15 weeks

First of all, I want to say a HUGE HUGE congrats to Mercy!!!!

Welcome little Tu-tu kun, I hope you and my little Papoosie become great friends. You have a wonderful mother and you are so lucky to be born to her. I can't wait to meet you!

Good job Mercy, he looks like he could be really really cute! Can't wait to see more pictures of him as he grows! I know things are gonna get tough with the schedule and taking care of the little one and all ... but ganbatte! Ouen shiteruyo! I will always be around to give you my 3-month-ahead advice! :d :d. Love you so much and can't wait to hear your story! Omedetou!

Now back to MY little one!

15 weeks old! This week I started putting more milk into his bottles (I used to only put 125ml), so when he's really hungry he can drink up 150 ml! His daily milk intake has jumped from a 450-550ml average to a 550-650ml average per day. That's almost a liter more per week!

His poop schedule seems to be evening out again (thank god) ... with around 2 poops per day as opposed to the once every 3 or 4 days that he was doing the past few weeks.

This week he really has come alive in the attentiveness department. Just from one day to the next he has gotten so much more alert and focused on us, responding to our differing facial expressions with expressiveness of his own. He will laugh when being smiled at, look perplexed when being scolded, etc etc ... it's taken his cuteness to a whole new level! I have some videos but I can't find the bloggie so it'll have to wait for next time.

I forgot to mention this before, but from a month or so ago (I think) his belly button started going in, and now its like mommy's! Like a bunch of stretched skin that will go in properly in time. It's been one less thing to worry about ... quite a relief that it didn't take 6-12 months!

It's been a great week with a new and happier (easier to make happy) Papoosie.

July 10th

Papa bought me a couple hats to match the ones he has. They are still too big for me but I enjoyed playing around with them ... until it wasn't so fun anymore!

July 9th

More playtime photos!

14 weeks and vaccinations

Cutie Papoosie is 14 weeks today. And before I say anything more, I want to say a big Congrats to Arielle and Faye for their Sweetie pie! He's so big and cute and I really want to meet him someday! I think right now he looks more like Faye but I know how fast babies can change! Congrats to both of you and the new little one!

Anyway, so its been a mellow week ... he's generally been happy ... spent a lot of time with Papa this week cause Mom had a lot of work to do.

Then yesterday, we took him to get his vaccinations. I had had a rough night with him the night before so I had been sleeping from 5 a.m., and Papa brought the baby to me to nurse at around 7:30, and I found out THEN that they were going to take the baby for vaccinations! They were gonna go without me! I was like ... no way(!) are you taking MY baby to get vaccinated without me! He needs his mama!

So I dragged myself out of bed and dressed and went to the doctor. Papoosie was SUCH a trooper! Let out ONE shrill yell at the beginning, and they quickly scooped him up and passed him to me for comfort, and then he only cried a little on his second shot. It was soooo kawaiisou he was just whimpering on my shoulder ... not yelling like he usually does ... just whimpering and sobbing, and curled up so tight against me (he knows how to hug our neck with his other hand and not let go!) ... awwwwww. Anyway he fell asleep pretty fast after that and spent the whole day pretty much knocked out. We tried to keep the fever below 38 by giving him fever med when the fever started rising again (about every 4 hours). He wanted to be held all day, and would cry if put down. But oh gosh he was a heat sack ... but of course I held him ... it was sooooooo kawaiisou how he just wanted to curl up and hug me and be hugged. Even in his sleep he would whimper ... it was so sad and so cute. Anyway, I stayed up all night with him this way, because I guess he was feeling better, but he still had a 38 pretty much all night, so he would wake up every 30 minutes to be held and rocked ... He didn't drink anything almost all day, but we sort of expected that so we didn't push him too much. Just tried to feed him every couple of hours, and he would take maybe 20-40 ml at a time.

Today he did a bit better. Had a 38 almost all day but was more active and alert than yesterday. His leg doesn't seem to hurt too much anymore either, which is nice.

Oh, and ever since a week or two ago he stopped going poo every day, and would go one HUGE one every 3-4 days. Well, the 5th day just happened to land on today, and he's been a huge poop machine all day ... and this is kind of gross, but the texture of it is like SUPER creamy ... if someone didn't know it was poop, it would look like some super creamy chocolate cream or something. AHAHAHA TMI ...... the point is that also the exertion of trying to get out all this BM has made him extra cranky as well ... so he's been crying and feverish pretty much all day.

Tonight we've decided to give him sleep med so he will sleep better tonight.

I mentioned in his week 12 update how he has this board of black and white images that he just LOVES ... here's a picture of it.

July 7th

It's video time! One SUPER SUPER early morning when all the rest of the world is quiet ...
I was having some quality time with Mama ...

June 29th Playtime pictures!

Mom says sorry the first one is out of focus, she just thought me smiling was the cutest cutest thing!
I'm getting happier with my toys and playtime. I still don't like being left alone AT ALL, so I will cry if people aren't giving me attention, but I also like my toys too!

June 26th

Nowadays sometimes when mommy or daddy is feeding me I like to do this ...

Yep, I'm a real diva!

Thank you Godmother and Godfather

Thank you for my new set of clothes! I love them! You can see they are still a little big on me ... but I will fit them in a couple of months, just in time for the autumn weather ... which is when it'll look the coolest anyway!
Sending you lots of slobbery kisses ...

-Papoosie

3 months old

So yesterday on the 15th my little man Papoosie turned 3 months old! He's been growing so fast and I just can't keep up with these updates!

He has been so happy this week. Except for one day where he wouldn't stop crying because of the heat, he's been such an angel. It's been so hot everyday here and we haven't had running water for 4 days (everyday grandma and grandpa haul 8L bottles of water up 3 flights of stairs to fill up the huge buckets in our house. It would be so stressful for all of us if baby would cry more but between his rinse offs (he gets at least 2 or 3 a day) he seems to be handling the heat very well. So far no heat rash even under his neck and underarms where he's got the most chub. I am so jealous he gets to cool off in his baby tub every 2-3 hours ... and I WANT A TUB too! Oh well ... I've been learning to take my showers the old bucket way ... and I have learned to wash with just 8L of water ... YAY me! Unless of course I have to wash my hair and then another 8L gets added ... cause my hair is like LOOONNGGG ...

He sleeps very well at night now, with just one feeding. He can go 5-6 hours without waking during the night now! Last night for the first time he rolled over in his sleep. I mentioned in my 12 week post how I have been doing rolling exercises with him ... and somehow last night he rolled onto his back! I went to check on him because I heard him whining a little ... and he was WIDE awake on his back! The next morning I asked Ardit and M-I-L if they had turned him in the middle of the night but it turns out he had done it all on his own! I'm so proud of my boy and how fast he's growing! It's still a mystery to me though, because during the day during tummy time he will show NO signs of even wanting or trying to turn over. He will cry and get bored after awhile, but he doesn't try to turn over. So I'm wondering how it happened so out of the blue. Oh well.

We took him for his 3 month checkup (no vaccines this time cause it's just too hot. If there are a few days in a row where the weather is cool he'll get his vaccines done then) and here are his measurements:

Weight: 5.4 kg.

Length: 57 cm

Head circumference: 38 cm.

He's grown 10 cm since birth, 5 cm in head circumference, and gained 2.9 kg. So it's not just me saying it ... it's really TRUE! He's got SUCH long arms and legs ... like THIS ...

Here are some photos I took of him on his special day.

Woke up so happy, cause he's a big boy now!

Not too sure about my singing ...

'Mom ... do you HAVE to sing happy birthday to me in THREE languages?'

Cheesy grin ... he's got the same lines under his eyes as Daddy ...

'It's time to party y'all!!!'

hmmmmmmm .... nope ... dunno what was happening here ...

In the afternoon we took him out to meet godfather and godmother and got a present! (Which we'll show in another post).

All in all it was a full day and I'm just so happy he's growing up so well.

Mama loves you, my little boy!

xoxo

June 24th

Grandma buys me lots of clothes and so far they have all been too big (mommy says I can wear the jean overalls when I turn 1!!!) but these overalls fit me just fine, and I like them very much!

June 20th

I wrote on his 10 week update how he's been practicing his grabbing a lot.
Here's a picture from that week of him 'holding' his pacifier. He's a pro now at grabbing his pacifier either by the handle, like in this picture, or by the pacifier string and pulling it out of his mouth. It's adorable but then he gets upset cause he wants it back and starts crying ... tsk tsk ...
In this picture he actually got two fingers into the holder ... and he was waving it around like a flag and poking the side of his face with it ... and he would turn his head to try to find it, but then with a jerk of his arms it was gone again ... it was soooo cute!

12 weeks

I'm so excited! Papoosie is 12 weeks today! (Well, I started writing this yesterday but couldn't finish it so I guess that makes it yesterday!)

Another week, and he continues to just grow and grow!

-Feeding schedule changed again ... and I'm still trying to adjust. One thing that's a con for bottle-feeding him is I can't just pull out the boob when I think he's hungry so he can feed. The bottle has to be warmed, and then if he doesn't want it, I either have to put it back in the fridge or hope he gets hungry within an hour or so or that bottle goes bye-bye to gomi-land. I would stress a lot about this but THANK GOD I have tons of milk (more than enough to spare if the bottle goes to waste) so its just a minor inconvenience and not a huge source of stress. I have started freezing the extra milk this week though. Not because I'm worried that I will run out, but because I had a dream that I had to go back to Japan for an emergency and there was an option of leaving the baby with papa for a few days because I had filled the freezer with pumped milk. I know its a stupid reason but I also don't like throwing the milk away ... of course unless something bad happens to me we probably wont use the frozen milk anyway and end up throwing it away ... but I'm trying not to think about that right now.

Strange thing I've noticed this week is he prefers my boob to the bottle. Which is nice and all ... but inconvenient if I happened to have pumped right before his drinking time. A few times I find myself using the boob to 'trick' him into drinking. I give him the boob and right before he really latches and starts suckling I quickly replace the nipple with the bottle and hope he doesn't notice! If he's hungry enough it works the first time ... cause once he starts drinking all is well ... but when he's super particular and fussy sometimes I have to let him suck on the boob for a couple minutes just so he's ... comforted? I don't know what his deal is. But he DEFINITELY falls asleep better if I nurse him at night to put him to bed.

-Sleeping schedule has stayed pretty stable. Which is so nice. He's starting to wake up only once or twice at night only to drink. Which is soooooooooooooooo nice. This past week I didn't even have to change his diaper at night because he only poops during the day! So even less cause for waking up for him! It's been a real real ... relief!

-Less tummy aches. He's doing so well and this week we haven't really given him the gas drops! Hoorah! He's only cried once or twice this week from tummy problems.

-Active. By god this boy is such a .... BOY! He CANNOT stop moving. And he's STRONG too. I can hold him up and let him kick off the ground ... and he can stay standing that way for quite awhile! He loves going from a squat kicking up into a straight standing position ... just like a frog! I am hoping his head stabilizes soon so we can stick him in the jumper saucer and he can get his kick on.

-Interactive. Getting so much more ... alert. Loves his playtime with me. I'm teaching him to roll (I don't care if you say it's too soon ... he loves it), sit (surrounding him with pillows and putting him in a sitting position and letting him fall whichever way he likes), and push things. He can pull his pacifier out of his mouth by grabbing the pacifier strap, and pretty much anything near his head he will grab (gotta replace my earrings with studs now!). His favorite toy is the big board covered with black and white images. I stand in front of him with it and he just stares and stares.

Those bags under my eyes have darkened and WONT GO AWAY! I always used to have bags but now they're BLACK! WAAAAAAAAAAa anyways just something I noticed recently in all the pictures. So now I always have to PS them off before I sent/post them anywhere.

So that was his 12th week and in just 1 week he'll be 3 months old!

I hope you haven't started to get bored of him cause there's no way I'm gonna stop posting pictures and writing about him. I don't have time to write in my journal anymore, so one day these words will be all I have of how he was when he was a wittle bitty thing.

Anyway ... as always ... a picture.

June 16th

Mama says she knows these are all so similar but she couldn't get rid of these cause the faces I make are too cute. Even though there are so many Mama actually had way more to choose from. 

Anyway, I don't fit into this outfit anymore. And these pictures were taken only 2 weeks ago! I'm really growing fast and Mama is worried that I will outgrow all of my clothes before she has the chance to buy the new ones for me! I'm glad it's summer so that if all else fails I can just be a fat-so in my diaper without any clothes on! 

Mama says this one is the cutest of the bunch!

Farting with my mouth ... 

Farting? Me? No way!

Waving

The 'fencing' pose

The 'your such a stranger' face

Oh yeah? You want a piece of me? 

11 weeks

So, yesterday my boy turned 11 weeks.

This week he has actually gotten a lot better, he has had much fewer screaming fits of pain, and has slept relatively well during the night which has been such a relief for us. His eating schedule has also stabilized somewhat thanks to the bottle, although he still has times when he refuses the bottle and wants to fall asleep only on the boob. Headstrong, my boy!

His daytime schedule is still quite up and down. One day he will sleep all day and wake only to drink, other days he will refuse to sleep at all. When his sleeping days come we both find ourselves taking turns sleeping all day with him! They say we shouldn't let him sleep during the day because he won't sleep at night, but I can't find a way to regulate his schedule. It seems no matter what I try, when he wants to sleep he sleeps ... even if I'm tickling him, putting him down on his back (two things he dislikes very much--being put down, and being on his back), or anything! And when he doesn't want to sleep, no matter how sleepy his is and no matter how hard we try to make him comfortable, he refuses to sleep. Stubborn boy ... he's going to be such a handful!

Ardit keeps joking that he has ADHD cause he has such a short attention span and can't seem to stay still ... even when he's looking at his mobile, or having playtime with us, or looking at flashcards, he's always moving and twitching his arms and legs like he's trying to shake something off of them! We see other babies happily staring and looking around sitting so still in their carriers or strollers ... and we joke about how something went wrong with ours. :D:D Of course I don't actually think he has ADHD and always tell Ardit to stop when he jokes ... but I do hope that he evens out a little as he gets older ... this constant need for attention and being held will get very tiresome as he gets older and fatter ... which he is doing every day!

Ardit has been home almost every day this week so it's been really fun (for me) having both my boys here. We go out to the lake everyday (in the evening when it's cooler) and baby boy seems to enjoy looking out at the world so much.

We still can't make up our minds about the vaccination ... so until we do we can't take him in to be weighed and measured ... but I'm guessing he's anywhere from 4.7 to 5 kilos now. He's doubled his weight since being born!

His belly-button hernia seems to be doing better ... it's not hard and popped out as much as it used to be ... it's getting softer and sticks out less. You know what the books say, but it's still a relief when you actually see and feel it getting better like it should.

In 2 weeks he'll be 3 months old! Kyaaaaaaaaaa ... soon he'll be rolling and I wont be able to leave him on our bed anymore! And then he'll be sitting, and crawling and I'm gonna have to put a gate on his room! I was looking at a picture of him 3 days old and gosh how yellow, and red, and Japanese, and tiny he was! How much he's grown ... how cute he's gotten ... how much more animated and attentive and aware! He's growing too fast (which is why I take so many pictures and videos ... cause I just KNOW how this works!)

Speaking of pictures ... I mentioned earlier how daddy's been home a lot this week ... baby enjoys daddy being at home as much as mommy does! Here's a picture of them bonding like boys ...

Mama and Papa love you baby boy.