賢の誕生 / Ken Was Born

１９８７年５月の水曜日の夜
私は激しい痛みに悩まされ眠れませんでした。
主人はしばらく前から痛みが来る頻度を記録していました。
そして１０分おきに来るようになったのが１２時。
決心して二人で病院へ。
激しい痛みに「いた～～～～～い」と日本語で繰り返す私を
看護婦さんたちは気持ち悪がりました。

主人は座り心地の悪いイスに１６時間座って待ちました。
そして午後４時ちょうどに賢は生まれてきました。
ナカナカ出てこないので頭を吸い込まれて出されたので
目は腫れて頭は尖っていました。
「わあ、不細工。男の子でよかった！」が
私の第一印象でした。

私のドクターはヴァレリーという女医でした。

親子三代。
主人の父は９人兄弟の７番目。
７人姉妹と１人の兄弟がいましたが
お兄さんは７歳の時の事故が原因で知的障害者となり
家族の名前を継ぐのは彼だけでした。
そして主人は６人兄弟で５人の姉妹。
名前を継ぐのは主人だけ。
だから賢が生まれたときは主人の父は本当に喜びました。
日頃は控えめで距離を置いて私と接していましたが
賢が生まれた日に病院に来た時
私をハグして 頬にキスをしてくれました。
その後｛あっ」と思ったように照れました。

I couldn't sleep with awful pain in one Wednesday night of May in 1987.
My husband started to keep record of frequency of my pain the evening.
When the pain came almost every 10 minutes, it was midnight.
We decided to head to the hospital.
My husband had to sit in an uncomfortable chair for 16 hours.
I kept saying "Ita~~~~i", which means "hurts" in Japanese.
So the nurses were freaking out.
Then Ken was born at 4:00 pm.
He didn't want to come out easily,

so my doctor used the vacuum  to suck him out.
His eyes were swollen and head was pointed.
"Wow, he is ugly. I'm glad that he is a boy."
That was my first impression of my son.

My doctor's name was Valerie, a lady doctor.

The three generations.
My father-in-law had 8 sibilings.
He had 7 sisters and 1 bother.
His brother got in some accident when he was 7 years old, and
since then he got disabled  and didn't get married.
So my father-in-law was the only one carry the family name.
And my husband has 5 sisters, and no brother.
He is the only one who can carry his family name,too.
So when Ken was born, my father-in-law was so excited, and happy.
He was usually more formal and kept some distance with me.
But the day Ken was born he came to visit us at the hospital,
he gave me hug and kissed my cheek.
Then he realized what he did to me.
He got a little bit embarrassed.