pinku

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.

Nikko

If you ever have the chance to visit Japan, you should really visit Nikko. I would say the same about Tokyo and Kyoto. Last weekend we visited Nikko with our buddies, C&J. It was my second time, C&J's 3rd time and Daz's 1st time. Our goal was to camp near Lake Yumoto, but after calling and finding out that the campground was only bare bones and that we'd have to take EVERYTHING with us in addition to bad weather conditions, we settled on staying in a small log cabin at Shobugahama Camp Village next to Lake Chuzenji. Much more comfortable for a pregnant woman now in her third trimester!!

I completely recommend staying there. Our log cabin had three tatami mats on the bottom and a loft with another three tatami mats - perfect sleeping conditions for two couples. They provide futons and blankets (except no sheets) so our night spent there was just as comfy as home. Although Claire did say that they loft attracted a multitude of bugs so don't forget your insect repellent. You can also pitch a tent there and there were a lot of choice locations next to the lake, so if you have time I would totally recommend that.

Since it was C&J's 3rd time to Nikko they skipped the shrines and headed straight to Lake Chuzenji where they head out on an epic hike from Ryuzu no Taki to Lake Yumoto with some amazing scenery. You can check out their photos here. In the meantime we headed to the shrines and the weather was really perfect - foggy and cool. It gave the shrines the most freaky kind of atmosphere and all of the heavy fog in the tall majestic cedar trees was spooky and mystical.

That being said, Lake Chuzenji looked even better in the fog. It was a horror story waiting to happen. I was tempted to hop on one of these swan boats but I kept imaging them disappearing into the fog never to be seen again.

the next day we took it easy eating a leisurely breakfast by the lake, visiting Ryuzu no Taki, Kegon waterfalls (after it being completely obliterated by fog the day before), and the shops leading up to the shrines from Nikko station.

and here's a belly pic in front of Ryuzu no Taki at 28 weeks. I'm feeling a lot bigger all of a sudden.

Japanese friends were horrified that I would travel and go camping while pregnant, but it was fine. I got some good exercise and that fresh air was desperately needed. You can see the rest of our Nikko photos here.

Again I truly recommend a trip to Nikko if you haven't been. It's one of the most affordable weekend trips from Tokyo. There are a number of travel passes including the Nikko Free Pass which entitles you to four days travel on the Tobu train to and from Asakusa in Tokyo and you can ride all of the buses in Nikko during that time to for only 4400 yen.

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!!