Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

I think that most people already know by now, but...I'm pregnant! Baby Kuwabara is due November 3rd. I'm going to start publishing some drafts that I've been writing about our baby over the past few months. It's been an interesting time already, being pregnant in a foreign country with complications on top of it all! (Luckily said complications seem to have resolved, thank God).
Without further ado...

   Obviously I'm posting these events about 3 months after they happened, but I thought that I'd at least write everything out now, while it's all still fresh in my mind.
  So, I got up last Wednesday morning, back when we were still in the US. Went into the bathroom with Yuki (he insisted on being there for the 'moment), made him face the corner, and peed on the pregnancy test stick the doctor here had provided me with. Managed to only pee on my hand a little bit, yeah whoops. Honestly though, I'm 99% certain that it was a man who designed those tests. 'Urinate onto test strip for 5-7 seconds'. Right. Like I can aim in the first place, let alone pee only on the test strip for that long.
 Anyway, after capping the test and washing my hands profusely, Yuki and I retreated to the bedroom to wait for the results. This one was supposed to take up to 3 minutes. So we waited. And waited...and waited. Wouldn't you know it, the one time I'm fairly certain of the results, and we get a dud! The control bar didn't even appear!
 Luckily, the doc had given me 2 tests, so I went and found a plastic cup, peed into that, and repeated the process. (I wasn't about to take any chances, seeing as I didn't think I had another 5-7 seconds worth in me at the time)!
 Lo and behold....this time, there were 2 bars! One for the control, and one indicating pregnancy!! Yuki had to convince me that it was real, I was so shocked. Even though I'd had a good feeling about it all along, it was still so hard to believe. I started laughing and then immediately moved on to crying, since my next thought was 'I wish my dad would be here to meet his new grandchild'. Eh.
  After then jumping around a bit (but not too much, didn't want to disturb the embryo), I ran downstairs and waved the test in my brother's face. His sleepy response was 'Quit waving your toothbrush in my face', followed by 'Congratulations, you've got an alien in your stomach'. Thanks for the support, Andrew. (In his defense, he really was happy for us once he woke up later on that afternoon).
  I still didn't quite believe the test, so I ran to the drugstore and bought a 2-pack of early indicator tests. Took another one when I got home, and it too gave me a big old + sign! We waved that one in Andrew's face the next day, along with another one that I took the morning after that, just to be safe. Yes, paranoia about my child is already setting in!

                                    The positive test!


         Shitass (i didn't name her!) is thrilled...or else she just likes the smell of urine

                                   Us with the second test

                                   Definitely a positive