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On Monday August 17th I became a father. This is up there with my wedding as one of the happiest moments of my life. I am still a bit overwhelmed but I want to write my thoughts down before I forget any details.

First of all the fact that I am writing this right now is a bit unexpected. I thought I still had some time. Misako’s due date was September 4^th. But like myself (who was 3 weeks early) the newest member of our family couldn’t wait.

The night before my baby was born (and the day my friend Justin was visiting from South Korea), Misako started feeling contractions so we went to the hospital. Some of you might remember that I have no great love for Japanese hospitals and I was not looking forward to seeing this one so much. However what greeted me was not the hospital experience I was used to at all. The place had friendly staff, comfortable rooms and get this, really good food.

Look at this picture. That’s steak! Unfortunately, my wife was not feeling very hungry. I on the other hand was happy to “help” with the dinner.

After a few hours and some tests, Misako was moved to another room. This one was even nicer. It really looked more like a hotel than anything. She stayed here until it was time for her to deliver (and for the 5 days after the baby was born). I was able to stay with her until 9:00pm but then they kicked the visitors out. They said they would call me if she went into active labor but otherwise I should just let her rest.

Due to the painful contractions she didn’t really sleep that night and to tell the truth I didn’t really either. I was so excited that this was really happening. Still feeling groggy I came back to the hospital the next morning prepared for a long wait. The doctor said at the rate my wife was going, the birth was going to be in the late afternoon or early evening. But again, our little baby had her own plans.

Around 9:30 my wife started getting stronger pains. She was moving into the second phase of labor. This one usually lasts a few hours and is marked by bigger contractions. For Misako this lasted only about 45 minutes. Almost without warning the doctors took her to another room. A few confused minutes later they told me to put on a green smock and handed me my wife’s cell phone telling me to call her mother. She was entering the third stage of labor(”Push! Push!”). I called a few times, but I was not able to get through. It didn’t really matter though, 5 minutes later I saw the top of my baby’s head start to emerge and a few minutes after that, at 10:43 am, I heard the beautiful sound (for now at least) of my baby’s first cry.

For those who have never witnessed a birth, it doesn’t look like what you see on TV sitcoms. A baby comes out looking a bit like an alien. The head is pointy, they are covered in slime and ours at least was an interesting shade of purple. They gave the baby to my wife to hold for a few seconds and then whisked her away to have a bath.

I would like to introduce you all to Sara. She looks a bit out of sorts in the picture above but you will have to excuse her. After all, she was only 7 minutes old when it was taken.

After the bath they let me hold Sara a bit while Misako was being taken care of. The nurses weighed and measured her. About 40 minutes later it was time for my daughter and wife to have some quality time together.

The bath they gave Sara didn’t get her totally clean. Newborn skin is very sensitive and cannot be scrubbed hard. There was still some stuff on Sara this first day, but she didn’t seem to mind and neither did we. We were still getting used to the fact that this miracle happened.

My mother-in-law was not able to get to the hospital in time for the birth but as soon as we got hold of her she came down to see her new grandchild. This is what she saw.

Both my wife and new baby needed to rest for a while after the birth but later that day they brought Sara back in the room. Here is the proud mother and sleepy daughter.

I still can’t get over how tiny she is. She is considered “full term” but at almost 3 weeks early, she is still a bit on the small side. Here are her fingers gripping around my thumb. I knew babies had fingernails but for some reason it still surprised me to see them.

For the first two days, little Sara rarely opened her eyes. Maybe it’s the brightness of the world after being in a dark place so long or just sleepiness. She did open them a few times though.

The caption of this picture, “What are you looking at!?”

Presents started coming as guests visited. I didn’t see the guests since I had to work, but I saw the presents. This was my favorite one. A “Diaper Cake”.

I think this is my favorite photo. Sara was 3 days old and already I feel like we are making a bit of a bond. She is quite most of the time, rarely crying. But shortly after this photo was taken I put her back in her bed and she started crying really loudly. I picked her up again and she stopped instantly. I know she is too young to really know what is going on but for me it made my heart melt. At this time, the fact that I actually had a daughter really sunk in. I will love her forever.

Finally Grandma was given a chance to hold the baby. She was more confident than either of us, since she had a lot more practice. Sara slept the entire time. I guess she was really comfortable in those experienced arms.

The two women in this picture mean the world to me and to each other. Am I being too mushy?

Sara thinks so.

Sara is both a happy and healthy baby. My wife and I are doing well too. I know there are a lot of challenges ahead for all three of us, but we will work hard to be a happy family. Sara, do you best to become big and strong. And we will do our best to raise you well. We love you.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 7:37 pm and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.