culturally incompetent

it's tradition here for women to stay in bed (or at least at home) for 40 days after giving birth. since families all live close to each other or together, the woman's mother or mother-in-law does the shopping, cooking, takes the baby to appointments, etc. the woman basically does nothing except rest and take care of the new baby.

this is what i have done since matthias was born:

-worked at paidia's carnival for two nights when matthias was less than a week old....he came with me.

-taken matthias to drs. apointments and blood tests by myself - walked to one, drove to two

-walked hiba to/from daycare while carrying matthias in a baby bjorn - a crazy concept here

-went grocery shopping a couple of times...usually with matthias in his bjorn

-cooked meals and cleaned the house

people here think i'm crazy.

but, my mom will be here in less than a week, so i'll take advantage of that and sleep some and let her cook. :-) too bad she's not staying for 40 days.