[Belita]

Glad your appt went well! Can't wait for the update!

[Jen@FirsAve]

hey Jack, glad to hear your morning sickness seems to be improving and things are progressing nicely! looking forward to your appt update!

[HopeTea]

15 weeks appointment update

As I already said, the appointment went well. Baby has both its arms and legs, and you can see some bones now. I got to hear the heartbeat on doppler for the first time, and it was 151bpm. The doctor said everything looks good. It was amazing to see how much it had grown from the last appointment! It actually looks human now! It was a fun appointment, though I think we found it a lot more exciting than the baby did (it slept through the ultrasound).

Pics:


I have gained 1.5 lbs (.7kg) so far, so I didn't get scolded by the doctor either! Although every single time he reminds me to be careful and try to stay as close to the 17 lbs. (8kg) total weight gain as possible. But this time he did say 10kg. MAX, so I was glad to see a tiny hint of flexibility. He did immediately follow that statement with "but 8kg is best", but hey, I'll take what I can get.

I can't remember if I had anything else to add, but if so, I'll post it later. For now I'm just enjoying the raining day inside listening to podcasts and relaxing. I got a migraine on Saturday that lasted until this morning, so I'm just taking it easy today.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

[junie22]

Awesome! I still can't believe doctors are so adamant about only gaining 17 pounds, when you were a healthy pre-pregancy weight! I had gained 3 pounds at 15 weeks, and now I'm up 10! Since I've pretty much eaten the exact same way throughout pregnancy, I figure the weight gain is out of my control at this point. It will be interesting to see where we end up! Glad to see that he's "giving" you some wiggle room, as I think a little over 20 pounds is a lot more reasonable.

Glad to see that baby is looking so good. I'm going out on a limb and predicting girl for you!

[kbpeanut]

Great update, Jack! Love the pics!

[Tammyms]

Love your pics Jack!

[HopeTea]

So much for posting every day, eh? I've had a migraine almost every day this week, so I haven't felt up to it. Even walking hasn't helped much. So far this morning I'm feeling a lot better, though! Just in time, too. Tomorrow we're meeting my MIL to go maternity clothes shopping. She's really eager to buy stuff for us. I always feel a little bad about that, but I understand they're older now & have extra time/money, and this is their first grandchild. So I'm sure they genuinely just want to help us out.

Despite the on & off migraine, I managed to get my "daily" walk in most days. I also made no-bake granola bars. They were amazingly good and very simple! You can find lots of recipes online. I read some to get the basic idea, then created my own with granola (quick oats are more expensive than granola here!), chopped almonds & peanuts, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, and I added a few mini chocolate & white chocolate chips on the top. I'm surprised there are still some left!

Not sure if I'll post over the weekend, but hopefully I'll have a normal week next week!

[junie22]

Have fun tomorrow! Hope you get a great new maternity wardrobe, and that those migraines subside.

[Belita]

Ouch! Migraines are no fun! A friend at work said she didn't get migraines while pregnant. I was hoping that would hold true for you!

Have fun maternity clothes shopping! I know it feels weird when it's not your parents, but I'm sure they are very excited about the baby and truly want to do this for you.

[HopeTea]

Thanks, ladies. I had also read how many migraine sufferers report LESS migraines during pregnancy, but so far I seem to be following in my mother's unfortunate footsteps. Still hoping I can escape "the Big One" (she had a migraine for the entire final 2-3 months of her pregnancy with me)!

It might be a bit early, but I'm pretty convinced in starting to feel the baby now. For about 4 days or so, I've been feeling a new & unusual sensation in the evenings around 10PM when I'm relaxing on the sofa. For the first time, I'm feeling the same sensation in the morning (now, actually).

Excited about today! Hope we find some good stuff!

[Belita]

I hope you don't get that monster migraine either!

[HopeTea]

It's Golden Week in Japan! It actually started last Saturday. It's pretty much a week of consecutive holidays when people often travel and just enjoy a long vacation. Tuesday and Wednesday are technically normal days, but a lot of people are lucky enough to get those days off so they have the full week. DH had to work today (Tues.) but he's off tomorrow. He probably could've gotten today off too, but we don't really have any big plans this year. We already have enough excitement going on inside my body.

Saturday we went out with my MIL and I picked up some useful things. I still could use a few more pairs of maternity pants, or better yet some comfy dresses & skirts, but I have enough to start out. Then on Sunday we went to the next city up from ours for the first time, and walked around a lot. It was fun, but that was the first day I realized wearing my normal pants unzipped and held together with a hair tie wasn't going to work anymore. I'm officially considering all my normal pants retired until after the baby. DH is really excited to see my stomach getting bigger - he gets a huge grin on his face every time he sees it!

Yesterday we just relaxed at home. After two days of walking all day, I needed it! We made a big salad and ate two kinds of fish that are very cheap and popular here, but I'd never eaten before. I've had a pretty major craving for fish lately! It's funny how being pregnant can make you eat things you never wanted to before. Luckily there are several types of "lowest mercury" fish here that I can eat whenever I want. And very cheap!

I'll try to update here & there when I have time. Our plans for the rest of the week are still kind of up in the air, but we might go to Chinatown in Yokohama. We went there once many years ago, but now that I'm eating fish, it might be more fun. Just hoping the weather forecast is wrong...it's supposed to rain on & off for the rest of Golden Week.

[Belita]

I remember you talking about Golden Week before. Enjoy! That's so cute that Hiro is so proud and happy when he looks at your growing belly. I notice Bert looking the same way at me and when I'm talking about my symptoms.

[junie22]

Enjoy your week! Sounds like a lot of fun. I'll be hoping for no rain for you!

[HopeTea]

I guess I needed almost a week to recover from Golden Week! It did end up raining a couple of days, but we still managed to go places and had a pretty good time. HOWEVER...we also got caught in an extreme sudden thunderstorm. There was some really crazy and unexpected weather, and even tornadoes a prefecture or two up from us! Tornadoes are very rare here, so it was a shock. I think it might've been the first time any tornado damage occurred here on a large scale (I think around 100 homes/buildings were damaged). Also, two people in my prefecture were struck by lightning! Anyway, we were taking a walk on a perfectly nice day, when suddenly the sky went black and it started POURING. I was wearing a long skirt that I had to hold up all the way home to be able to walk, while holding a busted up umbrella I found on the street. Trying to stay dry was futile though, and I arrived home as wet as if I'd jumped in a lake. I might've actually been DRIER if I had jumped in a lake. Other than that, I had a nice holiday.

We finally made an appointment with our desired birth center, and we're going in to meet with them on Saturday. I'm really nervous! I'm pretty sure all my desires can be met there, just hoping we're accepted and get on well with the midwives. They'll probably have us go back to our regular clinic to be checked again and declared low-risk, but I don't see any reason why they wouldn't take us. They have already said they aren't full. I'm working on a list of questions and a partial birth plan (most of my requests are already listed as acceptable on their website) to take with me. I'm sure I'll get nervous and forget everything. Once we have the birth center set we'll be pretty much ready to go!

Also, our DDC has set up due date buddies. They decided to take the three "out of the country" people and put them in a 3-way buddy group. Not sure how it will work out, but we'll see!

We bought some baby stuff over the holiday. Quite a few things actually. I'm already excited for the baby to be here! I've been kicked a few times so strong it has actually startled me! Three times to be exact. When I first started feeling strange movements I thought it might be something else, but there's no questioning it anymore. I can't wait until I feel those strong movements regularly. I hope it doesn't always startle me, though. It puts me in such a good mood to feel the baby and know it's in there doin' it's thing...

Guess that's my random, post-holiday update!

[Belita]

I'm so glad things are going well for you and that you're feeling the baby now!

[junie22]

What a great update (minus the rain)! Glad you and your family are okay after the storms.

[kbpeanut]

HI Jack Glad you had a wonderful holiday!

[HopeTea]

Thanks, everyone! I was just sitting here thinking and realized I'm only two weeks away from the halfway point! Wow!

[HopeTea]

So nervous about our appointment at the birth center today! I'm not even really sure why! I think I just really want it to go well so we can go ahead and decide on that one rather than going to appointments at MULTIPLE birth centers. I think my desires are pretty easy to be met & I'm low-risk so far, so I don't think there should be any glaring issues. Unless we don't get on well with the midwives there or they have some crazy rule or practice not detailed on the web site...

Anyway, I kept waking up in the night thinking about it. I also dreamt of eating packs & packs of Reese's peanut butter cups! (I haven't seen them here before, but last night someone on Twitter reported a mass sighting at a major chain grocery store!)

Wish me luck, ladies!