Bassinet (摇篮, かご型ベッド, 요람)

In these last few weeks of MJ's pregnancy, we finally caved and bought all the essentials that the baby products industry peddles to all expectant mothers and fathers: at the center of that being the bassinet, French for "little basin" reflecting its appropriate physical shape of a basin, or a really, really small swimming pool: at least the Halo one we got looks like one, with frills on the sides for aesthetic effect even though the baby won't have any idea where she is. It makes for a good picture. Other "must-haves" we've shelled out for include carseat, diaper changing station, babybjorn (a baby carrier), a high chair for baby feeding and as MJ says, letting baby sit while we watch her (babies don't have really good vision so she'll barely know we're there, much less watch us). Of course the minimalist side of me asks when getting all these products, "do we really need everything?" It makes me wonder what people hundreds of years ago did for babies, or even just 200 or 100 years ago. They probably didn't have the most ergonomically sound sleeping arrangements or white noise makers on demand, the most chemically balanced creams for preventing diaper rash, Frida nose pickers, etc. Kids were likely born from their women's womb and given the bare minimum, and getting through infancy was considered a job well done, as it's a battle of attrition due to all the diseases that existed. So close to Thanksgiving Day, it's appropriate for me to give thanks for all of the amenities we DO have. Like one of the basic questions is, how did people get their babies home from the hospital? Did they even have hospitals back in my hypothetical time period I'm comparing to? Back then mothers probably gave birth at home, maybe with a mid-wife, but likely just with a maid or something holding their hand waiting for the baby to be pushed out, and the mother subject to all kinds of risks including death. Little did those mothers know, probably just 200 years or so later, that human beings now can skip the whole process of going into labor process through C-section, have anesthetics to numb the pain, have nurses monitor the baby for any problems right after the C-section, etc. (Of course this is mostly in first-world countries, there are still some areas of the world that this technology does not exist and it's really a shame for humanity that all of these resources aren't extended for all mothers and babies out there). Having a carseat is the epitome of luxury, implying that you have a car, a home to drive your car home to, and being able to transport baby places using that carseat while rocking her to sleep. I really would not have survived in any other time in the history of mankind. When I think about the daunting task of the babies' first few weeks where she won't sleep through the night and neither will MJ and I, that seems difficult but not as difficult as it could be: we have Youtube or the Internet to answer almost any eventuality that might come up, from Tummy time to blowout diapers to burping the baby to doing CPR if needed. It's almost tough to screw it up, and I hope I won't for the baby. And man, just from reading some of the sections about labor that I browsed over because MJ almost certainly won't have to go through labor, thank God for C-sections, or for the scientists who invented C-sections, which isn't really care when the first successful one was, possibly as early as 223 BC. I guess it's pretty intuitive process, the stomach is right there and you know the baby is inside, so just cut! But imagine doing it without use of drugs or anesthetics! Especially since even now, with all of our scientific advancements, C-sections can still take between 45 minutes to an hour. Could any mother actually endure an hour of that without painkillers? (probably not, which is why the mothers undergoing C-sections likely all died). An incision of 6 inches is.... a lot. And THEN they have to sew it back up after that! In a word (that's not crazy), that sounds INCREDIBLY excruciating. By the way, the term Caesarian has nothing to do with Julius Caesar (I had to throw in a trivia fact) but for the Latin term "caedare," to cut. As the dad, I wish I could do more! But will willingly do the skin-to-skin contact that is needed after the C-section in place of mom because baby needs the touch of human skin,