Baby Bebe’s Progress (week 25)
Baby Bebe
Based on my Ovia Pregnancy App
♠Size: A baseball glove or a cabbage. 14 inches (35.5cm tall)
♠Gender: Unknown. I am still enjoying the guessing period whether my little bean is a girl or a boy.
♠Weight: 900 grams
♠Looks: Hair is thickening and probably has a color by now. Nostrils are starting to open and the air sacs in lungs continue to develop, priming him to breathe air in just a couple of months.
♠Activities: Kicking a lot and really hard. Bebe move more often when I am relaxed.
Mommy
♠Morning sickness: Almost non-existent. But my rib pain in both of my left and right sides is still active. It’s just happening less often this week. Probably because I am now learning how to dance with it. I do stretching more often even when I am sitting.
♠Exercise: Walking at school and stretching play a huge role in here. I am also somehow helping my husband to change the wallpaper of our house and that is a good stretch for me too most especially for my rib pain/.
♠Diet: Fruits in the morning (2 bananas and a hot less caffeine coffee), I know I have to eliminate caffeine totally though:( Lunch (salad and some fruits) Dinner (I eat a lot of unhealthy food such as too much rice and oily foods and I am so guilty for this). Dessert after dinner (oranges or apples). Probably I am better at my diet this week than last week. I also encorporated sweet potatoes.
♠Weight: 46.5kg. It is the same as last week. Probably it is because I somehow ate less rice now and focused a bit more on fruits and sweet potatoes.
♠Blood pressure: 111/67
♠Balance: I couldn’t really check this this week. But there was one incident when I fell on my behind on the pillow while trying to stand from sitting.
♠Breathing: Did not have a problem this week.
♠Sleep: Sleeping is easier this time compared to few previous weeks.
♠Acne: I still have them, mostly around my forehead and my cheek. When a big one is dried, another one is coming up. And they leave scars which somehow affect my confidence. Though acne.org seems to dry them faster.
♠Skin darkening: It started this week around my armpit. Not that bad yet but the lines are more visible because of the discoloration. BTW, I have a pretty fair skin color.
♠Itchy skin: This week is worse than last week. I feel itchy not only on my stomache but also on my shoulders, forehead and legs. Though I am still keen at applying oil and lotion.
♠Mood: I am pretty happy or positive and less worried this week. But yesterday, I suddenly became way stricter to my husband and did not allow him to go where he wanted to go. Is it hormones or I am now developing the heart of a mother who wants her family to be together all the time most especially at night.
Highlight of this week
♠Happy Moments: Hubby still applies Bioil and lotion on my belly, back and hips to control/avoid more dryness and stretchmarks.
Weather still gets warmer each day. Spring is coming, YEY!!! I had a great final day at the elementary school I am working at and heard other teachers’ appreciation and good luck messages for me.
♠Unpleasant Moments: Rib pain that still feel very uncomfortable. Acne. Dry skin. Itchy Skin. Armpit darkening. Had a little argument with hubby yesterday because I did not allow him to get the table on the auction in Tokyo at around 10pm. Am I right for not allowing him or I am becoming strict about time? It is my favorite table and we could’ve get it for free if I allowed him.
Baby Bebe’s Progress (week 24)
Baby Bebe
Based on my Ovia Pregnancy App
♠Size: 13 inches long (33cm),the size of a GI JOE or an eggplant
♠Gender: Unknown. I am still enjoying the guessing period whether my little bean is a girl or a boy.
♠Weight: 1.5 pounds (680 grams)
♠Looks: Eyebrows, lashes and hair are coming in but still lack pigment and appear white. Skin is beginning to glow a bit pinker, due to the appearance of capillaries. Ears and fingernails are also complete by now
♠Activities: Kicking a lot and really hard. Baby Bebe is sometimes in the middle of my abdomen, in my side from time to time, and rarely below my navel. The only difference from previous weeks is that Baby Bebe move more often when I am relaxed. According to google, it is because babies at this week are now easily feeling sleepy when the mommy is moving. So probably, my little one moves more or wakes up when I am at rest;)
Mommy
♠Morning sickness: Almost non-existent. But my rib pain in both of my left and right sides is killing me.
♠Exercise: My walking around school (I am a teacher) is already my exercise. I also learned how to do some stretching for my rib pain. (please check rib pain exercise via youtube.) I am also somehow helping my husband to change the wallpaper of our house and that is a good stretch for me too:) Pretty much the same as last week.
♠Diet: Fruits in the morning (2 bananas and a hot less caffeine coffee), I know I have to eliminate caffeine totally though:( Lunch (salad and some fruits) Dinner (I eat a lot of unhealthy food such as too much rice and oily foods and I am so guilty for this). Dessert after dinner (oranges or apples). I think I failed on my diet this week:(
♠Weight: 46.5kg. Yup! I lost half a kilo from last week:) Good job Mommy!
♠Blood pressure: 108/73
♠Balance: I guess I am better at my balance this week than last week. Maybe I am now coping up better to my body changes.
♠Breathing: Way better this week. I guess, so long as I am keeping my blood pressure under control, breathing won’t be a big issue, hopefully.
♠Sleep: Sleeping is easy but when I wake up for a pee time around midnight, going back to a good sleep plays hard with me. Same as always.
♠Acne: I still have them, mostly around my forehead. Though acne.org seems to dry them faster.
♠Mood: MMMM? I am quite down this week. Not really bad but easily angered and more sensitive. Is it my hormones? Or just my reaction to changes around me?
Highlight of this week
♠Happy Moments: Hubby still applies Bioil and lotion on my belly, back and hips to control/avoid more dryness and stretchmarks. He usually sends me off to work. Less workloads as well. Coud attend the midweek service of the Born Again Christian Church I am attending to in our city. Plus, the weather is getting warmer.
♠Unpleasant Moments: Rib pain that stabs me a lot still. The strongest physical pain I have ever had so far. Acne. Dry skin. Feeling low or moody and extra-sensitive in the afternoon until sleeping time.
Baby Bebe’s Progress (week 23)
Baby Bebe
♠Size: Barbie fashion doll or a bunch of grapes
♠Gender: Unknown. I am still enjoying the guessing period whether my little bean is a girl or a boy.
♠Height: A bit over a foot tall (30.5 cm)
♠Weight: 20 ounces or 570 grams.
♠Looks: A bit red because of the veins and arteries under its skin, Face is fully formed, and is simply waiting on the fat to fill it out.
♠Activities: Kicking a lot and really hard. Baby Bebe is sometimes in the middle of my abdomen, in my side from time to time, and rarely below my navel.
Mommy
♠Morning sickness: The normal morning sickness symptoms are almost none existent but rib pain has already started. It was so painful that it made me cry. It was first in between my lower right ribs uterus. After a day, the pain was already in my left side too. I decided to have an emergency visit to my OB and was told that it was normal because of my tiny body (148cm. tall). No pain reliver was given yet.
♠Exercise: My walking around school (I am a teacher) is already my exercise. I also learned how to do some stretching for my rib pain. (please check rib pain exercise via youtube.) I am also somehow helping my husband to change the wallpaper of our house and that is a good stretch for me too:)
♠Diet: Fruits in the morning (2 bananas and a hot less caffeine coffee), I know I have to eliminate caffeine totally though:( Lunch (salad and some fruits) Dinner (I eat a lot of unhealthy food such as too much rice and oily foods and I am so guilty for this). Dessert after dinner (oranges or apples). I think I failed on my diet this week:(
♠Weight: 47kg. Yup! I gained a kilo in just a week and that is so fast.
♠Blood pressure: 113/67 is my normal since last week but there was a few hours where I got 117/83 and that is quite high for me. I don’t know if eating fried shimps for 3 consecutive nights is the culprit. But since it is oily, maybe it is because of that.
♠Balance: I am out now. Using the stairs is already a big challenge for me as I always have to hold onto the handrails.
♠Breathing: It is a challenge when I am having a rib pain.
♠Sleep: Sleeping is easy but when I wake up for a pee time around midnight, going back to a good sleep plays hard with me.
♠Acne: I still have them, mostly around my forehead. Though acne.org seems to dry them faster.
♠Mood: Normal, I guess I am happy most of the time. I also like that hubby and I are somehow busy with our moving and DIY on our new house we named BALAY (it means home)
Highlight of this week
♠Happy Moments: Hubby and I bought a lot of stuff for Baby Bebe. But we still need more though. Hubby still applies Bioil and lotion on my belly, back and hips to control/avoid more dryness and stretchmarks.
♠Unpleasant Moments: Rib pain that stabs me a lot. The strongest physical pain I have ever had so far.
Baby Bebe’s Progress (week22)
Baby Bebe
Size：is now a size of a water bottle.
Activities: is trying to touch anything she can, her face, bod or umbilical cord, baby is working on its physical bilities and motor skills by practicing movement and getting a feel for things. (Ovia Pregnancy)
Movement: is now moving more often that I sometimes see it from the outside. I am guessing that Baby Bebe can now hear me as it moves more when I talk while touching my belly.
Gender: not known yet. I told my OB to keep it secret as long as I can wait.
Skin: Having more muscles now compared to last week.
Mommy
Morning sickness: almost none existent
Exercise: well, not that serious yet but I am counting my 30-minute walk to work from Tuesdays to Fridays and some extra activities on days off. But I know I should be more keen on this;o
Diet: atleast one veggie meal a day. No more caffeine. Fruits after dinner. Lesser carbs as well. I also drank more amount of water this week as I feel more thirsty all the time.
Weight: 46kg (doctor’s appt). My OB said I gained 2 kg. in one month which is 200 grams higher than the normal weight gain (1,800 grams/month)
Balance: getting worse. One time, I tried squat sitting and I was so shocked that I couldn’t support myself anymore. I fell my butt on the floor like a ball.
Breathing: is also getting more difficult. As I write this update now, I can feel a bit pain on my right lungs (if that really is my lungs)
Sleep: Sleeping is easy but I always wake up in the midnight for a one-time pee time and can’t sleep well anymore after that.
Just had my OB appointment yesterday and learned that everything is quite normal for me and Baby Bebe. That is all that matter to me for now:)
Benefits of Not Having TV for 4 years
I came to Japan in March 2015 knowing nothing about the Japanese language. Many of my friends and students here get shocked when I tell them that I don’t have TV in my apartment. It was not really a plan not to purchase one. But I also did not feel the urge or the need to have my own. Some told me I can learn more things here most especially Nihongo and the Japanese culture if I am exposed to television. I couldn’t agree more to that. But in a sense, I believe that not having a screen in my own place called my “HOME” also benefited me a lot. Here are some of the things I learned and unlearned by dettaching myself to TV.
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I restarted reading books.
Watching is way easier and more comfortable for me to gain new knowledge and be entertained. But having no TV made me hit my old books I haven’t seen in a while. It was quite boring for me at first but as I read each day, books became more fun and exciting for me. Now, I can’t see myself anymore not having books.
2. I got more connected to people .
Instead of staying in the couch watching my used-to-be favorite shows, inviting friends along and cooking together or going out with them became another alternative. It not only developed my social skill but also learned more that talking to real people is more engaging that watching lives of characters on dramas and movies.
3. I got more inclined to physical activities.
I lived alone for two and a half years in Japan so I often got bored staying indoors most especially during long holidays. So I got myself a good pair of running shoes and started to walk around my new neighborhood until I enjoyed jogging as well. Japan has lots of parks in every corner. Just taking a few rounds around parks has been my form of meditation:)
4. I somehow dettached myself from bad news we often see on TV.
Let’s face the fact that many times, because of the not-so-pleasant news we see, we tend to unknowingly carry them around us and that affects our mood at work,treatment or trust to other people, hopes and dreams for our own country, etc. (atleast for me and for some of my friends). Most especially now that we are in the era of SNS. Everyone has a subscription to atleast two social websites which make us more exposed to news. So atleast, by not having TV at home, I believe that it already is a big help for me to keep my eye away from bad news (even just for a moment) until I open my SNS ;d
5. My eyes health is now better.
I used to wear eye-glasses when I was in college. My eyes became sensitive to the light radiated by phones and TV. I started lessening my exposure on TV then and totally cut watching four years ago. Now, I feel like my eyes aren’t that dry anymore and are less sensitive even in winter.
6. I spend more quality time with my husband.
I got married in 2017 and decided not to purchase TV even after having someone else in my unit. We enjoy talking or writing together. When we feel the urge to watch something, we use our laptop instead. One movie is good for one to three hours. And after that, we turn it off again and talk about the movie we just watched. In that way, we can have more time for sharing our mind to each other. We also enjoy listening to music while doing the house chores, going out for a walk-and-talk, playing basketball, going for a grocery shopping, hitting the gym and the pool, watching the clouds, asking the universe about the why’s and how’s of things, etc. I once told him, “Maybe if we have TV, we will have less of “us time” …
7. I became more creative in some ways.
Well, not really. But yeah! I tried to;D I bought a guitar and relearned some chords and played along with some of my favorite songs on my playlist. I also often decorate my room based on my mood at that season of my life…. That’s creativity, right?! :d
8. I am more excited when I get to watch TV.
One on my in-laws hobbies is watching TV. I have no choice but to watch with them as well whenever we stay in their house for a day or two. Even though all channels are on Japanese and I barely understand their language, I still get excited to watch ANYTHING! Like a child who hasn’t eaten a candy for a long time.
9. I enjoy simple things better now.
Because of lesser exposure to “what’s new?!” that we often hear or see on TV, I developed being happy and awaken the inner child in me. I almost don’t feel anything anymore when I see other women wearing the latest versions of what’s on the hotlist. I now find it fun to watch kids as they play tag in a park, follow clouds as I walk to work, enjoy each aroma I smell from stores I usually pass by while going home and just feel the love between old couples I look at them walking hand in hand with their canes.
Disclaimer: Purchasing or having a television is not a problem for me. I have nothing against it. It is just my personal decision to live away from it. I believe that there are pros and cons of things. But this time, I enjoy my world without Mr. TV ;D
Baby Bebe’s Progress (week 21)
Picture is from google
Baby Bebe
Size：is now a size of a baseball hat
Gender: I told my OB not to tell us yet. I just want to enjoy this feeling. Imagining the “gender-what-ifs”.
Development: Baby Bebe continues to produce meconium, the tarry substance that will become his first poop.
Skin: See-through baby. Baby Bebe’s skin is pretty transparent. It has developed wrinkles and is now having fats that are needed for its brain development and its own temperature regulator.
Movement: Mommy can now feel its movements stronger and more often but a little less than last week. Moves a bit more early in the morning, when I am about to be totally hungry and when I am in an uncomfortable position that snugs baby bebe inside.
Mommy
Morning sickness: almost none. Not sure if it is because I regulated my food intake in time. Just feeling more tired from time to time.
Exercise: Push ups using my knees and squatting (not every day tho. Hopefully I can do it more often.)
Diet: healthier this time. Less-caffeine coffee, bananas and oranges for breakfast, lettuce with tomatoes and dressing for lunch and rice and regular dish at night. I lessened my carbs intake. I cook brown rice insted of white and lessened taking sweetened drinks too and milk. I eat yogurt instead.
Acne: Lesser because I started using the acne.org product again on my face and Puracy shampoo and conditioner.
Emotions: More balanced. Probably it is because I started going to the church again. Though I still am anxious about my resignation in two months time. Still reflecting if it is really a good decision. Can’t let go of the fact yet that I won’t have income of my own and I have no hobbies I trully can enjoy indoor. Hoping to develop or remember what I used to have.
Side Note
Have not gone to my OB yet since January 12th. All the symptoms and developments I wrote here are based on my feeling and my app, Ovia Pregnancy.
Baby Bebe’s Progress (week 17)
BabyBebe
Size: size of a chipmunk; 5 inches long.
Gender: not known yet. Probably tomorrow after our OB visit. ( If Baby Bebe is a girl, she is also already producing millions of eggs in her ovaries that she could use to be a mom herself someday.)
Heartbeat: 150 per minute
Brain: Beginning to control the heartbeat, continuing to develop senses of sight, smell, sound and touch and his arms and legs have reached their normal proportions and will continue to grow at this constant rate from here on out; is now developing coordination.
Soft cartilate: Turning into bones now.
Movement: Felt once ever
Baby Mommy
Emotions: A bit down compared last week.
Pain: Headache most especially when it’s too cold, lying on the left side is more comfortable, undergarments and pants are getting a bit snug, pain on the lower stomach
Weight: 42.2 kg (hasn’t changed since before getting pregnant)
Acne: flare up on the forehead and near the ears, 2 bumps on the right side of the chin
Dreams: Getting more often than usual
Bathroom Run: Increasing
Appetite: A bit higher than usual, started having lots of light snacking in between meals.
(Hello, everyone. I decided to make an article regarding the progress of my pregnancy just so I can have something to read to my baby in the future in he or she becomes a parent. I know that is still too far from now but well, mommies are mommies;D)
When “One” is Greater Than “a Thousand”
My husband and I were watching TV in their family house in the center of Japan when we came across to a news related to Japanese New Year’s culture. It talked about banging a giant bell 108 times in a temple. Each ringing of the bell means extinguishing each bad trait that a person has.
According to the news which happened a few years ago, a staff of that temple was in the midst of ringing the bell when they received phone call from a resident of the place saying “ulsai!!!” which means “that’s too noisy!” . As soon as they got the call, the temple immediately stopped the ritual.
As a Filipino, I got so confused why did they have to stop following their own culture just because it is uncomfortable to one person. I am not into or against following something we grew up doing, but in my personal point of view, if a practice is neither good nor bad, why not keep it? Besides, Japanese have been doing it since forever.
This kind of thing happens a lot here in Japan. I love this country, don’t get me wrong. Though there are also lots of things that I don’t really understand despite living here four years now. I asked my husband his opinion about it and he said “Yeah, that’s we, Japanese. We don’t like when “1” is uncomfortable even if there are “1000” supporting the act.
How about you guys, would you mind sharing about a culture you’ve just learned recently? I’d love to hear them here;)
Have a happy 2019 ahead everyone!
What is a Happy Marriage? (Part II)
Reasons why my ex broke up with me….
My husband and I started to collaborate on our blogs. He usually writes articles about love and culture. I decided to add this article here as a follow-up on “What is a Happy Marriage?” part I.
Have a happy reading everyone. We would love to hearing your suggestions, comments or personal experiences as well. We treat this article as a way in connecting to others who may teach us more about marriage.
RoseofAutumn 