20 weeks

Gosh this week went REAL fast.

It's still been oh so hot that his night time schedule is SCREWED UP! Messed up I tell you! And I'm SUFFERING! He wakes up and just CANT get comfy enough to sleep again. We bring him to our bed where there is more air circulation (we have two fans going at opposite ends of the room)and he sleeps better but gosh darn I am OH SO TIRED. It's also because every spare minute I have I'm working to meet this crazy deadline to make money so we can get a CAR! (or something ...)

Still no drinking. Well, some days he does better .... but the days where he drinks the recommended 750 ml (that is the minimum btw) are more the exception. I'm actually not TOO worried cause he's healthy, happy, seems to be growing bigger and heavier, wets his diapers (although he doesn't go BM very often ... maybe only once a day). Its just a little stressful cause its a FIGHT to get any amount of milk into him and it causes more crying than if I were to leave him alone and wait for him to get hungry on his own.

We took him to the beach/pool for the first time and it was so fun (for me) ... but I'm so behind on my posting and I want to do everything in order ... so ur just gonna have to WAIT!

I've also taken oh so many pictures and videos but they also are shelved waiting for me to catch up with the posting. Fingers crossed ....

He's not too interested in rolling from his tummy time position ... but he loves grabbing his feet when he's on his back and letting his legs fall to one side. And that turns into a roll. He also kicks his feet and arches his back to roll from on his back position. He uses that motion to scoot along his mat or the bed ... he can actually MOVE himself now! No more leaving him on the couch or bed while I wash the bottles or fold his clothes ....

He LOVES videos! I have only been showing him his Little Reader lessons (5 minutes a day), and Baby Einstein videos (10-20 min), and he seemed to like it. But this week we noticed that whenever he is in the living room, or out in a restaurant somewhere where the TV is on ... his eyes just go to the TV and STAY there! Even if he's lying on his back and the TV is behind him he will arch his back so he can see it! We experimented with different TV programs, the ipod, ... he loves his videos! I was so determined that I wouldn't show my baby meaningless 'time-filler' type videos but gosh darn sometimes I gotta wash the dishes, or go bathroom, or clean and I NEED that 5, 10, or 15 minutes to do something .... what's a mom to do? I feel terrible that I'm going to end up letting him watch videos but I am STILL determined to make them as quality as possible. Now I just gotta figure out what constitutes 'quality'.

We bought him a dish set so we can start giving him a little food. I was determined to only give him breastmilk until he was 6 months, but with his drinking problem, and seeing how much he seems to like eating (I mentioned this before somewhere) ... we decided we would try to start giving him some foods SLOWLY (and by slowly I mean a couple spoons of something a DAY).

Gosh so many things I had my mind made up about going into having my baby, but so many things have already been shattered. It just goes to show its really up to the baby, the circumstances ... my baby is ONE STUBBORN child and is really forging his own way! The eating, the videos, the sleeping ... GOSH! And I am learning that I have to take the things that I wanted and adapt them to what works best and IS the best for my child. Not the easiest thing to do ... cause wouldn't it just be so nice if it worked out the way I 'planned' from the beginning. But I will learn ... cause God help my child if I don't.

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

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.

9 weeks

So since I had a little time I thought to write up about his 9 weeks. I figure when I can, and when there are things to say, I will try to write weekly updates ... especially in the beginning when he's changing so much all the time.
This week he changed schedules. I think it had something to do with me being sick and daddy taking care of him at night instead of mommy. Now around 5 or 6 in the morning I will get up and switch with papa and take the baby. Daddy goes to bed, and baby wakes up around this time. He stays up for 4-5 hours. We eat, get a rinse-off, have play time, maybe a short walk around the neighborhood, and have our exercise time (his, not mine). Around 10 he'll start getting sleepy but he doesn't sleep all morning. He will sleep for 5-15 minutes, then wake up crying. He does this every hour. He gets his first good nap in the afternoon anywhere from 2-4. (Good nap meaning sleeping at least 30 minutes)
This week he said 'ma'. I KNEW he was gonna say mama first! It was just a random sound for him but up until now he has just been crying without any sounds like waaaaa or ba or da or whatever. So this is the first time he's done it and Papa was there too so we both had a laugh cause it's been a little bit of a bet between us which one he will say first. Looks like Mama is winning! And it's great seeing how he is starting to use his tongue to make sounds ... smacking sounds (not just with his lips, anymore!) etc.
He had a rough night last night ... kept daddy up pretty much the entire night. Seems like the cold I had went to Grandma and maybe rubbed off a little on him. He had a slight fever all night last night and all day today. We're picking up some fever med just in case tonight it gets worse. Poor baby.
I've gotta say thank you to Ardit for being such a trooper this past week while I have been sick. He's stayed with the baby during the night and taken such good care of him. Thanks babe! Ur the best!
This week we stopped giving baby the boob and put him back on bottles. It was half/half starting week 6/7 but this week we totally stopped. He seems to be better and keeping a better eating schedule and it's easier to feed him this way. The only mendokusai thing is that after feeding him I can't go straight to bed I gotta pump ... which adds 30 minutes onto the routine. Which is tiring at night. But you gotta do what you gotta do. If we go out I will still nurse him but if we're at home it's all bottles. Now he drinks 100-110 ml every 3 hours.
He is growing super much and I can't do the football hold with him anymore cause he's too big. He's also outgrowing his first set of clothes! Kyaaa ... gotta get onto buying him his winter clothes!

Here's a picture I took on June 1st. SO adorable when he sleeps!

8 weeks old (pssst ... it's long ... feel free to skip!)

My baby is 8 weeks old today! And I've been meaning to blog for for his 6 weeks but that turned into his 7 weeks and that turned into this. It's what happens when between taking care of the baby, working, taking time with hubby, and hubby stealing computer, all my time gets eaten up. It's to be expected, I guess. But I also want some place where I have documented his growth (not just his baby book, because that only has the BIGGEST milestones included). And I have my journal where I wrote out stuff about my pregnancy, but nowadays as time is so much of the essence, I have decided its better to put it here because I type so much faster than I write. Although someday I hope to get around to writing it down too. No matter how convenient and nice and snazzy it is to blog and use the computer I will always love myself a good book, and writing in one. I'm just a little bit old fashioned that way. Anyway, I digress ... focus focus.

So, Papoosie is 8 weeks old today! And he will be 2 months old in 5 days! Although it seems a little pointless, I will probably blog on his 2 month again just to have a post on that day. (Ahem ... obsessive much?)

Between around 6 and 7 weeks I started trying to feed him exclusively from the boob (I had been pumping and giving him milk from the bottle not only because his mouth was too small to latch onto the boob properly, but so that we could monitor how much milk he was taking in). Due to that transition he started wanting to nurse every hour, and would only drink for 10-15 minutes. For a few days I worried, but I went onto my pregnancy forums and it seems like between catching him right on a growth spurt, and him getting too comfy at the boob and falling asleep, it was just bad timing. The main things I continued to watch was his diapers (which he continued to wet and soil properly), and the emptiness of the boob. And they seemed to be fine so I tried to continue. BUUUUUT ....

... At around 7 weeks when I was transitioning with him between the bottle and boob, he suddenly developed colic. Just from one day to the next he went from being a baby who hardly cried, to a screaming wailing monster! Well, even when he was screaming I wouldn't say he was a monster because he just looked and sounded like he was in so much pain, I could only feel sorry for him! Feeding him became even crazier because he would stay for 5 minutes, then wail till calmed, then stay for 5 minutes and wail again. I thought maybe it could be the acid reflux thingie (Gastroesophageal reflux) because they say babies who have that drink less in more frequent sittings to avoid the acid coming out. Even though he cries a lot I still consider us lucky compared to other cases I know because he screams and wails but never for more than 2 hours and actually it's usually only for 30 minutes or so before he tires himself out. We have our arsenal of remedies stocked: gas drops which also include mylicon which is supposed to encourage the growth or probodies in case it's that he needs (to help him digest the milk better), Gripe water for when he is having trouble burping and his acid reflux is bothering him, 3 different types of herbal tea (which we don't like giving him, but sometimes grandma sneaks it while we aren't watching), warm pads for his stomach to relieve the pain, and though it's not a remedy he also takes a vitamin 2 times a day. So all of this stuff adds up and we try not to give them all to him at the same time, because we don't know how all of these things mix. For example we try not to give him gas drop if we gave him the vitamin at that feeding, etc etc. Sometimes the remedies work, and sometimes they don't .... so as far as they go, when they work we are thankful, and even when they don't I guess we have the need to feel like we did everything we could to relieve his pain. But even though the success ratio is like 60-70%, I would recommend getting them cause when they work they work. Wow that really made a lot of sense.

Anyway, besides the medicines we've also tried anything we could. Music/white noise/nature sounds/heartbeat while he sleeps, changing sleeping position, bath time, etc etc etc. So far he seems to like the brook sound mixed with the heartbeat at a level LOUD enough to fill the room and have to speak loudly to be heard above it. It's getting hot here so he likes his bath time and staying in the water very much, until we take him out and try to dress him and then he starts screaming. He LOVES being taken outside so much that it's almost at the point where he will literally start crying as soon as we bring him home. He refuses to sleep on his back and will wake up after only 5 minutes or so unless we put him on his stomach. Which is a little frightening for me because they say that SIDS is more likely if they are put on their stomach. So we watch very carefully to make sure his head is positioned well, and quickly move his head if he faces straight. It's a little bit of a dilemma because we have started sleeping him in his crib in his own room since a couple days ago because it is so so so so hot and if he is in the room we don't open both the window and door cause it will let the wind blow through. Fine for the baby because he is fine with either just the window or the door being open but I still have layers of pregnancy fat to deal with and I get so so so so hot and it's too uncomfortable. During the day we check often and are able to watch him closely, but at night we have to sleep so we can't just get up every second just to check on him. We're going to buy a baby monitor that also has video so that every time we hear him move we can just peek real quick to see how he is positioned. We hadn't bought one before because I was planning on having baby sleep with us in the room until at least 6 months when hopefully I can bring his nighttime feeding to just once. So we'll have to buy a monitor. I'm sure I'm just being freaked for no reason because he is strong enough now to move his head on his own from side to side while on his stomach, so I'm sure that if he is unable to breath he will move his head on his own. It's not like he will be too intent on sleeping that he will forget to breathe, right? :D

I used to take care of babies so much but I don't remember about how we placed them to sleep! Parents, how have you let your baby sleep? Any opinions on letting the baby sleep on his tummy?

When we went for a quick checkup to the pediatrician a few days ago he weighed 4,500 grams with his clothes and nappy so they logged him at 4 kg.

Good news is that between his crying and fussy stages he is much more alert than a couple weeks ago, seems to know mommy and daddy more, tries to grab things (esp fingers and clothes!), 'talks' more, likes his song time, .... he's just growing and getting cuter every day~! His hair is getting lighter and is now a light brown/reddish/blond. He's losing everything that was like momma and getting to be so much like papa. I would be sad except I think it's cuter this way! :D:D

I know this is getting so long but please bear with me for one more topic.

Papoosie has an umbilical hernia. Seems they are more common in preemie babies. His is HUGE, and all the forums and books say that most of the time they start going in naturally around 6-12 months, but it doesn't stop me from still asking around to the parents here, or to you. Did your kids have the belly button sticking out, and around when did they start going back in? Did you have a problem with the skin getting red? The books say it's bad to put anything on it to push it in (i.e: belly belt, bandage, etc) but our pediatrician and grandma keep telling us to put something on it. I would prefer to leave it alone but would appreciate your opinions and experiences regarding this. I think I just need to hear your story so I can be reassured.

Anyway, thank you for slogging through all of this with me. I really would appreciate any feedback you might have especially regarding the things above. The crying/colic/tummy aches, sleeping position, and belly button.

Goodnight!

Awwww

I love watching my 2 boys sleep next to each other. It turneth my heart into mush.

5 week checkup

On the 20th we took our Papoosie for a 5 week checkup. The only reason why we went was because the last time we took him the doctor told us he was too small to measure. I think they just wanted to see the baby again because he was so cute hehehe. But I'm not complaining: it was another opportunity to chart his growth and see how big he's gotten.
At 5 weeks:
Weight: 3,600 grams.
Height: 51 cm (which means that in 5 weeks he's grown 4 cm!)
Head circumference: 35 (has grown 2 cm in 5 weeks)

He also has a belly button hernia, which apparently is quite common in preemie babies. It can take up to a year or two for the belly button to go in like normal, but I'm really hoping it doesn't take that long and that it becomes a normal belly by around 3 months. It never hurts to hope.

It's been getting much much warmer ... no scratch that. It's been getting HOT (ummm hello, but what happened to SPRING?) ... and the doctor encouraged grandma to not bundle him so much. YAY! Cause no matter what we've been saying whenever she takes the baby she can't help but bundle him in at least 2 blankets and 3 layers of clothes. Now he goes around with just 2 layers and 1 blanket!

It's amazing how fast my baby is growing! Our next appointment is June 15th, when he is going to get his 2nd batch of vaccinations. This is such a controversial subject for me. Growing up in the Family I didn't get any vaccinations, and neither did my friends, or most of the kids I took care of. I've heard so many horror stories about vaccinations going wrong, and the point of getting vaccinated is so you don't have to have the sickness ... but I had most of the childhood diseases while I was young, and once you get them you never get them again (unless ur damn unlucky and then you MIGHT get it again), so it was just get sick and get it over with along with your whole class ... kind of a deal. But Como-kun hasn't grown up that way, has gotten all vaccinations, and to his family it was kind of a foregone conclusion that the baby would get them. Even when I was pregnant the docs and nurses at appointments were always shocked to hear I hadn't gotten a single shot as a kid. Aaaaaaaanyway .... I know some of them he probably should get because we live in a ... not so clean environment and there are sicknesses here that do not exist in Japan. (And more germs ... maybe? :D)
But I just don't want to subject him to shots every month for every kind of vaccination in the book just because the doctors recommend them. I know some he won't need ... but not being able to talk directly to the docs because of the language barrier really hampers communication. And Ardit thinks we should just give them all to him ... so what to do?
I guess the most right now is just hope and pray real hard that I/baby doesn't become one of the sob stories you hear about.