First day on the outside

Happy baby! We were getting to know our new son today, and he did a very good job of learning to feed — both ways. He cried for no more than 5 or 10 seconds in all the time I was with him today. Here is Kawamura Ladies’ Clinic, the well-regarded maternity hospital where he was born, conveniently located in our corner of town. (Click on the Japanese text under “since 1953″ and there is a drop down menu with a photo tour of the hospital.) The baby was about two weeks prior to the “due” date, but was pronounced full term and ready to go just over a week ago by Dr. Kawamura.

Photos taken with Panasonic Lumix FZ10

The last picture shows the stuffed bunny that stands next to our futon. Bunny held a thermometer for all the months that we were trying, and then at night held the lucky charm (the red object) that Yoshiko wore every day during her pregnancy. The charm (omamori in Japanese) is from a well-hidden shrine specializing in pregnancy and childbirth which is tucked in behind a chestnut vendor on Shijo street next to the Shin-kyogoku shopping arcade. Inside the red embroidery was a small slip of paper with a mantra written on it that the mother is supposed to swallow during labor. Labor came on so fast, though, that she almost forgot, but she sent the nurse out of the delivery room to look for it, and was able to swallow the prayer in time. The wooden box contains a piece of our baby’s umbilical cord. When a mother in Japan goes to her final reward, she takes the umbilical cords of her children with her.