Hey, Guess What!

For those of you who have not yet heard, Mike and I are having a baby! And those of you who have heard, of course, are thinking, "Finally, she's bothered to mention it!" Yes, "Taos" Weiss - don't worry, that's just the in utero name - is due to join us sometime in early February. That means that right now I'm about 14.5 weeks pregnant, just beginning the second trimester. For the most part I've felt pretty good: queasy rather than really sick and a little more tired than usual, but that's about it. I'm still having a lot of trouble eating regularly and remain about four pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm sure that will resolve itself soon enough. In response to your second question, we are indeed planning to have this baby in Japan, and we are very comfortable with that! Much of birth culture is extremely different here, and I'm sure we'll talk about that more later, but we have a great doctor and a great clinic. Our doctor is Dr. Hisanori Kato. He trained for a time in the U.S. and treats a lot of Westerners, so he's familiar with a lot of the cultural assumptions we're bringing to the table that we don't even know we have. Here's a link to our clinic's website - it is entirely in Japanese, but you can get an idea of what it's like from the pictures! It's a full-service clinic, so we are planning to have the baby there. It's also a quick five-minute-drive from our house at most, so Mike doesn't have to worry too much that he'll be delivering this child in the car. :)