pinku

Already??

My three months of Jake post is way overdue. Amazing milestones have occurred like.....you know....rolling over....pulling on mama's hair....marilyn monroe-esque cute cooing....giggles....and jake has discovered girls....oh my.

Two months of Jake

Happy Birthday Jake! You are 10 weeks old today!

During the past six weeks since my last update there have been a lot of noteworthy events in your life. Before you turned six weeks old we gave you your first bottle of expressed milk and have given you a bottle or two every week since. You have had absolutely no trouble switching between breast and bottle, which is a relief since I had been worried about that.

Before your seven week birthday you took your first international flight from Tokyo to Brisbane, Australia. We were a bit worried how things would go but you loved your little baby bassinet on the plane and charmed all of the older Japanese ladies on board. Your dad and I even managed to watch a whole movie without you waking up!! You have now met the Australian side of your family and it has been great having the support and love of our family nearby. I hope you don't mind but we left you in the capable hands of your Aunty Neen for the night so we could go to our friend Martine's birthday party and we even got a little bit drunk - yay!

One of the most exciting developments has been watching you fall into a schedule of sorts. As soon as we landed in Australia you started going to bed around 7pm and sleeping through until 1 or 2am. You still wake up a couple of times in the night but they are usually short and sweet and it's not difficult getting you back to sleep.

Oh and did I mention the smiles. You are a  happy baby who is not shy about sharing his smiles. It seriously makes our day. Everyone comments how cute you are and how alert you are for your age. It has really been a pleasure to watch you grow these first ten weeks. We weighed you at the baby store a couple of days ago and you have been consistently gaining about 30 grams a day and you now weigh in at 6290 grams. You are strong, especially your legs and neck. You hold your head up easily. BTW, your saliva glands have kicked in and you slobber everywhere - it's cute. Also now you do all of that cute baby talk that you hear about before you have a baby!! You really do say 'ah-goo'.

You have been a champion when it comes to dealing with the summer heat even though this summer has been much cooler than usual. Last week  we celebrated your first Christmas and man did you clean up!! Presents galore. You also had your photo taken with Santa for the first time, but you were fast asleep!!

If you are wondering what contraption you are sitting in....it's nanna and poppy's laundry basket lined with Uncle Chris's sheepskin from when he was a baby. Although I had my doubts, you love it and fall asleep for nanna and poppy every time.

Jake, your dad and I can't wait to watch you grow up, but at the same time we are trying to savour these moments when you are so  small and fit snugly in our arms. You are already showing signs that you'll be rolling over before long (scary thought), so if you can slow it down a little because we love our little baby. I think I've covered most of the biggest developments we've seen over the past six weeks and that brings us to the end of 2007. It'll always be a special year for me because it was the year you came into our lives and changed them for the better. Always remember that we love you so much it hurts!

Jake's Birth Story

Wow where do I start? Going from being pregnant to becoming a mum happened so quickly (relatively) after waiting for so long. Thank you all so much for your congratulations. We are completely in love with our newborn, Jake Taiga (aka Dudley - I found myself calling him just that for most of the first week - whoops) and are doing pretty well all things considered. This whole pregnancy, birth, baby experience has proven to me how amazing mother nature really is. By the time you are ready to give birth, you are sick of being pregnant and before you have any time to reflect on how tough labour and delivery really was, mother nature presents you with a little baby that needs all of your attention. Forget having any time to reflect on the pain....except for maybe the day after. I'd really like to share Jake's birth story because I love reading everyone else's birth stories and of course for myself and Jake when he gets older.

So how did Project Dudley come to completion?? Click if you want the gory details.

At one week overdue on Saturday October 20 I woke up at about 5:30 am  with a feeling that my water had broken. I wasn't completely sure especially since I wasn't having any contractions but after a trip to the toilet I was pretty certain what had happened. Finally I felt that we had some action I was so excited I started shaking and woke Darin up. I called the clinic and they said to come in to be checked out but since I wasn't having any contractions they said we may have to go home. We called a taxi and headed to our clinic with our big backpack full of supplies. After arriving they put a fetal monitor on me and the baby was doing well but still no contractions. They showed us to a room on the third floor (there are eight rooms in total) and told us to wait in there for two hours to see if contractions would start. We both went to sleep but two hours later still no contractions so the doctor came back and said that we could go home, but to come back the next morning at 8am for another check up.

So we left our big backpack at the clinic and headed home after stuffing down breakfast at McDonalds!! I was in no pain at all at this point but my waters continued to break.....(TMI?) We went about our day as normal but knew that our baby would be here in the next couple of days regardless. The process had begun and we were excited. However I woke up the next morning on Sunday October 21st and still I had no contractions. I felt disappointed and started to worry that I would need to be induced since most doctors won't let you go more than 48 hours after your water has broken. We headed back to the clinic once again and was put on the fetal monitor. It showed that I was having a few very weak contractions but I could barely notice them myself. The doctor said that they may even go away and he asked whether I would like to be induced then and there. I really didn't want to go through labour hooked up to an IV, so we decided to wait another 24 hours and if labour hadn't started by then we would come in to be induced the next morning. I really didn't want to put my baby at risk.

Once again they said we could go home so this time we decided to walk home and be much more proactive about getting our labour going. The walk from the clinic to home takes about 40 minutes, so we decided to pop into Martine's place for coffee and breakfast and to have a break. Little did we know that Martine would capture a large chunk of Jake's birth day on film!!!! Thanks love!

At this point I called my sister and she told me to get serious about getting labour started and she said that walking was good but climbing stairs was even better. At this point I was having really mild contractions - I could barely notice them. So after a lovely breakfast (thanks Martine), we all set off for a walk. Little did we know that Jake would be arriving that night and that I'd be wearing the exact same dress in that photo when delivering.

I walked up and down hills and chanting some rubbish about 'bring on the pain', 'the more pain the better' etc....um little did I know that the pain would soon arrive.

I also climbed the stairs two at a time at Mitakadai station like five times. I told passersby that my baby would be arriving today.

I was determined to go into labour. I seriously didn't want to be induced especially considering there is absolutely no pain relief available at the clinic.

By the time we made it to the park near our house I felt pretty tired and I started to feel myself focus more inwards. We said goodbye to Martine and started the final walk home.

After we got home and I decided to take a long hot shower. After the shower I really didn't feel that great so I called the clinic and they suggested that we have lunch, see how I feel and then come back to the clinic. I didn't feel like eating at all so we called up a taxi and head back to the clinic. It was about 2pm at that point. They showed us to Room 25 and brought me a foot warmer thingy filled with water. We didn't know at that time but the delivery room, which can cater for two women, was full and that four babies would be born that day and there were three born the day before. Then they put the fetal monitor on me and it showed I was having regular contractions. At that point I wasn't in pain but definitely felt myself turn inwards. After this they showed us back to our room and brought Darin and I a variety of props for labour such as pillows, bean bags and an exercise ball. I have no concept of time from this point onwards. All I remember is that at some point it was daylight outside and the next thing I know it's nighttime. Darin says that things seemed to get really painful for me around 4pm. The contractions came in waves with shorter and shorter intervals, but sometimes it felt like there was no interval at all. I remember screaming quite a bit and at some point a midwife came in as she could tell I was getting a little hysterical so she had me refocus on breathing which did help. I had constant back pain and here I have to give a massive shout out to the most amazing husband ever who managed to rub my back for nine hours straight and helped me breathe through every single contraction. I can remember him encouraging me the whole time, telling me that each contraction would bring us closer to meeting our baby.

I remember that it hurt a lot, I remember screaming quite a bit and loudly, but it really is a completely surreal time and I'm having trouble explaining how I felt or how I even remember it. I can remember not wanting to lie down at all, which made my legs really tired. I was either kneeling on the bed over a gigantic bean bag, standing at the side of the bed leaning over the bean bag or on all fours on the floor leaning over the bean bag. So I guess the bean bag played a big role in my labour. I remember being really hot and sweaty even though it was quite a cool night. I remember burying my face in the bean bag and my hair getting all matted....I can only imagine how I looked.

I had some ideas of how I wanted the birth to go, but when push came to shove, I really didn't care about much apart from birthing a healthy baby. I had wanted a water birth but since nearly 48 hours had passed since my water broke that wasn't a possibility and I thought I'd be more disappointed. I thought I would be naked but clothes didn't distract me at all.

So at some point while I was labouring in our room, I felt the urge to use the toilet so Darin got a break and the midwives took me to the loo and it was in there that I made the best progress yet. Ha! I can remember that one of the midwives smelt like cigarette smoke and that kind of grossed me out and I also remember that I thought the air freshener looked particularly phallic. Mind you I was having big contractions at this point and I didn't think I'd ever be able to leave that toilet stall. The midwives eventually convinced me to walk to the delivery room, which was only about 10 metres away, so they could examine me. To my delight and surprise I was fully dilated and it was time to push.

I thought this part might be more enjoyable but when I pushed I got the worst lower back pain immediately afterwards. I was scared to push because of the pain and needed a lot of encouragement at this point. I told the midwife not to leave me and I can remember cracking jokes like 'I guess this is going to take another week' etc. The midwives assured me at this point that I would have my baby in my arms in 45 minutes to an hour. I didn't believe them. So they started me out on my back but I immediately told them that wouldn't work for me so then we tried pushing while leaning over a bean bag. This also wasn't very effective for me so they brought out a birthing stool. This really worked for me and at this point I realized we were close to the end so I really started pushing with all of the energy I had left and was getting two or three really big pushes with each contraction. When we got to two or three pushes before Jake's head crowning they suggested I move back onto the delivery table so they could deal with any possible complications better such as stuck shoulders since he was a big baby. So I hopped back on the table sitting in an upright position and the midwives gathered  all of the post delivery equipment and called the doctor to the room. Wow, it really hit us then that the baby was really coming.

I gave it my all in those last couple of pushes. The midwives told me to look forward at them, put my chin down and push as hard as I could without screaming. The most amazing moment of the whole labour was the last push when I totally felt Jake's head and body sliding/being pushed out the birth canal - wow! Once his head had been birthed they told me to stop pushing and put my hands together (not sure why). I was fully shaking at this point and beyond exhaustion. The whole time I could hear Darin cheering me on. At this point the midwife (Watanabe-san) pulled the rest of Jake out of me and he was born.

I thought I would be really emotional considering I cry when I read everyone else's birth stories but to tell you the truth I was too worn out. Darin said he shed a tear and since then I've shed so many tears that I think it makes up for not shedding any at his birth. I feel myself tearing up now though because I'm just so happy that the labour and his birth all went well with no complications. Jake scored 10/10 for his Apgar score at both one minute and five minutes. We were so glad to have a big, strong healthy baby. He has since proven that he has very healthy lungs (cough, cough).

I was so relieved when it was all over that I really couldn't believe it. Jake was born at the stroke of 11 on Sunday the 21st of October and we spent the next hour and a half in the delivery room. I had to be stitched up (he was nearly 10 pounds after all) and the doctor did a great job. I felt nothing at all at this point and even called my sister on the delivery table while being stitched up. I remember asking Darin to bring me chocolate and some water. It seems Jake's placenta was quite big but the umbilical cord was short so they had to cut it so I could breastfeed straight away. I think he stayed on the boob for like 45 minutes. I knew he'd be a good eater.

We spent a total of five nights at the Toyoshima Maternity Clinic, which is the normal length of a stay - you stay longer if you've had a C-section, and it was a wonderful way to start your new life as a family. There are eight private rooms (no shared rooms) at the clinic and they provide sofa beds in the rooms for new dads to sleep on. I was brought three meals a day and this clinic is  somewhat rare in that they provide only vegetarian meals - absolutely no meat or fish. I'm not vegetarian but I thought that if someone cooked vegetarian meals for me everyday then I totally could be. On the day after I had no real appetite which was strange but I think my body was in complete shock. Every muscle in my body ached.....literally. It's amazing how quickly the body recovers though and how the mind forgets the true intensity of labour pain. Two weeks later we are so overwhelmed with trying to feed and take care of this small baby that the memory of that day is fading fast. It really is funny how quickly your life can change from enjoying a leisurely two hour pedicure to being so proud of this mini human because he did a gigantic poo.

Still with belly....

I should have known that my son would take his time to arrive on the scene. It's ok though I'm only two days past my due date so far, so that's not too bad. I have to go and see the doctor in a couple of days to see how dudley is doing, but I hope he comes in the next couple of days. There is only one lady checked into the maternity clinic right now so if we were to have the baby, we'd pretty much have the place to ourselves...that'd be nice.

So now I feel completely in limbo. I went and bought some labour-inducing massage oil today....but no results yet. We will be doing everything to avoid any kind of artificial induction.

I finished the Bella baby pants and am really happy with the result. I think they might be a little too warm though - they are thick. I added some embroidered felt patches on the knee using a couple of Jenny Hart's awesome Sublime Stitching embroidery patterns. I also decided to forgo the knitted i-cord drawstring for a cute shoelace and also went with seed stitch leg cuffs so you can adjust the length of the pants. Definitely recommend the pattern - cute baby pants that knit up quickly.

We also got in some baby practice. Our friend Kyoko came to visit with her 10-month old baby, So-kun. We can only hope that Dudley will be just as cute with an equally sweet disposition. He's gorgeous and will make you want a baby.....if you don't already have one.

The calm before the storm

The belly is at maximum capacity. It can't get any bigger. Surely. There are two days until Dudley's official due date. Did I tell you they are estimating his weight at around 4.5 kilos...nearly 10 pounds...

I'm so ready to move on to the next stage. It's been wonderful having four weeks of relaxing, baking, doing 'lunch', getting massages, pedicures, my hair done and not working but I'm ready to move on. I really want to meet Dudley and if he stays in there much longer he'll have more knitted clothes than any other baby I know of. They are coming off the needles at a fast pace right now. I'm keen to knit this vest from a new Japanese knitting book for myself, but I need to adjust the pattern and with this gigantic belly....it's just not possible.

So what have I been knitting?! Well baby clothes of course. I started the Knitty blu jeans in July people and finished the knitting part of the project in a couple of days but the finishing was daunting so I just put the pieces away. Last week I finally washed the pieces to shrink them and bought some elastic for the waist and sat down and seamed those darned jeans. They turned out pretty darned cute!

The back

Close up of the tag....it says Bendallok...a combination of my last name and Daz's

Another cute project that I just HAD to make were these cute baby overalls that I found in the Australian Creative Knitting Annual from 2004.

Here is my version in green

I used some soft Japanese merino yarn in green and they will definitely keep Dudley warm in the winter. Here's the back:

I used some furoshiki covered buttons that I bought at a great furoshiki shop in Harajuku (it's at the bottom of the Ukiyo-e Museum).

Ooh and then I discovered the Thrifty Knitter's baby vest pattern, Pebble and decided that I definitely wanted to make it. I wanted to use the one ball of Rowan felted tweed that I had in my stash but I knew it wouldn't be enough yarn to complete the vest so I had to do it in two colours which meant having to knit the vest up a little differently. I did it pretty much the same but had to pick up stitches for the button borders. I also added some bendall robot embroidery because I felt inspried.

The vest is one piece that opens at one shoulder and the side. Here is a photo of it open:

I had a little bit of yarn left over so I also made a matching baby beanie but it's TINY (photographed with a tiny cotton newborn beanie which looks big next to my beanie). I don't think any son of mine will have a head that small even as a newborn....oh well.

I've also finished a pair of these Bella Knitting baby pants but have yet to take a photo. And I think this baby viking hat will be next on my list as well as a pair of matching socks for Dudley and myself.Ok so that's my craft round up of the past few weeks. I would like to write a summary of what it's been like to be pregnant in Japan (not that I really know what it's like to be pregnant anywhere else), but we'll see if Dudley gives me any more FREE time. Off to eat breakfast now and pysche myself up.....hopefully my next post will include details of my most amazing FO ever.

Dudley in action

Hey I'm still here people and I'm still pregnant (38.5 weeks). I have some knitting to show you but will have to take the photos tomorrow. I quickly wanted to share a video I took recently of my belly in action. I wanted to edit it and make it shorter since all the action occurs in the first 20 seconds, but didn't know how. So feel free to stop the video after 20 seconds unless you'd like to watch my belly and listen to the movie we were watching (can you tell what it was??).

Dudley in action from kat on Vimeo.

Showered and so happy!

Thank you all so much for your suggestions in the last post. I reread the comments many times and I think we are nearly organized...um, sort of.  I have the mental list prepared and we have nappies and wipes so if he comes early we have the basic items ready. Darin and I also took a breastfeeding and parenting class which was very insightful and helpful too. My last day at work was last Friday and since it has been a long weekend, it still hasn't sunken in that I don't have to go to work tomorrow or any other day that matter for the next six or so months. Really??!! That feels great.

Dudley is getting bigger and heavier and has been experiencing hiccups pretty often...now that's cute. Evidence of the growing is shown in photos below.

36 weeks, baby.

and the next photo is courtesy of Martine! Beware - it showcases a lot of belly!

but look....I can still see my toes

Yesterday our sweet friend Martine hosted a baby shower for dudley, darin and I. We had a great time spending the hot, hot afternoon with friends enjoying good food and conversation with friends. We also scored some pretty amazing stuff for dudley and darin was lucky enough to score a superdad tshirt (shown in photo below) from C&J.....he hasn't taken it off since he got it!

You can see other photos from the shower on Frangipani.

And seriously I have been knitting, but I haven't fully completed anything apart from these great booties. Does anyone need another reason to have a baby??!!

Converse booties
Pattern by Brooklyn Handmade. Made using Cascade Fixation and Pima Tencel.

7 weeks and 3 days to go....

That's 52 days, which kinda sounds like a lot and at the same time nothing at all.

First a shout out to new mother and all round rocking crafty gal Pinn (also one of the founding Tokyo SNB members) who had her baby girl, Mari in Thailand on 15 August. Congrats to Pinn and Seimi!! I can't wait for you guys to visit Tokyo!!

I've decided though that I need to get organized sooner rather than later. Preparations have begun. We bought a combo chest of drawers/change table from Ikea and Darin is working on some cute animal decorations to keep Dudley amused while being changed. We also have quite a lot of baby clothes, which still need to be washed (do you need special washing detergent?). I also bought a 2nd hand rocking chair on the weekend. It is so nice to finally have a chair and be off the floor sometimes....western people who live on tatami will know what I mean.

So I need some advice from all you mothers out there. What else do I need to buy? Or what items did you find useful or a waste of money in those first few weeks. I think I'll be buying disposable nappies from Costco - how many do you need?? As you see I have a lot of questions.  We don't have a lot of space so I don't want to overbuy, but I also don't want to be stuck without essentials as we don't have a car and can't just pop out to get stuff like in the western world especially in those first few weeks.

my tentative list: nappies, wipes, some kind of cream?, baby bath, breast pump?, baby sling/baby bjorn, some kind of rocker thing?, some kind of magic bin that keeps bad poo smells on the inside... Hmm, that's all about I can think of right now. Help, please.

30 weeks + 3 days

Holy moly time is flying. Thanks for your well wishes for Sugar! We've taken her back to the vet and he seems to think it could be cancer, but I'm not convinced. He said there is surgery they can do but it is risky for small animals with only a 30% success rate. That is just too low. We just wish her leg wound would heal up - it's heartbreaking to see a gaping bloody hole in your guinea pig's leg/rump. She is acting pretty normal, though she isn't nearly as active as usual - this also might have something to do with the fact that it has been 34 degrees everyday for the last week. Pigs don't do well in the heat.....just like pregnant women. Ha!

So I'm 30 weeks and I'm feeling it baby. I have some back pain when sitting at my desk for long periods of time, but the worst is the hip pain I get when sleeping on my side. We've added another futon but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Apart from that though I feel pretty good and have just been taking it easy. I walk slowly. We've bought a couple of baby items and their physical presence in our apartment was shocking at first - we really are going to have a baby!! I'm at my happiest now when swimming at the gym. I never want to get out of that pool. I'll be sad when I have to quit the gym at either the end of August or middle of September when my maternity leave begins (my gym is near my work). Luckily I'm pretty much only working four day weeks now and get to finish at 4:30pm. It is very helpful in avoiding rush hour crowds on the trains. Ok, it's 4:28pm now so it's time to leave work.

Bigger belly

I'm finding that I have a lot more stains on the belly portion of my clothes. Did I drop this much food before and did it fall to the floor? My belly is so big now that it catches food that falls from my mouth. That seems to happen a lot and it's pretty embarassing to be brushing crumbs off your belly after each meal.

In other belly news, my mother notified me yesterday that when she was pregnant with my 5lb something sister, her belly grew to a circumference of TWO METRES. Holy crap!

That's the bad news. The good news is that even at that size she didn't get stretch marks on her belly.

Baby love

So when I was back in Australia, my sister threw me a little baby shower. It was great even though I was only 19 weeks pregnant. It was mainly for my family since I won't see them before I give birth here in Japan. All of the presents were awesome, but one of the stand out gifts was a hand-knit clown by my great aunty Joyce. She is an amazing crafter who is very prolific and makes things that I would never think about making and wouldn't know where to start even if I had the idea.

Clowny even has separate hand knitted pants!! Thanks Aunty Joyce!

So I've been on a bit of a baby knitting roll and luckily I had clowny around to model for me. First I knit up the simple raglan cardigan from Debbie Bliss's Simple Knits for Babies. It was a quick knit (three days) and it was really fun. I'm worried that I'll never want to knit a full-size adult garment ever again. I also added some cute skull embroidery.

close up of embroidery

the cardigan is pretty small and I'm really hoping Dudley isn't a 10 pound baby especially since there'll be no pain relief on offer when I give birth and also because I'd love to see him wear this cardie even just for a couple of weeks!!

I also made the sailboat hat from Itty Bitty Hats in the 0 to 6 month size. I had some leftover Rowan Denim from the Knitty Blu pattern and used it to make this hat.

here's clowny modelling both knits.

I also knit up two pairs of Better-Than-Bootie-Socks from Interweave Knits.

You can see the cable details better when clowny is modelling

These socks were fiddly to knit. You use up just as much energy to knit these as you would adult socks. Don't get me wrong I think they are super cute and I know these will definitely keep dudley's feet warm. They just weren't that much fun to knit. I'll probably make another couple of pairs because they are sure to be better than anything you could buy in a shop!!

Click for pregnancy update with photo! Not sure everyone is that interested in seeing my growing bump!!

So on the weekend I reached 26 weeks. It's all pretty exciting but I kind of can't believe that I still have 14 weeks to go. This goes both ways - it seems like a long time to be bigger and heavier and it also seems way too short a time before we have a newborn around the house. Are you kidding me? I guess you can never be fully ready. Both Darin and I are reading baby books and watching baby care videos and we are also booked in to take a child CPR and first aid course.

I kind of forget sometimes that not everyone is used to talk about labor and birthing a baby. I had a Japanese friend come around to watch our 19 week ultrasound on dvd the other day. I fast forward through most of it as it's 45 minutes long. Anyway then I started pulling out other baby related stuff to show her. Most of it was fine - cute knitted baby clothes, etc, but I made the mistake of showing her the book about the Bradley method. It contains some pretty graphic photos. I like looking at them and imagining myself in that situation for mental preparation, but she slammed the book shut as if I'd shown her some really dirty porn. She wasn't quite ready for those images just yet....so sorry yoshi!

Dudley is moving around a lot which is mostly comforting and entertaining. My belly is definitely bigger and my belly button is on the verge of disappearance. It's mostly flat now but not poking out. Most people think that I'm due to give birth any day now - am I really that big? I know not to compare bumps with other ladies (especially tiny Japanese ones), but I truly don't feel that big. That's why I'm shocked when people think I'm ginormous. Anyway here's a photo. This outfit is getting pretty tight - don't think I'll be able to squeeze it over my belly for much longer.

me at 26 weeks

It's weird when someone inside you is telling you your clothes are too tight!

Guess what?! I have been knitting for reals. I even have an FO for you, but not today as I haven't taken photos yet. Baby knitting rules. So quick. So cute. I really had absolutely NO desire to knit until a couple of weeks ago but now I feel like my knitting mojo is back. Thank goodness.

So I'm 23.5 weeks pregnant, and Dudley kicked me almost constantly yesterday. I thought it was weird until I realized that the band on my maternity jeans was too tight for him. I moved the band and the kicking slowed down. It really is kind of weird when a little person inside of you is telling you your clothes are too tight. As a result I'm wearing very loose fitting clothing. Thanks for the heads up Dudley!

Here is a pic of me at 22 weeks.

It's getting a little heavier and it's harder to do my shoes up bending forward. I used to wake up and my belly would be pretty much flat and then get bigger at night, but now it's big all the time. We can even see Dudley kicking my stomach now - cute! Apart from feeling heavier and slower though, I feel great! It's hot in Tokyo right now and a lot of people have comisserated with me about how tough it is to be pregnant through a Japanese summer, but to tell you the truth I prefer it. Like I need a big coat and heavy shoes on top of this belly/body!!! It's flip flops and summer dresses all the way for me. While I was back in Australia I thought I'd pick up some maternity clothes, but there were NONE. I couldn't believe it. I mean there are maternity shops but the clothes are outrageously overpriced and ugly!!!! And there are a couple of cute stores but they are just EXPENSIVE. So I ended up buying lots of tunic tops to wear with leggings and I also bought men's Rugger shorts from Target in the size 2XL!!!! These are my favourite. They are pefect for pregnant women because they are made for men with skinny legs but gigantic beer bellies.

So hopefully I'll have some FO photos for you tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Strong kicker!

Wow Dudley just kicked me so hard that I jumped out of my seat at work. It didn't really hurt, but it was surprising and startling. He was really quiet this morning and I got a little worried, so I started poking my belly and he moved around a little, but a couple of this afternoon's kicks are BIG! Clearly making his presence felt. It could also be a reaction to the Snickers bar that I shoved down my throat 30 minutes ago.

I can't wait for tonight - our very last night of T and the rest of his gang......

It was also my baby daddy's birthday last week. Our celebration was low-key on the day (I baked oatmeal, cranberry and walnut cookies - his favourite), but we turned it up a notch yesterday by drinking ourselves silly with a bunch of friends at our favourite drinking hole in Kichijoji. Of course my selection of drinks was limited to orange juice, soda water and because I felt a little risque - coke!! I even felt a little drunk afterwards...sort of. The power of the mind is amazing.

Photos to follow.

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??).