Early yesterday morning (the earliest appointment Yui and I had together so far at 8:45), the whole family went to the children’s health clinic floor in the Ward office (Japan equivalent of the city hall) for the required 4~5 months checkup.

We actually also have the required (and free!) regular well baby checkups – first week, one month, 3 to 4 months, 6 to 7 months, 9 to 10 months, 1 year old, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 years old – which can be done in private hospitals and clinics. These, on top of course of the vaccination schedules which of course doesn’t necessarily coincide with the scheduled checkups.

But the government’s health department also required regular checkups on top of the ones above that will be done by the government health personnel. Guess this is the government’s way of ensuring that their baby citizens are taken cared of well. Quite impressive isn’t it?

We actually thought we’d be the only ones there, similar to the personal visit we had from the ward office midwife when Yui was just five weeks old. Hence we were surprised to see a lot of babies with their families. Turned out they’ve called all the 4~5 month old babies in the area for the required checkup and organised a checkup system that’s quite reminiscent of company checkups.

The group is only supposed to be for 4~5 month old babies and only in our area at that. And yet there was quite a number of babies. Far cry from my first assignment here in Japan some ten years ago when I haven’t seen a single pregnant woman.

When we came to the room to have Yui’s statistics measured, I hesitated a bit when I put down Yui on one of the cots. She was still sleeping and I was wary that she’d cry a lot (like most of the babies there!) when I had to strip off her clothes since I’d be waking her up and the room is a bit cold (I was wearing a coat yet I was just comfortable with the temperature). But when she woke up, the first thing she saw were the drawings of Pooh Bear and Doraemon and Hello Kitty and a smile spread and stayed on her face even when I was taking off her clothes. After the body measurements, we had to wait a bit for our turn for one of the doctors to check on Yui and so to keep Yui warm (yes she still has no clothes on!) I put her again in her oversized bunting.

Her oversized bunting (oversized so that she can hopefully wear it again next winter. But since she’s already 65cm at barely 5 months when supposedly 60cm clothes are up to 6month old babies, I’m not sure if this will still fit her next winter).

Anyway I digress. While we waited, Yui just calmly looked at all the screaming and wailing babies and looked curiously at the wall drawings as well; making me decide that it’s high time to put up drawings by yui’s crib as well. Meanwhile, we are thankful the check with the doctor went smoothly and Atsushi and I were again very proud to see Yui propping up herself strongly when the doctor had her on her tummy.

We also had lectures on how to take care of our older baby, first solids (recommended at five months) and teething basics & care.

After the checkup we went to a mall to look for posters that I can stick on the wall by Yui’s crib. But we had difficulty looking for hello kitty posters nor pooh bear posters. So we decided to buy this one instead and have the colouring time as bonding time as well, yet another opportunity to tell Yui a story.

I would have to delegate the drawing from scratch to Atsushi. 😀 😀