The new job's officially started! it's been years since i worked a day-time schedule, and i've never had an office job before.
definitely a lot of adjusting to be done here, but it seems like it's gonna work out just fine. I have to say that i love getting home before midnight, and i love the fact that my husband and i get to see each other every day, for longer than it takes to fall asleep. it's so good!
i seem to be out of the morning sickness, mostly, and the only intense aversion i'm dealing with at the moment is for meat. anyone have any tips? i've just been sticking with soy, since it's so easily available. also, my husband is pretty excellent at cooking it. benefits of marrying a chef!
i've started showing a bit, but only in the "hey you must have had an enormous lunch" way so far. When i get a little bigger, this daily commute is going to be tricky; i'm already feeling seriously squashed on my way to work and back. the belly will not make it easier. oh well, hasn't happened yet. better not to make myself crazy by worrying about it too badly.
what i AM worrying about, quite a lot, is childcare. we need to focus on public nursery schools, since the private ones are very definitely out of our reach. i did a little price checking and despaired; on top of that most private nursery schools and kindergartens don't take infants under 1yr. public ones designed to help out working moms (there are a few, although they're few and far between and all have waiting lists) will take infants any time after the mandatory maternity leave ends. they also scale their prices to reflect the salaries of the parents, which is why we should be able to afford them.
there's some public nurseries nearby that seem legit, so we need to call them up and see if they have rolling admission. the plan is to take maternity leave and then a few months of childcare leave, until the baby is about 6 months old (october). however, just like all the other types of schools in japan, the school year starts in April. there's also a huge demand for childcare that can't be met, and so children routinely don't get in. you're expected to register your child for your top three to six choices the previous fall. if you get in, congratulations! The chances of a space being open for our baby, 6 months after everyone else started, are slim.
this would mean i can't go back to work, unless we figure out some way for me to work from home. while we can survive with me on half-salary for 6 months, we won't have any cushion and we won't be able to save anything up or do anything except pay bills. it's going to be tough. if we can't place the baby in a good nursery school (i.e. one that is registered, licensed, and hopefully well-regarded) we're stuck, for however long it takes. i can take up until the baby's 1st birthday as childcare leave, with the option for an additional 2 months if there's still no childcare available.
i would really, really prefer not to do that for a lot of reasons.
anyone have any advice? i'd love to hear it.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
cloth diapers?
Cloth vs Disposable: Does anyone have a thought about this?
I'm planning to check with my sister-in-law and see how she's handling it. It's too awkward to ask my mother-in-law, for sure. However, Mu-chan's son is just about 6 months old at this point. Surely I can ask her for a little advice? Right? I hope she can shed a little light.
At the moment I'm reading everything I can find about the subject and making myself more than a little crazy. I'm barely at the end of the first trimester- we don't exactly need to worry about diapers yet. However, I like to plan things out effectively and preferably with backup plans in place so that when it inevitably goes wrong I can adapt with minimum stress and time to spare. That strategy may not work with babies. I'll simply have to do the best I can.
Currently I'm thinking of using a mix of prefolds and liners with assorted diaper covers. The Sweet Pea, Wolbybug and Tidy Tots covers seem to have good reviews. Anyone have any personal experience? I'm considering getting two of each, a handful of inserts for overnights and outings, and then buying the easily available Japanese prefolds I can get down the street for every day use. I'm planning to use disposables for the first couple months, though, and then ease my way in to cloth diapers. That should give me a little time to get used to the cloth ones, and also avoid any newborn fit issues so I can just buy one-size covers.
A lot of the brands I'm looking at don't seem to be available in Japan. Does anyone know if they ship? Should I just send them to my parents' place and pay mom for shipping them over to me? That might be easier. Time to ask around!
I'm planning to check with my sister-in-law and see how she's handling it. It's too awkward to ask my mother-in-law, for sure. However, Mu-chan's son is just about 6 months old at this point. Surely I can ask her for a little advice? Right? I hope she can shed a little light.
At the moment I'm reading everything I can find about the subject and making myself more than a little crazy. I'm barely at the end of the first trimester- we don't exactly need to worry about diapers yet. However, I like to plan things out effectively and preferably with backup plans in place so that when it inevitably goes wrong I can adapt with minimum stress and time to spare. That strategy may not work with babies. I'll simply have to do the best I can.
Currently I'm thinking of using a mix of prefolds and liners with assorted diaper covers. The Sweet Pea, Wolbybug and Tidy Tots covers seem to have good reviews. Anyone have any personal experience? I'm considering getting two of each, a handful of inserts for overnights and outings, and then buying the easily available Japanese prefolds I can get down the street for every day use. I'm planning to use disposables for the first couple months, though, and then ease my way in to cloth diapers. That should give me a little time to get used to the cloth ones, and also avoid any newborn fit issues so I can just buy one-size covers.
A lot of the brands I'm looking at don't seem to be available in Japan. Does anyone know if they ship? Should I just send them to my parents' place and pay mom for shipping them over to me? That might be easier. Time to ask around!
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Prenatal Vitamins in Japan
One thing every site I've looked at has advocated is prenatal vitamins. It's established custom to start early and take them through the length of the pregnancy. Some people advocate taking them while breastfeeding. Some people recommend a normal multivitamin plus a folic acid supplement. Every US based site seems to be emphatic about the need for vitamins to supplement your diet.
My mom was pretty horrified to find out that Japanese doctors don't recommend them and in fact don't mention them to patients. The assumption is that the baby won't be suffering, since it takes what it needs from Mom regardless, and that Mom can make it back up later. My husband was pretty surprised that it's considered a pregnancy staple in the US.
He's asked me not to take them. He's worried about me taking something that doesn't seem to be medically necessary, especially when he doesn't know what's in it. I'm sure it doesn't help that he can't read the available literature easily.
My mom is very worried because i haven't been taking any supplements.
as far as i can tell the major need is for folic acid, which is super important in the first few weeks and should be taken up through the first trimester. I'm at the end of that now; the ship has sailed, sans folic acid. Intense morning sickness kept me from eating much for the last few months so i'm not sure how much it would have helped. All i know is that the only foods i desperately wanted to eat (and actually could eat! joy of joys!) at that time turned out to have high folic acid concentrations. Kiwi fruit, cantaloupe, broccoli... Hopefully that'll be enough.
I'm trying to eat a reasonable diet although it's difficult to handle most foods. Currently the main worry is protein, since meat isn't working out for me. Someone has ordered vitamins off of iHerb and is sending them to me, which is very sweet. Should i take them? Does it make a difference at this point?
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
For ladies who would like to take prenatals: http://jp.iherb.com/search?sug=multivitamins+-+prenatal&kw=prenat&rank=3
they do ship to japan! and it looks like they offer free shipping for orders over ¥4000. If it's hard to meet that limit by yourself, it's probably worth it to order together with a friend. shipping fees can be brutal!
My mom was pretty horrified to find out that Japanese doctors don't recommend them and in fact don't mention them to patients. The assumption is that the baby won't be suffering, since it takes what it needs from Mom regardless, and that Mom can make it back up later. My husband was pretty surprised that it's considered a pregnancy staple in the US.
He's asked me not to take them. He's worried about me taking something that doesn't seem to be medically necessary, especially when he doesn't know what's in it. I'm sure it doesn't help that he can't read the available literature easily.
My mom is very worried because i haven't been taking any supplements.
as far as i can tell the major need is for folic acid, which is super important in the first few weeks and should be taken up through the first trimester. I'm at the end of that now; the ship has sailed, sans folic acid. Intense morning sickness kept me from eating much for the last few months so i'm not sure how much it would have helped. All i know is that the only foods i desperately wanted to eat (and actually could eat! joy of joys!) at that time turned out to have high folic acid concentrations. Kiwi fruit, cantaloupe, broccoli... Hopefully that'll be enough.
I'm trying to eat a reasonable diet although it's difficult to handle most foods. Currently the main worry is protein, since meat isn't working out for me. Someone has ordered vitamins off of iHerb and is sending them to me, which is very sweet. Should i take them? Does it make a difference at this point?
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
For ladies who would like to take prenatals: http://jp.iherb.com/search?sug=multivitamins+-+prenatal&kw=prenat&rank=3
they do ship to japan! and it looks like they offer free shipping for orders over ¥4000. If it's hard to meet that limit by yourself, it's probably worth it to order together with a friend. shipping fees can be brutal!
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