compromising the rules, after all, your daughter is educated in the western world, translated…
Don’t know if anybody’s as leisurely as I was, to help my daughter with her month-long recovery after birth? About a year ago, my daughter called me up, told me I’m going to be a grandma, and I’d, suddenly recalled how years ago, I saw the footage of an elderly woman, alighting a plane, with bottles of sesame oils, and the chickens too, to get through the customs.
After the Chinese New Year’s, I took the expectancies, on this journey. My very first time to help out with the month-long recovery after birth, I was inexperienced, so, I’d, found the information online, my daughter showed an understanding, didn’t wanted me to pack and ship an assortment of Chinese herbal remedies, so she’d, ordered up the whole set, and had the items shipped to U.S., it’d, saved a ton of time. My daughter told me, “no need to bring the rice wines, the sesame oils, don’t bring anything, we can get them all here.” Thank heavens! Otherwise, I’d, turned into that elderly woman, who’d, brought along the chicken to try to pass the customs checkpoints.
illustration from the papers…
My daughter and son-in-law lives in a quite little town in North Carolina. Before her due date, my daughter took me around the neighborhood, to make it more familiar to me. During the daytime on the weekends, I’d gone strolling with her, and on the evenings, I’d, trekked this quiet little town’s streets, after they go to work during the daytime, I was leisurely at home, or, just gone for a slow stroll, to see the scenes of nature, and, everything I’d encountered, became, a subject for my photos. I took along a bottle of coke, and two slices of crackers, walked along, took the shots, and managed to capture so many beautiful photos. And, two weeks passed, before my working as the nurse of the monthlong recovery after birth, I’d, started living, quite leisurely.
After my daughter passed her due date by a week, the doctor decided to induce labor. Her not too large belly, after forty hours of induced labor and waiting, she’d started, contracting, and, my daughter gave birth without any medications, and had a ten pound, eight ounces, almost 4,800 grams, a newborn baby boy. Oh my god, such, a record breaker! Thankfully, my understanding son-in-law was right by her side, constantly encouraging her. He was excited and surprised, as he saw his own son, “This baby already had the good genes, top three percent, of all the babies in all the sizes”, seeing how he couldn’t, put his own son down, he’d, gotten his own son in his arms, without much hardships at all!
In order to care for my daughter who was breastfeeding, I’d set up a breastfeeding diet plan for her, other than the Chinese herbal items, plus the food items to help her produce more breastmilk, I’d given her five meals a day, with no repeats. In the morning when she woke, I’d, served her that bowl of chicken essence, then, a bowl of red bean, black rice, longan porridge, at ten in the morn, I’d served her a portion of pork liver cooked with sesame oil; for lunch and supper, there would be chicken cooked with the Chinese herbal medicines, or peanuts with pork’s feet, and between the meals, I’d, served her bowls of seabass soup. It’s seemingly busy, but, it’s, actually, planned and efficient, and there’s, the two-day weekends for me too, on the weekends, my son-in-law took over the cooking, to make the Italian or Mediterranean diets for us, and, I was allowed my days off, and I also, got a chance, to savor his cooking.
and the items of a meal, at the after-birth center…photo from online…
My daughter left home for ten years, from all alone, to now, a family of three, it’s quite rare, that she’d, needed her mom, I naturally came, with gladness. My daughter told me, “Mom, you just need to care for my diet, take care of my meals, we’ll look after our son ourselves.” That’s fine, it’s their young, we’re, in a different place, a different era, they don’t need that much advice. But, there are, the age-old rules passed down from our ancestors, what they’re not supposed to be doing during their month-long recovery after birth, the younger generations wouldn’t comply, especially when my daughter is educated in the western world, and a science major? After communications, in the end, we’d, found a balance—washing her hair, drinking the water, and less salt, she gets to decide.
My daughter told me gladly, “You don’t want me to go out to get too much wind, then, I shall, stay at home, until my son is a month old then!”
And so, this is the thoughtfulness of this woman’s mother, to go to the States, to help her with the month-long recovery after birth, as it’s a Chinese tradition, that women need to recover for a full month, sometimes even longer, depending on how our bodies are after birth, and, she’d, reached a balancing point, and not imposed ALL those age-old rules on her own daughter, after all, the daughter IS educated, in the west, and, the western ideals are quite different than the eastern ones!
Life, the Obstacle Course 