I have a lot going on right now and am feeling more than a little overwhelmed.
Going to take a mini blogging break. I still have Noah`s 7 month letter to post and I might get to that this week but don`t expect any posts for a couple of weeks.
Enjoy your summer.
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Does anyone else have trouble coming up with titles for their blog posts? Unless it is about something in particular I have no idea. Hot seems like a good one though since it is pretty damn hot although on the good side if I get my washing out by 7:30am it is dry by 9am!!
I worked on Saturday for 2 hours and then had a meeting about another job in my area which will be 2 hours a month. Plus I had my mummy class yesterday and have work again tomorrow in Nishi-Tokyo. Some of the work I do requires prep but usually it is minimal and takes me less than an hour the night before. Sometimes it is just printing some stuff out, other times I write up my lesson plans for my own aid. I worked out that this month I had just 7 hours of work but next month I will have more. It is reasonably easy to juggle with Noah since I can do the prep when he is asleep at night and it is not like I need to work on it everyday. The extra income is nice and I am trying to save as much as I can of it to use on the trip in Australia. SHOPPING! WOO!
This weekend though I have no work BUT we are going camping. It is not real camping since we will be staying in cabins but it is a bit of a road trip to Gunma where we will meet 14-15 others. I forget the name of the place but it is actually an adventure camp so there is white water rafting and paragliding. We will arrive in the afternoon so Shun will join in the paragliding. That should be interesting since he is deathly afraid of heights but when I asked if he wanted to do it he said yes so, we will see. He can`t even handle looking over our balcony and we are only on the 7th floor (and his feet are on solid ground!). Will be interesting to see how Noah goes. He has slept away from home before but I a not sure if the other will appreciate his possible 5am or 5:30am wake up call (plus once before that for some milk probably!)
I have been a bit under the weather recently and with the heat it has been easier to stay inside most of the time. We have had mid 30 degree weather all week and Noah is like me and does not handle the heat well. We did venture out on Tuesday to go to the doctor`s (Noah`s runny nose and eczema) and run some other errands- bank, conbini to pay bills, pharmacy, supermarket, shiyakusho (city hall), other shopping and then home. I was ready for a nap after that though after been out in the heat!
Noah is FINALLY eating more solids (although no cutting down on breastfeeds yet) and actually enjoying eating more. He actually opens his mouth for almost all of his food and enjoys trying to feed himself. We have started 3 meals a day from yesterday. I am trying, yet again, to get him to drink from a bottle but he won`t have a bar of it. I am losing hope of having him EVER take a bottle but any hints or tricks are appreciated. Shun gave it ago on the weekend but he screamed a lot then too and of course is even less interested when I try.
His sleep though- well he goes down at about 7:00pm or 7:30pm (I can not stretch this any longer because he usually wakes up from his last nap about 3:30 if he only has 3 naps) but is up between 5-6am. SO EARLY! (up 2-3 times a night for 1-2 feeds) Luckily Shun (although not readily) takes him one morning til 7:00 or 7:30am then I take him the next. Shun is not so good at STAYING awake to watch him though and at the moment he doesn`t move much so this is fine but in a month or so I am not sure this will be viable. I hope Noah learns to hit daddy and pull his hair soon the same way he does me when I play with him on the floor. hehe. 3 naps of 30-45 minutes a day. Such short naps 
He has always been a cat napper though- once a week or twice a week he will nap more than an hour…
It is less than 4 months til I head to Australia! EXCITED! And yes, I am already counting down!!!! Although the idea of 2 summers in one year is not exactly thrilling (especially since I had 2 last year as well!)
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My friend Nicole was staying with us for a couple of days before she headed back to Australia (after 2 years in London). We have been friends since high school but she actually lived in Japan for a year in 2004 so it was her second time.
Noah of course loved the extra attention.
Nic said good bye to her fiance in England and they are trying to work out some visa stuff before he joins her in Australia (he is Colombian) so leaving England was bitter sweet for her. While she is excited to be heading back to Australia I think she is nervous all the same. Anyway, I wish her the best of luck and am looking forward to catching up again in November and December.
Yesterday we went to look at 5 properties in our house/land hunt. Two were blocks of land, one was a block of land with an old house on it (that will be torn down) and two were new houses built in the last couple of months. It definitely made us realize what size things were. I originally was thinking land of about 35 Tsubo but my MIL kept telling me she thought that would be too small and to only look at places 40 tsubo or bigger. I am glad she did- we looked at one block that was 37 tsubo and it just seemed so tiny and I couldn`t imagine a house even fitting on there but that said there are plenty of properties bought on land even SMALLER than that here. My MIL has been great- she went to the bank for us to get some estimates on loans, and sussed out some places for us to look on Sunday. My FIL watched Noah for the 2 hours it took us to look around. It was just our first weekend of looking (and now the next two weekends are busy with camping and then with Benay and her family staying and Sakura`s birthday party) but one was a possibility (the one with the old house on it currently) although we are not in any hurry and will look again in a couple of weeks. Nice to know what is out there though, what the prices range from and also what some new houses looked like on the inside.
Some other recent snaps:
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Am late getting this posted. Whenever Noah goes down for a nap I think “I should blog” or once he is asleep at night but I just don`t. I guess my blogging mojo has gone down hill a little bit recently…
Update 101 things is 1001 days for June 2010
33. Maintain the weight loss for at least six months (abandoned June 2009 due to pregnancy, to restart after birth. Managed 4 months before getting pregnant and started again Jan 2010) 6/6.
DONE! Since losing my pregnancy weight by the time Noah was a month old and actually losing a further couple of kilos I came out 3kg less than my pre-pregnancy weight AND means that since I started the 1001 days challenge I lost 10kg, put on 12kg, lost 15kg! That is a lot of yo-yo weight loss/gain in a short amount of time but hopefully I can maintain it now for awhile!
50. Learn how to use photoshop.
This has been a long time coming, and to be honest I can`t see myself using the program much but I know my way around (slightly!) and can do some touch ups if I want. I found it all very time consuming though and I would rather just take photos and upload as is unless I was making something special as a gift or something. But that is just me! It is an amazing program though and the things you can do with it (of which I only know a small amount) is incredible.
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Books read in June
I am still working on “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” – This is without a doubt the longest it has taken me to read a novel before. I guess I just haven`t really gotten into it. I like it enough but all the Swedish names make it confusing and I think after caring for Noah all day my brain is just mush and makes it a bit hard to follow sometimes. Once I am done, while I own the next two in the series, I will probably hold off on reading them until I go to Australia later in the year. I am looking forward to reading a different novel but definitely something that doesn`t require me to concentrate so much (How bad does that sound. Honestly though, I think other mums out there probably understand at least those with under 3s)
Reading Magic- Mem Fox (more on this later)
Top 100 Baby Purees- Annabel Karmel
Oh and in June I probably read over 30 different pictures books (some more than 2 or 3 times!).
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Mem Fox is an author of Australian children`s books and also works on children`s literacy. I recently picked up her book “Reading Magic” which focuses on reading aloud to your children from birth or a young age and the impact it will have on their ability to read later on. I have read to Noah almost everyday since he was born- I usually have a little book in my bag in case we get bored on a train or while out, I read before bath time and at other times of the day and on the weekends I encourage Shun to read Japanese picture books to Noah and I always take books to my in-laws house so that they can read to Noah too (in Japanese)
Noah is not even 7 months old and has approximately 100 picture books in English (and only about 10 in Japanese), We haven`t read all the books we own but have read most of them. Some of the golden books I have though are a bit long so I am leaving them for when he is older.
I love to read. I have always loved to read and apparently I taught myself to read before I even went to kindy. How? Well my parents read to me everyday and I guess that helped.
Reading through Mem`s book I began to realize why I was able to teach myself to read really young. All the things she encouraged parents/teachers etc to do are things my parents did with me and a lot of the case studies in her books were of children reading younger than usual or those that struggled with reading were ONLY trying to learn from a phonics base focus instead of concentrating on the whole words and stories (which you do when reading aloud to children)
Anyway I found the book fantastic. Noah only has 3 of Mem Fox`s children`s books but I will definitely try to pick up some others when we are back in Australia.
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Noah`s napping has turned to crap. He still naps but a couple of weeks ago when his schedule changes (yet again!) and he started waking up for the day around 6am every morning I would feed him at 6am, do his breakfast about 8am, feed him again at 9am and he would get drowsy or fall asleep while feeding and I would put him down for a nap and he would sleep for about an hour and then at 12 or so when I would feed him again he would fall asleep again.
This meant that he was no longer putting HIMSELF to sleep in his cot because he was pretty much asleep when I put him in the cot. The problem with this is that I spent so much time ensuring he was able to put himself to sleep previously that I knew if I didn`t break him of the habit we would be in trouble and he would start needing me to fall asleep.
When we were out and about he would still just sleep when he was ready in his pram or ergo- not necessarily after feeds but over the weekend and today I have tried to switch it up so that he naps without feeding first (He is not hungry or anything- he would usually have had a feed within 1hr30 mins) and it has been a nightmare.
A good 45 minutes each time of him screaming when I put him in the cot. I would pat him for a bit and he would settle but he would whimper for awhile and then start screaming again. It is not like me hoding him helps as he just gets frustrated. His first 2 naps today he has while we were out at the embassy. Both were very short though- only 25 minutes or so each so he was still pretty tired so I ave just managed to settle him again for another nap. I put him in the cot at 12:30pm and he FINALLY fell asleep at 1:20pm although he was exhausted. He would self settle for a bit but then scream again so I was in and out of his room non-stop.
Any advice? I don`t want him to be reliant on breastfeeding for sleep but I am happy to pat him until he settles or continue to go into his room to let him know I am close by. Previously though I would just put him in his cot and he would play a bit and then fall asleep. At night he would often be asleep after his bath and feed before I put him down but if he was still awake I would put him in his cot anyway and he would chat” for a it then fall asleep by himself. I very rarely had to go back into his room once I had put him in the cot.
I think part of it might also be separation anxiety setting in because now if he is playing in the living room and I get up to go to the kitchen or soomething he will often turn on the water works.
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I have piles of photos piling up and lots to write about but as more and more things happen and more and more photos accumulate it just gets even more overwhelming.
So a bit of an update. Finally.
But first, thank you to everyone who commented on my last post about house hunting. We went to look at some model houses last weekend. The kitchens in those places always make me so excited to have our own place- actual bench space, a real pantry, a dish washer and more. OH MY! We have not made any firm decisions or anything but we might end up buying land and building our own place… There is some land (2 different lots) available in Moto Yawata near Shun`s parents house (A 5 minute walk and a 15 or 20 minute walk- but by bike both are super close) which sound great. MIL is going to check them out for me and see if it is worth going to look at them. With Noah, it is hard to go look at everywhere we want to see and we have discussed with MIL the sorts of things we are looking for and don`t want. She is also a pretty good negotiator so nice to have someone like that on our side. Living in Moto Yawata would be ideal but we thought it would end up too expensive for us but maybe not…
So, Noah is crawling. But only backwards. He scoots around in circles forwards but when he is actually on all fours he only goes backwards. It is so cute because he is trying to move forward to get stuff but only can go backwards. Is it cruel that I put toys in front of him, just out of reach just so I can watch him crawl backwards and laugh? It is so cute though and I do encourage him and after a couple minutes put the toys within reach.
We might be over our recent sleep regression too. He woke up only once last night between 7:30pm and 6:00am (He woke up and fed at 4:00am)- I hope he is over it. It sure will make me a happier camper!!!
Noah also met his first cousin Rina chan
Chiba Peanuts Multicutural Playgroup met almost a month ago and we had lots of fun.
Father`s Day went well. Noah only tried to eat the present a couple of times. We went to Yakiniku (Shun`s favourite) and spent the day together. Shun`s friend Ishi joined us (he was over the night before to watch the soccer…and he just kind of stuck around. Not that I mind he is lovely to have around. Last time he stayed he vacuumed when he saw I was going to do it. What is not to love about a guy that vacuums?)
Noah still loves to read-
And chew on stuff
Just a final photo I took last night because I love his expression
We found out last week that it seems Noah has an allergy to dairy. The second time he ate yogurt he got very itchy and a bit blotchy and the third time he broke out in hives on one side of his face, ear and neck. It was the day after his final DPT immunization so when I rang the clinic they told me to bring him in as soon as possible in case it was a reaction to this. It seems though that the most likely cause is dairy or cow`s milk protein and we will hold off on giving any more diary now til he is tested at about age one. The doctor said to start him on tofu to see if we had any issues there and he had it for the third time this morning (mixed with banana this morning) and luckily no reaction so it looks as if soy products might be okay which is a relief because if he still has dairy issues after age one (a lot of children grow out of it) then he can at least drink soy milk, continue to eat tofu and have soy yogurt maybe (although I can`t seem to find soy yogurt in Japan?).
I have been very diligent about monitoring him for allergies since starting him on solid foods and so far dairy seems to be the only issues but the doctor advised to hold off on wheat til 9 months or so and of course stay away from the other high risk allergy foods like strawberries, tomatoes, seasame, nuts etc for as long as possible.
A lot of children with dairy allergies or cows milk protein allergy have reactions and issues before they even start on solid food (like blood or mucus in poo, lots of belly pain, or blood in spit up) but Noah had none of that so it seems his allergy might be mild. I am concerned that the dairy he receives through my breastmilk though might not be helping his eczema at all but when I tried to talk to the doctor about this he said it wasn`t an issue. I am still thinking I might eliminate dairy for a couple of weeks to see what happens though. I did eliminate for a week when his eczema first appeared but it seem to make no difference so I went back to eating dairy but now that I know he appears to have an allergy I should do it again. It might mean the end of ice coffees and chocolate for awhile. Not to mention cheese!
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Well it seems we are going to start house hunting sooner rather than later.
Up until now no firm decision had been made for 2 reasons- 1. We didn`t have quite enough saved up for a down payment and 2. We were not 100% sure we would still be in Japan in 5-10 years time. Shun had I did a lot of talking a couple weeks back about his career, what he wanted to do, whether he wanted to stay in Japan or think about going to Australia and also about what I wanted which was a place of our own. Either in Japan or Australia. When I married Shun I already knew that there was a 95% chance we would be in Japan forever and I was okay with this. I have good friends here, a nice life and I like my life here most of the time. I am far away from my family and this is hard but I can visit and they can also visit us here.
We have decided that living here is probably better for us financially if I don`t want to return to full-time work while Noah, or our next child, is young. I can do part-time work and earn decent money. Shun would also be unable to get work in his desired field in Australia with his current English language skills.
As for the down payment- we had about 1-2% saved but recently found out there is a chunk of money in Shun`s name for when he decided to buy property (him and his brother, and his three cousins all had these “trust funds” i guess you could call them which were set up by Shun`s grandma when they were born or very young) and we now have 5-10% of the down payment saved (it depends on the price of the house we decide on and the loan) and while we are in no hurry to find a place we have decided to start doing some research and looking around.
This Saturday we are going to look at some model homes in this area. We have also spoken with Shun`s parents and they really want us to live closer to them (at the moment it is only about 12km but it is a 30 min or more drive), like within a bike ride distance and I am happy with this. I have always maintained with Shun that living close to his parents would not be a problem for me. But that living with them or next door might be. I would be happy to be close though. They see Noah currently about once a fortnight but I would be happy if it was more often than this especially since Noah is so far from his other grandparents. So this weekend we are looking at some model houses in Funabashi but my MIL plans to keep any info she gets about property in Moto Yawata or Ichikawa and give us when she sees us next time (things show up in letterboxes, newspapers etc).
We are not 100% set on a new house although I think it would be my choice since houses here only have a 25 year shelf life anyway ( I read that somewhere? Shun`s parents house was built before he was born so it is at least 30 years old though and is still standing although there has been recent talk of reforms now that it is just Shun`s parents that live there so I am not sure if this figure means that after that time you are just paying for the land and not the house)
We have got some other wants and of course the list just keeps growing although until we start looking around some more none of these are definites.
We would prefer to be on the JR sobu line within a 30 minute walk of one of the stations between Ichikawa-Tsudanuma. We are looking for 38 tsubo or more (I think 1 tsubo is about 3m2? Sounds tiny right? But yeah, that is the norm in this area or even a bit bigger than the norm for a new place. My PILs land though is 79 Tsubo) of land, there must be a small garden or enough space outside for kids to play, within a 15 minute walk to the local elementary school (This is Shun`s requirement- he lived a 1 minute walk from his elementary school and his brother, father and grandfather went to the same one), the house needs to be 100m2 or bigger (4LDK or more) (This is my requirement) and there must be room for one car at least. Pretty loose guidelines at the moment- we have a maximum price in mind too although will have to wait and see what sort of loan we would be eligible from the bank.
Again, like I said, we are in no hurry (although paying rent each month is looking less and less appealing especially when our mortgage would be the same or less a month than what we pay in rent. The timeline is to have bought and be living in a place within 2 years and I doubt anything of interest will happen until I get back from Australia in January but for now we are having fun looking online and around and crunching some numbers.
So any advice?
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We live next to a park (like right next door!) and I have taken Noah for a walk through there a couple of times or for a sit on the grass but last week on a really nice sunny day when we had no other real plans I took him to play in the sandpit there for the first time. It is fenced off so luckily no cats or anything can get in and the sand, while a blackish colour (is there any other kind in Japan?) was quite clean (I thought!).
He LOVED it. At first he kept picking up the sand and then looking a bit shocked that it slipped through his fingers. I snapped some pictures on my phone. He only tried to eat it twice and I managed to stop him both times!
He is down for a nap at the moment. His night sleeping is a bit all over the place meaning I am getting very little sleep. I fed him twice last night (7:30pm then to bed then fed at 12:30 and 5am then up for the day at 6am) But he woke up two or three times before the first feed and needed to be re-settled (which luckily doesn`t usually take long) and I resettled him at least once between 12 and 5 too. He has decided 6am is his time to wake up now- much to my dismay. Actually I wouldn`t mind much if he wasn`t up so often….I am hoping it is just a sleep phase.
He had his 3rd DPT shot today and didn`t cry- in fact when the doctor took the needle out Noah gave the dr a big smile as if to say “thanks for taking that out”…. His eczema is flaring up a little bit again- I think it might be the weather but am not sure. I don`t think it is a particular food but it is hard to know. We have introduced yogurt about a week ago…he has only had it twice though. It could be dairy related though I guess- will have to monitor it.
I haven`t uploaded the photos yet but we went to meet our niece for the first time yesterday- Noah`s 1st cousin. Shun`s brother and his wife gave birth to their little girl on Saturday, 2 weeks early and she weighed in 2.6kg (5 pound something- so TINY!) – she was so small and cute with quite a bit of hair. I sadly didn`t get to hold her (which is a story for another time) but hopefully I will get a cuddle sometime soon. Oh and they named her Rina! So yes, I am now officially and aunt!
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I feel so behind on blogging lately- I have had some movies to upload of Noah for ages- some are recent and some are from a couple of weeks ago and yet I am only now getting around to posting them. Some are long- so if you skip them I won`t mind- they are more for my mum anyway. Whenever I take movies too I promptly forget that they will not display up the right way once I upload them to the computer- oh well, those who want to watch might need to turn their heads a little…oh and excuse my commentary- it isn`t like he is up to talking for himself yet!
I put some wiggles on while I did some cleaning and came back to him bopping away…
He squeels a lot now- I tried to catch in on camera but he went strangely quiet and then got grumpy because he wanted to grab my camera.
Playing
I have a good one of him eating too but I guess it is still on the camera…
Back to been behind on blogging. I follow too many blogs- I loved into my reader today for the first time in 5 or 6 days and had over 1000 posts to read- not that I read them all. I have crafty blogs, news sites and cooking blogs come into my reader too so they add up to a lot (sometimes I skim, sometimes I just say “mark as read”) but even then, I still have a lot of other stuff to get through and now, since Noah sleeps less during the day and I have other stuff I need to do at night, I don`t really get much time to read blogs. I still love it though. I still love the community I am apart of through blogging and the friends I have made I just don`t have hours each day to sit reading everything- so my favourites go to the top of the pile and if I have time for others later then I check them as well. Anyway- to those of you who used to get comments from me all the time, but now don`t I`m sorry- I still read but sometimes by the time I read your posts I am probably a couple days late or the baby wakes up before I get to comment.
I had my mummy English class here again today- it went well. It is hard though because the mummies want to learn but they have to of course jump up and follow their kids around. I really need a gate I think. I block off the three rooms but our living room/dining room/kitchen is all one big room (with the kitchen off to the side) and one boy in particular is just a little nuts. He was obsessed with opening and closing our rice cooker today as well as opening and closing the fish grill under the stove. Oh and opening and closing our bins in the kitchen. So pretty much anything that opened and closed had him running around the apartment. I originally thought the mums wanted their KIDS to be exposed to English but it is actually themselves that want to learn which is fine- I just feel bad because of the noise of the kids and their been 5 or 6 people (there was 5 today) they don`t get much chance to practice. That said I charge for an hour but they usually stay for almost 2 hours by the time we do coffee and cake at the end…
I have fun though. And I do like the extra money. I might separate the class into 2 groups of 3 though…if they would be okay with that. One mum said she might want to do private lessons as she is more interested in learning basic vocabulary and stuff she can use with her son.
For July I am also working on Friday`s for a couple of hours in West Tokyo- bit of a commute but transport is paid and I can take Noah. So that will be nice. Not sure if anything will come of it from August but that is okay as it is a bit far anyway. If something did come of it, and the money was worth it and Noah travelled well for July then I would definitely consider doing a couple of hours there each week too.
Any work where I can take Noah with me is great! I don`t really want to return to full-time work anytime soon but part-time stuff is great for now. Bit of extra cash and gets us out of the house (or gets me to clean the house since people come here! HAHA! Ideally I need a bit more though- I have the once a month mummy class, once a month private student and then for July I have the classes out in West Tokyo. If the West Tokyo classes don`t go anywhere ( I am subbing for July but if they get more students who want classes they might start some more) then I will definitely need something else, preferably out this way. I am not opposed to putting Noah into part time daycare once a week or having my MIL watch him- Shun looked into the daycare for me and there are a couple places within 15 minutes walk that charge 2500yen a day ($30) – although Noah still will not take a bottle so at the moment it isn`t an option but definitely something to think about when I come back from Australia.
For us it is definitely more a financial thing than me actually wanting to go back to work. Not that I am against working I just think that the more time Noah (and future children) spend with me then the better their English will be. But if I want to go back to Australia each year or at least once every 18 months then I have to make some money, even if it is just a little.
We are also trying to save for a house. We want to buy in the next couple of years (probably in the next 3 years) and we are readjusting out budget this weekend. I have to update all the bank books on Friday and do some money transferring (to pay off the credit card which I put the Australia tickets on!) so that we can sit down and make a plan. We have been making some decisions about houses lately actually- we have decided we definitely want a house either new or less than 10 years old, we want to stay in Chiba either in Funabashi or Ichikawa and Shun would prefer we stay on the Sobu line but that is not a 100% definite. It is fun thinking about houses though!
Noah still has no teeth. I keep thinking they will pop up since he has really grumpy periods, chews on anything, drools on everything, and I give him approximately 3 or 4 frozen teethers or facewashers to chew on each day. But, alas, still no teeth. Not that I am complaining- I just kind of wish he would stop TEETHING if he is not actually going to get teeth. Maybe we will have 3 or 4 pop out at a time?
I had to take Noah to the doctor last week because he got constipated- I guess from eating more solids lately.
So if you get quesy stop reading cos I am going to write about poo! The doctor was at the new clinic but he was old Dr M – it seems that the clinic is run by young Dr M and old Dr M- a father and son team but the older doctor only works 2 days a week (Tues and Sat) where as the younger doctor works mon, wed,fri and sat. Anyway old Dr M was just as nice as young Dr M so all good there. He gave me some medicine for Noah and said not to be too concerned (Noah had not pooed in 4 and a half days by this time and was sleeping CRAP because of it and constantly TRYING to poo I thought) – anyway long story short, as well as the medicine I got some home enemas. Yeah, something you really should never have to give your child is an enema. But I did it. And it wasn`t so bad and Noah didn`t cry and I have 6 more in case it happens again. Holy crap (excuse the pun!) there was a lot of poo 30 minutes afterwards though!
I am now only giving rice cereal every second day for breakfast usually mixed with some fruit. I am trying to limit banana`s and pureed apple as apparently they don`t help with constipation either. So he has had rice cereal with prunes or plums lately. Or mango or papaya by itself. His dinners this week (since I made heaps yesterday) are peas, brocolli, avacado, carrots, spinach or pumpkin (the spinach and pumpkin were still in the freezer)…I don`t think he actually likes eating much yet though. He will usually do the first couple of bites no problem but gets bored and frustrated after 15 minutes or so and has not usually eaten so much by then. I mix some of the veggies together sometimes like tonight he had peas and brocolli mixed together and last night was spinach and pumpkin. He still breastfeeds 8 times a day though so I guess he is not actually eating much “real food” yet…
As for sleep. Well at least I had a couple months of him been a good sleeper. Now I feed him 2 sometimes 3 times overnight (in a 12 hour period) and gone are the days where his first sleep of the night would be 7-9 straight hours. I often have to resettle him 2 other times on top of the 2 or 3 feeds so I look like a bit of a raccoon from so much uninterupted sleep…Sassymoo was kind enough to send up a safe cot bumper that breathes as a lot of resettling him was coming from him rolling over and getting stuck in his cot or bumping into the bars. At least he is usually fairly easy to resettle (and even feed and resettle) and usually only takes 5 minutes or so.
Naps are also not so great- he is back to three short naps a day instead of 2 long ones. So today for example he took 1 1 hour nap and then 1 30 minute nap and 1 40 minute nap. He is a lot genkier if he has 2 90 minute naps or even 1 90 minute nap and 1 2 hour nap but he wakes up and once he is awake he will NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP. It is as if his nap clock gets reset…
Shun`s first father`s day went well- he got a new wallet (badly needed) and a world cup japan key ring (I let Noah help me pick that one out- ie, he grabbed at it when we were looking so that is the one “daddy” got!) and we went out for lunch to Shun`s favourite yakiniku place. Noah “gave” the presents to his daddy but he had a chew first. Of course.
Okay so this is a bit of a random post of random bits of info- it definitely sounds as if has come form someone sleep deprived. I feel like I haven`t even written coherent sentences. I am sure I planned to write other stuff but the thoughts have definitely escaped me and while is only just after 9pm I might call it a night soon…
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Dear Noah,
Happy half a year buddy! Where is the time going little man? You are six months old already- this time six months ago you were already here and I was probably holding you, or feeding you, or you might have been sleeping in your little bed in our hospital room. I am the mother of a six month old- when I say that out loud I just can`t believe it.
Here is you six months ago
And this is you now
Hard to believe that is the same little boy huh? Imagine how hard it is for ME to believe!!!
You are becoming more and more independent- you don`t like to be put to sleep, instead you much rather to go into your cot yourself and settle yourself. Even for naps, I might put you in your cot, and 20 minutes later you might still be playing and chatting to yourself, but you don`t cry, you just get yourself comfortable, settle down and go to sleep. Sometimes you wake up in the oddest positions though and at a complete different end of the cot to what I put you in. You also like to sit up to play now that you have beyond mastered the sitting thing. Although you can`t yet get yourself into a sitting position from your tummy (or back) yet so if you are on your tummy you will kick your legs letting me know you want to start sitting!
You also like to show your independence when you eat and this is the month we have started you on some vegetables and fruits. We did rice cereal only for awhile but have now moved on to some veggies and fruit- So far you have tried, in no particular order, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, sweet potato, avocado, brocolli, apples, banana, papaya and watermelon. I think that is all? So far you definitely like avocado, papaya and pumpkin the best. You don`t mind spinach either-especialy mixed in with carrots or pumpkin. You are a very messy eater though- and I let you touch your food (otherwise it may end in tears!) and you would love to be able to feed yourself. Due to your messy eating style though (and mama`s dislike of washing/soaking) you usually eat just in a nappy. Luckily the weather is hot now so it works out perfectly!
We tried some baby led weaning (where I put bigger pieces of food in front of you and you can play with them and suck on them or eat them if you wish) but you were not that thrilled with the idea after about a minute. You seem to prefer the purees for now- although that doesn`t stop you from trying to swipe my food. You did try a baby cracker though- which was extremely messy. But you loved it!
You enjoy seeing other kids and you even attempt to “play” with them- playgroup this month was great and you seem to have a nice time. There is a nice mix of ages but everyone seems to have fun- including the mummy`s!
You also have fun playing with other friends- we went on a picnic this month with some friends and also Leilah came to visit us too! You are usually the youngest so having Leilah around was nice for you as you got to be boss! I think she will be bossing YOU around in no time though!!!
You can get a get grumpy at times- I keep thinking your teeth must be close to coming in because you are constantly chewing on things and drooling but you have made it to six months with no teeth!
Yeah- this is proof that when you were six months old you also liked to chew on your own feet! Mama`s feet are fair game too it seems as sometimes you roll and your mouth lands on my feet and I have to pry you off (often ends in tears, you definitely have a temper!).
Most of the time you are a happy little boy and your smile is still as infectious as always. You have such a fantastic smile.
You love daddy- sometimes it is hard to get you to breastfeed if he is around and also hard to get you to concentrate on anything else as you follow him around the room instead with your eyes. You give him such big smiles when he plays with your or you see him in the mornings- it is lovely to watch you two developing your own bond. Daddy does some silly things with you.
He does a great job feeding you your solid food though- he can usually get you to eat more than I can (except for pumpkin or avocado- in that case you will take it from whoever you can get it from!). For your age though you are a pretty good eater already- some days are definitely easier than others and you much prefer your evening food than your morning food (which is rice cereal with breastmilk or rice cereal, breastmilk and mashed bananas or apple).
I am trying to recall other milestones you have reached this month but you were already sitting and rolling both ways before four months so I guess the next thing will be crawling. You do move around in circles on your belly a lot, to reach for different things (or attack mama`s feet!), you start to put your arms in the air if you want to be picked up and you have moved backwards along your tummy and forwards once or twice. No sign of actual crawling yet. Not really anyway.
Before you turn 7 months old you will have your first little cousin- Auntie Kazumi is due in early July meaning this time next month we should certainly have a photo of you and your first cousin. You like Kazumi and I get the feeling you know that she has a baby in her tummy but of course I am not sure. People do say babies are intuitive about these things though! You also love visiting the in-laws because that is where Holly the dog is- and you do like to harrass the dog!
We had our first official baby sign class this last month which was fun- I have been doing some baby signs with you or a couple of months but now I am trying to do about 20 or so (although sometimes I throw out some other ones, that said, you are not usually paying attention!)- the regulars include milk, hungry, finished, yummy, cat, dog, pick up, drink, water, more, ball, playing, daddy, mummy, nappy, read/book, eat, want, and I am sure there are others. No sign of you doing any back yet but you always laugh when I do “yummy” and you get quite interested and seem to know what “milk” means.
You are a little sneak sometimes- you look at me when you are doing something that I think you no you shouldn`t. I can only imagine that will get worse. Sometimes when you are rolling (and yes you do roll, then roll again sometimes to get where you want to go) you look at me as if to say “Did you see that mum? Did you see that?”.
You are a little chubber- weighing at least 7.5kg now! I can`t believe when I look back at older photos how much you have grown. It is amazing to see what you have developed from. Goma-chan, you have been here six months now. How are you liking it?
Love mama
Ps: Forgot to mention sleep. Such an important thing that it is. You usually take two naps a day, sometimes three if we are out part of the day because they will be shorter than usual. Night sleep- well you have gone from a baby that was waking up only once a night (between 7:30pm-7:30am) with the occasional twice a night wake up to waking up pretty much 2 or 3 times every night again. UGH, sleep regression! Just a warning- by the time you are 8 months, I will be only feeding you once during the night, if that, so get used to it buddy otherwise it will be water for you!!!
We also have moved you into the big bath and you LOVE it. You sit in there (with me, or daddy) play with your toys, smile and giggle and don`t complain about having spinach scrubbed out of your ears, nostrils, neck creases and what not. This is why you have your bath about half an hour after you finish your dinner- because you look like you need a hose down!!!
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I missed Things I love Thursday yesterday because I had visitors and a friend and her daughter stay over, so playing catch up today while baby naps!
Things I loved this week
Oh and onto rants because, well, what week would be complete without some?
I went to go do Noah`s Polio immunization today. For those not in Japan, Polio, at least in most cities, is only administered 3 times a year to all the babies in the area. You don`t make an appointment- you just go, get a number, line up, take bubs temperature and go in. They still do the oral version too (same in Australia, right?). Anyway I went today for it but turns out If I want to do Noah`s 3rd DPT shot on time (10 days away) then I can`t do Polio. Shun rang the clinic previously to make the DPT appointment- usually I would just ring and make the appointment but it was going to be our first time there (although then I got sick and went anyway, oh and then Noah got constipated so we went again!) so Shun rang to make the appointment etc etc. He asked and said we wanted to do Polio today at the cattle call but that the 3rd DPT shot has to be done within 8 weeks of the 2nd (or you have to start over again) and they said the appointment he took etc would be fine, blah blah blah.
I go to get Polio, want to double check first (AGAIN!) and they say, no no, if you want to do DPT in 10 days you can`t do Polio today. And then I said well maybe I would do Polio and reschedule 3rd DPT shot and they look at Noah`s baby health book and say “no no, then it will be more than 8 weeks” and so yeah. a wasted trip to the community centre to line up with all the other mums to get the Polio.
DPT seems to be more important so I am glad we will finish those shots up first but I had been hoping to have his 2nd Polio in October (another cattle call) before we went to Australia but now he will have his 1st in October and his 2nd next February when we come back from Australia. Good thing Australia doesn`t have a Polio problem I guess.
I wish that we could do all the immunzations at the same place and they would just put a schedule in place when the baby is born- would make it a whole lot easier. I would rather do Polio at a clinic instead of a cattle call too but there is no choice for that unfortunately…
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Anyway visiting from FYBF- HI and welcome!
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Aussie girl with Japanese husband living in Chiba, Japan with a baby boy born December 2009. Just trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese and Aussie worlds she lives in...
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