On February 26th, we reported
to the hospital as ordered by our doctor. Being a week overdue, he wanted to
induce labor. You can see the baby's heart-rate on the monitor (116 at the photographed
moment). The contractions came, but were relatively light. They went on all
day and into the next, but never became sustained enough for delivery.
２月２６日にキムは一週間出産予定日を過ぎたから医者は分娩を促した。
We had been told that the food at the clinic was really good. We thought the praise might be overstated, but it definitely was not. The food was fantastic, and assuaged some of our disappointment in not having begun true labor that day.
Another view of the food. Beef and mushrooms on the right (with a great dipping sauce), in the upper middle is a delicious fish cake with spinach and bamboo shoots in a consomme. On the lower left is something that was with a pesto that was really good, but it's been consumed in this picture and we can't remember what it was. But it was delicious, trust us.
The next day, luck was with
us. The induction began at 10:00am, and little Soren Grocholski Lesperance was
born by 4:00pm. This picture was taken about 30 minutes after the delivery.
Peter watched the miracle of childbirth. It was quite a surreal experience.
Doctor Saito was very deft and delivered the baby in what seemed to be one quick
motion. Peter cut the cord (exactly as he was instructed in the training session...
where the most important lesson seemed to be how to properly put on the gloves).
The doctor than placed Soren on Kim's stomach so she could hold him while things
were being finished up. He looked actually like some sort of alien creature
from outer space. His head was stretched out and conical, his limbs were white
and flailing all over the place, his face was red and his eyes were bugged out,
and, of course, he was covered in all sorts of strange fluids. Our first reaction
was not "Oh, he's so cute!"
ソーレン・グロホスキー・レスペランス（レスペランスは名字だ）は２月２７日３時４８分に生まれた。ピーターは立会い分娩した。超現実的な経験だった。この上の写真は出産後取った。赤ちゃんは腕と足が白くて顔が赤くて目玉が飛び出た。私たちはソーレンはあ
まりかわいくないと思った。
Here's little Soren tucked
in amongst his new Japanese friends. All blue... all boys!
ソーレンと日本人の友達たちだ。みんな男の子！
The night after Soren's
birth, we got the sushi meal, catered from a famous local sushi restaurant.
This is Peter's set. The yellow stuff in the middle is "uni," or sea
urchin. It's Peter's favorite (and a rather expensive delicacy). On top in the
middle you can see the infamous "toro," or fatty tuna. Very delicious.
八方寿だ。
Kim is celebrate her first post-partum shower with a piece of maguro (regular tuna) sushi.
On Wednesday night, we were
served a full-course French dinner, complete with absurd amounts of silverware
(in this picture, one set is already gone). Everyone got some wine too.
水曜日の夕食はフルコースだった。
Here is Kim with the seafood course. It was a really nice piece of fish that tasted like steak.
And of course there was a steak for the "meat" course.
You can see some of the
other mothers in their PJs in the background.
みんなはパジャマを着ながら、フルコースを食べた。