Meeting other parents-to-be

For the past couple of weeks, my wife has been in the hospital for the fourth time since she got pregnant. Since the delivery date is fast approaching, they didn't want to take any chances and are going to keep her in until her 37th week which is another 2 weeks away.

Seemingly unrelated to that is that last week was Golden Week here in Japan. It is basically a national week of rest with three holidays smack dab in the middle of the week. Take Monday and Friday off and you have a whole 9 days to be away from work. In the past, many companies used to fly all the employees and their families to some tropical locale like Guam or Saipan, but since the burst of the bubble things haven't been so cushy. So for the past week I have been at the hospital every day to tend to my wife and the baby.

And I wasn't the only one there. Other husbands were also there and some of them seem pretty nice. So last week was a chance to meet other parents-to-be. With her in the hospital a lot, it has been tough to meet other parents. But with a whole week of hanging out at the hospital, it was actually pretty good.

One family lives about a 3 minute walk from my apartment and they seem really nice, so I imagine we may have them over for BBQ and beers in a couple months or so.