Iris Jay Toner 8/23/2012

Three months after moving to Japan on December 16, 2011, Travis and I found out I was pregnant. We were both scared and excited, but it was the start of something amazing, our beautiful baby girl Iris. Our due date was August 20th, but two nights later around 11 pm, I started having contractions. They were irregular until 8am. I started having contractions 5 minutes apart starting at 8:23. They were starting to get pretty intense to where I had to take a deep breath and focus, so I emailed Travis at work to tell him he needed to come home. My mom and I got everything ready and shortly after Travis got home, we drove to the hospital.
     I was terrified the nurses were going to tell me I was in false labor. When I got there, they had me sit in the waiting room because there was someone in triage, but after about 10 minutes they decided to just put me in a regular room and check me. I was a "loose" 5cm, so the nurse called the Dr. to see what he wanted to do. They decided to have me stay and when the Dr. arrived he checked me again. I was 6cm, and they decided it would be best to break my water. My contractions instantly became more painful. During every contraction, I would focus on where I could feel the air from each breath and repeatedly thought "I am woman, hear me roar". As cheesy as it sounds, it helped me deal with the pain. I had told the nurses I didn't want to be asked for pain meds, and not once did I even think to ask for medicine to help alleviate the pain. Around 1pm Travis, my mom, and I all guessed what times we thought Iris would arrive. I guessed 3-something, Travis guessed 4:20pm, and my mom guessed 4:23pm. I labored using the birthing ball for awhile, but soon my contractions were too painful to make myself sit up and bounce on a ball. So I decided to get in the bed. Around 315-330 I started feeling pressure, but the doctor wasn't there so they made me wait to push, which is very hard to do by the way. Every fiber of your being is telling you to push, and it takes everything in you to disobey your own body. Finally the doctor showed up and around 340 I was able to start pushing.  It was amazing to be able to feel my body's natural process of delivering a baby. I pushed for about 40 minutes and Iris was finally born. Her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice, but they were able to unravel it and delayed cutting the cord. Her cry was the most beautiful sound in the whole world, and I will never forget it. They handed her right to me and I cannot possibly express the abundance of emotions I was feeling at the time. She was born at 4:23pm 8lbs 2oz and 21.5" long.
     After things started calming down the nurses told me they didn't believe I was in labor when I walked in, and they thought they'd be sending me home. Every time they came in and I was having a contraction, they would ask "are you having a contraction right now" just to be sure. They were quite emotional about our experience and said they normally don't cry, but seeing our family come together and the love we had, they couldn't help it. Overall, I had an amazing birthing experience, and I'm so glad I chose to not have any medications and go all natural. Pregnancy and birth are such amazing and beautiful experiences, and I am extremely blessed to have them both go so well. I wouldn't have been able to have the birth that I did without the support of both Travis and my mom.

     I want to add that it is so hard being away from our loved ones during this special time in our lives. We would be home right now if we could, and enjoying introducing Iris to the people we love and made us who we are today. We know we have your love and support from 9,000+ miles away and it means so much to us. We look forward to sharing our beautiful daughter and the love we have for her with all of you very soon.

Mt. Takao

Wednesday, July 4th, we took a trip to Mt. Takao. It was a lot of walking, and a 45 minute train ride, but it was well worth it. We didn't get into the area until around 2, and the places we wanted to visit closed at 4, so we went to the closest place first to make good timing. We hit up the trick art museum and it was a great time. It's all paintings on the walls and floors, but they play tricks on the eyes, and look 3-D.

After the museum, we headed towards the mountain. We had the option of taking a cable car, a chair lift, and hiking the mountain. With the humidity, heat, and me being pregnant, we decided on the cable car, which was a great decision. The cable car was packed full of old ladies. As the car started going up the mountain, we quickly realized how steep the climb was going to be. We had to hold onto the bars behind us to keep us from falling on the two ladies sitting across from us. It was about a 7 minute ride, and it was a stellar view up the mountain. Once we got to the top, we checked out the views near the cable car landing, then headed towards the souvenir shops. A few minute walk from the landing, was a seating area, a long with the pay for binoculars to view the city of Tokyo and Yokohama. On a clear day you can see the Tokyo sky tree, it was a spectacular view of the city. Even better at night, I'm sure. Here are a few photos from the trip up the mountain.

I know we've sucked at keeping up with the blog lately, and we apologize.

Before I (Natasha) went back to Michigan for a visit, Travis and I went to the mountainside and tried to find some waterfalls for his birthday. An older gentleman gave us his two maps, and pointed out North for us so we could get a good idea of where we were at. The maps were in Japanese only, but had pictures to help us. We never really found any waterfalls, so maybe we're not as good at reading maps as we thought we were. Haha. We did go down to the river and got to enjoy the nice weather. It was very peaceful there, and it felt right being back in nature again. Away from the city, we were able to take deep breaths and finally relax. Something about the city makes us tense.

While I was back in Michigan, I had my baby shower and revealed the gender of the baby. We waited so we could tell people in person. We are having a little girl, and her name will be Iris Jay. She's very active and I'm not sure when she sleeps ;). Here's me at 25 weeks. I'm actually 27 weeks 4 days, but haven't taken a photo this week. :) 

well, it's been a while.

I know it's been awhile since we've updated so I'm going to try and do it now.
I guess I'll start with the pregnancy since that is part of why we've neglected the blog. I am now 22 weeks pregnant and am still due August 20th, 2012. The baby is perfectly healthy, and seems to have a lot of energy. We've been able to feel him/her move since about week 14/16, now he/she moves almost nonstop. I had horrible morning sickness up until week 18 though, and it greatly hindered our activity level. We weren't able to go anywhere unless it was absolutely necessary. It sucked, to say the least. But now I'm feeling better, even though I still get sick occasionally, and we're able to get out more.
A few weeks ago we came across a park near the Tama River, and we go there frequently for walks and to visit with the cats that hang out there. We noticed a lot of shelters along the river and have learned that these shelters belong to homeless people. Some of them are pretty decent and are semi permanent. The homeless people seem to take care of the cats, building them little shelters to get out of the rain. They also bring them food, and give them attention. Most of the cats have shiny coats and are extremely friendly. The first cat we met was Mr. Skin (our name for him) he has a strange coat. His undercoat is a greyish/white, and then fades to black, so it kind of looks like he's balding, but he most definitely is not. That day we saw a total of about 10 cats. We picked up some soft food and regular food for the cats, and bring some with us every time we go out there.

One of the things we really enjoy doing here is just driving and getting to know the area in which we live. Since you don't have to travel very far to see something you haven't seen yet, it's usually a cheap form of entertainment. A few Sunday's ago we were driving and noticed on our gps map that we were close to a rather large lake. Turns out, it's Sayamako lake. There are a few shrines within the area, and a walkway along the lake. It was just nice to be near a large body of water again.

llloooooonnnnggggg

Two Sunday's ago was an amazing day! We went to Yoyogi Koen, and to the Meiji shrine. We took the train to the Harajaku station and just wandered into the Meiji shrine. It was beautiful, and packed! We found our way out, and ended up taking the long way to get to Yoyogi park, but we were able to walk through the city. As we were walking we came across a bird eating out of a cup of noodles. He didn't care how close we got to him, so I took a few pictures, and got a good one of him tipping the cup over to get to the food. It was perfect weather to walk around, high 50s to low 60s. We got into the park, we found a bench to rest on. We just watched the people go by, and enjoyed the scenery. Yoyogi Koen is one of Tokyo city's largest parks. So many people brought their dogs and there was a group of people all with Papillon puppies, there was about 20 little dogs between these people.We stumbled across a group of contortionists. It hurt to watch them bend and twist their bodies. They were quite amazing though. There were groups of musicians playing everywhere, and it was great to walk from one group to another. Each one had a completely different style than the last one. As we were getting ready to leave we came across a small band playing in a circle of trees. They sounded great, and Travis really enjoyed them. We sat and listened for a while, and they started drawing a larger crowd, then security showed up and made them stop playing. We couldn't understand the security officers, but we assumed that it was because of the amps on the dry leaves.


Last Friday we found out we're pregnant. Natasha is about 5 weeks along now and the baby seems to be doing just fine. Natasha's been tired and nauseous. We were quite surprised, but we are overjoyed at the idea of having a child. The baby is due around August 20, 2012!!

Here is a video of our house. It took us a while to get everything done, but we finally did it. Wish we could show you all it in person, but this will have to do.


We're going to Yoyogi park tomorrow in Shibuya (I believe) It'll be a great time, I'm sure.

We also bought more gardening stuff today. We bought 4 crowns of asparagus, and plenty of soil, plus some green house supplies.

We'll have a longer post sometime next week.

Anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

 This was our day yesterday and today. It is suspected that is a Japanese bomb, because this base, back when it was a Japanese air field, was not bombed by America during WWII. And we may also hear it go off. The base will be recording it, and taking pictures so hopefully I can edit this post to add pictures/video. Today is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and we're going to be disarming a bomb from WWII, it's a very interesting day to say the least. 

Just to give everyone peace of mine, we are at least a mile away from the bomb, and Travis' shop which is in the affected area is evacuated. So everything is going to be fine. :)

YOKOTA UXO UPDATE: YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (Dec. 6, 2011, 10:50 p.m.) -- At approximately 1 p.m. on Dec. 6, an unexploded ordnance was discovered at a construction site in front of the base fitness center here. Explosive ordnance disposal technicians from Yokosuka Naval Station identified the object as a WWII-era bomb. Currently, there is a 500-foot safety cordon around the site. Accordingly, the following buildings are off limits; and will remain off limits until EOD has rendered the situation safe: - Buildings 316 (civilian/military personnel sections and education office), 400, 530, 580 and 584. The EOD team will dispose of the munition on Wednesday, Dec. 7. At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the cordon will be enlarged to 1,500 feet while EOD conducts operations. Base residents and personnel are advised to plan accordingly as this will impact movement around base and traffic patterns. Department of Defense schools here will run normal hours on Wednesday. The Yokota Community Center (BX, Commissary, food court), Post Office and Chili's will be closed until Wednesday afternoon. The Fussa Gate, Fitness Center, Enlisted Club, Airmen and Family Readiness Center, Finance, Traffic Management Office and the Legal Office will begin closing at 8:30 a.m. Stay tuned to the Yokota Facebook page, the Commander's Access Channel (Channel 20) and AFN Eagle 810 for more information.