Dr Visit : T +5

Today was a fun and excellent day. Right now Gail, Ryan and Ivo are at, what Ivo's taken to calling, "the kids' park." Yay!

First off, Ryan and I went to see Dr. Fu this morning. Burl is b/w 3600-3800 and his head diameter is 9.8cm. He's not engaged. I'm not having labor contractions or dilating - but that's ok cuz his position is good, amniotic fluid is sufficient and his heart rate and movements are strong and healthy. Yay! Yea, I would trade being 29 months pregnant for the increased likelihood of a smoother labor for Burl and me (and Ryan!). And I know you don't really get to choose in these situations, so I feel super lucky. Also, Dr Fu is so nice and supportive of what we want... (earmuffs for kids maybe, i don't know---) He's expanded his suggestions of the natural ways we can try to induce labor (twai sheng - "push labor") from just walking and climbing stairs to include, "making sex" !!! So cute. We've agreed that if Burl doesn't come by himself before next Tuesday, 6 March, we'll induce (pitocin). Both Ryan and I feel comfortable with that. So it was just a wonderful, positive visit.
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We came home to find Heather and Dylan visiting to play with Ivo and Gail. Very nice. Then Sho stopped by bearing cheesecake! That's what I'm talking about, people! Cheescake! I'd post a picture - but it's gone. Yum! Afterwards, we went over to the fried rice place by Karin's house and got some takeout for us and Rayne who came to visit. Ivo "flew" the whole way, walking and running with his arms straight out, fists clenched. He can also fly like a bird, waving his arms up and down out to his sides. He also tells anyone who'll listen, "Dung beetles eat the poop!" They just got home - Ivo's super happy - laughing and bulleting around the house!
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Ivo's gotten his hands on a copy of Happy Feet (lent by kayababa) - He loves it. It's perfect, lots of singing and dancing, swimming and penguins. He laughs uproariously during the big crowd scenes... Too much.
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For dinner Gail made an awesome tomato vegetable noodle soup - called, I think, Ambrosia. Yum Yum Yum. Now I'm eating dark chocolate after a bath and a chat with the landlady about our hot water problems. Nothing like a lukewarm bath to motivate me to follow-thru on business.
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Tomorrow is 228, a holiday here in Taiwan, commemorating one of the KMT massacres of the Taiwanese. Even though - the link is to Wikipedia - but do yr research - encyclopedia were never considered legit sources for university papers...so how much less wiki?
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I don't know if the NYTimes articles I link to are available after a week, but here's a link to the first chapter of a book called Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentations on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. The review isn't all glowing but there's not so much out there to read about this - it's a good step - and well-enough written that I was abole to read the whole first chapter online/onscreen... As well as re-discover the important word/concept, "iatrogenic" - physician-induced illness.