Liam and I got up bright and early today to head to the clinic. I like to get there by opening time (9 o'clock) as it means you get out a hell of lot quicker. There were a few people in front of us but we were out before 10 which was good. Everything is looking good with baby! She is around 2600g and the doctor said it was okay to go into labour anytime now as I was past 36 weeks. I thought 37 weeks was considered full term in the western world but as I am 37 weeks on Wednesday all should be okay. Baby isn't engaged or anything so I can't see her making her appearance anytime too soon. My weight was less than at my appointment 2 weeks ago which I was very happy about. I haven't been doing anything too different but I guess pregnancy just makes your weight do crazy things. I have just had my usual after doctor pig out which was as enjoyable as usual :-)
So now I am on weekly appointments. It will be good when my mum gets here as she can look after Liam. He is not too badly behaved but wants to know about everything that is going and is also constantly asking me if I am going to have a needle as he is so scared of them. I have to get a blood test next week apparently so I will have to think about distracting him or seeing if baachan can look after him.
The weather is doing very strange things today. It was nice and sunny when I got up so I hung out all the washing but then it started going very dark so I brought everything in which was fortunate as it started raining torrentially. It's been sunny and rainy again since so I don't think the heavens can make up their mind what they want to do. A friend who lives about 30 minutes from here said it was snowing too. Crazy! Where on earth is spring? All the rain is going to make the cherry blossoms disappear too which isn't good as we have hanami planned for the weekend.
My crazy father rang up last night as he had heard from one of his friends (whose daughter I am friends with) that Liam had had his daycare graduation. My friend saw the photos I posted on Facebook and must have either showed or told her dad about them. So my dad was all keen about getting on FB which I can't say I was too excited about so I told him I would just send him the link for the photos instead. I know some people are happy to have their parents on FB but I think I can live without it for now :-)
Liam has swimming this arvo but not for a few hours so I should get motivated and do some chores. Maybe pack my hospital bag? Have a great Monday everyone!
2010年3月27日土曜日
So sleepy!
I made the mistake of having real coffee late yesterday afternoon and it kept me awake most of the night. I have been limiting the amount of coffee I drink during pregnancy and it now seems to have a crazy effect on me. Oh well! I tried to go to sleep around 11PM as I actually felt tired but still felt like I hadn't slept at 3AM. Ryuji then woke up and couldn't go back to sleep either so we had random chats until 5AM. Then Liam came into our bed and we all managed to go back to sleep. Ryuji had to work today so got up at 6:50 muttering about how sleepy he was and then I unfortunately had to get up at 7:30 as we had to leave the house early. Liam was still sleeping at 8:15 so I then had to drag him out of bed too.
Liam had his daycare graduation this morning and we had to be there by 9:30. The daycare he has been going to for the last 4 years only accepts kids up until the year they turn 4. Well kids older than 4 can go part time but not full time so it would be really expensive if you wanted your kids there all the time. Being born in April, Liam is the oldest in his class so had to do everything first. He did well considering he hasn't been going much this month and hadn't been there to "practice". After the ceremony we all had to say a few words and of course I was first. I never know what to say but managed to mumble something. Everyone then had snacks and played bingo. Liam went mad eating all the chocolate he could find as he doesn't get much in our household. We could leave a bit before 12 so Liam and I went to have sushi for lunch. It was very nice and I didn't make a pig of myself which was good for both my weight and our finances. I am back to the doctor in a couple of days so trying to be very good. I just had an early dinner of vegies in white sauce as I figure the earlier I eat the more time I have to burn it off before I go to bed and also I have less chance of getting heartburn. I did have plans to do the exercise bike but I am too sleepy. I have done it three times this week though and will make sure I get on there tomorrow.
Umm what else? I booked our trip home from Australia a couple of days ago. I had booked the trip over a while ago when Jetstar was having a sale but hadn't done the return as it was quite expensive. Jetstar is currently having a 2 for 1 sale though so I really should have waited to book both flights. Oh well! We are still paying less than 7man yen for Liam and my return flights so it's very reasonable. I will have to ring up the airline and add baby girl on after she is born. Even though we have already decided on her name I am a bit worried about how the spelling will be on her passport. I have decided just to get her Japanese one for this trip as it will take too long to organise her citizenship and Aussie passport. I have heard that the Japanese passport office's are good about allowing the English spelling of names but I think I would rather get the okay first and then organise her ticket. Apparently Jetstar doesn't charge anything for kids under 2 which is rather nice. I remember having to pay 20% or something for Liam when we traveled on other airlines.
Okay, this is a very unexciting post so I will be off. As I have more free time lately I am trying to blog more though!
Liam had his daycare graduation this morning and we had to be there by 9:30. The daycare he has been going to for the last 4 years only accepts kids up until the year they turn 4. Well kids older than 4 can go part time but not full time so it would be really expensive if you wanted your kids there all the time. Being born in April, Liam is the oldest in his class so had to do everything first. He did well considering he hasn't been going much this month and hadn't been there to "practice". After the ceremony we all had to say a few words and of course I was first. I never know what to say but managed to mumble something. Everyone then had snacks and played bingo. Liam went mad eating all the chocolate he could find as he doesn't get much in our household. We could leave a bit before 12 so Liam and I went to have sushi for lunch. It was very nice and I didn't make a pig of myself which was good for both my weight and our finances. I am back to the doctor in a couple of days so trying to be very good. I just had an early dinner of vegies in white sauce as I figure the earlier I eat the more time I have to burn it off before I go to bed and also I have less chance of getting heartburn. I did have plans to do the exercise bike but I am too sleepy. I have done it three times this week though and will make sure I get on there tomorrow.
Umm what else? I booked our trip home from Australia a couple of days ago. I had booked the trip over a while ago when Jetstar was having a sale but hadn't done the return as it was quite expensive. Jetstar is currently having a 2 for 1 sale though so I really should have waited to book both flights. Oh well! We are still paying less than 7man yen for Liam and my return flights so it's very reasonable. I will have to ring up the airline and add baby girl on after she is born. Even though we have already decided on her name I am a bit worried about how the spelling will be on her passport. I have decided just to get her Japanese one for this trip as it will take too long to organise her citizenship and Aussie passport. I have heard that the Japanese passport office's are good about allowing the English spelling of names but I think I would rather get the okay first and then organise her ticket. Apparently Jetstar doesn't charge anything for kids under 2 which is rather nice. I remember having to pay 20% or something for Liam when we traveled on other airlines.
Okay, this is a very unexciting post so I will be off. As I have more free time lately I am trying to blog more though!
2010年3月23日火曜日
Recent happenings
It has been a while since I last blogged. I often think about it but then get caught up in the general craziness of life. I finished teaching at the school last year so shouldn't be as busy as usual but we still seem to have something going on everyday. I prefer being busy to just sitting around though and if it means the time passes quicker until my due date that is always good too.
I am 36 weeks tomorrow so excited to be in the last month. I wish I could stop putting on weight though. With Liam, I didn't put on any weight for the last two months so I was hoping that would happen this time too but that is certainly not the case! I am eating quite well and trying to do low carb at night but the scales are being very nasty. At my appointment last week, my doctor told me I could put on another two kilograms but that's it! I don't really care about what he says but I would prefer not to put on much more myself as it will be harder to get it off. Baby girl is looking to be average Japanese size. Dr predicts she will be around 3kg but we will have to wait and see. We have changed our mind about her name too! I was referring to her as Miss M but she is now Miss K :-) It is actually a shortened version of the name we were first thinking of. The M name was a bit long so we decided simpler was probably better.
It is less than three weeks until my mum arrives which we are all looking forward too. I am hoping baby stays put until then as I would worry about Liam being looked after by the inlaws. I'm sure he would be okay but I would be constantly worried about what he was being fed and whether his teeth were being brushed. I shouldn't be too rude though as Ryuji came home with 100,000 yen today from his father as a present for the baby. Very nice of him! We will just put in our savings as they will become very depleted over the next year. April is a big month for bills so it will definitely come in handy.
We have had a couple of fun international family get togethers over the last couple of weeks. The last two Sundays, the three of us, a British woman and her hubby and baby as well as a German woman, her hubby and three boys have hung out. Last Sunday, we had a picnic in the park which was really nice. It was a bit windy but nice and sunny so after the picnic we had a good walk around the park. There is also a mini zoo so the kids checked out the very sad looking animals. It's fun to hang out with similar families. Unfortunately, the other two women don't have driver's licences and live in very isolated areas so we can only really meet up on the weekend or if I visit them. I'm sure we'll work something out though. I have already invited them to Liam's birthday party next month. We usually give him a big party but as his birthday is two days before my due date we weren't sure what we going to do for him. After chatting with my mum, we decided to just do an afternoon tea which if need be can be cancelled if the baby comes early and I am in hospital. He is turning 5 which he is very excited about so it will be nice to do something for him.
I did my interpreting job last week and it went well. There were only 6 foreign doctors that I had to interpret for and they were all very nice. Unfortunately the tour guide was a little annoying and I cringed while interpreting some of her not so funny jokes but it was all quite doable. We made a sudden trip to some caves though and I had trouble pulling out stalagmites and stalactites. Luckily the doctors were happy to help me out haha.
I have a Japanese friend and her two kids coming over for a play and then dinner tomorrow night. I never know what to feed my Japanese friends as feel funny cooking Japanese stuff but am also not sure what Western stuff they would eat. I have decided to keep things easy though and will make ribs as Ryuji loves them, a vegie gratin and a salad. Hopefully it will be enough to feed everyone. I wouldn't mind adding another dish but don't know what would go with the other stuff. Then on Friday I am babysitting my Aussie friend's 4 year old and 2 year old while she goes off to the hairdresser for a straight perm. Liam is going to love having so many play dates. He and my friend's 4 year old have been friends since birth but as they have very different personalities sometimes clash. Hopefully Friday will be peaceful though. It will be good if the weather's nice and we can get out for a walk to the park.
Alright getting sleepy so chat again soon :-)
I am 36 weeks tomorrow so excited to be in the last month. I wish I could stop putting on weight though. With Liam, I didn't put on any weight for the last two months so I was hoping that would happen this time too but that is certainly not the case! I am eating quite well and trying to do low carb at night but the scales are being very nasty. At my appointment last week, my doctor told me I could put on another two kilograms but that's it! I don't really care about what he says but I would prefer not to put on much more myself as it will be harder to get it off. Baby girl is looking to be average Japanese size. Dr predicts she will be around 3kg but we will have to wait and see. We have changed our mind about her name too! I was referring to her as Miss M but she is now Miss K :-) It is actually a shortened version of the name we were first thinking of. The M name was a bit long so we decided simpler was probably better.
It is less than three weeks until my mum arrives which we are all looking forward too. I am hoping baby stays put until then as I would worry about Liam being looked after by the inlaws. I'm sure he would be okay but I would be constantly worried about what he was being fed and whether his teeth were being brushed. I shouldn't be too rude though as Ryuji came home with 100,000 yen today from his father as a present for the baby. Very nice of him! We will just put in our savings as they will become very depleted over the next year. April is a big month for bills so it will definitely come in handy.
We have had a couple of fun international family get togethers over the last couple of weeks. The last two Sundays, the three of us, a British woman and her hubby and baby as well as a German woman, her hubby and three boys have hung out. Last Sunday, we had a picnic in the park which was really nice. It was a bit windy but nice and sunny so after the picnic we had a good walk around the park. There is also a mini zoo so the kids checked out the very sad looking animals. It's fun to hang out with similar families. Unfortunately, the other two women don't have driver's licences and live in very isolated areas so we can only really meet up on the weekend or if I visit them. I'm sure we'll work something out though. I have already invited them to Liam's birthday party next month. We usually give him a big party but as his birthday is two days before my due date we weren't sure what we going to do for him. After chatting with my mum, we decided to just do an afternoon tea which if need be can be cancelled if the baby comes early and I am in hospital. He is turning 5 which he is very excited about so it will be nice to do something for him.
I did my interpreting job last week and it went well. There were only 6 foreign doctors that I had to interpret for and they were all very nice. Unfortunately the tour guide was a little annoying and I cringed while interpreting some of her not so funny jokes but it was all quite doable. We made a sudden trip to some caves though and I had trouble pulling out stalagmites and stalactites. Luckily the doctors were happy to help me out haha.
I have a Japanese friend and her two kids coming over for a play and then dinner tomorrow night. I never know what to feed my Japanese friends as feel funny cooking Japanese stuff but am also not sure what Western stuff they would eat. I have decided to keep things easy though and will make ribs as Ryuji loves them, a vegie gratin and a salad. Hopefully it will be enough to feed everyone. I wouldn't mind adding another dish but don't know what would go with the other stuff. Then on Friday I am babysitting my Aussie friend's 4 year old and 2 year old while she goes off to the hairdresser for a straight perm. Liam is going to love having so many play dates. He and my friend's 4 year old have been friends since birth but as they have very different personalities sometimes clash. Hopefully Friday will be peaceful though. It will be good if the weather's nice and we can get out for a walk to the park.
Alright getting sleepy so chat again soon :-)
2010年3月11日木曜日
Snow snow snow!
The weather here has been totally crazy for the last few days. Snow had been predicted from last week but I don't think anyone guessed we could get as much as this! I woke up yesterday morning and everything was white but the roads seemed to be okay so I decided to head into work in the city normally. As I'm sure I have mentioned before we live a bit out of the city and have to drive 20 to 30 minutes into Yamaguchi city. There are two main ways we can go and one has quite a high mountain to go over so I decided to avoid it and take the other route yesterday. The roads or should I say drivers were crazy though! So many people have taken their winter tyres off as I guess they didn't expect anymore snow so cars we slipping all around the road and others couldn't get their cars up the mountain. I was supposed to teach at Liam's daycare at 10:30 but we didn't arrive until 11:10 so that was cancelled. I didn't have to teach again until 1 so went to get my haircut and then headed to school. I was five minutes from school when I got a phone call saying that classes had been cancelled for the afternoon because of the snow. It had been snowing all morning and there was talk of 30cm accumulating. I was supposed to teach a private class later in the afternoon but decided to cancel it and head home when we could.
So I picked up Liam from daycare and after talking with Ryuji decided to take a round about way home that didn't involve going up or down any big mountains. It turned out to be the drive from hell though. We got within about half an hour of being home and there were trees and branches all over the road and basically just enough room for one car to go through. Then the road was closed as trees had fallen down. Ryuji had left work early and just got through before I did. He told me about another road I could take which I did but was totally freaked out. It was so narrow and I had to drive under half fallen down trees and bash through branches. There was a car behind me which was reassuring as I could just imagine us being stuck in the snow, in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone range or something. We made it out though and thankfully got home in one piece. Liam and I were both mentally drained. He didn't even want to play and requested to just sit quietly and do his Leapster. Very strange for him!
So today there is still snow everywhere! It has been quite sunny so I expected it to melt but I think the sheer amount of it has stopped that happening. We have lived here for 4 years but I have never seen so much snow. Crazy considering it's March! We haven't had to leave the house today though which was a relief. I usually have school on Thursdays but the students had exams today and my private student who I teach in the morning emailed me last night to say not to risk coming in. Liam was of course dying to go out and play in the snow so I let him go out into our backyard while I watched him from inside. I teach 3 classes from home on Thursday afternoons and only 3 out of 12 students ended up showing up. Liam usually goes to Ryuji's parent's house but as I knew so many kids were going to be away he just stayed with me. Only one girl showed up to the second class and as she is only a year older than Liam I let him join the class. He was a bit of a show off but otherwise it worked pretty well. I was then expecting just two students to come to the last class but they cancelled at the last minute so I could finish an hour early. One good thing about the snow I guess.
It's supposed to be sunny and quite warm tomorrow so I hope that means the rest of the snow will disappear. I am so so over it. We don't have to leave home until about midday so fingers crossed the roads will be snow and ice free by then. I am off to lunch with a woman to talk about an interpreting job I am supposed to be doing next Friday. I don't really know the details yet but it's apparently for a group of doctors who are visiting and will be doing some sightseeing around the area. It had only better be sightseeing as there is no way I can interpret medical terms. It's from 9 to 4 and the pay is 30,000 yen which makes it very appealing. The extra cash will definitely come in handy once baby arrives and we will be living on one salary. I am actually quite stressed about our finances as we definitely use much more money than Ryuji's salary every month. We have savings which we will use but it still scares me when I think about it too much.
I was 34 weeks yesterday so only 6 weeks to go until my due date. It still seems like ages away though and I'm sure the time is going to drag by. I am actually feeling really good though. I am sleeping much better than I was a few weeks ago and the heartburn has gone away for now. I don't seem to be getting that much bigger either so am not finding it that uncomfortable to move around. We are pretty much organised with baby stuff. We bought a car seat last weekend and I have ordered a sling online which should arrive soon. I want the cot to be put up around the end of March and then I think we will basically be set. I still haven't got the list of stuff I need for my hospital stay though so I had better get that soon.
Anyway, hub will be home soon so I had better go and get the last of dinner organised.
So I picked up Liam from daycare and after talking with Ryuji decided to take a round about way home that didn't involve going up or down any big mountains. It turned out to be the drive from hell though. We got within about half an hour of being home and there were trees and branches all over the road and basically just enough room for one car to go through. Then the road was closed as trees had fallen down. Ryuji had left work early and just got through before I did. He told me about another road I could take which I did but was totally freaked out. It was so narrow and I had to drive under half fallen down trees and bash through branches. There was a car behind me which was reassuring as I could just imagine us being stuck in the snow, in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone range or something. We made it out though and thankfully got home in one piece. Liam and I were both mentally drained. He didn't even want to play and requested to just sit quietly and do his Leapster. Very strange for him!
So today there is still snow everywhere! It has been quite sunny so I expected it to melt but I think the sheer amount of it has stopped that happening. We have lived here for 4 years but I have never seen so much snow. Crazy considering it's March! We haven't had to leave the house today though which was a relief. I usually have school on Thursdays but the students had exams today and my private student who I teach in the morning emailed me last night to say not to risk coming in. Liam was of course dying to go out and play in the snow so I let him go out into our backyard while I watched him from inside. I teach 3 classes from home on Thursday afternoons and only 3 out of 12 students ended up showing up. Liam usually goes to Ryuji's parent's house but as I knew so many kids were going to be away he just stayed with me. Only one girl showed up to the second class and as she is only a year older than Liam I let him join the class. He was a bit of a show off but otherwise it worked pretty well. I was then expecting just two students to come to the last class but they cancelled at the last minute so I could finish an hour early. One good thing about the snow I guess.
It's supposed to be sunny and quite warm tomorrow so I hope that means the rest of the snow will disappear. I am so so over it. We don't have to leave home until about midday so fingers crossed the roads will be snow and ice free by then. I am off to lunch with a woman to talk about an interpreting job I am supposed to be doing next Friday. I don't really know the details yet but it's apparently for a group of doctors who are visiting and will be doing some sightseeing around the area. It had only better be sightseeing as there is no way I can interpret medical terms. It's from 9 to 4 and the pay is 30,000 yen which makes it very appealing. The extra cash will definitely come in handy once baby arrives and we will be living on one salary. I am actually quite stressed about our finances as we definitely use much more money than Ryuji's salary every month. We have savings which we will use but it still scares me when I think about it too much.
I was 34 weeks yesterday so only 6 weeks to go until my due date. It still seems like ages away though and I'm sure the time is going to drag by. I am actually feeling really good though. I am sleeping much better than I was a few weeks ago and the heartburn has gone away for now. I don't seem to be getting that much bigger either so am not finding it that uncomfortable to move around. We are pretty much organised with baby stuff. We bought a car seat last weekend and I have ordered a sling online which should arrive soon. I want the cot to be put up around the end of March and then I think we will basically be set. I still haven't got the list of stuff I need for my hospital stay though so I had better get that soon.
Anyway, hub will be home soon so I had better go and get the last of dinner organised.
2010年3月1日月曜日
Not much to say......
Not much of excitement has been going on lately so I'm not really sure what I'm going to blog about. Probably the most exciting this that has happened is that Liam lost his first tooth yesterday. He is only 4 (5 in April) so it seems kind of early but he already had 4 adult teeth come in at the back so it was expected. His tooth had been loose for a while but he wasn't too sure what to do about it. It was hanging by a thread yesterday though so I convinced him to give it a tug and out it popped. There was a bit of blood which would usually freak him out but he was fine with it. We wrapped it up in some plastic and he took it upstairs with him when he went to bed. The tooth fairy had left him 500yen this morning which he was very excited about. I convinced him it would be a good idea to try and save all his tooth fairy money up to buy something big and surprisingly he was up it so we popped it into a money box for him.
This week is quite lazy as I don't have any classes at the school. Today is the graduation ceremony and then the students have tests for the rest of the week. Liam and I had a lovely sleep in this morning and are still in our PJs. We don't have to go out until after lunch which is nice as it's rainy and chilly outside. Liam has swimming class at 3 but before that we are heading to the hospital to visit a friend/student's mum who had a baby boy last Thursday. It is her third child and as she had two girls first she is very happy about having a boy. I bought some cute Pumpkin Patch clothes online to give to her so I will take them up today and check out baby boy. It's the same hospital that I go to and I will be back there again tomorrow for an appointment. I am taking Liam with me for the first time so I'm hoping he's going to behave himself.
The last couple of months of pregnancy seem to be dragging by. I have also been suffering big time from indigestion and heartburn so feel quite uncomfortable. It has fortunately stopped me from pigging out so much as the scales were getting a little scary but it's no fun having it last all day long. I have been propping myself up a bit when I go to bed which helps me sleep but I still probably only sleep for an hour or so at a time. Last night I was wide awake at 4AM for who knows how long. I guess my body is getting itself ready for the middle of the night wake ups with Miss M.
I am in the process of sorting out Liam's Aussie passport renewal. It's not up until June but as things are going to be busy and we are planning to go to Australia in July I thought I would get it out of the way. There's such a lot of paper work and money to fork out. I still find it unbelievable that I have to get our family register professionally translated for the embassy. I could easily do it myself but am of course not allowed. It's not like the embassy don't have Japanese staff or even foreign staff who could understand it. Aargh! Anyway, I have sent it off to a translation company in Fukuoka who will hopefully get it sorted for me quite quickly. If there are any bloggers out there who are qualified to do this kind of thing please let me know as I will have to do it again when I get Miss M's Aussie passport. I would much rather pay one of you than some random translation company :-)
Alright, enough of my ramblings! Happy Monday everyone!!!!!!
This week is quite lazy as I don't have any classes at the school. Today is the graduation ceremony and then the students have tests for the rest of the week. Liam and I had a lovely sleep in this morning and are still in our PJs. We don't have to go out until after lunch which is nice as it's rainy and chilly outside. Liam has swimming class at 3 but before that we are heading to the hospital to visit a friend/student's mum who had a baby boy last Thursday. It is her third child and as she had two girls first she is very happy about having a boy. I bought some cute Pumpkin Patch clothes online to give to her so I will take them up today and check out baby boy. It's the same hospital that I go to and I will be back there again tomorrow for an appointment. I am taking Liam with me for the first time so I'm hoping he's going to behave himself.
The last couple of months of pregnancy seem to be dragging by. I have also been suffering big time from indigestion and heartburn so feel quite uncomfortable. It has fortunately stopped me from pigging out so much as the scales were getting a little scary but it's no fun having it last all day long. I have been propping myself up a bit when I go to bed which helps me sleep but I still probably only sleep for an hour or so at a time. Last night I was wide awake at 4AM for who knows how long. I guess my body is getting itself ready for the middle of the night wake ups with Miss M.
I am in the process of sorting out Liam's Aussie passport renewal. It's not up until June but as things are going to be busy and we are planning to go to Australia in July I thought I would get it out of the way. There's such a lot of paper work and money to fork out. I still find it unbelievable that I have to get our family register professionally translated for the embassy. I could easily do it myself but am of course not allowed. It's not like the embassy don't have Japanese staff or even foreign staff who could understand it. Aargh! Anyway, I have sent it off to a translation company in Fukuoka who will hopefully get it sorted for me quite quickly. If there are any bloggers out there who are qualified to do this kind of thing please let me know as I will have to do it again when I get Miss M's Aussie passport. I would much rather pay one of you than some random translation company :-)
Alright, enough of my ramblings! Happy Monday everyone!!!!!!
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