The Final Countdown

Five weeks to go before Chiharu gives birth, and the girl who thought she would never get big like other pregnant ladies, has now officially ballooned, is glowing, and is ready to set her progeny loose upon this world. She is ready to roll, and soon baby will be out from behind the dark side of the belly, ready to start rocking our world.

But look what it's done to my waistline!

Beautiful Jubair

30 Weeks!

32 Weeks

Cannot believe how fast time has shot past, the last month was like an arrow in flight, even as each babyless, tranquil moment seems the more precious with each passing day towards B-Day.

Photos of Chiharu's bump (for her Mum) 写真はここです

妊婦姿の写真を載せました。見てください。
Here are some photos of Chiharu from the middle months through many stages to the Very Pregnant Stage, as I think it is technically known. Enjoy.

About 18 weeks

20 weeks

22 Weeks

The Oh God I'm Still Pregnant Stage

The Triumphantly Pregnant

The Ravenously Pregnant Stage

The Slightly Blurry 

and Unfocused Stage

The Happy To Be Eating Again Stage

The Finally Bigger Than
My Hubby's Belly Stage

The Pregnant Hair-Modelling Stage (not experienced by all expectant mothers)

The Grace Jones Look-alike Stage 

(surprisingly common)

The Extra from a Mongolian Dancing Troupe Stage

The Dancing Gnome Stage

(rare)

and finally 

The Very Pregnant (and slightly Bogan Kiwi) Stage

24 Weeks

From yesterday, Chiharu is 29 Weeks pregnant. Not long left now... 

昨日で２９週目になりました！

Pregnancy isn't half as bad as we expected.

妊娠生活は思ったより悪くない。

Photos

Lastest photos are up on Facebook, as this blog takes too long to load photos at dial-up speed.

See the following link to check them out
http://www.facebook.com/tobias.tohill

Dunedin - The Southern Capital

Day Six of our journey, and we've made it to Dunedin!

It's been a long and winding road here, through snowy mountain passes, blustery gorges and dry, rolling high country. We've seen some amazing places and have been having a ball!

Arrived in thick fog, drizzle and rolling clouds to Dunedin via Mosgiel and the Taieri Gorge road. Weather has been clear and gorgeous most of the way down, and only now have we hit wintry low clouds and rain.

Last night we stayed at a motorcamp by the beach, and splurged on a tiny cabin with a fan heater to keep us out of the rain, and so we could share warmth in bed for the night, without being separated by sleeping bags under our duvets (as is usually the case when sleeping in the van).  

Internet has been harder to hook-in to than expected, so this blog isn't quite as up-to-date as I had hoped. Will have to back log a few posts before we leave this town.

Off to the Dunedin Art Gallery, Settlers Museum, Aquarium, Olverston House, and a walking tour around the University and central city. Will camp out somewhere in Port Chalmers this evening, and go to a Yakiniku Restaurant (Japanese style charcoal-grilled steak house) out there. Chiharu has been having Yakiniku cravings for the last several weeks.

And it's a ...... !

Here are the scan photos from Week 12.

You can see the baby really clearly. All the hands and feet seem to be there. It spun and twirled, pirouetted and pranced as the radiologist tried to take the scan images. The most amazing part was seeing the tiny heartbeat knocking away. 

The whole experience made the reality of impending fatherhood solidify and sink in. I have no idea how first time fathers prepared for fatherhood back in the old days before scans. Perhaps they just didn't eh?

The wee one gave us a wave as we took this one. If you look carefully, you can see it is actually doing the 'peace' sign for the camera, just to show us it's Japanese heritage.

Chiharu has been very excited about the baby's high bridge. Apparently a strong bridge on one's nose is considered better looking in Japan, and her mother actually used to squeeze the bridge between her eyes when she was an infant, to help raise it up. Hopefully none of that lark will be necessary with our child.
It looks like Baby T is poking it's tongue out at us in this one, though actually that is probably just the umbilical cord. In reality babies in the womb are very much like a cross between that scene in The Matrix when he wakes up covered in gel, fed by tubes, in a human incubator, and the first Alien film up until the alien bursts out of its hosts abdomen.

Skip forward 10 weeks

This is the baby today. It is a lot bigger, we couldn't see all of it at once, just parts at a time.

In this photo the face really does resemble something out of Alien, however when we were watching the scan occasionally we could see the face, and it looked like Chiharu! Seems like it has her nose and cheeks. It was very exciting for me, more so than the last scan.

A hand, with all the digits and the opposing thumb clearly visible.

 All four ventricles of the heart. Incredible to see them beating.








And finally, the news. It's a BOY!
Can you see the evidence? Just in the middle there.

I'm thrilled. Chiharu reckoned she could sense that it was a girl, I think she was kind of hoping for a girl, but she's always said she doesn't mind. I'm simply overjoyed!
Now to just find a name for a boy....???

Travel plans

You can see our travel plans for the next two weeks on our Google Map below. We will be uploading photos from the tour of the southern winter and writing about our journey.


View South Island Trip　南島の旅路２０１０年 in a larger map

Please send us your comments about the photos. Any suggestions for good places to visit and things to do will be warmly appreciated.

Stages

Time flies, and the baby is growing fast. We've moved house, settled in, had two meetings with the midwife and spent a lot of time hanging out and having fun together. It's been a really special time for us.  

あっという間にお腹の赤ちゃんが大きくなりました！最近、私たちは引越ししたし、助産婦さんと会ったり、二人きりでよくしゃべったり、ゆっくりしました。特別な時間を過ごしました。

Everything has been going really well, there haven't been any dramas, besides the usual ins and outs with family and the such like. Baby T seems to be very healthy, and the pregnancy isn't half as hard as I thought it might be. Worry about money from time to time, but I guess that's all part of becoming responsible for other human beings、 and their welfare.

 特に問題はなく、まー普通にある家族ドラマのよう。ベビーTはとっても元気そうで、妊娠の生活は思ったよりきつくない。時々お金を心配してしまうが、人間、人生に責任を持つと心配がでるものだ。

Over this time, Chiharu's belly has been getting bigger and bigger. This doesn't sound like a big deal, until it happens to you or to someone beside you. It's the strangest damn thing! Her stomach gets shunted out of the way, her bladder gets squeezed, everything starts to expand, and suddenly you can feel the little chap bouncing around in there whenever Chiharu slows down a bit for a rest. Truly bizarre! 

前のブログからチハルちゃんのお腹がどんどん大きくなちゃった。
’赤ちゃんが育つにつれて、内臓が押し上げられたり、膀胱が押さえられたりしてトイレが近くなる。寝る前になるとお腹にポコポコと刺激を感じる！赤ちゃんが動いている証拠だよねっ！！’
こういう話しは驚かないかもしれないけど、実際自分が見たり、触ったりすると、ほんまにすっごく変で不思議だっ！

Chiharu has been very excited about how big she's getting, and thought she is really big - until she went to pre-natal yoga class and saw women who are 8-months pregnant! She's a bit shocked, she can't believe she'll be that big in just 12 weeks' time. Parts of me doubt if she really will - will keep you posted. 

チハルちゃんは最近身体が大きくなっていって、『自分って大きいなー』と思ったんだけど、妊婦さんのヨガクラスに参加すると、妊娠９ヶ月の女性を見て『自分はまだまだ小さいんだ』と知った。『１２週間経ったらあんなにでかくなるか』と、少し信じられないチハルです。ちょっとショック受けたみたい。私も少し信じられない気分です。
またブログに近日報告します。

Planning on going on a Babymoon from next week - a trip to celebrate not quite having a baby yet, and being able to travel about  (almost) unencumbered, enjoy a last trip as just the two of us.

来週からベビームーンに行きます。ベビームーンと言うのは赤ちゃんを産んで二人きりの旅行に行くってことだけど、私たちはその代わりに子供がまだ出てないうちに旅をします。

Moving house

Welcome to Wellington St!

Just as one thing gets sorted, something else becomes a hassle.
It seems that life conspires multifarious contrivances to prevent me from going fishing.
Having finally gotten our household set-up and comfortable, long-term tenants settled-in, difficult boarders put out, the random homeless joker who was staying in the shed down the road, and two cords of wood stacked out outside the house for the winter, now we have to move house!
Bugger it, bloody typical.

We were chosen as tenants for this house as we wanted to stay long-term, however out of the blue, the landlord has decided to move back from Korea and inhabit the house.

Spent most of today looking at rental properties and surfing listings on the internet. There are precious few places on the rental market at the moment, and rents are really high in Nelson, so it has been hard to find anywhere we liked or that we can afford.

Now it's coming to crunch time. We have to vacate by the end of June, but there are few properties on the rental market, and no one seems to be moving house at this time of year - so very few new places to rent are coming onto the market either. We have to take a place, before we get stuck for somewhere to move to.

Chiharu really wants a central location, within easy walking distance to the city, as she is doesn't want to drive while she's pregnant or with the baby. (Don't ask me why!?)

So we have settled on a in Wellington St. It's really old, however it has three large bedrooms, two spare bedrooms, a large lounge with a fireplace and a garden full of fruit trees. The kitchen is old, but not too bad, and there is a sunny kitchen/dining room and a bath in the bathroom. The bathroom window opens out into the dining room, which is one of those bizarre quirks old houses sometimes have, and the house has that  some sagging floors and chipping walls, but is also has glorious rich woods lining the interior, bay windows, and neat little front garden, and a hilltop location overlooking Nelson that is just five minutes' walk to the cathedral steps, and even less to the supermarket. It's also affordable, which is a big factor. It has room for all our furniture, and other tenants, but it is not so expensive that we can't get by without sharing. This is important, as Chiharu is optimistic about the prospect of sharing a house with boarders and a new born baby, but I'm more skeptical about how feasible this will be.

The location is great.

View Our new rental house in a larger map


Overall, I like it, while Chiharu thinks it's the best choice available, but isn't particularly taken with the property. I hope it grows on her, and on me.

Look forward to seeing you there.
    

My baby is a sailor

Endless seasickness is an unpleasant prospect, but that is exactly what poor Chiharu has been going through. She has hot flushes, collapses asleep with tiredness, feels ill and dizzy and starving all at once. Nothing much seems to placate it. We've tried sea sickness acupressure bands, ginger tea, lemon and honey drinks, apples. Nashi seem to help.
Chiharu knows she as to eat, but has no idea what she wants. She craved sashimi (raw fish), but after an amazing dinner of sushi and sashimi, dining out at Sachi (thank you Sarah and David!), her cravings for fish have gone entirely. At the moment it's hard to find anything she wants to eat. We go shopping at the supermarket together in the evenings, hoping that the food will jump out at her to be eaten.


The baby has started to show, it has made a wee bulge above Chiharu's hips. It's thrilling to consider that our child growing inside her, and quite bizarre as well. Quite literally, her stomach has been dislodged by an animal that is growing inbetween her intestines and her bladder. Nature is more shocking in its variety and ingenuity than anything contrivance human imagination can create. A baby growing out of a person's stomach? Incredible! No wonder the ancient Aztecs thought babies were born of corn kernels ingested by adult women and growth within them.
(Note: Chiharu got shy about the photo after all. I thought that show it was awfully brave of her!)

When I was young, I mistakenly thought babies were made when a man kissed a woman and they shared an orange pip. If she swallowed it, a baby would grow in her stomach, so I was led to believe. I'm  not sure if I ever did believe the story, but I always preferred it to those grotesque biology videos we had to watch. Remember those videos with the male scientist's voice, explaining with muted excitement, how fascinating it was to see millions of slimy tadpoles racing each other. The climatic moment of a tadpole being subsumed by a gigantic pulsing orb haunted me for years.Only now does it amaze.

10 weeks down, just thirty left

Image from http://www.millan.info/blog/img/posts/10weeks.jpg

10 weeks already. Time is flying by, and the reality is still only just sinking in. We think Chiharu is about 10 weeks' pregnant, although we won't be sure until her blood test results come back.

At 10 weeks, the baby is the size of a fingernail, about 3.5cm long. It weighs around 9gms, and has bendable elbows and wrists. The eyelids have grown and fused closed, and will only open in week 26.

http://www.millan.info/blog/img/posts/10weeks.jpg

It's incredible to think the baby has grown so much already.

Idyllic conception

Hot summer sun, cool seas washing on bleached beach sands, undersized snapper snapped in the hand of your missus who's grinning at you in little more than a floral frock and a wet towel - the perfect bach weekend by the sea.  

And the beginning of their demise. While our baby's journey has been started by our first summer holiday, so will our perfect summers be ended by its arrival. 


Last summer, we had only each other to care about, to smile at, to laugh with. What an amazing time we had! Magic. However, in the balance of life, like all beautiful, joyous experiences, there is a real and incontrovertible consequence.


We conceived. A child is in its embryo, and on its way. It is soon to dive on into this world of suffering and joy, ready for us to nuture it for twenty years.I'm very excited at the prospect, and occasionally apprehensive. Twenty years! Occasionally I find myself considering the consequences of that fleeting summer of perfection.  

Soon our chance of carefree summer holidays will be gone, our trips away changed, transformed to become -


Baby-swinger weekends away. Instead of carefree camping, we will join other infant encumbered parents, holidaying together in bugproof places, sharing in sleepless nights and sympathy, promiscuously passing around our offspring in the hope of having a chance to get away for a quick snuggle by the sea, a good fish, a snooze in the sun, some moments of freedom lived.

Looking back at the photo above, I guess my wife already knew. That's the biggest wink she's ever given me.