With this pregnancy, I’ve gone pretty much according to the books. Or the pregnancy apps.
For example, the update for the day I turned 16 weeks alerted me that I could start feeling the baby move anytime from 16-21 weeks usually. That day, I felt the baby move.
I turned 28 weeks and it seems like I expanded a foot in a day and moving, bending over to pick up tiny dropped things and otherwise carrying things became a lot more work. Welcome to the third trimester!
Apparently I’m way ahead of schedule according to the average woman here. If I hear, “Wow, I was having a baby when I was your size… you still have 2 more months???” one more time….
My neighbor is like 5 or so months pregnant with her second one and I can’t even tell she’s pregnant!
I’m not really bothered. I know us Westerners tend to be bigger in general than our Asian counterparts.
I’ve run into some interesting situations though lately that are different in America and Japan.
For one, I was in a shop (like a shop, not a department store), and I had to turn sideways to cut through an aisle, my back running into the boxes behind me and my gigantuous belly rubbing against shelf in front of me.
I thought to myself, give me a couple more weeks and I won’t be able to visit this shop anymore. Better stock up on anything I need now.
Another humorous but rather uncomfortable situation… The other day, I ran by McDonalds during a full-day of errands. It was the lunch rush, so I prayed and God provided a seat. I sat my tray and bags down and edged sideways to sit on the bench side (verses the chair side).
People came and began their lunches and I suddenly realized… I’m stuck– there’s no way I can get out of here without clearing a few tables with my baby bump. How am I gonna get out?
I really should have sat on the other side of the table with the chair that I could back out of. But hindsight only gets you so far– I played the waiting game.
I took my time eating, pulled out a book, updated my calendar… and still they were casually chatting with their table partners along. Go on people, don’t you have things to do?? I looked at my phone and realized the tax office would be opening after their lunch break and I’d better hightail it if I wanted to beat the crowd.
Oh well. Here we go.
I finally had to push my table to join another one and the people on the other side of me kindly adjusted their table to give me maximum space… which wasn’t much. It was an awkward moment full of “sumimasen”s (excuse me) as I shimmied through.
Apparently there are some places that just aren’t made for pregnant foreigners.
Pardon the belly, guys! I’m about to give birth any day now…
…and by that, I mean two months from now.
Ninja Mom 