Half finished project (with photos)!

Wow I'm back from Australia and it's nearly June - this year is just flying by. I haven't been posting much lately and I'm not sure why but I've been working on a big project and that might have something to do with it. It's half-finished now so I can share some photos...

BTW, it's not really knitting related....although the knits will be following

Project Dudley (that's what we have been calling the embryo/fetus/baby, although I'm pretty sure we won't be sticking with this name)

Yep I'm pregnant. I can hardly believe it - 20 weeks later! We conceived the baby accidentally on purpose if you know what I mean. I ran out of the pill and one thing leads to another so to speak. So the last four and a half months of my life have involved the following:

book reading (thanks Angie!) although it has been quite limited. I totally overloaded on pregnancy-related information on the internet during the 1st trimester and that was my biggest mistake. I had a hard time emotionally and had convinced myself something terrible was going to happen. There are LOTS of sad stories on the internet. My morning sickness was not too bad. I constantly felt nauseous and dizzy but never threw up. I was tired a lot and burst into tears a number of times for no reason at traffic lights. My morning sickness finally abated at about 14/15 weeks and I felt like a new person. So much renewed energy. I could go finally go shopping. Although not for baby goods, I was still too superstitious.

Another pregnant lady at work gave me this badge. It's not the official Tokyo Metro one, but one that is given out by our health insurance company. I wear it on my bag to work. At 15 weeks people started standing up for me on the train. I find that older people are much more aware of my 'condition' and are more than eager to give up their seats even though I'm not about to take the seats of people who need to sit down more than me. Young people are the worst especially young working men - they always pretend to be asleep and wouldn't think about giving up their seat.

Here is my mother and baby book that is given out by the city where you live in Japan. I felt like a real pregnant person with a valid pregnancy once I got my book. You can collect one from the city hall once they confirm your baby's heartbeat. They had an english version but the Japanese version was much cuter so I opted for the Japanese one.

And here are just a few of the EIGHT ultrasounds I've had during the first half of my pregnancy. My pregnancy has been pretty textbook so far, but the Japanese love to give you ultrasounds. Since I haven't been pregnant before I just followed their advice, but next time I don't think I would have this many. It made me worry more sometimes. Especially in the early, early stages.

So that's my big news. Unfortunately after I got pregnant I didn't want to do anything at all, especially knitting so it has fallen by the wayside. I have a couple of projects in mind though so hopefully my knitting mojo will be on the road to recovery soon. Congrats to all the other expectant crafty ladies out there!! I know of a couple of others but they haven't made their blog announcements yet so I'll keep mum. And a big congrats to Erin and JD who just welcomed their bundle of joy - Flynn into the world.

We'll be having the baby in Tokyo, so that'll be an experience in itself. I'm worried of course - mainly about the cultural differences. My doctor has already kind of 'shown great surprise' at the size of my belly compared with Japanese women, but that's the least of my worries.

Oh and you want to see a belly shot. Do you think I look big for 20 weeks? I think I look thick - ha! I like how my butt has grown in equal proportions to my belly (in sympathy perhaps??).