Bali Dive Blog

Gregor has always been encouraged to swim. Between the pool as big as a lake at the house and our frequent trips to Bali’s beaches, he has been a water baby from the start. In April 2005 I brought him a Bodyglove baby snorkel set from America. It added a new dimension to his afternoon swim sessions. Soon he had shed the life jacket and was snorkeling with confidence from one end of the pool to the other. His Emak (Grandma) brought him a baby wetsuit back from Canada and there was truly no stopping him.

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Sebastian Chan, famed director of short form videos, produced and directed this epic starring Gavin and Hengky Dotulong: An Idiot’s Guide to Baby Wrapping

Haven’t heard of baby wrapping? It’s a form of swaddling, whereby the baby is wrapped (much like a burrito) into a blanket or cloth to make an easily transported bundle (of joy, of course).

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Some Background
It is Indonesian tradition to bury the baby’s placenta. The placenta is seen as the older sibling or twin of the child, and thus it is accorded special care. The thinking goes somewhat like this: the placenta as the twin of the baby will act as its guardian angel as the child goes through life. Thus, the better the care given to the placenta, the more protective it will be. Most Indonesians bury the placenta at home, ensuring that the child will stay close to the family as s/he grows older. Others take the placenta to sea, so that the child’s perspective and thought process will be as deep and as wide as the ocean and that they will travel far. Most Indonesians bury the placenta on the day of the birth, and the job of cleaning, preparing and burying the placenta is strictly the father’s business. Read more … »

Friday the 20th
We went to the doctor for a check-up Friday night, he said everything looked fine but just to make sure he ran a no stress test on the baby. The test came out fine and we were given the green light to go home and wait for another week for the baby to arrive. The doctor asked me if I was walking, and I told a little white lie that I was. Mommy had also been asking me if I was walking, and while I had taken a short stroll around the garden Friday morning, I wasn’t really serious about it yet. Read more … »

Back to the holiday issue… Which ones to celebrate and which to let slip by? I’m into birthdays, but not necessarily my own. Hengky managed to WOW me this time, though, and make me think birthdays are indeed pretty cool after all.

Cool as a cucumber, the 18th passed by with little fanfare. A few text messages, a call from Dad early in the morning, some nice posts on the Kapal Selam message board. But generally a slow day. It was also Gavin’s due date and I was content to sit at home and wait for the contractions to begin (they still haven’t).

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