It's been over a year since I wrote anything on this thing. There are a few of reasons for this, but in all honesty, it is mainly because I generally don't like to write... well, anything really. Emails, blogs, reports for work, you name it, if it involves writing, I generally put it off to the last possible minute... or not do it at all.
However, I've been wanting to write things down lately, since soooo much has happened the past year and so much is going to happen in the next. So, as a New Year resolution of sorts, I will aim to post at least once a week. 52 posts for 52 weeks. Let's start...
This week's post is about catching up with the past.
87 Days to Go
Probably the biggest news that I want to share with you, if you don't already know, is that I'm pregnant. And not just "OMG-the-stick-turned-positive" pregnant, but as in "less-than-3-months-to-go" pregnant.
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| Picture from late November (22nd week): From the left side, arm curled up to hide the face, folded in half, toes almost touching the forehead. Acrobatic this one. |
DH and I found out late July and I'm due around April 2nd. We don't know for certain if we're having a boy or a girl yet, but during the appointment the above picture was taken, the doctor tried to check and gave us a "maybe a girl" answer. Because my primary care provider is a midwife (the doctor is only a back up), we haven't had the opportunity to check/confirm since that time (as there's no ultrasound machine at the birth center), but hopefully we'll be able to get a better answer in a couple of weeks.
As for spreading the news and why this might be a surprise, we told our parents about the pregnancy pretty early on, but we have been working tirelessly to keep it a secret from our friends in New York so we can tell them personally when we visited over the holidays. The surprise went really well, many couldn't believe we were able to keep it a secret with Facebook and all, and I think everyone was really happy for us. We got a lot of really nice things for the baby from many of our friends and especially from our families, and we're really grateful for it all! Everyone was just so kind and amazing, I have no words for it really, other than thank you!
About the pregnancy itself, it's been pretty standard. The first trimester was hard because of the constant nausea (whoever came up with the term "morning sickness" was an idiot... (>.<)# ), food aversions, etc. DH was a trooper though, and I can't thank him enough for putting up with me during that time, especially when situations like me suggesting something he could make for dinner that I think I could eat just to completely reject it sometimes even before it was done, was an almost daily occurrence. Frustrated as I know he was, he kept calm, rarely complained, encouraged me and felt my miserableness full-heartedly... after all that, I can honestly say, if there was a "World's Best Husband" award, he should be the one receiving it!
The second trimester has been great! We were able to go and visit Kyoto early November, which was really relaxing and fun! We even did the whole walking route of Fushimi Inari!
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| Fushimi Inari - One of the many Kyoto pictures where I tried not to look pregnant. |
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| ...and one at Kiyomizudera, which was deliberately kept off from Facebook. |
Being pregnant has been pretty awesome so far, with a lot of surprises and few annoyances. Feeling the baby kicking is just pure joy. Nothing like it really. Hopefully the third trimester will be pretty standard as well, with all its ups and few of its downs.
New York, New York
It's no secret that I spent half my life living in New York City, and that I haven't been back since I came to Japan. But since DH was going to turn 30 this past December and he wanted to celebrate this occasion with his friends and family, we decided to save up and spend the holidays in New York City. We left Japan and arrived in NYC on the 21st, after a good 20-22 hours of traveling (hour and half to Hiroshima Airport, hour and half flight to Narita Airport, 15 hours flight to NYC, and all the waiting times). While it was a long flight, it wasn't unpleasant. ANA was one of the best flights I've been on, and I've flown a lot.
The highlights of this trip were quite a lot, so I'll just sum it up quickly. There was no reverse culture shock for me, it felt like nothing has changed, like NYC was on a pause while I was away. No surprise there really. Seeing our family and friends was amazing and though I'm sad I didn't get to see a couple of our closest friends, I'm glad we were able to meet up and spend time with most of them.
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| A Family Christmas |
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| Together on New Year's Eve |
We also did a lot of shopping, especially for maternity clothes, yarn for baby projects, and foods we missed. We flew back on the 4th, arriving on the 5th (time zone change and all) much more tired then expected, as our NYC-Tokyo flight back with Continental Airlines was no where near as good as much worse than when we flew with ANA. (Note to self: Never, EVER, flight Continental EVER again.) Overall the trip was really good, but we were so busy with errands to run and people to see, that we're both glad we have four days at home to ourselves before I have to return to work.
Now if you'll excuse me, there's still plenty of things I need to put away before I can get into my bed again for the night. To be continued...
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