First of all, I am 22 weeks and we are going to the doctor on Saturday. The doctor is always something to look forward to -- I get officially weighed and measured and we get to see the baby.

I'll write again after the appointment.

Let me tell you a little bit about my trauma this week -- since Tuesday, I have had a really upset stomach (this means diarrhea!!). Today is Friday. Normally, I wouldn't think much of it, but when you're pregnant, everything takes on this huge significance. Sigh. I worry whether the baby gets enough nutrients since I can't eat anything. I worry that the baby can pick up on my mood and be unhappy because I'm not feeling well, etc...

The saga: Tuesday afternoon: bad trip to the toilet. Woke up in the middle of the night going into Wednesday with horrible cramping. Though I was pretty sure it was the same event as in the daytime, for a fleeting second I thought...this isn't the baby is it?

But of course it wasn't. I did my own remedy of no breakfast, and rice balls for lunch (rice balls are a typical Japanese snack -- plain rice with one additional item added for flavor wrapped in seaweed. I had tuna ones). No attacks. Dinner out with friends followed by regret all night. I was in pain. Spent a lot of time in the bathroom. My poor husband...

Yesterday I ate no breakfast, one rice ball for lunch and was still horribly sick. So I ate a usual dinner (for the nutritional value for the baby) and then was sick all night again and this morning.

I have been reading up on how concerned I should be and the sources all seem to say that as long as I don't get dehydrated I shouldn't worry too much about the baby's nutrition.

Luckily, we have the doctor's appointment anyway tomorrow, so we will talk about the situation with him. I am optimistic that I will be feeling better by then though. I hope so! This is my only symptom - no other flu-like things, so I guess I am not SICK-sick. Maybe I ate something bad...But Eishin isn't sick...

Update coming soon. Oh, yeah, the baby has been totally unaffected by my sickness if its movements indicate anything. S/he has been moving around, playing, tapping back in our little game. Happy, happy. Maybe the sound of my horribly churning stomach and intestines makes it happy...

Beth

I totally forgot to mention the other exciting, yet kind of yucky thing that happened to me.

Here in Japan, all the pregnancy magazines tell you to start doing breast massage from the second trimester. This is to prepare your breasts for making milk. I am not doing this religiously, but I do remember occasionally while showering or taking a bath. When I do remember to do it though at the end when I squeeze the nipple (like a breast cancer self-exam), I get a little bit of cream colored liquid that beads up in 3 tiny pin-prick dots on each nipple.

So, I should have been expecting this, I guess...

I woke up this morning and rubbed my hand against my nightgown and it felt wet. I thought I must have drooled in my sleep or something. But when I looked down, the wetness was in the perfect shape of a circle around my nipple. And there was a matching stain on the other side. Sigh. I guess my breasts are in working order. That's good to know. On the other hand, does this mean I am doomed to sleeping in a bra with nursing pads in already? I was kind of hoping to avoid that for a while.

But, I hear that this is perfectly normal. We'll see how often it happens...