Went to see the midwife in Chiba prefecture about 2 1/2 hours away from where I live. She's really good and much more "thinking of my needs" than the hospital doctors. The doctors at the hospital are always talking to me about the importance of showing up (when I only missed once) and they're always explaining about business and how the baby book covers most of the costs of the tests so I should take ALL the tests and blah blah blah.
The midwife checked everything, said nothing is wrong and that I'm healthy enough for her to accept me. (She said before that if I had any complications, she wouldn't be able to accept me.)
She really knows what she's doing and gave me a few to-dos to stretch my hip area and strengthen (and stretch) my nipples. Yikes.

Next check up may be next week (to go back to the hospital and tell them I'm going to have my baby somewhere else), or in another 3~4 weeks at the Midwife's place.

I still don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, but I'm guessing that it's a girl like Mia says. The baby isn't so active and doesn't move around all that much, and when it does, it's not too hard. Maybe it's a gut feeling and I could be wrong. I guess we'll see. Once I find out, I'll definitely post. :)

I saw this on the couch today and thought, "That poor tired rabbit could be me in a few more months. Rabbit=mother, Monster= my child."

Better hope for the best and prepare for the worst! :)

22 weeks, 5 months

This morning after exercising, showering, and then standing in front of the mirror, I realized that my stomach has really gotten bigger!
As I went about my business today, I got about 4 people commenting on how big my stomach was getting. One teen boy said, "Whoa, Jan!! You're getting fat!!" haha!! He was, of course, joking and knew it was more than just fat.

My back has been sore and my nights have been restless and very uncomfortable. I've tried propping pillows in front and behind me, but I still find no comfort. :(
My lower abdomen is also a bit sore and at first I thought it was because I was lifting a few heavy things (we changed rooms/buildings), but now I'm starting to think that it's my muscles just stretching out.

I've got to take better photos. The reason why all my photos are blurry or fuzzy is because my camera is heavy, and when I have to hold it out with one hand AND take the photo my hand gets all shaky. :( Darn.

The above photo really makes me look like a big, fat, white whale! Bottom one is better.
Hey Mia, recognize the green wall mat behind me?


Photos of new room coming soon, after it's a bit more set up. Heh heh! I still have a few more baskets lying around that I need to sort through. :)

Paperwork and Marriage

So, as you can see, I've been working on changing my blog look. :) Do you like???

Recently, I've been busy with, what seems to me, a lot of paper work! Getting married, changing registration and having a baby kinda brings it on I guess. I'll be working on changing my name to Tanaka Joanna. It kinda has a funny ring to it, but "whateva!!".

Mom, you'd be proud of me! I've been filling out all the papers in my bestest Japanese handwriting!


Ooh, and I must not forget! Here's the sweet ring that fits PERFECTLY on my wedding finger that Josh went out and got for me. There's two little diamonds and the ring is white gold. It's so pretty, and just the one I would have picked if I were there on that shopping day. :)
THANK YOU Josh for getting me the perfect ring AND for making sure that it fit! You're brilliant!

Massiveness...Biggness!!

So, I went for a check up yesterday and I don't have any dieases or sicknesses. No HIV and all the rest. Whew!
From what the textbooks say, the baby should be around 260g~300g. My baby is 400g! Just to let you know, that's the size a 5 month old baby would be. I'm only 4 1/2 months.
Vesna told me that if I'm taking too many vitamins that could be what's making my baby huge, but I'm only taking one multi-vitamin daily, and sometimes skipping days. So, it can't be that.
Praise told me that if I'm resting and taking it easy then the baby will take all my energy and vitamins from me because I'm not using them, and that's one way the baby can get huge. I'm not lazying around all day, but I wouldn't say I'm active throughout the day, and I'm not so faithful with my exercising. Hmm...this could be part of it.
Course, another reason for this massiveness is that Josh is massive. Half Korean/Japanese. I'm half American/Japanese. Could it be that the baby may have strong Korean/American biggness?? Sheesh! I hope it turns out normal and not a monster child.
Well, thankfully, on the outside I don't look so big. Someone told me today that I didn't look pregnant at all! It's true...with a sweater and jacket on, people wouldn't have a clue.

4 month photos

My photos aren't as good as yours are Lils, but, maybe next time I'll clean my mirror and focus a bit more, then it might come out better.
Actually, I think I lost more weight since getting pregnant. Interestingly enough, it's not because I'm not eating or anything like that, it's because I lost all my muscles! I'm SOOO weak now.
Mia gave me a few new exercise videos the last time I saw her so I'm going to get back those stolen muscles! (Thanks Mia!) (Also, Note to Mia: Thanks for the pants! They are the most comfortable pants I have, besides my pj pants!)

Half way point!

I am now 20 weeks pregnant, and have more or less 20 weeks to go to see a little baby which I can call my own. (4 months, going on 5)

I'm at the half way point and this is how things are:

-No more morning sickness! HURRAAHHH!!!
-No cravings, but I really like fruits!! I ate more mikans in these last 4 months than I did in the last whole year.
-Not emotional or moody (from what I think and what others say about me. From what Josh says, I'm the best pregnant woman he's been around! :) yay!)
-A bit of tiredness (I sleep in, or take long naps mid day)
-Baby is kicking a lot and I think it's real cute. Course, I know after it gets bigger it won't be so cute any more. Ha!
-Then there's the other little things that come with being pregnant, but they aren't interesting or "big" enough to mention.

So, all that to say, I forget that I'm pregnant sometimes! Ha!

On my last check up a week ago, the lady doctor said that my baby is on the bigger side. Thankfully, it's still in the "normal" zone, so I won't be baring a monster or anything! ha!

Josh and I are happy and will be moving to another bigger room (still here in Tateyama) sometime this week or the next. :) Exciting!!!

Merry Christmas!

To my dear family,
MERRY CHRISTMAS! I wish I was there with you all to celebrate this Christmas and to unwrap presents and eat a delicious Christmas dinner with you. I could really use a family reunion!

We, Josh and I, woke up early today to eat a very special Christmas breakfast which really was a FEAST! The whole home came and so we all sat in the dining room fellowshiping, talking, laughing, and listening to Christmas songs and stories. Aiki and Mary got me decaf coffee, which I've been desperately wanting! ha! I was able to eat all those goodies while drinking my hot new "pregnancy coffee"! Ha!

We then went to Sam and Leika's building and opened up presents with just the Tanaka family. :) (Home presents will be opened on the 27th, when our Christmas Dinner will happen.) Josh got me a iPod nano with a touch screen. AWESOME! I'm sure this will come in handy! Sam and Leika got us matching red and blue towels with matching face towels. Just what was needed in our room-NEW towels.

Our day has just begin and I'm not sure what the next thing we'll do is...(Josh and Isamu are watching Toy Story 3) but once they finish that we may go out to eat some ice-cream and relax. Then we'll have a Tanaka family Christmas dinner together. Looking forward to Leika's cooking! :)

I miss you, my dear Family (meaning the Kovachs and the Pritchards)! Hope to see you soon!

Love, Jan

Sharing Christmas Cheer!

Yay, here are some photos of me doing good deeds at an oldfolks home. :) This year I did most of the organizing of the shows. Hurrah for me!!
Going to these oldfolks homes has always been a real pleasure for me. The people there are soo sweet and every year when I go there with the kids the oldfolks always say such sweet things about the kids and they always have such touching comments. I had several elderly people come up to me to share how much we make them happy and that even though they're sick or they sometimes feel that it's not worth living anymore, when they think of us and the kids they decide to stick it out and "last till Christmas" so they can see our faces and watch our show. Isn't that sweet??

Here's part of our group standing in line ready to say MERRY CHRISTMAS!! and start our show.

This is the little kids group singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year". They did a simple, cute performance as well.

Here's my group of three that performed to a song with much vigor, action, and excitement! So much fun! They did well concidering the amount of time we had to practice.


Theo (of Aki & Mari) and I with a elderly woman who won this little pink balloon.

Ryo (of Sam & Leika), and I with another "winning lady". She could have been a hottie in her day. Who knows! Ha!

And...Ryo and I again passing out Christmas posters, shaking hands, and wishing them a Merry Christmas.
Here's a funny story of what happened on this day. As Ryo and I passed out the Christmas posters, we got to this one old man and Ryo looked down and started snickering.
Jan: "Ryo, give him a poster and shake his hand."
Ryo: "Hee hee hee...but he looks like a monkey!"
Looking at the man I did agree that he looked a little different than the rest. Ryo shook the man's hand with a huge grin and said, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!" with much more passion and excitement than he had before. The old man smiled real large and complimented Ryo on his smile, how cute he was, and what a good little boy he was. Ha!! Thank God he didn't know what was going on in the little boy's mind.
Later when retelling the story to someone else, we had to agree that there were definitely some great benefits to having our kids speak English as their first language! haha!!

Anyway,

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I wish Christmas Joy and Cheer on all of you!

December 9th Show

December 9th was the day of the first Christmas show this year.
There was singing, dancing, magic tricks, ballooning, and more. I was involved with it all! These last few weeks I've been teaching and practicing with the kids and preteens in our Home and getting them prepared for their Christmas performance.
I'll send more photos later once I get them off of other people's cameras. Sorry, I'm not always in the photos as I'm in the background working the music or preparing for the next bit of the performance. :) I didn't bring my camera on any of these shows as I've just been too busy coordinating the shows so I leave the photo shooting to others. I'll find some though! :)

Here's a photo of Josh and I on the second show of the day. He came to play guitar and eat the free hotel food. Ha! He's normally not in any shows, but I got him to come to this one as it's very close by and a delicious dinner was involved.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas Season! I love you!!!