pregnancy series

22 weeks! a week has gone by so quick as we approach the end of the year. I can’t believe we are just a week away from Christmas.
Before I got pregnant, I never really wore tunic type dresses. I preferred a style with waist cinched. But when I saw this tunic dress with cute crochet detail for mere 300 yen(3 bucks!) at a thrift store, I had to take it home with me. It’s so comfortable, and great for daily wear with warm leggings(maternity leggings! oh boy these things are super comfy), socks and boots.
I barely see my own toes because the belly gets on the way:p
It’s been so cold here lately – it has not snowed yet, but really cools down in the morning and night. I’ve been making a lot of vegetable soups to warm myself up. This one above is my favorite. I heard the recipe on radio, but ended up modifying a lot.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
– half a Daikon (Japanese radish)
– some spinach
– 1 vegetable stock cube
– 1 table spoon of soy sauce
– 1-2 umeboshi (Japanese salted plum)
– 600ml water
– salt and pepper

Direction:
– grind half of Daikon, and cut up the rest to 5mm cubes
– add all the ingredients to pot, bring it to boil

That’s it! So easy and spinach has a lot of folic acid you need for the baby<3 You can add carrots or tofu if you'd like.

21 weeks! My husband took some photos of my growing belly when I was in my camisole, and I think these photos really show the size of my belly. It’s growing a lot and I felt that the center of my balance shifted a bit when I stand or walk. It’s getting harder to run now because of the extra weight, my shins hurt. I try to run daily because that’s what I did before I got pregnant and the doctor said it’s okay to continue what I did before, as long as I feel good about it. Although it’s harder to run now, the benefit to running is too great (great stress relief and I sleep very well at night) not to continue.

Thank you so much for the encouraging comments for my last post. I was surprised to know that many of you had experienced similar things (unsolicited comments and advise) during your pregnancy as well. After reading the comments, I decided that it was really not worth worrying about it, and I should enjoy the time with my baby right now. It is too precious to be bothered by other things, and I will try my best to brush off the unwanted comments and advise:) Again, thank you all<3 I went to a doctor’s visit this Wednesday, and it went well. The baby weights about 500 grams now, and healthy. Such a relief! I was really anxious to go because I was supposed to find out the baby’s gender. But again, the doctor could not find out, because the baby’s legs were on the way, and he/she wasn’t moving much during ultrasound! The baby needs to be cooperative next time! My next visit is in early January, so I have another long month of waiting time:( During my time in NY, my friend gave me Booda Organics‘ body butter. I love this product! It is a butter, but when you press the butter in your palms, it turns to body oil. It smells wonderful (chocolate!) and moisturizing. It’s not only for preventing stretch marks, but can be used for basically anything, from wrinkle, cracks, dry skin, dry lips…etc. It’s really great and I think I’m going to order another one when I’m done with this one.

20 weeks! I’m a bit late on this week’s post, but I’m happy that I’m at the half way point of my pregnancy. It went so quick, and I feel as though the second half will go quicker. I can’t believe I will be holding a baby in less than 5 months!

This week I received a package from my father-in-law in the States, a package full of baby goods:) Blankets, clothes, “I love grandpa” bib..etc. It was so sweet! I can’t wait to decorate the nursery with them. I felt bad though, because the shipping fee was very expensive ($50!).

I’ve been feeling the baby’s kicks every day this week. This has been the best part of my pregnancy so far! I love feeling the baby move. When I first started feeling the move, it felt as though I was keeping a small gold fish in my belly. Now that the baby got bigger, if feels more like I have an eel in my belly..I know, it’s not a lovely image, but I feel that way!

Before I started to feel the move, I often worried whether I was really pregnant. I had no morning sickness, and things really didn’t change much for the first couple of months in my pregnancy, so I sometimes forgot that I was pregnant. I like that the baby reminds me that I’m pregnant now by his kicks!

I don’t want to be completely negative here, but I will be honest, the worst part of my pregnancy is the changing body image. I didn’t expect to receive so many comments from people about how I look once I got pregnant, and I wasn’t ready for it. Just so you know, I’m not talking about comments left on my blog, rather, comments from people in real life. I don’t mind people telling me my belly has grown. But I’ve also received some comments about my thighs and butts getting bigger, I’m too big for 5 months, or too small for 5 months. And I try not to worry or care about it much, but it’s hard not too. I just wonder why people can’t keep their comments to themselves…

Not only some people around me, but also some nurses at the hospital I go to like to bust my balls. I love and hate going to the hospital at the same time. I love because I get to see the baby with ultrasound, but I hate it because nurse comes around to check and comment on how I’m doing with weight gain. According to her, I’m only allowed to gain 8kg through out the pregnancy, because if I gain more than 8kg, the baby will hard time coming out because of the fat or something. And last time, she nagged me for gaining too much already. Well, I gained 2 kg at 4 months point, which I didn’t think it was terrible. But the weight they measured at the hospital weighted 1-2 kg heavier because of clothes and I just had a lunch. I tried to explain that to her, but she told me to measure my weight correctly (I guess with clothes on?!) and I should not gain any more until the next visit. I felt very sad, because regardless of what I actually weighted, she made me feel big, fat and ugly… I also felt terrible because I felt as though I’m more concerned about myself than the baby’s well-being.

I know everyone experiences different pregnancy, and my experience is vastly different from my friend’s, who had a baby 6 months ago. Also, I wanted to make sure to write that this might be uniquely Japanese experience, and I think I would have experienced the pregnancy in much different way if I were still in the U.S.
It seems to me that the weight gain is stricter here, and I’ve read in some website that pregnant women going on a severe diet because the doctors tell them not to gain much weight.

Anyway, if you are pregnant now or if you had experienced pregnancy in the past, what is/was the best/worst part?