Today I went in for my nuchal translucency ultrasound to assess any potential risk for Down syndrome, Trisomy 18 and heart abnormalities.

The ultrasound technician was really quite lovely, explaining the entire procedure as she was going along.

The whole process was pretty awesome - they had a screen up on the wall so I could also watch what was going on and...THEY WARMED THE GEL! Anyhow, after she checked quickly to make sure there wasn't a twin (thank goodness there wasn't!) she went straight to business, and the first thing the baby does is roll over from showing his back to facing us! Apparently, baby was having fun moving around and posing....in all the wrong positions for measurements! The technician had to do some creative belly jiggling and even tilting me slightly upside down to try and coax the baby into moving to a good position to get measurements.

Eventually - we got the measurements and they were able to calculate my risks based on the first blood test:

1 in 5,100 for Down Syndrome
less than 1 in 100,000 for Trisomy 18

Which is very, very good. The technician did warn though that I still need to go for the 2nd blood test - as for some women, the numbers can change....but in general - things are looking pretty good so far.

The heart also looked really good which was great news and beating strongly.

Oh - I'm also measuring ahead at 13 weeks & 3 days rather than the 12 weeks 5 days my dates put me at. It's too early to move my due date - the technician said I might just have a long baby!

Anyhow - enough boring text - pictures!

Quality is bad as this is a camera phone photo from the screen:


Scan of baby with hand to it's mouth!


I have to admit I'm feeling considerably more relieved at the moment that everything is currently looking good :)

So, I'm now 11 weeks 4 days along.

Had my second prenatal visit yesterday and I just want to say that so far, I think my OB/GYN is totally awesome!

All my blood work has come back normal - so she's happy about that. I still need to go and do my 3 hour glucose test seeing the lab ended up being closed last Friday (how dare they make a pregnant woman fast overnight only to have the lab closed the next day!) - so not this Saturday, but the following Saturday I'll be going to the hospital to get it done.

I also put on less than 1 pound since my last visit 3 weeks ago - and most of that "less than one pound" was probably my gigantic sandwich I ate for lunch before my appointment and the 24 oz of water I drank with it. haha. I was actually a little surprised, to tell the truth - because it seems like I'm doing nothing but eating lately. Holy cow - I've never eaten this much before in my life. I absolutely MUST EAT breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, snack, right before bed snack (or else I'll wake up in the middle of the night starving). I suppose it works in my favour that all my meals and snacks are generally very healthy (granola bars, youghurt, fruit, whole wheat, veggies, etc) and that I don't consume junk food or sugar. I did eat a cheeseburger last Saturday though, AND IT WAS SO GOOD! Anyhow, the doctor wasn't concerned - so neither am I.

We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat! My doctor wanted to see if she could hear the heartbeat (if we were ok with it) because it's fun to try. She did say though that as early as I am, it's normal not to hear the heartbeat - so I shouldn't worry in the least if we didn't hear it - but we did! :D It was kinda surreal - but all sorts of awesome.

She also explained that the "baby bump" I have right now is mostly my intestines getting all squooshed up inside, as the uterus hasn't moved up high enough yet to be causing the bump. For some reason, this greatly amused me.

Arian and I also got around to joining up at the gym around the corner from our house. Now that the worst of my morning sickness is over - I actually have energy again to exercise. Before anyone tells me I shouldn't be going to the gym while pregnant - my doctor strongly recommends at least 30 minutes of exercise EVERY DAY while pregnant. Of course, I'm not going to do anything like marathon running or the like - I'm just interested mainly in light weights, power walking/cycling and yoga. I also have a pregnancy fitness book that clearly explains safe/not safe exercises to do - so I'm all good. Exercise while pregnant can be highly beneficial in many areas - especially during late pregnancy and labour and can help you get back into shape faster once the baby is born, so YAY all round!

26th of July is when I officially start the second trimester. Until then...I'm trying to remain relatively low key and not too excited. Things seem to be going well so far - but a girl in a pregnancy community I'm a member of just miscarried yesterday - and she was around the same week count as me. It was certainly a reminder that anything can still happen in the next couple of weeks!

Next Friday, I have my nuchal translucency ultrasound - hopefully that will turn out well and it gives us another excuse to see the baby! :)

Any mommies here who cloth diapered, or know of someone who did?

I have a few questions:

1. Did you buy your diapers, if so - what brand?

2. Did you make your own diapers?
If so:
- have a favourite pattern, or did you make the pattern yourself?
- did you wait until your baby was born before making them, or made them before birth?
- What fabrics do you recommend?
- How well did they hold up with uh, "blow-outs"?

I want to cloth diaper, and since I already know how to sew - I figured I may as well make them myself. It's just uh, I've never made a diaper before, nor have I ever changed/put a diaper on a baby before...haha.

Here's a picture of me...not wearing kimono. Amazing!

9 weeks 2 days.



Excuse how tired I look...photo taken after a long day at work.

Oh boy.

Today, I learnt that nothing...NOTHING likes to be tied remotely around my waist. So - everything had to be tied up right under my bust instead. Which turned out to be really quite comfortable - and gave that complete high waisted Taisho look! Guess I can't complain there.

Today I decided to wear my first full ro ensemble of the year:

Ro Taisho era purple lily komon.
Ro Taisho era mandarin duck juban.
Ro hakata obi.
Ro embroidered haneri.

Unfortunately none of the ro obiage and summer weave obijime I had matched with the ensemble - so I wore regular ones instead. Rather than bright bold colours like I normally choose - I decided to go for softer pinks that were in the lilies and my collar.



( Back view and close up of haneri under the cut )

Just around 9 weeks now.

Further than last time and with far more BLURGH!

Anything could still happen during the first trimester - but today at my doctor's visit - everything checked out good.

I made a LOLZ



http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=4030196

Going through organizing my kimono closet - I noticed a disturbing trend...I have only worn a tiny proportion of my collection....while I continue to constantly purchase new pieces.....

So - I have decided on my own personal challenge to remedy this situation.

Naomi's Personal Challenge:
To completely stop purchasing new kitsuke items (no kimono, no obi, no nothing!) until I have:

- Create an ensemble out of all kimono (and obi) I own.
- Dressed in each ensemble.
- Photograph each ensemble.
- Post the photographs in my album.

Once I have worn each and every kimono and documented the outfit - THEN, I'll be allowed to purchase kimono items again. In the meanwhile, all the money I save in not purchasing kimono items will be put into my savings account for my Japan trip!

So, I figured I'd start WITH A BANG!

Remember that rather obnoxiously bright stripped kimono I purchased a few years ago? Yeah...I'm gonna start with that...AND I'm going to pair it with an obi that almost matches in colour! It was an outfit I've been considering for the "Yipes! Stripes!" challenge...so I thought it would be a great way to kick start my personal challenge as well.

My kitsuke is rather appalling in these photos - I dressed quickly after work...it was VERY hot...and I cheated by pinning my haneri to my juban with safety pins...and it shows! haha. Oh, and you can see my obiita

While it's not 100%, I'm VERY happy with the coordination from the ankle up. It had the potential to be a disaster ensemble - but I think it works very well with the black accessories. I do feel very strongly however, that this is a "boots" outfit - much like my other "Fugly" ensemble: View the Fug. So if I ever wear it out - I'd

a) wait for winter, yo.
b) wear black boots.



This photo is when I realized my sleeves were not Taisho long....




Makes you wonder about the real colours in vintage photos:


You can see larger versions of the photos in my flicker account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/sets/72157607972885691

Wish my luck on my hiatus...and be sure to kick my butt if you see me break it before I post all my ensembles!

Over the years I've amassed a rather large obijime collection - with a large number of them being antique obijime.

Unfortunately, more often than not with antique obijime - the tassels at the end are an absolute knotted, matted, torn mess when I receive them. Having the tassels like this can make what used to be a lovely obijime look tacky and exceptionally sloppy and unattractive when worn.

So - I decided to start Project Obijime. Due to how many obijime I have - I need to create proper storage for them, but most importantly - I want to take the time to restore all my antique obijime to their former glory and to protect the tassels on all my obijime.

I decided to take step-by-step photographs on how I tackled this task for all those out there who may need to do the same thing. If you have any questions - please don't hesitate to ask!

Please visit my Flickr account to view the full photos and instructions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/sets/72157616967547643/



Please visit my Flickr account to view the full photos and instructions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/sets/72157616967547643

Arian and I went to San Francisco's Cherry Blossom Festival this past weekend and had tons of fun! It gave me the oportunity to wear my two "new" kimono: my Taisho komon furisode hikizuri, and my crazy Taisho shishi inside yabane komon!

This was the first time I've ever worn furisode...or done furisode kitsuke on myself. Thankfully it wasn't too shabby. While this furisode is hikizuri - there was no way I was going to wear it trailing outside! So I just dressed with an ohashori.




( Lots more photos under the cut! )

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, arian1 

Smoochies for you!

For those on my friends list who are interested in Geiko and Maiko from yesteryear... I've been working on identifying the women in my vintage postcards and photos (using my odori programs as reference) and creating montages of them.








If you click on the images - you'll be redirected to Flickr, where you can view the original sizes.

For those interested in the identification process:
There are cases where the women will have exactly the same name with the same spelling - but not quite look the same (for instance, the 1924 Mamechiyo photograph).

So - what I do for all my montages is that I superimpose the faces on top of each other at a transparency - so I can see the features. I also rotate them all at roughly the same angle - and match up key points - eyebrows, nose, bottom of chin, ears, etc. For Mamechiyo - they all lined up pretty much spot on even with taking into account slight head tilt differences.

The biggest challenges I've come across with trying to identify specific maiko and geiko from my odori programs to those in my vintage postcards and photos are:

a) Hairstyle changes make a massive difference in face shape - to the point of almost rendering someone unrecognizable at first.

b) Vintage photographs can be tricky! Depending on whether the photo was taken inside or outside...with good light or bad can again drastically alter the features and appearance.

c) Printing - some of the vintage odori programs have been poorly printed. This, combined with over saturated photographs and hairstyle changes can really make it quite tricky in identifying specific maiko or geiko.

So Arian is currently playing some game on xbox that I'm amazed Nintendo hasn't complained about yet (there are some elements that scream Mario). Perhaps the pink, screaming, viciously attacking bunny rabbits with flowers growing out of their backs is enough of a creative difference?

Here we go:
http://braid-game.com/

I will say - visually, it is absolutely gorgeous...just disturbing when those bunnies pop out of the ground screaming.

and got myself a Wacom Intuos!

It's been years since I've had a graphic tablet - and it's been driving me crazy. I was originally just going to get the Bamboo - which apparently has great reviews for basic design work...however, the designer in me screamed..."noooo.....intuuuuuoooos!" So, Intuos it was.

YAYS!

Today, I am 30+1 years old. Hip-hip-hurray!

Arian and I were featured on Offbeatbride.com.

Yay! :)

This is what I looked like today:



This is why:




I spent all day making obidome/brooches, hence the "mask". Glue fumes be stinky! Of course, I made more than just two obidome - this is called a sneak peek for a reason ;P

They are made with a mix of vintage lucite pieces and vintage kimono silk for the tsumami petals (the same as what I used to do on my kanzashi).

I'm really quite thrilled with how they turned out - it's a shame the photos do them absolutely no justice. They will be going up on the PuchiMaiko.com website soon :)

I just wanted to thank everyone for their kind words with regards to my last post. I really appreciate it. I'm kind of just trudging along - being kept insanely busy with work (all my DR ordered bed rest was sent working...heh). I'm sure things will be better soon.

Because I don't really have the energy to write about it, I'll just link to Arian:

http://arian1.livejournal.com/330237.html

Spot and Charlie resting on my bed.

Well, actually - they were just beginning to fight with each other until I distracted them.