Doc, Doc, Nurse

Super cute baby kimonos all the bubs are put in I so wanted to steal one! haha

Pretty hilarious,  if you look closely you can see koalas on the identification stickers on the cribs- coincidence?

Congratulations Dinner!

I admit I hate going to the doctors, the dentist and definitely hospital! So you can imagine what I would have felt like being in a hospital in a foreign country. I'm not sure why but I thought most of the staff would have spoken English but no there was two doctors who spoke fluent english so whenever I saw them I would grab them and ask them a billion questions! Oh and later in my stay I met this crazy midwife who spoke a little english- she kept telling me to "Roll down the diaper so your baby can be cool like Lady Gaga"- um OK! I ended up totally loving her she taught me some mad 'mum' skills eg: bathing, breastfeeding and how to roll up a used diaper "properly"!

My allocated nurse spoke no english and we communicated with sign language and a little translation computer. It was H.A.R.D! Obviously in different countries and cultures things are done differently and sometimes this was completely frustrating...

These included:

1. Pretty much an hour after having Tallulah was born a doctor came in and asked us how we were going to pay...our travel insurance didn't cover pregnancy. It was really weird, I possibly asked if they take Mastercard...haha yep I thought I'd be buying travel souvenirs not buying a baby!
2. You must bring your own cutlery as they do not provide ANY...they felt sorry for me and gave me some disposable chopsticks
3. They eat fish ALL the time. I like fish but for breakfast...hmmm
4. I found out on my last day that nurses had been feeding Tallulah 'sugar water' which I had read (my lovely cousin who lives in Japan visited me and gave me a 'baby bible book' pretty much a parenting for dummies manual!) was completely old school! No wonder when ever I can back from my shower she was asleep and slept for 3 hours!!!
5. Because we aren't married Ross can't be on the birth certificate, I know strange right? In Australia we are basically married under Australian law; its called de facto....
6. Have you seen Lost inTranslation? Remember the hospital scene it is actually like that. Seriously. 

I missed Ross majorly while I was in hospital. He could only come by between 3-8pm and alot of the time he was super busy organising things like birth certificates, citizenship's and passports which is SO SO SO hard and complicated. I think Ross filled out more forms to sink a ship. He is a superdad and completely amazing he managed to organise us a phone, all of those things I mentioned plus locate a baby shop (thankyou Baby Gap- Japan doesn't really do the baby shops? Puzzling I know!) and buy a bunch of things you need to raise a baby!!!

I felt pretty isolated in the hospital I wanted to be out helping Ross and researching stuff but obviously had to stay put...I missed hearing English conversations and being able to 100% understand what was being said to me or about me. One night I remember overhearing a conversation and pretending it was in English and what they would be saying. Hmmm yes I was getting complete cabin fever! To keep myself sane I listened to alot of music on my ipod and read my "baby bible".

I pretty much got a crash course in caring for a baby which was great but overwhelming. I guess when a baby is planned you can attend classes with your partner and read up and research, we just didn't have this luxury so it was dive in head first. It was completely nuts!