Meet Scoopy-Doo.

With me no longer on bed rest, and a clear bill of health for The Bean life returned to 'new-normal'. New- normal meant that I should go back my pre-pregnancy lifestyle but no heavy-lifting, strenous housework, or exercise. Basically bed rest without the bed...new normal.

No exercise meant that walking or riding my bicycle to the train station was off the cards. We also decided that riding on the back of Shin's motorcycle probably wouldn't be all that safe either. Especially as any quick stops would send The Bean flying into Shin's tailbone. So, for the first week of new-normal The In-Laws lent us their car. Driving to work was awesome, paying for parking wasn't. In fact, parking in general wasn't all that great. After the tiniest altercation with a wall during one particularly hurried parking job, Shin decided that we needed some wheels of our own. Could it be that I was finally going to get my FIRST car!?

No.

No car for you lady.

Lucky for me, we did get the next best thing, A SCOOPY! I have wanted a Scoopy scooter ever since I moved to Japan. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this particular piece of high performance machinery, a picture can say a thousand words:

The word I choose is fabulous.

Scoopy-Doo gets me from the house to the train station, transports The Bean to the hospital for check-ups, and is perfect for running errands around town. You wouldn't believe the number of things from Costco that you can fit in the space under the seat. On Mondays and Tuesdays when I am off, Shin and I like to scout out new restaurants, parks and shops in the area. When our adventures take us further than walking distance we just hop on our bikes and go touring together. Bless Shin for not being utterly embarassed.

Scoopy-Doo and The Ninja, BFFs.

The Green Lady.

Weird and wonderful things were starting to happen to my body, in all honesty, they were mostly weird. I did my best not to panic or question each change, but of course I panicked and questioned them all. My copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting was already looking like it had been through several pregnancies.

During this time The Bean also having trouble settling in. There were a couple of hysteria fueled trips to the clinic and the doctor restricted me to bed rest. Unfortunately, that was simply out of the question. What to do, what to do??

Enter our heroine, The Green Lady.

For weeks she showed up at our apartment behind the wheel of her trusty Smart Car, with an early morning smile ready to take me to work. Not once did she complain about the stench of vomit as I flopped into the passenger seat. She shuffled students and made excuses, never letting a business based concern slip from her lips. In the afternoons when things were at their worst, she gave me the keys to her secret hideaway where I could recover.

At our next ultrasound The Bean was dancing up a storm. Healthy, and I like to think, happy.

From Shin, The Bean and myself ほんとにありがとうございます。

The Bean.

Way back in the spring Shin and I decided that it was time for us to join the baby making business. We talked about all of the usual humm drum things like money, maternity leave, insurance, day care, etc. We also played around with the fun stuff: baby names, nursery ideas and of course my dream of having a blue eyed Japanese baby. So after some serious and not so serious chats I headed to my doctor to tell her that we were 'ready'.

The doctor also had lots of things to talk about. She told me that my weight, age and medical history might make it quite difficult to conceive (seriously, my AGE?! I'm 35, not 50). She listed different pregnancy options and prescribed some Chinese herbs to "make things easier". By this point I was tired of talking and just wanted to get to the part where we have lots of sex, so off I went with my herbs and thermometer she sold me.

After about a week of taking the herbs 3 times I day I was totally over them. They smelled bad, tasted bad and they were making my stomach upset. I would wake up in the morning and the first thing I would think of was that awful medicine. Just the thought would make me nauseous but I would chug it down like a trooper knowing that it would "make things easier."

Cut to 3 weeks later, still taking the herbs but now feeling bad all day long. Not to mention being sensitive to smells and tastes...what had that crazy woman prescribed me!? At the suggestion of my wise and wonderful husband, I went back to the doctor to ask if there was something else I could take. Also, I wanted to ask for a refund for my thermometer. How could I have a temperature over 37 degrees every day without actually being ill?

I told her in detail how I was feeling, and asked about the broken thermometer she'd sold me, to which she replied "sounds like you're pregnant".

Oh.

Duh.

She did an ultrasound and told me that this early in the game we probably won't be able to see anything but low and behold the little bean appeared! I immediately started crying and the nurses cheered while the doctor congratulated me. Unfortunately, Shin was not there that day and unable to share in the moment.

Turns out that the day I went in to tell the doctor that I was 'ready', I was already pregnant but it was too early for the pregnancy to turn up in any tests. Skipped out of the clinic and called Shin to congratulate him on having great sperm.