Blog it…

I know I should blog more often as it is a great reminder of what was happening in our lives at different times- what I was thinking/doing/loving/hating and more yet I get to the end of the day, or when I have a spare minute to myself and I either end up watching some English tv and tuning out, checking fb or reading blogs instead of writing my own.

Shion has been home 2 weeks now- he is also 2 months old today. I have not added any photos to flickr lately but will try to get to it soon. Facebook too. He weighed in at 2920 grams yesterday- 398grams up from 2 weeks ago (when he was discharged) which is an average of 28 grams a day which is great! I was concerned he might not of been getting enough milk during his feeds (as more often than not he falls asleep) but that helped put my mind at ease.
Unfortunately he was weighed because I had to go see a midwife because I developed mastitis. The last 3 days have been a mix of high temps, painful breasts and general flu like symptoms. Much better today than yesterday and the day before though- will be on medication for another week or so though.

He pretty much only cries when he is hungry or has a dirty nappy. Unfortunately, due to his size and the fact no matter what I do he falls asleep when feeding 95 percent of the time, he feeds pretty much ever 2 hours. This is making for some pretty disruptive night sleep. At this stage it is not too bad because mum gets up and feeds Noah in the mornings (as we let Shun sleep a bit too since he is getting home at 1am most nights) so I can have a bit of a lay in til 7:30 or so. I imagine the exhaustion will REALLY hit once I am getting up at 6:30 or earlier to deal with Noah`s morning antics!!

Noah has had a couple bad nights sleep since Shion has come home (similar to when I came home from the hospital after he had not seen me for 3-4 days) but seems to be settling back down now. Thankfully my mum has been here and is sleeping in his room so she usually resettles him (although more often than not he resettles himself)

Noah does not really understand yet that Shion is a real person I don`t think- or if he does that he certainly does not understand the meaning of being gentle. I know this is more to do with his age than any malice towards his brother but it makes leaving Shion anywhere a bit difficult. Shion would be quite content to lay in the bouncer or on the floor during his awake times but unless I am right there protecting him from Noah it is a bit hard. Again, not such a big issue while my mum is still here but will be a bit harder once she goes.

At the moment Shion spends a lot of time on his back, in his bassinet, on top of the dining room table. I am working on a mobile to go there though for him to look at!!

He enjoys his bath, so far doesn`t seem to do any “real” smiles, and has a very serious expression for a baby of his age.

Noah has started to get a lot more vocal- he will immitate a lot of words/sounds. He now says “mama” and means me. He follows simple commands like bringing a book over if you ask him “Do you want to read a story?”, opening and closing objects, putting nappies in the bin, will do certain signs if you ask him things like “Do you want milk?” or “Do you want your snack?” or “Do you want a drink?”.  He responds to “Give Shion a hug”,”Noah, turn off the tv”,”Noah, dance” , “Noah, spin” and “Noah, clap”.He runs away when you tell him it is time to change his nappy and he has also gotten very attached to Shun in recent weeks and constantly wants daddy hugs and will run to Shun before he goes to work to give him a goodbye hug. He understands A LOT of what we say. He understands the Japanese words itadakimasu, otousan, baabaa, jiji, gochisousamadeshita, dame, oide, patchi patchi, taberu, nomi, terebi, jya ne,  as well as more I am sure I am forgetting (or have not yet realized he understands.

He is VERY particular about what stories he wants to read- to the point where he can go to his bookshelf and pinpoint exactly which book he wants to read is and pull only that one out to bring to someone to read.

Sometimes his attention span is extremely short then other times he will surprise me by sitting and playing with the same toy/book/game for 30 minutes or more

He has moved down to just two bottles a day- 140ml at about 9:30am and 180ml about 30-1 hour before bed at night. This transition was easier than I thought and in the space of 3 days he went from 600ml a day to 320ml- he does have a large afternoon snack though and usually some veggie juice to replace his 2nd bottle. Also he takes just one nap a day which is usually 2-3 hours long from about 12:30pm.

He loves zips and buckles (like on the pram or bouncer) and is a real giggler.

He has also grown attached to a particular blanket (green with frogs) that I started putting in his bed at the in-laws house for extra warmth (due to only a small heater in his room) but now he brings it out of his bed after each sleep. He never had this kind of attachment to stuffed toy or blanket until a month ago. It is kind of cute. He carries it around with him sometimes especially when I am feeding Shion as he likes to bring it to me on the sofa and put his head on it so I will pat his head while I am also feeding his brother.

My mum goes home on Tuesday- it will be a difficult adjustment for Noah (and me) as he will really notice the difference when it becomes just the three of us home all day (Noah, Shion and me)- Shun is around for a couple of hours in the morning (he doesn`t leave til 9am) but is always home well and truly after the boys are in bed (and usually I am too!) so it will definitely become more of a juggling act. I am worried about how I will cope but I also know that I can do it because I have to. Having mum here for the last 2 weeks has been great though- sure we argue (as I am extremely anal and stubborn and she is extremely stubborn as well) but ultimately having her here has been a godsend. Tomorrow we will be coming up a storm- mainly snack food for Noah and stuff to freeze for him as well as soup and other stuff for us. Noah eats a lot of what we eat probably 80% of the time but there are still times when I can`t always feed him what we are having for dinner either because he won`t eat it or because it is too high in salt. It will sure help to have food for him on hand when I don`t have time to prepare (or buy) it.

I guess I better go to sleep- although Shion will surely wake up as soon as I decide to close my eyes.

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