A break to reality- Mona

Well, I have had a bit of a break from blog space. But I have some big memories from when Ken was little and I want to get motivated to post a bit more and share our life with our new addition and Ken, of course.

We had a bit of drama at the end of last year, let me try to summarize as concisely as possible. At around December 20th- the doctor`s at Ritsy`s clinic devined that her umbilical chord only had one artery, where there is usually 2. They suggested we use the hospital instead of clinic and the doctors scanned the baby for any defects. She was deemed fine, but was already over 3.5 kgs, so they said we should try to induce labour ASAP. So we booked in on December 24th and Ritsy tried to induce for 2 days to no avail. Apparently in Japan they don`t do 3 days, so Ritsy came home the next day. We enjoyed some time with our friend Steve who is visiting from Canada for 3 months (more on that later!).
The due date for the baby was January 5th, which passed quietly. After one week late, the doctor suggested we hop back on the inducing wagon, and so we did! This time things worked out. Ritsy checked in at 10 o`clock and she started having real contractions around 1PM. I was at home waiting with Ken and was called at 2 o`clock. Before I arrived at the hospital, she already had the baby at 2:16.
Mona Bridget Lowrey Takasugi weighed in at 4.28 kgs and was in good health.
I found Ritsy very tired and was told how very painful induced labour is.
But we are both happy to welcome this new beautiful baby into our lives now!
Sadly, on the first day- Ken was not allowed in to meet her, but we would come out the next day and meet them- with my mom too, who was arriving from Vancouver the same evening that Mona was born.

Busy times!