Pregnant In Japan: The 1st Trimester Pt. 2

 

Continued from Part 1

As much as time dragged, two weeks passed and I found myself back at the hospital in the rocket ship chair. This time, the doctor didn’t open the curtain and I was too nervous to ask. She poked around my bits again and went “ah ha! Baby is there!” which was the best three words I’d ever heard in my life. I turned my attention to the tv beside me to check out my new favourite show and sure enough there was something! It didn’t look like anything human, rather it looked remarkably like a shrimp but there it was. MY shrimp. I asked if I could hear the heartbeat and a little sound wave came on the screen accompanied by a rapid paced badum badum badum and if I said I didn’t cry a little I’d be lying through my teeth. A printout of my shrimp was given to me and the doctor confirmed everything looked good and was proceeding as normal. She instructed me to go to the ward office as soon as I could to register the pregnancy, get my swag bag and told me she’d see me again in three more weeks. I walked out of her office proudly clutching the picture of my soon to be baby who I’d now nicknamed ebi-chan (ebi = shrimp in Japanese).

8 weeks

My husband and I raced straight to the ward office and had no trouble registering the pregnancy with our given estimated due date of January 11, 2022. I was asked to fill in some forms detailing not only my physical health, but mental health as well. There were questions about how much sleep I was getting, how I felt about being pregnant and asking what supports I had in place here in Japan. I was also asked to meet with someone who I can only guess was a social worker who also went over these things with me and was relieved to hear I had a supportive family here with my husband and in-laws. She also told me if I needed I could request help and have midwives comes to visit me after the birth to assist me with things like feeding the baby, and even cleaning my home!

My next appointment was an extra special day because it fell on my Birthday AND marriage anniversary. I couldn’t think of anyone better than my ebi-chan to celebrate with and this time I wanted to make sure I remembered to actually record the sound of the heartbeat with my phone. Now 11 weeks along, almost at the three month mark, I was delighted to see a shape that more closely resembled a baby up on the screen. When the heartbeat played, my shaky hands recorded with my phone and it sounded just like a rumbling Osaka subway train. Everything was moving along nicely and both ebi-chan and I were healthy. It was the best Birthday gift I could have ever asked for.

11 weeks

The rest of the day was spent celebrating with my hubby; we went to Sumiyoshi Shrine to have our pregnancy blessed by a priest - which I’ll be sure to write about later!

I had one more appointment in this trimester at the 14 week mark and the growth was truly remarkable. It was also fascinating to see ebi-chan moving around so much, the doctor laughed saying that the baby was dancing and all I could think was “yup, that’s my child alright”. I was also starting to feel a lot more comfortable knowing I was safely transitioning into the second and more stable trimester. In Canada, the first trimester comes to a close at 12 weeks, but Japan considers the first trimester to last until week 16.

14 weeks

Since I was in between both countries timeframes, I thought now was as good a time as any to make the grand announcement. Close family and friends already knew but it was now time to tell the world. My husband felt a bit shy as typically people don’t make pregnancy announcements in Japan - the announcement comes *after* the baby is born but after seeing all the well wishes and love that came our way, his hesitance faded.

And the best thing of all happened the moment I hit that 14 week mark - my morning sickness disappeared overnight and my appetite came back with a vengeance! I was ready to take on the second trimester, refuelled with energy and feeling more like myself again. I knew there would be a lot of changes coming physically and I began to mentally prepare myself - second trimester here I come!