Braden and I are expecting baby #2 (Or Baby Chan 2.0 as we like to call him/her) in late November/early December. This will be my first (as long as nothing happens earlier 0_o) hospital stay in Japan and I've learned a bit from reading other people's blogs and comments in forums. Perhaps I'll be able to join this conversation with this blog and share my experiences and advice for other foreign moms in Japan.
First off, it is true what I've read in other blogs, and that is that Japanese Drs REALLY don't want you to gain hardly any weight while you're pregnant. I lost weight during the first couple of months of pregnancy due to morning sickness, and when this happened with my first pregnancy in America my Dr was full of advice on how to gain weight. My Japanese Dr, however, said nothing about my weight loss, and when I finally got my appetite back around the fifth month or so and gained the weight back, he warned me not to gain too much! I was surprised that I actually felt annoyed at his comment, which he tried to share in a jovial manner, but it wasn't completely unexpected. I have a Japanese friend who said that HER Dr told her to gain NO weight during her pregnancy, which she found impossible to do, and she said the Dr kept chastising her!
Now I don't want to give the impression that I don't like my Dr, I actually do like him and the clinic that I go to. The staff are very helpful and are always willing to show me where to go and what to do if I look lost. The nurses, who don't speak any English, read forms out loud to me (since I can't read Japanese very well, but I can understand quite a bit of spoken Japanese) and they try to speak simply so that I understand. The Dr himself actually knows English (not super fluently, but enough), which was why I chose that hospital in the first place, and that makes things a little easier for me.
The only other complaint I have about this hospital is that they seem totally unwilling to let me attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after C section), and I don't know if that is simply their policy or if I'm a special case. I hate to argue with them about it, but I do want to investigate the matter further...
Anyway, some of you are probably tired of all the pregnancy talk, so I'll give you a break and let my husband make an entry about what HE's been doing lately.
Braden:
Hey folks. So I'm on my second year as a JET working as a Coordinator for International Relations in the International Affairs Department of the Aichi Prefectural Government. I translate and interpret things every once and awhile, but mostly I native check things that've been pre-translated by non-native speakers of English. It's kind of mind-numbing and boring at times. But whatever.
Recently I've been trying to go to karate and the weight-lifting gym more often. Today while lifting large pieces of metal and then putting them back down repeatedly, one of the guys in the gym asked me, "but hey, if you get too big and muscly, won't that make your karate technique a little slower, and thus weaker?" (in Japanese of course). I told him I dunno, but I guess I should ask someone about that. Maybe Shihan in Ellensburg. I guess I don't care too much either way, as I don't really have any plans to become a world famous karate tournament fighter or anything like that.... I just wanna do different kinds of exercise throughout the week. And you know, if I get big and buff looking instead of fat and lumpy looking, I guess that'd be kinda cool too.
This weekend I'm gonna be helping out a friend who is coming to Nagoya with her Yosakoi dance troop with some other friends by carrying stuff around and taking pictures during the big DOMATSURI festival that's gonna be held here Friday through Sunday. So yeah...... pretty excited for that......
I guess Melissa didn't mention this above, but the doctor said that he thought Baby Chan 2.0 was gonna be a boy according to ultrasounds up until a few weeks ago, but now he's not sure, so now we gotta think of names for both genders, or gender neutral names. How about, like..... Godzilla?
Peace out folks!
