extremely difficult first eight months of pregnancy (before she stopped working) we were sure this would be it...then the Labor and Delivery was so "easy" so now I see number three just around the corner :-)
Not sure if Anna feels quite the same yet however :-)
そのせいなのか、３人目も悪くないなーともう思っている僕です。最初の８ヶ月の妊娠が大変だったアンナはまだ３人目賛成してくれないと思うけど：）

Volleyball Tourney and 38 weeks pics!!

This past weekend Long Beach played host to the first FIVB Professional Volleyball Tournament to be held in the States in 10 years...general admission was free each day and we went to one of the early rounds to beat the crowds...we were successful at that :-) And it was a lot of fun...for the fifteen minutes Madison let us stay :-)

 This was the view from our seats...

 This is why we chose the seats...shade :-)

 Madison enjoyed her thunder sticks...

 And the pregnant lady enjoyed her snacks :-)

We parked near our old apartment building and walked the half mile down the beach to the volleyball venue (no way were we paying to park) so on the way back we stopped and played on the beach and Madison and Anna got some 38 weeks pregnant pics...

Looking Good!

Baaba (Anna's Mom) arrived today from Japan!! Not too much longer now!!

VBS, Science Experiments and More!

My mom arrives from Japan tomorrow and hopefully the baby's arrival will follow shortly after so we have a lot of last minute catch up to do here...:-)

So here are a bunch of fun activities we have been enjoying so far!

At the end of June we participated in our 3 day VBS. This was our 2nd year so we tried to improve on what we could have done better last year like handing out flyers in the neighborhood and advertising better with a big banner, etc... and it was definitely more successful than last year and got to see lots of new faces which was great:-) Madison seriously LOVED every minute of it and all the kids just could not get enough! Dave taught in the 7-9 year old class which is younger than his normal range since being a high school teacher he usually gets stuck with that age group so he had fun doing more of crafty stuff with his kids this time...

At first everyone gathers in the auditorium and goes over the theme "Creation" and plays short games and sing songs, etc... Everyone gets a chance to participate in one way or another in front of everyone and Madison's hand usually shot up to sing one of the songs and I would move my big belly over to secure a good spot to film our sweetie pie:-) On her left is Kaelie and right Brigette, two of her really close friends singing "My God is so Big!".

 

I thought I attempted to get more pics or videos of her but this video was the only one I could find...

The following week many of them suffered a post-VBS withdrawal and made us wish we had more opportunities for young kids to be a part during services... Well we have a hope of trying something in the fall IF this baby#2 of ours doesn't drain all our energy:-)

For the summer because we are all going to be together all the time and can do whatever we feel like I still wanted to stick to some kind of schedule so we don't let the summer disappear on us. So we are trying to stick to our very broad calender such as Monday being a day to take a day trip somewhere, Tuesday we do some kind of art project , etc... We were originally planning Thursday to be a Science Experiment day but it usually gets pushed back to Friday or Saturday when we forget to buy materials for it or are too tired from late Wednesday night and stuff... Anyhow we've successfully completed 3 experiments so far and found out that it is super fun to do science experiments with Madison!! and trust me I get into it too!

Science Experiment #1: Cornstarch and Water

I did this one near the end of the year with my students in school and it was a pretty big hit...it was an even bigger hit for my two girls at home...it is simply cornstarch mixed with water until you get a kind of pasty consistency...but the actual consistency is like nothing you will have ever felt before...Steve Spangler did a cool demonstration of corn starch and water on the Ellen show which you can look up on You Tube if you care to see more...

 

 Science Experiment #2: Baking Soda Volcano

So we stayed pretty classic here, but Madison hadn't seen it before so it was new to her...

 

We ran out of vinegar so we started thinking what else we can try with and thought of lemons still hanging on our lemon trees that needed to be used sooner rather than later...

Science Experiment #3: Diet Coke & Mentos Volcano

A few days before the experiment we went to Wreck-it-Ralph, a movie in the park, which was a lot of fun...and mentos with diet coke were featured prominently...it took me a couple trials and a little research to find out the perfect number of mentos to create our maximum geyser...Madison helped me develop the paper cone we held the mentos in so we could dump as many as possible before getting out of the way...it went pretty good...

One of the Monday day trips was to Sea World in San Diego since Madison was missing her Shamu so much...:-) but this time the Cawthons family and Kathy who happened to be visiting them were available to go with us. We found out later we probably had met Kathy in NYC when we were attending Prospect Heights Church in Brooklyn but that's a really long story so I won't write that here but the whole day(14 hours total) went pretty fast and we had so much fun:-)

We were walking back to the car and happened to look down to find a set of duckie feet... Being 8 months pregnant and 14 hours on my feet will do that to you but I didn't mind it, it was such a fun day!

The following Monday we went North to Santa Barbara... because we wanted to :-) 

Madison had started to really enjoy hitting this ball volleyball style at home and she continued her efforts at the beach...we actually found a net after this practice session and had fun trying to hit the ball over the net...

 

She got changed...:-)

The real reason we went to Santa Barbara is because Anna saw this Fish N Chips place featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives...so up the coast we went...

 We got the whale to share...it was good!!

Santa Barbara itself was okay, but we didn't think the beaches were that great...perhaps it is like San Diego and it would take us a couple times of exploring to find the right places, but we would rather spend our day trips going to San Diego so I don't think we will venture north again anytime soon.

Well Madison continues to grow up too fast...last week we took her for her four year check-up...she was SOOOO excited...it was cute!

 She gives her dolls and Mommy and Daddy check-ups all the time at home with her doctor set, so she was loving having it all done to her...with the small exception of the two shots she got...which only made her look confused at the nurse for a moment because this injection did not make a squeaky noise like the one at home :-) no tears though...she is officially already braver then me (Dave).

4 day San Diego Getaway!!!

Now that all of us are done with our work/school and have the time and limited budget to do whatever we feel like we have been enjoying by taking a few "day" trips...this particular one to San Diego was extended to four days thanks to the generosity of Grandpa and his hotel points!!

Ever since we told Madison that we will be going on a trip and staying in a hotel for a few days she got super excited! Did we ever tell you she LOVES hotels? We personally do not like packing for  over night trips because it's too much work for just one night so usually we do our best to make the trip to last at least 2 nights and for this trip we were hoping to stay 3 nights so we can relax more... Fortunately Dave's dad had enough hotel points for 3 nights at the Crowne Plaza which was just perfect! We researched restaurants/beaches/parks and reserved our Ellie/House sitter for the 4 days so everything was pretty set:-)

But allow me to sneak in what happened a few days/a day before... 

The Tuesday before Madison invited Dave for a Father's day breakfast at her school... Since Dave had to be at his school by 7:30 they had to leave the house super early to make the breakfast but I believe they had their private breakfast time which was kind of nice...:-) Anyways, here is why Madison thinks Daddy is special:-) The first one is no longer true but glad she has a nice memory of it (Madison K is towards the bottom of the page, not to be confused with Madison D at the top)...

And on the actual Father's day he got a yummy crepe breakfast and I believe the new triathlon suit that he is picking up from a store sometime next week was a gift from me... Madison got him a big tub of red vines which he shares with us daily...:-)

Okay back to the San Diego trip!

We asked Madison to pack for the trip which she got busy doing right away which further proves her love for trips:-)

Here is what she packed... I told her to make sure to pack 5 undies which she did... Can you see them stuffed in the mesh pocket!? Apparently she thought she could walk around with just her undie the whole trip because everything else she packed were toys and books...:-)

As you can see she is very serious about going on trips!

She has her packed suit case, Minnie Mouse Pillow, Rody, A baby stroller and a paper bag full of books I believe...:-)

Of course we had to help her realize somethings she packed are not important for the trip and managed to fit in some clothes and of course as many swim suits as she owns...:-)

Day1: Coronado Beach

We researched kid friendly beaches in San Diego area and yelp and everyone we talked to recommended Coronado Beach so we had to go there... We got down there super fast(in like an hour and a half) and loved the fact that we get to take a bridge to get to the Coronado Island from near downtown San Diego...

I made Japanese Fried Chicken and Shrimp(Karaage) that Dave really likes for lunch we were able to just relax and enjoy the beautiful beach while we snacked...

Coronado Hotel

 

 After lunch we checked into the hotel which was really nice, the best part was that since Dave's dad is a premium member!? we get free daily parking($12/day) AND Complimentary breakfast/snack & cocktail social hour held in an executive club house every morning and evening!!! Awesome!!!

The view from our balcony!

  

We jumped in the pool right away and afterwards attempted a nap time for Madison but was not successful and it was almost dinner time so we got in the car and left to check out how San Diego Mitsuwa is, BUT 10 seconds after the car departed we lost Madison to a dreamland and we didn't get her back until our final stop at Trader Joe's for some snacks and dinner for Madison...:-)

Day 2: Sea World

I got to sleep in while Dave and Madison went up to the executive floor and to the club room for the complimentary breakfast which we enjoyed for free then we were off to Sea World!! The Crowne Plaza is among the many hotels that are lining up along the freeway and we didn't realize this but it is in a super convenient location so it only took us 10 minutes or so to get to the park but because of the really annoying map app on my iphone we had to turn around and ended up taking us 15 minutes plus frustration... Still we were at the gate as the park opened for the day and got a pretty good parking spot:-)

At first, we pretty much had the park to ourselves so after checking all the show times we headed to the kids area that can get super crowded later on... 

First Madison wanted nothing to do with this fun jumper thing, but Dave managed to convince her finally... We are still confused to why we needed to do that though! She loves jumpers!

 

 

We left the park to go get Lunch then back to the hotel for some pool time!

After a short break at the hotel we went back to Sea World for some night session including a night time Shamu show called "Shamu Rock!" and Dave decided to ride the Atlantis which is like Splash Mountain:-) Madison and I were able to catch him go down the big drop and the unfortunate decision to sit in the front got him pretty soaked! Ha!

Day3: San Diego Zoo

We decided to spend a few hours at the Zoo but for the first time we took the bus tour which was perfect since I did not feel like walking up and down the hills in the heat too much... We got to see some animals we normally miss off of our normal route so that was really cool but after the tour we left the park for the yummy lunch we looked up and wanted to try:-)

The restaurant is called Cucina Urbano and rated very highly on yelp...:-) When I looked at the menu and read "Make Your Own Pizza" I did not think actually make your own pizza but that's what she got to do which was really cool:-)
 

 

 

Everything was delicious and I got my homemade pasta craving satisfied:-) We probably will come back here again...:-)

For dinner we tried a highly rated Thai restaurant called "Amarind Thai" while Madison slept in her bugaboo and unexpectedly gave us a semi-date night feel:-) then we went to a beach called Mission Beach right by Sea World for our evening stroll and a giant soft serve for dessert:-) It was free to park and had a nice board walk so I'm sure we will be going back there again:-)

Day 4: Final Day
We didn't have to check out of the hotel until noon so we slept in and had a nice breakfast and Madison and Dave got to enjoy the heated pool one last time before we headed back home...:-)

 It was a great mini-vacation!! We can't wait until Grandpa saves up enough points so we can do it again :-)