Another summer has come and mostly gone…. Time really does fly and that seem especially true for us this year. So much of our time has been taken up with going to doctors and worrying and planning for the babies’ arrival – not to mention the fact that Robyn’s been on bed-rest – that we haven’t really had much opportunity to get out and enjoy the weather or see friends.

[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery/__phpAutoGallery__picLoaderTmp/www.oninohana.com/gallery/Don/320_rainy_days.jpg[/img]

As the weather has been a bit cooler, not to mention a lot rainier lately, it starts to feel more and more the end of the summer and I keep looking at my to-do list and thinking about the things that I’ve been meaning to get done. In the last week or so, some of these items have been crossed off the list as I’ve managed to pull together the resources and time to complete them. At least getting stuff done has decreased my stress levels a bit. I feel better about how things are going at home and in preparation for doubling the size of our family. I still worry about work a bit, but I figure that people have to have some sympathy for what I’m going through. I haven’t let anything slide as far as really important projects go and I’ve been making some headway on those as well.

John and I went for a bike ride today. We checked out an little road that we had passed on our rides previously and we were surprised to find an abandoned building. There were no signs to indicate what the place used to be used for, so it’s hard to say what it was, but it looked to me like an old bank or something although I tend to doubt that since it’s in a bad location. At least one of the doors was left unlocked, so we could have gone in, but decided against it. I believe that would be trespassing. We also managed to find a section of the old Morris Canal that was still intact and we rode on the towpath until it came out on Planeview Rd in Stanhope. The area we rode can be seen [url=http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=40.905453,-74.714767&spn=0.011596,0.019999&t=h&om=1]here[/url]. The last thing we checked out was an air ambulance helipad on Love Lane. We rode around the chopper once and then saw the crew watching us closely from their office. I was tempted to ask them about it, but they didn’t seem to be very interested in talking so we left the area.

Later in the day, John, Kath, Evan and Zoe and George, Shannon, Drew and Cam came to hang out at our place for a bit. It was really nice to sit and chat. We’ve been dying to get out of the house and hang out with other people, so this was the next best thing. Staying in and seeing people! I feel really lucky to have such good friends and to be associated with good people.

After I cleaned up from the company, I downloaded some video from our camera and I watched some short videos that we had taken of the babies moving around in Robyn’s belly. I’ll put a link to some of the edited “bumps” as they are really quite amazing.

Today was Wednesday, May 24th – my last day in Japan! I awoke early to finish packing the last of my stuff. Since there was class with Shiraishi sensei this morning, I had to leave some training items out and the things that I would need to clean up after training. Once the majority of my things were away, I readied for training and walked over to Honbu. Paul was there this morning and we worked together for the majority of the session. Shiraishi sensei was nice enough to let me get video of the class, so I captured most of it using my digital camera. I was quite happy when he seemed to give a nice “overview” of the things he had taught in the previous week’s time that I was in town as well as some additional points about walking. Once class was over, I took a few last minute photos of the doujou and bid my farewell to the people I had met and to the space itself.

I hurried back to the inn and quickly showered and packed away the last of my gear. After paying my bill and thanking the staff for their hospitality, I met up with Lauren and Roger to say my goodbyes. They walked me to the train station and soon I was headed back towards the airport.

I was a bit confused by some of the signs at Abiko station, but I managed to catch the express train to Narita with the help of one of the station attendants. These guys are great. They’ll actually run with you to the train if you don’t seem to understand their directions!

I really enjoyed the ride from Abiko to Narita. As I mentioned in my Day 1 description, the scenery was really beautiful. I wish I had gotten some photos, but much of my attention was drawn to the twelve or thirteen year old kid sitting a few seats down from me on the train.

There were maybe a dozen people in the car in which I was sitting. To my right was the kid I mentioned above and across from him was a woman in her early 30s or so. This kid, who I will henceforth refer to as “Sleepy”, was dressed in his school uniform and looked like he had pulled an all nighter or was just a very relaxed person. When I first noticed him, he was slowly “falling” to his left side. He got to the point that his head was quite literally hovering an inch or so away from the seat next to him. At this point, he awoke and jerked back upright. Adjusting his glasses, he looked around sleepily and then closed his eyes. Within a minute, he was slowly slumping in the other direction until his face was again just above the seat next to him. Wake up…look around…close eyes…slump forward this time…. This continued for almost the entire ride. About half way to Narita, Sleepy got up and moved to the seat next to the door so that he wasn’t slumping to his right anymore, but that didn’t stop him from falling to the other directions. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched this display. The woman across from him appeared to be entranced, too and we shared a laugh about the whole thing. On one hand, it was a funny thing to watch, but I felt a little sad, too. Maybe this kid had been up all night studying and was really struggling under the demands of his school work. Of course, it’s more likely that he was up all night playing video games or chatting with friends or “texting” on his [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_mobile_phone_culture]keitai[/url].

At Narita station, I hopped the local train to the airport and followed the signs to check-in. Things went quite smoothly from there and I was at the gate before I knew it with about 45 minutes to spare.

Most of the flight was quite unremarkable. I watched two of the Harry Potter films and a Japanese film about a group of high school girls who form a band to play in their school’s variety show. By the end of the flight, I was tired and my ass was killing me from sitting even though I had gotten up several times to walk around and hit the restroom. As we neared Newark and began our descent the air was a bit rough although the skies were perfectly clear, and I started to feel a little sick. A few passengers that I could see sitting towards the front of the cabin required their air sickness bags and I think that started a small chain reaction….

I didn’t throw up and we were soon safely on the ground. After claiming my baggage, I made my way through customs and the security checks and out to the passenger pickup area. It was good to be back where everyone was speaking English! Not long after, George and Drew showed up and we piled my luggage into the trunk and off we went.

The last couple of days have been pretty stressful and quite busy as well. Robyn and I were back at the hospital on Sunday afternoon because we were both concerned that she was not feeling as much movement from the babies as she had grown accustomed to. This began on Saturday night, but she did a [url=http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/prenataltests/ht/kickcount.htm]kick count[/url] and did feel the normal number of movements from Baby B (or Baby A, I forget now!) and some from ther other, but not as much. We wrote it off to the growing babies not having as much room to move around. But on Sunday, she was still concerned, so after I finished hanging the curtains in the nursery, Robyn called the doctor and she told us to go to Labor & Delivery in Morristown for more monitoring.

Our concerns were allayed a bit once we got in the car and both babies seemed to start moving around a lot! We laughed about it, but decided to continue on to the hospital anyway. Once there, the nurses did the normal stuff – fetal heart monitors, contraction monitor, blood pressure, urine, etc – and we settled in to watch some TV. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon, so we didn’t mind hanging out there. All the results turned out to be good although Robyn’s blood pressure was a bit high, so the doctor said to come into the office on Monday even though we had a previously scheduled appointment on Wednesday!

Next day, I worked from home until we had to leave at around 11am for the appointment. It was business as usual at the office: the receptionist is a moron, we wait for too long in the waiting area, the nurse (Tina – she’s always there!) calls us and we go into a room. The nurse asks for a urine sample from Robyn so she goes in the bathroom to do her thing. No luck. After about 10 minutes, Robyn comes out and is upset (hormones are raging these days!) that she can’t produce a urine sample. Tina checks her blood pressure while she’s obviously upset and…what a surprise…it’s high! So, later the doctor comes in and rechecks her BP and it was lower, but still high, so she apologetically told us that she was sending us back to the hospital for monitoring.

The rest of the day went pretty much as the Sunday visit described above with the exception of me going down to the Mo’Town Cafe (the hospital caf) and bringing some lunch back to the room. If you’re ever at Morristown Hospital, I recommend the pizza and the chicken fingers. Not bad for cafeteria food! In the end, Robyn’s bp was pretty good and she didn’t have any signs of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-eclampsia]pre-eclampsia[/url] and her cervix has been holding steady.

We finally got home around 5pm. I logged into work for about an hour or so until it was time to make some dinner and go to the grocery store after throwing in some laundry. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy as I have been over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, I think it’s getting to me a bit. With the situation at work (new boss, lots of new “projects” to work on) and the situation at home, I’m feeling a fair amount of stress dealing with everything. Part of this is my anal nature. I am definitely most comfortable when everything is in it’s place and I know (physically and logistically) where everything is in relation to everything else. Part of this is also my slacker attitude. I definitely need down time to just sit back and relax and do what I like to do and there just hasn’t been a lot of time for that recently. I know Robyn’s concerned, and I’m a little concerned too since I’ve always prided myself on being a pretty calm person who doesn’t let stress get to them.

I guess I need to put my money where my mouth is and take a deep breath when things start to get to me. I’m sure having two babies is going to be WAY more stressful than anything I’ve encountered so far! Of course, we’ll have something to show for it once they’re here and our love for those children will help us get through the tough stuff.

Robyn is 31 weeks pregnant as of yesterday. So, it’s pretty likely that the twins will be here sometime in the next 5 weeks or so.

We had another visit to the hospital after last Thursday’s regular OB checkup. Once examined, the doctor found that Robyn was about 1cm dilated, so she told us to head over to the hospital for more monitoring. Initially, there were no contractions that we could see, but after being released and then walking to the hospital cafe and back, she was experiencing some pain. So, rather than go home and have to come back, we decided to go back to labor and delivery.

The nurses hooked her up to the monitors again for another hour or so of monitoring. There were a few contractions, but nothing to write home about. So, after two episodes of The Cosby Show and a short nap, we were free to go once again with the instructions to be watchful and not to be afraid to come back if we needed to.

On Sunday, Robyn was officially 30 weeks pregnant!

Most of her recent symptoms have subsided and she’s feeling pretty good. The babies are quite active as well. We’re guessing that their activity will decrease a bit in the coming weeks as their accomodations “shrink”.

Last night, we attended our last pre-natal class. The sessions were very helpful. I just hope we can remember all the information when we need it!

Today was Tuesday, May 23rd. The day sawned a bit gray and surprisingly cooler than the previous few days. I got up and immediately went downstairs to shower. After drying off and getting dressed, I began to organize my clothes and luggage for my departure. I also decided that I should probably try to check my email, so I took my Palm T|X out for a little walk around the neighborhood to see if I could find any decent wi-fi signals. I was surprised as there were several networks available in the area, but most were encrypted. Continuing to search, I moved around the back of Azusa and down the street towards what I think was a middle-school. As I approached the school, I got a great signal and was able to connect and download my email.

I was happy to see that Rob and Danielle’s daughter had been born a day or two before. I also received an interesting email about Hayes’s “departure” from the Bujinkan from Hank. In addition, there were some normal messages from friends and one from Chris asking how my trip was going. As there was nothing overly important, I headed back to the inn and sat in the courtyard and wrote a few quick responses. While there, I talked for a while with one of the visitors from Croatia. Then it was back to the school to send my email!

I wanted to make one more trip to the tabi shop and maybe to search for the Sakura-gi temple that I had heard so much about. After picking up two more pair of tabi, I started walking down the west-east road towards Umesatou in hopes that I would see something that would indicate the temple was nearby. Seeing nothing after a while, I turned back towards Noda and followed the scent of soy sauce to what I would guess is the main shoyuu processing plant. There were huge warehouses and giant tanks and lots of trucks coming and going. The smell was…strong! Just around the corner, I glimpsed Noda train station. Having determined my location, I decided that it was better to just go back to the inn and see what Roger and Lauren were up to.

After putting my stuff away, Lauren and Roger were up and about and chatting with the two guys from Texas who were in town for the week. One of the guys (I am SO bad with names!) was very into natural foods and particularly in studying what people ate in Biblical times. I would later learn that he was also a minister and seemed to be very religious. The five of us decided to grab some lunch at Jusco and spend some more time browsing around the stores. I hadn’t rented a bicycle for the day, but I was told to just grab one and we all rode over to the store. I made a note of where my bike was so that I could find it on the way back.

We decided on the food court and I had a tasty curry tonkatsu over rice. After eating, we sat chatting for a while and then the Texas guys departed in order to prepare to go to Ayase, while we went upstairs to look around a bit. I decided on some gifts for my nephew and niece and picked up another “Totemo Happy” shirt to replace the one I had misplaced on Saturday. I’m not sure what I was thinking when checking out the size of these shirts. There was no way even the LL size was fitting me! Anyway, I also spent some time in the little hobby shop on the third floor. They had so much cool stuff! Tons of Studio Ghibli collectables and model firearms – very Japanese!

After a time, we lugged our loot back downstairs and Lauren and Roger bought some food. I didn’t purchase anything knowing that nothing would get through customs on Wednesday. On our way out, I couldn’t find the bike I had used to get to Jusco! We looked around, but couldn’t find any of the Azusa bikes – they’re marked with a little sticker on each. After searching for 10 minutes, we gave up and I just walked back to the inn figuring that someone would (or already had) return the bike to it’s rightful owners.

From there, we grabbed our training gear and walked to the station to get the train to Kashiwa and then on to Ayase. We didn’t have any problems getting there. I’m not sure if the trains have become more managable since my last trip (more English visible, etc) or if I was better able to look for the right [i]kanji[/i] and steer us in the right direction. In any case, we arrived in Ayase about an hour and a half before training. This was good, because the three of us wanted to stop at the “Budou shop” across the street from the [url=http://www.oninohana.com/gallery/Japan-2006/Japan%20_2006_045.jpg?offset=]Budoukan[/url]. Lauren and Roger were both looking for new belts, but I just wanted to see if they had anything cool!

It’s a good thing that we arrived early, as there was a line of black-clad Bujinkaners leading out the door of the shop! Once we finally got into the tight quarters, it was a challenge to find anything at all – the place was just wall-to-wall and piled high with all kinds of martial arts gear. People were coming in and out to pick up the embroidered belts that they had ordered and items were falling off of shelves and onto the floor. It was chaos!

Having had enough and found what we were looking for, we walked over to the Budoukan in the lightly falling rain and followed the signs to the bathrooms. I always feel so silly wearing those narrow little slippers that they provide, but I wouldn’t want to walk into the bathroom without them! After changing in the locker room and carrying my bag out to the training area, I sat down to stretch out a bit. I found myself sitting next to the guy from Jay’s group again. We chatted until class started. I was a little surprised at how many more people were at tonight’s class than at Noda. I guess some people don’t like the crowds at Honbu.

Hatsumi sensei arrived and soon we were all lining up to begin class. Tonight seemed to focus on seated techniques. Sensei spoke about sitting in different ways and moving naturally from these positions using gravity and one’s hands and arms to support the body. We also worked on a lot of kicks from seated postures. Hatsumi sensei seemed to be in a very philosophical mood and he talked at length about nature and the natural elements. It was very interesting and I wish I could remember more!

After training, I was introduced to Kenji, Pete R, Paul M, Liz S and a few others. It was good to see some of these folks again and meet others for the first time. On the way out, I said “hi” to [url=http://www.atlantabujinkan.com]Roy Wilkinson[/url] and his buddy Mike and we chatted for a bit as I waited for Lauren and Roger. The five of us decided to get some late dinner at Denny’s before going back “home”. We had many laughs and talked at length about training and what Hatsumi sensei is doing today that is different from what we were doing ten years ago. It was interesting to hear Roy’s take on these things.

The conversation continued on the trains back towards Noda until Mike and Roy got off in Kashiwa.

After arriving at Noda-shi [i]eki[/i], I called and spoke with Robyn for a while then got some drinks at the food mart by the station. This would be my last night in Japan for this trip, so I walked slowly back to the inn and enjoyed the night air while thinking over the experience. Once back in my room, I packed my luggage for the following day’s afternoon departure and went to bed.

Robyn and I spent a few hours at the Emergency Room on Tuesday night.

This story begins last week when we had to return to Labor & Delivery in Morristown on Thursday night. The mommy-to-be was experiencing contractions that seemed to be becoming more frequent as the evening progressed. I made the call to call the doctor and when she called back, we were told to return to the L&D for additional monitoring. So, we hopped in the car and drove over to Morristown where the nurses attached monitors for the fetal heartbeats and for contractions. There were a few contractions, but nothing that the doctors found to be too severe, so they gave a shot of [url=http://www.twinslist.org/terbquestions.html]terbutaline[/url] to stop them and perscribed oral doses as well. After about 2 hours, we were sent home.

On Sunday, Robyn noticed that her pulse was unusually high throughout the day. This is a common side effect of terbutaline, so we weren’t too worried. However, in the afternoon she was growing concerned, so she called the doctor and was told to stop taking the medication (since it’s not shown to be effective in stopping pre-term labor anyway) and unless something felt very wrong, we would see the doctor on Monday morning at our scheduled appointment. Her heart rate stayed high for the rest of the day even though she was staying in bed.

On Monday, we saw our regular OB and most everything looked good as far as mommy and babies were concerned, except for Robyn’s pulse which was still higher than it should be. The doctor explained that an elevated heart rate is common in the third trimester, but if Robyn was having any other symptoms, she should contact a cardiologist. We returned home and I went to work for the rest of the day.

On Tuesday, her heart rate not having slowed down much, Robyn called her primary care doctor and made an appointment to come by later in the day. I left work at the appropriate time to pick her up at home and then we headed over to the doctor’s office in Morristown. Since his specialty is vascular, he did a regular workup plus took an EKG and scanned her legs for any blood clots thinking that she may have an embolism of some kind. Having found nothing of any importance and having spoken to a doctor from Robyn’s OB practice, he explained that the only thing that he could do in good conscience was to send us over to the ER and have them look at her. That wasn’t what we wanted to hear, but in order to rule out anything bad, we followed his suggestion and took the short ride over to the Morristown ER.

Once there, they quickly took Robyn’s info and settled her into a bed. They took some blood, did another EKG and hooked her to a heart and pulse-ox monitor while calling in a consult with the pulmonologist on call. I was surprised at how nice everyone was while also being very quick to respond to the situation.

Once the pulmonologist came he assured us that the test results he had seen so far did not indicate an obvious [url=http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic490.htm]pulmonary embolism[/url], but he listened closely to Robyn’s heart and lungs and asked a lot of questions about her symptoms. After this, he explained that the blood tests are not a very accurate measure of the possibility of a PE, especially in pregnant women, so he suggested a CAT scan in order to rule this out with greater certaintly. We weren’t please to hear this suggestion because of the babies, but he assured us that they would shield them as best they could and that the benefits of the CAT scan outweighed the risks, so we agreed.

A short time later, they wheeled Robyn up to the CAT scan and she was back in about 20 minutes or so. One thing that the characters in “ER” do have in common with the real ER is that the patients are always annoyed by the long wait. Eventually, the chief resident came by and told us that he had spoken with several other doctors and was very confident that there was no PE. He attributed the increased heart rate to the pregnancy and told us to watch for any other symptoms. After giving the results to Robyn’s OB, he told us that she was free to go. Of course, we had to wait around quite a while for the discharge to be official.

On my way in to work this morning, I was catching up on the Podcasts that I let slip last week. I found WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show from July 31st to be very interesting. In particular, the section called [url=http://audio.wnyc.org/lopate/lopate073106a.mp3]”What Makes a Good Vaction”[/url]. It really shed light on how Americans as a whole are so far behind most of the rest of the world in how they take and use their vacation and general leisure time.

What I found most interesting was the fact that Americans don’t tend to use their vacation in the way that say, Europeans do. Perhaps we as a country, don’t want to look like slackers who leave their job to someone else while we’re away enjoying ourselves. Maybe it’s that [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan#Beliefs]Puritan[/url] work ethic upon which our country is built? I guess I tend to go a bit in the other direction when it comes to work. I work 9 to 5 (or 7 to 5 in the case of my current 4 day work week) and then go home. Only if something absolutely needs to be done will I stay late. I rarely think about my work outside of the office and I don’t work for free. I often tell coworkers who work more than they need to that, in our current environment, going above and beyond is not going to get them “ahead”.

I’m also a believer in working more efficiently rather than working harder. I’m amazed at how much time some people waste on socializing, attending unnecessary meetings and the like. Not to mention, how some, particularly in a technology company like AT&T, don’t make the most of the available technology to leverage their time. It’s just wasteful and inefficient.

Anyway, you can check out the whole day’s show or find more information at [url=http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/07/31]WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show page[/url].

On Monday, Robyn was scheduled for a regular ultrasound checkup and I had left early that morning for a 4 day business trip to North Carolina, so she had to attend her 1 o’clock appointment alone this time. Upon checking her cervix, it was found that it had shortened rather significantly since the last u/s. She also told the doctor about the discomfort she had been experiencing over the previous couple of days, so they told her to go next door to the hospital for additional monitoring.

Once she was hooked up to the monitor, the doctor discovered that she was in fact, having some contractions so they admitted her and continued the monitoring. At this point, the doctor highly recommended that I return home, so Robyn contacted me and I told my boss that I had to go. He was fairly understanding – I think. This new boss is almost completely unreadable. He seems likable enough, but it’s hard to tell. Luckily, I was able to get on a flight at 8:17pm and I was at the hospital by about 10:30pm.

While I was enroute, she was given something to stop the contractions as well a shot of steroids to help develop the babies’ lungs in case she did deliver early. Luckily, she responded well to the initial medication and the contractions seemed to dwindle. The decision was made to play it safe and keep her in the hospital for at least 2 days to ensure that there were no more contractions and that she did not have any negative reaction to the steroids.

So, at this point, she is on strict bed-rest. The doctors are reassured by her response to the treatment and our goal now is to get to 36 weeks! She was in good spirits today, but already a little bored and restless laying in the hospital bed! I think this is going to be a long two months!

I realized I haven’t been keeping up with my reading list. Here’s what I can remember since the last time:

[list]
[*][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0937404675/bujinkanmartia0b/]Droid Maker[/url] – This is the story of how the “new generation” of film makers helped to advance the state of the art in film making technology through the use of computers. Focusing mainly on George Lucas, but also on Coppola and Spielberg, the author discusses, sometimes in great detail, how the growth of computer technology in the mid-70s lead to the advent of the 100% GGI films that we have today. There is literally a cast of hundreds in this book – most of whom were either pure geniuses or just in the right place at the right time. My only complaint was that I was left wondering about the details of some of the technologies utilized. I guess that may have made the book a little cumbersone for the average reader. But other than that small issue, I would highly recommend this.
[*][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441623824/bujinkanmartia0b/]Omega Cage[/url] – This is the next book in the Matador series. This one takes some supporting characters that have appeared in previous books in the series and highlights their adventures. As always with Perry’s books, this is a quick, light read. There is no philosophical bent like in the first two books of the series, so you probably won’t come away with a lot from this read, but it was enjoyable.
[*][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593270100/bujinkanmartia0b/]Apple Confidential 2.0[/url] – I found this to be an interesting book. Unlike most other “historical” biographies, the author chose to retell his stories out of chronological order. Each chapter is about one particular aspect of Apple’s history. This is nice because the reader doesn’t get confused by the numerous names of the parties involved in making Apple the company it is today. The main things that I took away from this book was how close and how frequently Apple came to closing up shop since it’s inception as well as what a dick Steve Jobs seems to be.
[/list]