39d1w

10am apt today, had to be there 20mins before hand to have the monitor on to check baby's hearbeat. It was dropping a few times when I had braxton-hicks so they kept me on for another 20mins or so....not very good, but not super-worrying it seems as I am home again and don't have any particular warnings from the docs or anything.

Doc again surprised to see me - when I got up on the chair for the internal, he said "let's shake this baby up a bit" (じゃちょっと刺激しようっか？but I promptly told him to keep his shakin' to himself - as J is still in Paris and we don't need baby to be coming anytime yet....

Doc said I am 3cm, and effacing (not sure what %, they are not so good on telling numerical values, and I always forget to ask again when I get out of THE CHAIR.)
He reckons I will go in the next few days (but, I remind myself that he has told me this AT EVERY SINGLE APT SINCE WEEK 36!!!). Nurse reckons that I will go tomorrow or so, since there is a low pressure system coming (!! I had heard about the full moon bringing all the babies out, but this was the first time to hear about a low pressure system having the same effect, lol). Nothing else to report, really, just had it drummed in to me again to get to the hosp as soon as I get contractions 15mins apart, as it will all move along quickly this time.

So flights have resumed out of Paris, YAY. But now of course we have the secondary (although probably bigger) problem that unless ANA puts on special flights for those stranded, J will have to wait his turn, along with thousands of others, until there is a spare seat on a plane (i.e. they won't bump passengers who are supposed to fly today for e.g. to put waiting passengers on instead) so it may still be several days before he gets home. SIGH. Pissing me off a bit now - I think I have been pretty calm about it until now, all things considered, and yes I know it is not like it is anyone's fault, but I just get pissed off when I see people on tv news who have been waiting for a whole 2 days get on a flight....NOT FAIR! I just want him home!!!!! And it doesn't help either hearing about other people who went via Spain or Portugal or Moscow or Sydney or the fricken moon or whatever to get home. And still J and his bosses sit in their little hotel room in Paris waiting for ANA to contact them and tell them they have a seat on a plane...... It would just be nice for it all to be over.

Otherwise, not much else going on - lovely day today that feels like spring is here, but it is supposed to be raining and 10deg tomorrow so we can't even enjoy it for long. K has just woken from her nap, so might send her and my folks off for a walk now while it is fine - tomorrow looks like another day inside....might be right for doing some baking then.

Oh, and I see it is totally split down the middle for the baby poll: 50-50 boy/girl! LOL.

the plane ride home

Sunday Jan 4th, 2009

I woke up about 5am to finish packing (since we had been out all day and night on Saturday, there were still things of k's strewn all over my parent's house, and random stuff of mine was everywhere too.) So I had a cup of tea to wake me up and threw everything I could find into the suitcase, which I then sat on to shut!! Then had another cup of tea when mum woke up(which unfortunately did nothing to clear my surprise hangover from the night before at the Australian Outdoor Spectacular, oops! honestly, what *was* I thinking??) before waking J then K so we could head out to the airport at about 6:30am.
We got to the airport at 7am, and there was already a big line up for JAL check-in, so I mustered up the courage to go ask the people on the business check in counter if there was any preferential check-in service for people with small kids (like they did for me in Japan). The guy (who must have been the main guy there) said no, but we could line up in the business class line while it was somewhat empty and check-in there (cool!! It pays to ask, right!!) So we line up, get to the counter really quick, and I ask for bulk head seats for all of us - my thought was that K could play on the floor in front of us, so it would be ok since she didn't have a seat for herself. I was SHOCKED to the core when they turned to me and said that not only where there no bulk head seats, but there were no seats for J and I to sit together! WHAT!?!? *apparently* all the seats are pre-booked nowadays, and because J and I had both pre-booked (tentatively??randomly??) when we bought the tickets at different times, then we could not get seats together.
I have to admit, at this time, I started to cry, right there at the check-in counter. I was like "I can't do this on my own!" The guy said the best he could come up with was 1) a single bulk-head seat (C) for me, and an aisle seat (H or something) 2 rows behind on the other side of the plane for J OR 2) an exit row seat window seat, and the window seat behind it.
So we took option 1, with the promise from the guy that he would try to do his best to find us some seats together, "you never know, some people might not show up" or his reassurances that we could probably get people to move for us once we got on the plane. Either way I wasn't at all hopeful. So I was not a relaxed or happy chap, as we went to the boarding gate. Then my saviour, my new best friend, the guy from the check-in counter sees me coming to the gate and he calls me over "just the woman I wanted to see! We found 2 seats together for you (yippee!) and there is a chance that the seat beside you might be free too!"
And would you believe it, we got FOUR WHOLE SEATS TO OURSELVES!!!! It was like heaven on earth (or in the skies or whatever). And K was *such* an angel on the plane. J and I sat on an aisle seat each, and blocked her into the 2 middle seats to play on. She ate crackers, played with the seat belts, pushed the contrast/brightness buttons on the personal tv screen, and just entertained herself the whole time. I could hardly believe it. She even went to sleep!! (I initially tried to get her to sleep in the ergo, but that didn't work, so we both lay down on the 2 seats in the middle and I played her the video of her cousins, taken at the airport before we left and it lulled her to sleep. She would probably have slept for a good 2 hours if the airline hostess didn't drop a can of beer right in front of J and make a big noise. Oh well. That was the only time we was a bit whiny, when woken up from her sleep only 1 hour into it by beer spraying everywhere. Oh, and a bit when we were coming in to land and she didn't want to sit in her seat with the seat belt on. We did't have to walk the plane or anything with her. I *so* know that having the extra seats was our saviour, amnd even if I have used up all my good karma for the year, it was sooooooooooo worth it!

All in all, although I was dreading the plane trip home, it turned out to be such a breeze, that I am thinking we should organise another o/seas trip before K turns 2 (and we have to pay for a seat for her)...maybe somewhere close though. I kinda like the thought of a March getaway to somewhere easy like Saipan, or Taiwan.....We'll see.

and the prize goes to Asshole B

We had to go out today to get new photos for K's passport, as the photos we submitted were too small (since they changed the size requirements in the time between we took them and applied for the passport *sigh*) so we headed out about 10am, managed to keep K entertained and in the stroller for the first leg of the trip (only 6mins by train) until we changed trains. We walked through the ticket gate, found what platform we had to go to and headed over to the elevator, where I pushed the button and took a step back to wait. I accidentally stepped back into a lady walking past me, so I turned around and apologized ("ah, sumimasen") then all of a sudden some old fart (Asshole B) pushes into me with crossed arms and yells at me to "doite-yo!", which I am going to translate as "get outta my way". Now, it may be a bit hard to explain in words what the situation was, but I was about 1m away from the elevator, which has a huge walkway about 20m wide one side , and a small pathway down the other side of it (probably about 3m wide) where people walk to get to the escalator to go to the platform. Asshole B was trying to get past me down the 3m side walkway. There was no one else around. I am sure he had enough room. And it wasn't like he was running to catch a train and I got in his way, he was sauntering over to the escalator. I felt wronged. My instinct made me yell out "Excuuuuuse me" then I changed to Japanese and said(loudly haha) "そこまで言わなくていいでしょ！" ("there is no need to go that far"). He was at the escalator when he turned around and the woman that I bumped into and apologized to was there with him (musta been his wife) and she was like asking him "what is all that about". I turned back and there was a young lady with a baby in a stroller waiting at the lift too. She asked me what happened and I explained. She was like "some people are really rude, I am sorry. I often get people give me dirty looks when I get on the train with my child".

Isn't it disgusting! Now, I know that not everyone is a child-lover. I FULLY understand it. I even admit that in the days BK, I would have gotten a bit antsy if I went into a restaurant etc and there were screaming kids running around etc. I never really knew how to treat other people's kids - you know when they stare at you on the train, like K does to people all the time, hah! But I would NEVER give them a filthy look or say something. C'mon, they are just kids. And HELLO we are on the train you know (or AT THE STATION in this case).....surely I am allowed to be there? I am not even sure if he was anti-kids now I think about it, he might have just been anti-me?!

So I really think that Asshole B "takes the cake".

But why is he Asshole B?? Well, this little incident follows hot on the heels of Monday morning's incident, where the main player was Asshole A. We were on our way to meet some friends, we had a long train ride, about 30mins or so. It wasn't peak time, and in fact the carriage I was in had about 1/4 empty seats. We sat down in the regular seat area, and K wanted to get out of the stroller, so I let her out and she sat on the seat beside me. There was plenty of room. Ok, my fault here, I should have moved over more to the right when K started stretching out (head on my lap, legs out to the left). A couple of times her feet (which only had socks on) kicked (softly, just when she was wriggling around)into the guy at the end of the seat on the left, a.k.a Asshole A. He must have got the shits with it, because all of a sudden, he grabbed his backpack, and slammed it down in between him and K, which happened to be exactly where her feet were. I was livid (again) and turned and said to him "C'mon man, she is just a kid" (ちょっと、やりすぎじゃないの？子供ですよ！）He has headphones on and didn't hear me, or pretended not to.

Again, I admit that I should have been more careful with watching K's feet, but I really think that was OTT. Or maybe I am too caught up in my own (and K's) world now so that I am seeing things skew-whiffed? Are they assholes or do I need to be more vigilant? I wasn't even gonna write about Asshole A, because his crap was totally wiped away by the lovely lady who offered to carry the stroller up the stairs, over the overpass and down the stairs to the other side at the train station we got off at where there is no lift or escalators because she saw me holding K's hand in one hand, and the stroller thrown over my back as we tried to get up the stairs.

Everyone seems to be just so oblivious to what is going on around them. Young guys "sleeping" in the priority section of the trains, baba-tariaons pushing past to get the broccoli that is on special ("hello, there are still about 100 bunches left, no need to rush, baba"), the idiots who insist on parking their bikes in front of the elevator entrance at our station, so that people with strollers, let alone people in wheelchairs can't get to the lift, etc etc. I know that I am oblivious to it all sometimes too, but I try to be socially conscious...hold doors open for people rather than slamming it in their face, let older ladies through first, etc because that is the way I was brought up. Ba-hum-bug for Japan, the country that is supposed to be so respectful. What happened? Is it only in Tokyo? I somehow doubt it......Can't wait to get outta this country for a bit. Only a month and 2 days to go!

"Confucius say....

......that toddler going through "a phase" and mummy with PMS do not make for good shopping partners"

*sigh*
We have had a long week. K is 18months old, and until now I have somehow managed to keep her entertained enough on trains/at restaurants etc with lots of little snacks, toys, raisins in a cup whatever to keep her attention and keep her sitting down in her stroller/on the seat for the duration. But this week, well, I think she has finally realised that now that she can walk properly, and mummy has been taking her for short walks to the park and the bread shop etc, that she wants to be doing this walking thing a lot more often. She wants to be doing it every time we leave the house. The ol' bribe of a snack or some milk to get her into the stroller is wearing thin too. On Tuesday we went to playgroup, the one that takes us about 45mins to 1hour to get to. It is the playgroup we used to go to before we moved here. We live about 4mins walk from the train station, but before the train even arrived, K was standing in her stoller wanting to get out. I managed to keep her in until we got on the train, but then she wanted to sit on the seat. Luckily the train was pretty empty, so we could sit in the priority seat, look out the window etc. But we still had to change trains along the way, and get on to a busy train (standing room only). So when we got to the station to change trains,I tried nicely (I swear) to get her to sit in her stroller. The banana bribe didn't work. The milk bribe didn't work. The carry strap didn't work. There were tears. There were screams. But we couldn't get on the train unless she was "contained", I only have 2 hands and trying to manuever her and a stroller on a packed train is not easy - she would only want to get down as soon as we were on the train too. These days she even hates being held. She somehow sat in the stroller, but then started to scream blue murder as we got on the train. The whole way. No consoling her. She finally gave up when some nice old lady took to her and started playing peek-a-boo or something.

After playgroup, the same issues, she didn't want to sit in the stroller. But by this time she was also super tired, and about to pass out asleep, so after a bit she sat in her stoller, and within 5 mins was sound asleep.

Then yesterday, we went to a closer playgroup. Only 13mins by 2 trains. BUT as soon as we got on the train she wanted to get out of her stroller. But we had to change trains in like a minute, so there really wasn't time to get her out, put shoes on, adjust the balance of bags hanging off the back of the stroller etc.... so there were tears. LOTS of them. And screams, PIERCING screams. When she gets like that, there is just nothing I can do to calm her down. (Of course, before the tears started, I pulled out all the snacks/toys/is there a doggy? tricks, to no avail).

So I end up frazzled and frizzled by the timke I get anywhere these days. I asked some other mummies for advice, but they all suggested the avert attention with toys/snacks method. What do I do when that doesn't work?? One mummy said it was just a phase...she will grow out of it, in about a year, lol...about the time she realises that sitting in the stroller is a lot easier!

This is not really meant to be a whining post - I know that she doesn't do these things to frustrate me (though somtimes...aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhh) . A bit of an internet search last night ("how do I deal with my 18month old!?!?") and although there was no new techniques per say, the best advice I saw was that I can't keep on using the old method and expecting her to fit into it anymore. It is time for me to adapt to her current sitation and try to combat this, pre-empt any "attack" and get through this stage with as little frustration for both of us as possible. Big sigh.
I don't know how you mummies with 2 or 3 even get out of the house - supermums, all of you!I have sooooo much to learn.