30 weeks!
Which means it is 10 weeks today until the due date. Eek! Never mind my friend Cath who keeps scaring me with tales of her daughter who turned up at 32 weeks, 10 weeks doesn't sound anything like long enough. (Cameron says it's ages, like two summer holidays - or one whole term - when we were kids, and you know how long they were.) To celebrate I have found my first stretch mark. And I was doing so well!
Actually I am feeling quite celebratory as we are on holiday now until Monday and the sun is shining! We are going to Shop today. Or rather, I'm going to watch Cameron attempt to buy some new clothes and shoes while bemoaning the fact that I can't buy myself anything nice. (Shoes! I can still have shoes. My feet haven't expanded yet.)
Lisa at 1:07 pm
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Another visit to the midwife clinic on Saturday saw me having my circumference measured (do they do this anywhere else? I know one girl here who reached over a metre before her baby arrived!) and all the usual checks were fine. We were then shown a 'model' baby - by which I mean a real one, the 4-month-old daughter of one of the clinic's midwives, who is perfect in every way and brought out as an Example of what happens if you Eat the Right Food while breastfeeding (once again: no dairy, no cookies or cakes, no fruit. Lots of small fish, seaweed and rice). She was very cute and smiley it has to be said and Cameron was quite a hit! I then had a lovely back and foot massage (she asked Cameron "and do you do this every day?" to which he could only reply "not every day, no") and she told me once again how I will have a good labour, strong pains (she is very keen on strong pains) and that I have beautiful hips (?!) before she set fire to some herbal twigs attached to various points on my ankles and feet - I'm supposed to do that every day too (although I don't have the twigs. Where would one buy such things?).
I know I laugh: but I do feel very happy and confident with her, I promise you! I do wonder at times if this is a slightly odd point in my life to start messing with alternative therapies, having never had much truck with them before - but it is very entertaining and, as Cameron says, he has more time for the idea of interacting with nerves and energy meridians than the whole 'rocks with frequencies' routine. And massage isn't 'alternative' any more, is it.
Lisa at 3:55 pm
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And once again, I said I wouldn't but you asked so nicely!
This is me about to go out for a nice Christmas dinner (hence looking relatively scrubbed and tidy - I'm even wearing high heels though you can't see them! - and note the careful placement of Christmas bauble). 29 weeks and 2 days. Cameron is now calling me 'fatty' - he is such a charmer - but will revise it on correction (it's not fat it's fluid and your child) to 'watery'. Great.

Lisa at 12:00 pm
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Oh where am I now...29 weeks and 1 day, or thereabouts. Well into the third trimester anyway, as evidenced by the catalogue of aches and pains I'm developing. Some of which are doubtless due to spending most of the past week lounging in the sun on wooden seats then a night trying to sleep on a very hard economy air seat. There was a rocking chair at our house which was fantastic but the sun loungers were less good. Swimming was wonderful, I felt so buoyant! So. Sore hips, aching back (mid or lower, depending), pain in my pubic bone and an ouchy tailbone to boot.
Never mind, but. The baby loved the sun, somersaulting about whenever my belly was in direct sunlight, and luckily the delicious but spicy Thai food had no bad effects. And I got to be a real celebrity; people even smiled at me on the streets, pointed and said 'baby'!
I don't think I told you about the monster shop I had before going away. I put aside my superstitions for the sake of a car - a friend was driving to one of the only proper baby shops in Tokyo so I tagged along and filled her boot. All I need now is something for it to sleep in, something to put dirty nappies in, a sling thing, some more nappies, erm and oh god probably loads of stuff that I didn't buy because I didn't know about. And I want a mobile.
Lisa at 5:08 pm
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27 weeks
Trimester three, here we go. Three months today the baby is due - of course it won't turn up on time but still, a sobering thought. Is it too late to start that healthy diet and exercise regime? Speaking of which I did go to yoga today (so can feel smug) but now feel very very tired as I barely slept last night. The baby is now big enough to alternate pounding on my pelvis with a rhythm on my ribs: what on earth was it doing last night, learning to samba? Developmentally it's still just getting bigger - think that's all it (and I!) will do for the next few months - but it should be thinking about starting a regular sleep/wake cycle. Does that mean I have to tiptoe around when it's asleep?
Lisa at 4:43 pm
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26 weeks (and 1 day)
Up and down and up and down...the pregnancy group meeting yesterday left me down as usual (only because I want to make friends and am a failure. Why don't they like me?! Cameron says it's because I am horrible but what does he know) then a visit to the doctor today picked me right back up again. It's always nice to be assured by a pro that you are healthy! I have put on 3 kg in 4 weeks though, which is going some - but a normal weight gain so I'd better just get used to those scales rocketing up now.
I then nipped to the secondhand bookshop to check their baby book section - lots of new stock so I bought a couple.
This afternoon I went to our ward's antenatal class (the ward is kind of like the borough at home I suppose - like the local council). They had kindly laid on a translator only unfortunately it was her first time at such a class so we ended up teaching her all sorts of interesting new words (episiotomy, amniotic fluid...) What with the two old ladies sitting and chatting loudly at the back of the hall, the toddler running about in mummy's noisy shoes and shouting and the two indian girls whispering next to me I found it extremely hard to hear - so the translator was a blessing. I feel sure some of the odder things I've learnt today are down to her transation though: for example I find it very hard to believe that the nurse teaching the class did actually say to stop moving if you are having a Braxton-Hicks contraction else the baby might come out. If only it were that easy! She produced several other slightly odd turn-of-phrases (turns-of phrase?): apparently when the baby is nearly born you feel the need to 'go to the bathroom and poopoo'. And she was clearly trying to save us from fear and kept saying not to worry or that it wouldn't be that bad - or that we didn't want to hear about it really (which begs the question why we were there I suppose)! Oh and once or twice she got so engrossed she forgot all about translating...
I bonded with an American girl there when we exchanged glances over the minute flat-tummied Japanese lady claiming to be 25 weeks gone! How was it possible?
So. We watched the nurse push a very sick-looking plastic baby through a plastic pelvis and then wave around a beautifully made, apparently hand-embroidered placenta. We practised holding a plastic baby (I didn't like that bit at all, dolls are horrid) and guessed its weight. We looked at some baby clothes. We did some stretching exercises. We all lay down in a heap on the floor (not much space) and took our minds to a beautiful place - or I would have, had aforementioned toddler not stood on me twice! And then we applauded the clever girls who had attended all three sessions and earnt their certificates.
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it but am relieved not to be reliant on these classes. We are attending a nice childbirth class with a nice American lady next year and I feel sure it will be much more useful.
Lisa at 4:45 pm
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Finally
I have decided where to have the thing: the Matsugaoka Josanin. (What on earth is that woman blowing (sucking?) in the picture on the front page there?) That is, assuming I'm allowed to: it isn't late, early or breech, I don't develop any nasties and the wind is blowing in the right direction.
I visited a couple of clinics and a hospital, for contrast, and feel quite happy that I've made the right choice for me. Next thing to decide is a back-up hospital (in case of any of the above or an emergency).
Yay!
Lisa at 11:56 am
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25 weeks today
And today, for your delight and delectation and also so you can see what I've been whinging about, let me refer you to this website. Please bear in mind that this is the shop in the trendiest, youngest part of town and, as such, represents what the young, funky expectant mums are wearing, not the old-fogey stuff found in the departos.
In particular, I give you two of my especial favourites (the website doesn't display the full horror so I've scanned bits of the catalogue).

And I ask the question: why are the models a. western, b. not pregnant, c. dressed like 12-year-olds going to a party in the 1950s?? And even more horribly, why in the knickers section (I'm not showing you, you'll cry) are their bellies padded with a cushion?
But I don't care any more, I have enough to see me through. And I have ordered some lovely summery stuff for our holiday so I'm concentrating on that and not on the fact that it's freezing cold and pouring with rain and generally horrible here.

Lisa at 6:29 pm
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24 weeks
and one day but yesterday was too hectic to blog.
Not really anything to report! Though according to Chris, this marks the turning point where, should I go into (very) premature labour, it might have some slim chance of survival. Of course, it wouldn't have a thing to wear. But it would have a rather lovely red tartan pushchair to sit in, which I went and collected last night. It's secondhand and was too much of a bargain to ignore (plus the lady I bought it from - who had also bought it secondhand, making it now thirdhand I suppose - has never used it). And of course it has its bath. Who needs clothing anyway?
Developmentally I think we are now supposed to be talking and singing to it in order to ensure it comes out brilliant and talented. I just checked one of the baby websites to see if it was growing anything new or doing anything good and all it could find to say was that dads-to-be might come home with a new jacket or new haircut and that this is their way of adjusting! So I'm guessing it isn't a big milestone week. So I'll link to this story instead because I thought it was pretty amazing - a woman who is actually twins! Strangely I was chatting to somebody today who called her son Thomas (meaning twin) because she knew from an early scan that he had been a twin very early on and that the other twin had been reabsorbed (apparently very common) - but she says he has slightly different-coloured eyes so maybe he's a chimera too!
Lisa at 6:12 pm
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Hormones
You tell me. Is it entirely normal to cry at the bit in Squeeze's up the junction that goes This morning at 4.50 I took her rather nifty down to the incubator where 30 minutes later she gave birth to a daughter within a year a walker she looked just like her mother if there could be another? No? Thought not. How about The Eagles' desperado? Christy Moore's voyage? (Actually that one might be OK, it is pretty soppy).
Pathetic.
Lisa at 10:16 pm
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23 weeks today!
And gosh, is it kicky! It seems to kick almost entirely very low down (apart from during yoga when I was at a funny angle myself, it was moving all over the place then!) and sometimes it feels quite peculiar: you know that feeling you get when somebody, at a carnival or something, bangs a Really Big Drum and you feel your bones vibrate? I think it's banging on my pelvis.
Anyway. Saturday's class was quite good. I can't say she told us a lot that I didn't already know but there were snippets and Cameron hasn't been avidly devouring books like me so I think he found it useful. I know it was a class for 'early pregnancy' but she had said the first two trimesters were appropriate; still, I felt like a huge heffer next to the other two girls there: one, a well-aerobicised 12-week-gone American with the flattest tum I have ever seen, the other, a teeny-tiny 6-week-pregnant Japanese girl! Their time will come.
I finally remembered to ring the doctor for my blood-test results (memory like a sieve): I have a very good haemoglobin count and he says I am obviously very healthy, so I celebrated that with some chocolate tim-tams. Yum.
And no, I still haven't decided where to have the thing. I will.
Lisa at 2:19 pm
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Well I am feeling quite happy today after the doctor used the word 'textbook' in connection with my pregnancy (OK only in reference to how high the top of my uterus has got - two fingers above my belly button! - but still). And he told me to ignore people who say I'm small - in fact, to ignore everybody who tries to scare me! I did break that x+1 barrier, but it didn't feel as bad as I'd expected. And everything else was fine too, though the nurse made a bad job of taking a blood sample. I bleed easily, there is no reason for my arm to be as bruised as it is.
I don't think there is any other news. Cameron met the doctor and heard the baby's heart beating away, which is as I'd hoped. He was itching to get away, thinking it was a NHS appointment, but as we pay so much I like to stay and chat a little. We discussed whether I need a flu jab and decided not (he is definitely my sort of doctor) and he also thinks midwife clinics are a good idea and potentially much less stressful than a hospital. I have a prenatal class to discuss these sorts of things on saturday, so we'll see how that goes.
Lisa at 7:08 pm
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22 weeks
And nothing to report except a horrid cold which kept me awake all night so today I am tired and grumpy. Got a doctor's appointment tomorrow - I'm hoping Cameron will come along too to hear the heartbeat and dreading being weighed as I'm sure I'll have broken through into the next decade (is it still a decade when it's not years? What is the word? Gone up from xy to (x+1)y, anyway. It's purely psychological but it hurts.)
Lisa at 5:33 pm
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size of a cow
I am absolutely not going to make a habit of this, but I've had several requests - from friends not web weirdos - so here you go: this is what I look like at the moment. I was surprised to see it actually; I think I look smaller than that in the mirror. Though it was taken last thing at night (hence not bothering to find a sensible background - pictures and AC controllers sticking out of my head; Jura's box behind my knees) and I do get steadily larger through the day.

Lisa at 9:00 am
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21 weeks today!
And the baby development websites are getting less interesting; I get the impression it is quite well formed, just needs to grow and work out. Though apparently it will start swallowing amniotic fluid this week (yuk! Like drinking your bath!) It's certainly getting its exercise anyway - not much kicking but plenty of squirming about and somersaults. It either loved my yoga class this morning or was moving about so much in protest; it's rather hard to tell.
I can't think of any other news. I am still sleeping 10 hours a night (and this is supposed to be the full-of-beans trimester) and still have to eat all the time to prevent nausea and faintness - I am trying to be good though and have taken to carting about cereal bars, dried fruit and the like at all times to prevent those emergency snickers bars purchases.
Lisa at 4:19 pm
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It's a...!
Baby. According to this site, while compiles all the old wives tales, I have a 50:50 chance of a boy:girl. I won't decorate a nursery yet, then.
Lisa at 1:38 pm
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Things you never think about until you get pregnant
(Number one in an expanding series): Maternity tights.
Because normal tights, stretchy as they seem, don't have enough give in the waistband so they dig in and leave nasty red weals around your waist - or where your waist used to be. And sometimes they roll themselves downwards, attempting to escape to a place of less tension. The maternity tights in catalogues scare me a little (why to the armpit?) but actually this seems to be one thing that Japan does better - I have a pair that come up to a normal(ish) level but are cleverly constructed and have adjustable elastic. So far, very comfy - but I seem to remember complaining last winter that nobody made low-slung tights; has nobody heard my plea yet?
Lisa at 10:19 am
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20 weeks today!
Halfway! Give or take it not arriving on time and what have you. My book says the baby is about the size and weight of a spanish onion (how do they dream these analogies up?!) and all I know is I'm knackered and my head hurts. Whinge.
The trousers were quite tentlike as anticipated; they look great from the thighs down but are just enormous and clown-like above that. I know they have to factor in room to expand but at the moment I feel rather as though I've been wrapped in a duvet. And the trouble with having all that material swathed around your waist, most normal T-shirts (which in my wardrobe have a tendancy to be quite fitted - blame Britpop in my formative years) look daft over them. It is clearly a conspiracy by the manufacturers to have you buy their special tops as well and does at least explain why most pregnant women look so immense.
The formes trousers on the other hand are fabulous (so they should be at the price). But beige, so frequently in the wash rather than ready to be worn.
I don't think I have any more baby news. What I did put wasn't baby news but fashion news (as usual) but what can you do? I just toddle along getting slowly larger and largely slower.
Lisa at 1:35 pm
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19 weeks today
(Officially the start of the 5th month!)
And I'm tired! It is getting harder and harder to sleep, now I'm not supposed to lie on my back. Lying on my side, even propped on pillows, is just not as relaxing and leaves me with sore hips and shoulders. Whinge.
Anyway, the child, it seems, is making buds for permanent teeth, behind those for milk teeth it has already. And it can hear, but only my internal gurglings and heartbeat, nothing external yet. I wonder if that holds true for taiko drumming? Babycentre states that I might feel clumsy and awkward (so no change there!) but actually I think my balance is improving with a lowered centre of gravity: I certainly find half-moon pose easier than usual.
I found out yesterday that in Japan you are pregnant for ten (28-day) months instead of our nine (31-day) months - some things are just so different here.
Oh and my trousers from jojo maman bebe have arrived! Haven't opened the parcel yet, I am scared that they will either be gigantic and tentlike or too small - in either case, they would have to go back which I would really rather not have to think about. But the good news is, they were put through the letterbox; this means I haven't had to pay anything extra at customs.
Lisa at 3:44 pm
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Scan
Thank goodness for that: it was all OK. Amazing, actually. Baby is a normal size - spot on for its due date (head 3 cm, thigh bones 2-and-a-bit cm, 11-and-a-bit cm from head to bottom) - and very lively, turning somersaults through the scan. I have pictures of its head, thighs, abdomen (stomach and heart!), a cute one of both legs in the air, and also, rather bizarrely, one of my placenta. I've never had a picture of one of my internal organs before. Of course, they all look like grey swirls on a black background, but the doctor was very nice and explained what she was looking at. I did see a claw-like foot at one stage and thought of Skeletor, but it was generally very very exciting and quite an emotional moment! It has a little curvy spine! Cameron seemed fairly emotion-free but he was hungry, having skipped lunch, so I'll let him off (as long as he raves about it later).
And yes, it is still an 'it'. Too soon to tell its sex, which I was glad about because I don't really want to know and that removed any temptation. I think Cameron was slightly disappointed and suspect he will want to find out if we have another scan. She suggested having another around 30 weeks, so we'll see.
Yay!
Lisa at 5:41 pm
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I've done it. Gritted my teeth against the assault on my bank balance and bought some proper maternity trousers from Formes. I also have some cords coming from jojo maman bebe, if they make it through Japanese customs. They (the formes trousers) *were* expensive but very nice and well-made; important if they are to be worn almost incessantly for the next 6 months or so! And they have a very clever elasticated stringy thing inside, with a button, so they fit me now but will expand significantly (if and) when it's necessary. Yay me! Only I can't have them until next week because they were inches too long for me (the other advantage of going to a posh shop is they do alterations.) There were actually some nice things in there; can see myself buying a skirt when I go back for the trousers then popping back for tops when my shirts no longer do up.
My friend Cath has cheered me up anyway by telling me she never really needed maternity clothes. I was beginning to feel like a freak (I've spent the past 18 months feeling like a huge freak next to Japanese women; I get pregnant and feel like a tiny belly-less freak next to the others!) And apparently people keep remarking how small my sister is too. I know, be careful what you wish for (I don't want a huge back-breaking bump) but it would be nice to look sufficiently pregnant to claim my priority seat on the train. And call me a cow but a message to some women out there: if it was there before you got pregnant, it's not a baby bump!
In other news, the baby really enjoyed my taiko drumming class! Or it was squirming about in protest; rather hard to tell. I don't think it can hear yet but I imagine the vibrations to be quite disturbing. It will have to get used to it, we're off to four concerts in the next month and the white stripes won't be quiet.
Lastly, I'm getting fretty about the scan. Nice to see the baby (even if it does look like Skeletor; thanks Lisa. Actually I think it will look like a black and white swirl, going by other scan pictures I've seen) but they don't just do it for that; they do it to check for deformities. My sister has her scan tomorrow too so please, lots of good thoughts.
Lisa at 4:25 pm
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PS Scan on Friday: wish us luck and send good vibes!
Lisa at 4:06 pm
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18 weeks today!
Which means its eyes should be pointing forwards instead of sideways and its ears are nearly in the final position. It can suck its thumb (aw!) According to babycentre, I may be feeling "less than glamorous" which probably describes me most of the time anyway. It also says I should be sure to wear flat shoes: that's going to counter the anti-glam feeling, isn't it!
Went to the Tokyo Pregnancy Group today, we had a talk from a massage therapist. Which was fine apart from the bit where she stated unequivocally that the second trimester will be better than the first: how to make me feel like a freak in one fell swoop. Ho hum.
Lisa at 4:04 pm
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wow!
It just kicked! Properly. I've been feeling flutters for some time, but that was a good few strong kicks - I could even feel them from the outside. Seems it is going to take after its footballing father (it is *supposed* to wait a few more weeks before kicking me.)
Lisa at 11:58 am
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I've been doing some baby-related blogging over at turquoise recently (I did say this one was for overflow): to summarise, I got a lot of leaflets and heard the baby's heart beating (yesterday - permalink not working yet). That was just incredibly exciting - the doctor got out his little amplifier thing and there it was, pounding away at almost exactly twice the rate of mine (plenty of stomach gurgles too - all mine). I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! The doctor seemed quite excited too, which is strange because he must hear them all the time - though he is a GP not an obstetrician so perhaps it's not so routine, and it is probably one of the nicer parts of his job. Most days must involve sick people and visa applicants. He's really growing on me each time I see him (perhaps he's shy): yesterday he gave me an old copy of a drug book (useful for work but I didn't bring one when we moved) and agreed that a midwife clinic might be nicer than a hospital. We also discussed Sakamoto-san, an obstetrician famous among expats here for being wonderful. From all I've heard, and my doctor agreed without being so unprofessional to slate him, he is too interventionist for my tastes. The (sorry) Americans here love him for giving epidurals at the first whimper and whipping them off for a c-section at the slightest excuse. This is my uninformed opinion of course - my doctor didn't say any of this - and it's horses for courses, isn't it.
In celebration of the heartbeat I went and bought on of those cute baby towel things with a hood, in a tasteful unisex coffee-and-cream colour scheme. What has happened? Celebrations used to involve wine, large slices of cake or new shoes. A towel?
In other news, it is getting much less comfy for me to sleep on my front and, although it's the position I always end up in, all the books say lying on your back is Bad. Meaning that I've been spending an hour or so awake each night. All good practice, I suppose.
Lisa at 10:28 am
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17 weeks today
Which means it is now about the size of an avocado and playing with the umbilical cord, and that I should have gained at least 2.5 kg. I've no idea but I suppose the doctor will weigh me tomorrow. Babycentre recommends booking a holiday soon but as we've just got back from a month away, I think that suggestion will get short shrift.
Lisa at 10:09 am
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Hormone mayhem
It's not that I'm actually bursting into tears, but I do seem to be welling up at all sorts of odd moments. Like at the baby catalogues (they are just so cute!) or the old couple holding hands in the street. Or, most weirdly, at a poster on the station. It has a cartoon picture of a small boy giving up his seat for an old man with a stick and the caption reads something like give up your seat to make somebody's day and the smile you receive will make yours. Boo hoo.
Lisa at 4:44 pm
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It seems this is going to be a shopping blog not a baby blog. Still, they say to write about what you know! Today I trawled round a few western shops to try to find trousers with either a drawstring waist or something elasticated. I'm not ready for full-blown maternity wear with a gaping front, but as I can only now wear either my jeans or my tracksuit bottoms or a few skirts (but it's not tights weather yet, nor is it sunny enough to go without) I thought I could do with something to bridge the next couple of months. It seems I've missed the gap in Gap - I never used to buy their trousers because they were huge around the waist, but now the bigger sizes hang off me everywhere else but won't do up over my tummy, even those with a drawstring waist! So I bought a top and a belt (it isn't as silly as it sounds, it's quite a long belt and will keep my jeans in place for the next however many weeks I'll be wearing then incessantly). Seems it will have to be the long top over trousers-held-together-with-an-elastic-band look for me!
Lisa at 4:12 pm
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16 weeks today
But no real news. I have observed how remarkable it is that an innocent bowl of noodles can go from being delicious and nutritious one mouthful to worms! the next. Obviously once you are eating worms there is no alternative but to heave subtly and silently and leave asap.
I hope my sister doesn't mind me blogging some of her pregnancy stories, but she made me laugh this week. She was leading a singing session at work*, doing 'head shoulders knees and toes', when she noticed that she can no longer get to her toes! (Head, shoulders, knees and shins, knees and shins?)
*she's a primary school teacher, not your worst-nightmare colleague
There was talk of a baby blog from her husband but I've heard nothing since. Chris?
My only other news is that yesterday I purchased a name book. It was cheapish and British (it still has a lot of American names but at least it says they are American) and provided me with a happy hour's entertainment last night, picking names that I don't hate and spouting them at Cameron who ignored me as long as possible (Me: Fionulla, Fern, Flora, Fergus Cameron: what about them?!), trying to watch tv, then snapped and opined on them before getting cross and returning to Malcolm in the middle! (Me: what about Malcolm? Cameron: gah!)
Lisa at 6:10 pm
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I'm so veiny nobody's going to write a song about me
There are pregnancy symptoms everybody knows about - morning sickness, fainting, weird cravings - and those that nobody mentions. My veins are so prominent you could navigate the motorways of Britain using my body (I can't guarantee you won't get lost though). I don't know if it's new veins or the old ones having to work harder but it is a little unsightly. Models never have veins, do they.
I suppose it would be quite hard to show somebody getting veiny in a soap, whereas if they keel over we all know instantly that they are pregnant. The more graphic soaps go for head-down-the toilet clues instead.
In other news, although I really don't want to turn this into a vomiting diary, I had to decide today whether to be sick in the station toilet or come home first. In the end I did neither, but shoved moussaka down my throat as soon as I came in the door (moussaka as a cure for morning sickness - should I market it?), which is a relief because I don't want to be one of those freaks with second-trimester sickness. So much of a freak that the books say it 'can' happen but google doesn't produce any hits. Because we all know: you are sick in the first trimester then it goes away and you feel fabulous for three months! Or, in a very few unlucky women, you are sick in the first and second trimesters. But you can't be fine for the first then sick in the second, it seems. Ha!
Lisa at 2:04 pm
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I asked my friend and great oracle Mia-the-midwife about the whole waking up slim/being a bloater by teatime thing, and this is what she said:

Basically it's sluggish circulation caused by the slow increase in the amount of blood you have and the extra distance it's being pumped round the body, exacerbated by gravity. Totally normal. But a pain!

So now I know, and so do you.
The good news is I'm feeling much better today after yesterday's puking-in-tower-records fun. The bad news is, I have to work.
Lisa at 11:57 am
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15 weeks today
According to ivillage, the baby now measures 10 cm crown-rump or 12.5 cm head-toe. That means it has a 10 cm body and 2.5 cm legs. Seems it's taking after its mum already...or there's a typo.
Lisa at 3:53 pm
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Well, it's goodbye waistline; hello Lisa-the-Weeble! I have either swallowed a whole grapefruit without noticing or I have a bump (I have to be lying on my back poking my tummy to feel it but it's definitely there). My tracky bottoms are my new best friend - I absolutely refuse to buy anything new until the weather cools down, I don't want summer and winter stuff - and I put on a frock last night to go to a wedding only to have people remarking on my tummy! It's not sufficiently pronounced to persuade people to give me a seat on the train, but that day may never come.
Of course, it is probably at least in part due to the fact that, while it's easy to maintain a healthy diet while at home working, it is much harder when running around Tokyo, on and off of trains and shepherding visitors around the sights. One's priorities change from vitamins and minerals to not keeling over in the sun, which is most conveniently achieved by snickers bars and cola.
In other news, I think I've felt it move! In bed on Saturday morning at first, then at other quiet times since. The books describe it as a fluttering or a bubble popping, which is pretty accurate. Of course, it could just be gas, but as Cameron pointed out, if anyone in the world should know what gas feels like it would be me. What a charmer.
Lisa at 1:01 pm
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when is a belly not a belly?
So. I'm back on the message boards and websites again, can't keep away even though I just end shouting at the stupid people! (Um. In case any of them should end up over here: not all of them. Most of them are perfectly lovely!) and the latest thing, in both cases, seems to be posting belly shots. 'Look at my pregnant tum'. Fair enough, for those who do have a bump, but most of them seem to be like me. Yes, my waist is thicker. No, I don't have a bump. It's like all my innards (isn't innards a lovely word! And guts.) are being squeezed upwards - which I suppose they probably are - and sticking out. And water retention, and my new slowed-down digestive tract (why does nobody tell you about that one?!). I start out quite slim in the mornings but by the end of the day am lugging this big tummy around. But it's not a baby!
I'm sorry if I'm being intolerant (how unlike me!). I understand they are excited to be pregnant. I absolutely cannot comprehend those who have posted saying how they can't wait to get big enough for 'cute' maternity wear. The longer I can delay the inevitable decline into elasticated fabric, the better.
Lisa at 8:45 am
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And the baby is...
A monkey! On the Japanese horoscope anyway. This apparently means it will be energetic and clever as well as the centre of attention at parties. Cameron is a monkey too...at least in China; he's a Japanese rooster ("no hidden depths"). We're both January birthday so get to pick and choose as the Chinese new year starts after our birthdays and the Japanese calendar is more orderly, starting on the 1st of January. I'm a Japanese tiger ("a born leader, difficult to resist") but a Chinese ox ("diligent and ponderous"), so I'm glad we're here rather than Beijing!
I suppose for Western horoscopes, chances are it will be Aries, but we all know they are rubbish.
Lisa at 3:06 pm
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Comments available as requested. (But, Claire, please don't feel you have to leave one just because you can!)
Lisa at 12:45 pm
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Well this is new. So far, so little sickness but just this week foods of a certain texture (weetabix, bananas, yogurt) have made me gag. Which is a delight, especially as bananas, yogurt and weetabix are my staple diet in the mornings. Weetabix has always has a tendancy to do that, if there is enough milk to make it soggy but not enough to make it float (so it makes a paste, bleurgh), but bananas and yogurt are new.
Yoga today was great! I feel really energetic for the first time in ages.
Today I have started to fret about money. I am gearing up to insist that Cameron has a word with the HR department (it's their fault we're here so I can't use the NHS!) Our insurance policy only covers up to £4000 total. All antenatal care, childbirth, hospital stay, the lot (they'll pay more if I need a c-section but I'm not sure budgetary constraints are a good reason to have one). £4000 doesn't go very far in Tokyo, where it costs me 60 quid to see the doctor (and he wants me to go monthly); more if he does anything beyond weight and blood pressure. He tried to charge a tenner to find my blood group but fortunately I had a blood-donor card with it on so I saved a bit there. Presumably we will have to buy some baby things too (you can't *really* have them sleep in a drawer, can you?) and there is every chance I will at some point have to cave and buy some larger clothes.
Eek!
Oh and I meant to tell you, I asked the doc when I saw him about having a scan (goodness knows what that will cost). It took me quite a long time to explain that it wasn't that I wanted one now but that I wanted to know when I should. He's the doctor, what good is it me deciding when to do things? One of the joys of a private practice I suppose is that I can have these things on demand; the downside is, if you don't ask you don't get. Anyway, he eventually realised I was asking his advice and reckons around 20 weeks. So that's next month.
Lisa at 12:24 pm
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Went to the doctor yesterday: weight, blood pressure, how are you, right that's 60 quid please! Thank goodness we have insurance and i must get that claim form off asap - people say having babies is an expensive business but I don't think this is what they mean?
He also did a pregnancy test...a bit late, perhaps? Only he can't yet feel my womb (he always says 'womb', which seems terribly old-fashioned. Isn't it a uterus these days?) and, what with my minimal symptoms, thought I might have had a miscarriage and not noticed, or something. Anyway, it was positive, which is good I suppose.
Lisa at 3:06 pm
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OK we're back and seem to have survived. A few fainty spells in the heat (trouble with being interesting places, we sometimes forget to eat!), the odd bit of puking in plane toilets (very nice) but generally just fine. Everybody at home seems happy with the news; today I have mailed the people we didn't see and tomorrow I'll put it on my blog then hopefully everybody will know and we can forget about it for a bit.
Lisa at 12:07 pm
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Fainting in the railway station. How soap opera.

Lisa at 1:46 pm
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I had never noticed before how much women of my age talk about babies! When to have them, whether to have them, how all our friends are having them...every day! It's the first thing they ask when you meet somebody new - better than the 'what do you do?' that I used to get so cross about, I suppose - 'have you got children?'. And my reply is still 'no, just cats' but I feel like a fraud. But I can't tell people before we tell our families, can I. Today, one of the girls I was out with actually asked one of the other girls whether she was pregnant! (She was talking about giving up smoking) Fortunately she didn't then ask me because I can avoid the subject but not lie outright. In a way it will be better once I start to show, then people won't need to ask. I suspect I won't be allowed to talk about anything else then though!
Went to the doctor today too. It's all starting to feel real. He took an unnecessarily large amount of blood (in my opinion) but believed my stated blood group, which saved me 2000 yen. How can it possibly cost 2000 yen to find out what blood group somebody is?
Lisa at 8:12 pm
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Yesterday was funny. I was shopping with a friend, trawling the departos for work clothes for her. On three separate occasions she dismissed something as looking like maternity wear! One more time and I'd have burst and told her.
Lisa at 6:14 pm
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Oh dear, I am going to be such a rubbish mum. This baby isn't even an inch long and it's already been up a mountain, down a rollercoaster, had a skinful on more than one occasion, been to a rock festival (2 nights on a bus) and today I went and carried troughs of flowers for a friend! I keep doing stuff then thinking 'I wonder if I should be doing this?'! Still, the doctor said life as normal, so...
And next month it is going to Vietnam, where even the Lonely Planet says to be sure to be shipped out of in case of illness!
Lisa at 4:21 pm
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Falling asleep in the afternoons (even when Yolly is here hoovering upstairs!), ravenous at all times...I am finally starting to feel like this might be real.
Lisa at 4:40 pm
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Up and down and up and down...doctor was fine, everything's fine, we had a nice chat and I feel fine. tra la.
Lisa at 7:10 pm
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Blood. Just a little but scarey as I have (mild) cramps too. I am going to see the doctor at lunchtime but I got the distinct impression he thinks I am a neurotic woman. He's probably right (I mailed him in a panic last week. I can't remember what sparked it but I was convinced on friday that the baby was dead. Cameron convinced me it was my hormones playing up and I felt much calmer and happy over the weekend, until today.)
Lisa at 10:09 am
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The trouble with having a reputation as one who likes a drink, when you say 'just a coke for me' or 'I think I'll have iced tea', people notice and either look at you knowingly or start fussing around because something must be wrong!
Lisa at 3:05 pm
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Well I feel more worried now than I did before going to the doctor! Yesterday I was apprehensive about the doctor's visit, unsure what he might say (expecting him to laugh and say that of course I'm not pregnant, don't be silly). Instead, he was almost completely uninterested, and made me feel I was being stupid for coming to see him so soon. He believed my pregnancy test results and told me to come back in a few weeks for 'preliminary testing', whatever that means! Now, in theory I approve of the non-interventionist approach but if I was in America I'd be having a scan this week. I told him I had no idea what to expect, hoping he'd interpret this as me needing some reassurance but he didn't take any notice. I have no idea what the system is here (or at home, to be honest), what to expect or when to expect it. Fret fret fret. And I don't really know where to go for support. Oh, but he did tell me I could go to Vietnam but I have to be careful what I eat (because he didn't give me a Hep A jab) and extra careful of mossie bites (malaria). In the meantime, carry on as normal, eating whatever I like including sushi.
Lisa at 1:55 pm
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Did I say like waiting for christmas? Forget that, more like an exam or something scarey. I have this idea that the doctor tomorrow will laugh at me and say I'm being ridiculous, of course I'm not pregnant. I don't even know if going to the doctor is what one is supposed to do (it's what they do on the telly, I think) and have a feeling it could prove disgustingly, frighteningly expensive here. At least I have to go anyway, for travel jabs, so it won't be an entirely wasted trip. And the doctor is near the second-hand bokshop so I can console myself afterwards.
In the meantime I have evening nausea and horrible indigestion/heartburn. And in between, I am ravenous. I don't fancy chocolate (there is clearly something not normal; I can usually devour pounds in one sitting) and, last night at a dinner party, trying to seem normal, I had one sip of champagne and discovered that I'm off the booze too. It just didn't taste nice.
Lisa at 10:22 pm
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OK. Where to start. Well, I did a pregnancy test the day before yesteday - actually I did three, from two different manufacturers, because I am a scientist! Three positive results on I decided it might be true. Arg. It does, however, make some sense of the past week's weirdness, all of which I had put down to strange after-effects of climbing Fuji last weekend. Queasiness, shakiness, a stuffed-up nose and afternoon snacks (crisps and coke at 5 pm? Most unlike me, I never drink coke unless I really feel I need sugar - usually with a hangover!) Sweating in the heat even when everyone around me swears it is quite cool.
Cameron is pleased, I think - he's never one to articulate his feelings but he did grin widely which I took as a good sign. I bought him a book for expectant fathers yesterday (a jokey one, not one of those inch-thick, terriby serious American tomes). I am starting to wonder what a girl has to do around here to be bought flowers! Honestly.
A doctor's appointment on Monday. In the meantime I seem unable to sleep (hence up and typing at 7.30 on a saturday) which I expect is nerves and excitement. Mostly nerves. I do feel a bit like a kid waiting for Christmas, or like it's the morning of an exam. I don't *feel* pregnant, just slightly nauseous (but I often feel that way in the early morning). lf it wasn't for those three tests I wouldn't believe it.
Oh, and my sister's pregnant too - three weeks ahead of me! How weird is that. I am just sorry we are living so far apart - wouldn't it be fantastic to be together for this! Email is just not the same somehow.
Lisa at 8:06 am
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