Hiro’s 2nd Birthday

Today is my son’s 2nd birthday ~~!!!!

Yesterday he had so much fun with his friends 🙂  I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I held him for the first time at the hospital.  He grow up too fast :_(

Last year on his first birthday, I made him only pancake so he could eat it.  But this year, I made a huge birthday cake with lots of fruits + his favourite Japanese character “Anpanman”!!

He loved it!!  All other kids were gathering around the cake too.

He could blow the candle pretty good!  Well done, Hiro.

Happy 2nd birthday xxx

Today we had birthday lunch with family.  We went to Wagamama Subiaco ; I will write about it on next post 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Food Idea for Babies

Finally….  Yes, finally I’ve done it.  I wrote about it earlier that it’d take some time, and it did :p

Food idea for babies from 5 months to 18 months of age – My Baby Ate What?

There’re not many dish items yet, but I will add bit by bit in future!

Categorised according to the stage.

The link is on the side bar – just scroll down and you will find it 🙂

Hope someone enjoys it!

It’s Only Now

When D told me that he doesn’t want any more child, I started to imagine my life of being with just D and Hiro.  Eventually Hiro will grow up to an adult, and have his own family.  So it will be just me and D in future then.  What will we be doing?  Two of us, at home.  We’ll probably be working, but for what purpose?  For a holiday we may be planning, or for a car we may be thinking to buy.  Most of the money we yarn will be used for everyday expenses, and then the rest will be for something…  something what?

We’ll all grow old.  What will we be doing when we are grandpa and grandma?  Hopefully we enjoy occasional visit of our grandchildren, and other than that we’ll probably spend our time doing gardening or some hobbies.  I bet time will go slow around us…

So it’s only now that we can enjoy being busy looking after this boy 🙂

I think his age is the cutest age for children.  We started to be able to communicate (he doesn’t speak properly yet though), and I actually feel so happy to have him around me everyday.

So I enjoy this life now.  Soon it will change, and it will be different.  I will have plenty of time on my own later.  I don’t mind to have one more child, to be honest, but I’m also happy with just him.

It’s only now that I can enjoy being with this Hiro. 🙂

Baby Food Recipes

I’ve been writing this website My Baby Are What since Hiro started eating solid.  Before I fell pregnant I didn’t really have any interest in kids and babies –  I didn’t even like them much 🙁  But now everything changed including the way I see and feel about other babies and kids.  When I was a teenager some of my friends already had babies, but I really had no idea how to treat and talk to these little people when I visited.  Should I speak in a baby language, or should I just speak as I speak to adults?  How to play with babies?  What do I do?!  What I could do was just to keep staring at babies with a smile – and that made both babies and me tired and uncomfortable.

Now, I don’t say babies and kids are my top interest, but I like watching them play and know how to (try to) communicate with them. Thanks to Hiro. 🙂

Hiro loves eating.  He wants to eat all the time.  Because he asks for food so often, I had to consult with community nurse about it.  He is not fat, but I’m afraid he’ll be like a giant pig if he continue eating like this.    But, his attitude towards food makes me feel it worths to cook for him every day.

Now, I’ve stopped writing on MyBabyAteWhat and am combining it with this Umeboss.  I will post recipes of baby’s food with more photos here.

It may take a while till I upload all the recipes because I can’t be in front of computer so often, but once I do I hope you enjoy reading them!

Hiro in Kid’s Tokei

Hiro at 08:50 (AM).

Website →Kid’s Tokei

Hiro at 20:41 (PM).

This one doesn’t look like Hiro…  but I remember he kept trying to move around.  The location was at the church.

He looks hilarious.

☺☺☺

Happy 1st Birthday, HIRO!

Happy 1st Birthday HIRO!!!

You are now 1 year old – not “0” anymore.

Time flies…. this time of last year you were sleeping in a little basinet in a hospital room.

It amazes me when realizing ow much you’ve grown.  Be good, families and friends love you so much 😉

Now let’s see what you are going to be in this coming year….

Royal Life Saving

Last week I could finally manage myself to undertake this one-day royal life saving training course.  This course was conducted by The Royal Life Saving Society – a non-profit, community service organisation that conducts training programs in First Aid, Resuscitation (CPR), AUSTSWIM, Bronze Medallion, Lifesaving and Water Safety. They run several kinds of courses, and I attended Heart Beat Club which teaches you the lifesaving skills of CPR, first aid for common child injuries including burns and scolds, choking, drowning and provides information on how to perform child resuscitation or CPR.

The re are child’s first aid courses run by other organisations in WA such as Australian Red Cross and St John of God, but I chose Heart Beat Club because the location was close to my house, they gave us Participation Certificate after the course, and it was just $20.00 per person for a 3-hour-course.

I actually should have taken child’s first air course before Hiro arrived so that I would have known what to do in case of emergency.  After the baby was born I didn’t really have time to do it (although it may be hard to practice CPR etc with a big tummy).  Last week, I left Hiro to D and his parents.

There’re 10 people at the class, and some of them were couples.  One couple brought their new born to the class, I think they didn’t have anyone to ask for looking after their baby for 3 hours.  Being apart from new born baby for 3 hours is quite scary.

The class was conducted by a retired nurse, and she was wonderful.  I must say I am very very happy that I attended this course.  There’re so many useful information about what to do when a child is burnt, choke, and injured.  As well as hearing her experiences and stories, I loved the practical part.  Each one of us got a manekin of baby to practice CPR.  Doing is so different from just reading about CPR on books.  And I learned so many new things, such as DRS ABCD (Danger, Response, Send help, Air way, Breathing, Cpr), and not tilting the head when doing CPR for babies under 12 months old.

Few days before I attended this course I had a terrifying moment while feeding Hiro.  He was coughing, and suddenly stopped coughing and seemed to be choking.  I was in panic, and I took him out from high chair, placed him on my lap facing down, and hit his back few times (as this was how to help choking baby in a book I read).  Then he vomited everything out. I don’t know if he was really choking but it was scary.   I told the nurse (course conductor) about it, and she said that coughing is a natural reflex and nothing to worry about.  If he was choking, his face should have turned blue or looked really tense.  So when he cough, it means he is coping with the lumpy food and is a good thing.

There was 15minutes break, and I just saw this vending machine which makes fresh squeezed orange juice.  I thought it’s cool 🙂

At the end of the course we all received Participation Certificate as promised.  I thought 3 hours was gonna be very long, but after the course was done I felt that it wasn’t enough.  I wanted to know more.  $20.00 for this was a really great deal, I think.  If someone is interested in taking the course:

website … location varies. You can check on their website.

Western Australia Only

Food Allergy Test

As I continue to introduce new food to my 8-month-old Hiro, I’ve been careful with acidic food (e.g. strawberries, tomatoes and citrus fruits) and some food that are more likely to be allergen (e.g. egg, cow’smilk) because of his rush on his face and body, but I feel that I’ve been feeding him the same food over and over again and need to explore more variety of food for him to try.  I don’t think his rash is because of food, but it may be and his skin/body may be very sensitive against some particular things.

My friend told me that I could check if he is allergic to food, and in that case, to what food, by sending his hair to a labo in QLD.  Hair test sounds much much safer than blood test – little amount of hair wouldn’t harm at all. (although he doesn’t have much hair :p )  I phoned the labo and found out some information about what I need to do in order to get him tested for food allergy.

Basically you just need to cut little amount of hair from your baby, and place it in a piece of tissue paper or plastic bag (it doesn’t matter) and send to the labo. Along with hair, you will need the followings:

• Baby’s name
• Baby’s birthday
• Your name & address (to send the result)
• $95.00 (by cheque, money order, or details of credit card)

Because I’m in WA, it may take around 2 weeks to get the result (considering the time to send the stuff).  The staff told me that as soon as they receive the hair they’ll put it to the next available labo and test it with 200’s of different foods.

For more information, here is their contact details:

Health Management Therapies
36 Marbella Drive
Benowa
GoldCoast
QLD 4217

ph(07)55970528

FOOD SENSITIVITY TEST

Hand Works

I wrote about me holding Hiro for 2 hours when I visited Play Group few months ago and strained my right wrist, and now the pain is still there and I went to see doctor again.  As I’m leaving Perth in few weeks and I want to fix my wrist as soon as possible so that I can travel with a 8-month-old baby, I decided to make a customized splint.

The nearest place that makes hand castings is Hand Works in Leeming, and I phoned them to make an appointment right after visiting doctor.  I was expecting that I would have to wait for few days to get and appointment, but I could see an occupational therapist on the afternoon.

Hand Works Occupational Therapy does services including rehabilitation, splinting, neoprene braces, and pain management of elbow, wrist and hand.  There are 5 locations in WA, which include Leeming, Rockingham, Duncraig, West Perth, and Mandurah, and a doctor’s referral is recommended.

Before I visited Hand Works, I was wearing this Thermoskin that I got from a Chemist.  This is supposed to restrict the movement of my thumb, but I didn’t feel any improvement.  I guess it’s because I kept taking it off very often when I had to change diaper etc.

The splint I got from Hand Works is this soft material one.  Therapist told me that hard plastic splint works the best, but it’s hard and not practical for a mother who cares a baby.  I was wondering how she was going to cast my hand using this.  This is how it works:

There is a thin plastic liner inside, and she poured hot water inside so that the plastic melts.  Then, she tied this splint around my right hand and held it for few minutes until the plastic harden.

It fits perfectly on my right wrist, and restrict movement of thumb.   I was told to wear it as much as possible (even when I sleep) for maximum result.

The therapist was really friendly, and told me that it’s very common for mothers having this problem.  She even had handouts for mothers, and that proves it.  Her explanation of my condition, including how it happened and the process of cure was really clear and I could understand completely.  She normally let patients wear the splint for 2 weeks then follow up with gentle exercises, but, as I need to leave Perth on 18th I will have to come back to see her next week.  She was really flexible and supportive.  She is going to teach me how to exercise my thumb and wrist while in Japan.

Now, it’s been just 2 days since I started wearing this, and I feel much better.  I try not to use my right hand (it’s impossible to not use it when you have a bub though), and wearing it as much as I can.  I hope it cures very soon!

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Eczema or What? :_(

Although Hiro’s rash seems to be much better than when he was 3 months old, people still notices these red patches on his face and ask me “Oh, is it eczema?”.  I still use mild steroid cream occasionally which was prescribed by our GP, I try to just stick with the basic – moisturise, avoid overheating him, keep the room clean, no wool or itchy material around him, and give plenty of water.

The rash comes back once in a while, but it’s just around his mouth (sometimes under his ears, around knees and elbows).  When people see his face and body they give me quite different opinions and advices, and I’m kinda lost at the moment.  I honestly don’t know what I should do and what works on him. I thought (hoped) it’d eventually go away if I stick to the basic treatment, but sister-in-law told me that he could be allergic to some foods.  D and I don’t have any allergy history and no one is allergic to any foods in our families.  Could it be food allergy?

Apparently acidic food (e.g. tomatoes, strawberries, citrus) shouldn’t be given as it may cause eczema, and I feel bad now because I just gave him tomato and strawberry yesterday.  I don’t know if he is allergic to them, but I realized that I knew some people (even adults) get itchy mouth or skin irritation after eating some acidic foods.  I’d better be more careful on choosing what to give him.

The thing is that the rash doesn’t seem to be itchy.  He doesn’t scratch it at all.  So I still think that it could be just that he has extra sensitive skin and the rash is just a reaction against his saliva or something….  I do have sensitive skin too.  But, he scratches his head a lot – maybe his scalp is dry, and cradle cap is making him itchy.  I tried putting him groves and hat, but he takes them off.  Every time I see him scratching his head I say “No!” and hold his hands, then he cries – the reason could be that he knows he’s been scolded, or he really wants to scratch.  His head gets wet and puffy, and sometimes bleeds.  I put oil on this head but he still scratches it.

Sigh…  I’m just writing down what I’ve been feeling.  It’s like I’m twitting here in my blog….  I kept thinking about his rash last night after reading many articles about eczema, and couldn’t sleep much.  I still don’t know what I should be doing.

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What to Feed a Baby

There is one thing I regret of doing while Hiro was still a newborn.  It is that I should have tried harder on breastfeeding him.   I had difficulty feeding him from breast (because of my nipple shape and also the size of Hiro’s mouth etc) but I think the problem should have been solved if I had tried harder and continued doing it longer.  I didn’t want to give up on giving him breast milk, so I expressed using an electric pump and gave him with a bottle. It had became a regular routine, and he got so used to the bottles that eventually forgot how to suck on nipples.

At my friends’ house I see them breastfeeding their babies and it looks so natural.  On the other hand, I have to carry a bottle of expressed breast milk (EBM) or formula to feed my baby everywhere I go.  It’s not a big deal, I know.  The important thing is to feed him and not letting him feel hungry.  But, somehow I feel that I failed.

When I visited a Japanese playgroup with Hiro, I had to warm up a bottle of formula.  Then I noticed other mums watching me and telling me “oh, you are feeding him formula….” with an “interesting-look”.  I felt they’re thinking why I’m not breastfeeding my baby.  Also, while chatting with other mums, they were saying that breast milk is the best and you can tell if the baby is breastmilk-fed or formula-fed by their sizes.  I know breast milk is the best, and I’m not giving Hiro formula because it’s easy to prepare.  I wanted to yell at them, but I was shocked when my friend agreed with them and said that she wouldn’t want to give her baby more than 120ml of formula a day.  She knew I give Hiro quite lots of formula.

In Japan, I feel, they are more serious about breastfeeding, and they judge other people by what they feed their babies; breast milk or formula.  They are proud of breastfeeding their babies until the babies reach 2 years old, or giving ONLY breast milk at least for the first 6 months.  I’ve been asked this question  “do you breastfeed your baby?” by doctor, nurse, or Japanese mothers.  I don’t know why they are so obsessed about this.  Of course not everyone is like that, and maybe it’s all in my head, but I felt that mums at the playgroup were looking down on me for feeding formula to my baby.  The experience kind of made me feel shame of being not able to breastfeed my baby and giving formula.

Well, what can I do?  Since then I don’t want to feed Hiro in front of other Japanese mums, especially while they breastfeed their babies.  I shouldn’t care about what other think, like D tells me, but somehow I still feel shame.

When Hiro was around 6 months old I started giving him rice cereal as his first solids. I thought it’s one of the best food to start since everyone (child health nurse, people on internet, etc) recommended it to give babies for the first food.  I didn’t have any doubt about it, and Hiro took it pretty well.  After rice cereal I moved on to hand-made pureed vegetables (carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, zucchini, etc).  Then, again, I heard some Japanese mums complaining about feeding rice cereal to the babies.  In Japan, very soft rice porridge (o-kayu) is a typical first solids to babies, and they think that store-bought pack of rice cereal is a not good food to start with.  Hmmmmm…… why they care about such small thing? I mean, someone gives rice cereal, someone gives home-made porridge, it doesn’t matter.  It’s everyone’s choice and they don’t need to complain about it in public.  Yes I did give my baby rice cereal, but was it wrong thing to do?  I don’t think so.  After “rice cereal” subject, they now started talking about commercial baby foods.  Yes, complaining again.  I can’t stand people who complain all the time.  🙁   What to feed babies is everyone’s choice!

Morning Walk and Bacci Cake

I love the smell of cold morning….  Cold air with bright sunlight and birds singing are somehow different from what I remember of Japan’s winter morning, but they still reminds me of how I liked waking up early in winter while I was in Japan.

I took Hiro for a walk this morning, because I felt like going outside and also wanted him to wear a hat I found in the closet.  Looks like Mongolian baby 🙂 … or a girl.

Ohhh my right wrist is so sore… It was ok until I visited Play Group on Friday though. I was holding Hiro for 2 hours there and after I got home it started to be really sore.  Now I need to wear tape around it so that I can do things like holding him, cutting vegetables, and even opening a lid of a jar.  Did I strain it?

This photo reminded me… In-laws came over to eat a cake together – a Bacci Cake from Cookie Barrel.  It was very rich chocolate and nut cake…

I mean, very rich.  I couldn’t finish one piece…  but I know this is how people in Australia like chocolate cake to be!  A very rich and sweet.  Hmmmmm, if there was less cream in the ganache and less liquor in the Bacci filling, I might be able to finish it.  Having it once in a while may be a good treat for myself?

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Father’s Day and 6 Months and 2 Year

Today is not only D’s first Father’s Day, but also Hiro’s 6 months birthday…!  Plus, tomorrow is our 2nd wedding anniversary as well.  Hmmmm, 3 things came at once.

We didn’t really plan what to do though….  Both of us have been pretty busy and everyday passes very quickly.  I can’t believe it’s September already!

I baked cupcakes for D.  He loves sweets, and I haven’t made this for him for a long time, so I thought it’s about time to treat him with this sweet cake 🙂

He loves green colour, so I made icing green (with pink on top).  He likes eating cupcake slightly warm (warm up in microwave) then spread icing by himself, so I put icing on only 2 cakes.  They are almost gone…!  I should have made more?

Hiro has been eating carrot (2nd solid after rice cereal), and he loves it!  He opens his mouth very wide when I move a spoon to his mouth.  Very messy though….  rice cereal is white so it’s ok, but carrot….  lots and lots of washing!

Hmmm he is growing very fast.  He wears size zero now.  I bought some winter cloths for Japan and hope it will fit him when we are there!

Baby Massage

It’s been warm lately and I see black hairy worms in the yard and garage…  Definitely spring is here.

I decided not to touch computer or iPhone in front of Hiro while he is awake as I tend to concentrate on those things too much. Checking emails is kinda important but Hiro is my priority at the moment. He seems to know I’m not watching him when I use computer. So, I guess Umeboss won’t be updated everyday anymore… :p

My friend who is a remedial massage therapist leant the technique of baby massage at King Edward, and she said she would lecture me how to do it so I visited her house with Hiro.  It took 3 ~ 4 days to complete the class, she said.  I was excited because I’ve actually never done massage on Hiro.  I always thought he would catch cold if he stays naked after taking bath, but apparently baby shouldn’t be getting massage right before or after bath time.  Anytime when he is relaxed and calm – and so are you –  is the best time to do.

She told me to bring a towel because boys normally wee during the massage.  There’re other 2 moms and 2 baby girls at my friend’s house who were also keen on learning how to massage babies.  One of the baby girl was bit cranky and didn’t even want to lie down on the floor, so she just observed the session instead of actually getting the massage.

Oh my god….  Hiro was very naughty.  As soon as I put him on the floor, he started moving around and attacking other babies.  Other babies were first smiling, but seemed to be scared of Hiro after awhile…

(the one attaching is Hiro…)

He was also the biggest baby among 4.

Hiro seemed not to care about the massage.  He didn’t stay lying down – keep rolling around and wanted to be on tummy.  So, I didn’t really get to do massage – instead, I was holding him to keep other babies safe.

When he is relaxed and in good mood I will try massaging him at home, I think.  Thanks M, for lecturing us.

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Samui?

I’m not sure what’s the reason…..   but my milk doesn’t come out!  (>0<)

Usually I get to express a lot of milk (compared to daytime) during the night, but last night was different.  I felt my breasts were full, but nothing came out. (sorry, boys…)

Is it because my body is too cold?  Or is it because I eat lots of sweets?  I’ve been eating a slice of bread with peanut butter few times a day….  And some chocolate buns.  And biscuits.  I had beef casserole for dinner and I’ve read that beef clogs breast duct – could the beef be the reason?

Hmmm I guess I just need to relax a bit.  Hiro drinks a lot of milk these days and I keep thinking that my milk supply is not enough.  Maybe it has became stress somehow.

Sleeping from 7am until 2 ~ 3am has been his regular sleep pattern at night.  It’s great because I get to have lots of sleep too.  I still go to bed at the same time he does (7am! yes, I’m like a grandma), and after he wakes me up at 2am I’m not sleepy anymore.  I’ve been doing lots of stuff in this early morning; mostly cooking.  I cooked beef casserole 2 nights ago, and made oden just now.  My kitchen smells like convenience stores in winter in Japan, hehe.

I don’t have time to cook during the day (that’s why I’ve been eating a slice of bread with peanut butter!) because Hiro doesn’t take nap much (maximum 30 minutes), and he cries if I’m not there.  He is such a crying baby.

That’s ok.  I want to cuddle you as much as I can while I still can. I won’t be able to do this when you are older. 🙂

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I Did Not Shave!

Hmmmm….  When I posted some of Hiro’s photos on Mixi (one of several social networking websites in Japan), many people asked me if I’ve shaved his head!!!  No, I didn’t!

To think about it, his hair is very thin and soft.  But, both D and I have black, thick hair…  My friends’ babies have long thick hair and look very different from Hiro’s.  He had dry itchy rash on his head and kept scratching it, and his pillow is always covered with hair when he wakes up…  I was thinking he’s losing hair and going bold, but I’ve read that some babies have thin hair (some are nearly bold!) and will eventually grow lots of hair, so I just hope Hiro will have more hair as he grows!

He is 5month old now and tries to eat everything – it started to be very dangerous to leave him on the floor.  I fed him apple juice with spoon few times to have him get used to a spoon.  He did quite well!  He was already curious about food (watches us when we eat), so when I moved a spoon to his lips he naturally opened his mouth.

Now he can’t wait to eat more food.  I’m giving him rice cereal from next week.  I can’t believe he is “eating” something already…  Soon he will be eating sushi and tempura – who knows!

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Hiro’s 4th Month

Hiro is turning 5 months old soon, and I just want to write down the growth of his 4th month.  It was a big one.

He started to dribble a lot, chew on his fingers and fists, wanting to stand up and making steps forward (while being held), curious about everything and try to put everything into his mouth, show an interest in what we eat, become more mobile, and now he can roll-over both from back to tummy and tummy to back!  All of them happened in this 4th month.

His rash was diagnosed to be “not easy one” by GP and it will take time to disappear.  Now we have 3 kinds of cream for him, mild to strong, and I use them according to his skin condition everyday.  When the rash was very severe, Hiro had to take antibiotics and it was pink-coloured liquid.  I gave it to him with a syringe, and it was his first time to drink (?) something sweet other than milk.  I don’t know if it’s because of it, but since then his interest in what we (D and I) eat became obvious.  He follows our movement with eyes, and stares at the food until we put it into our mouths.  I think he is ready to eat some solid!  I’m planning to start with apple juice, then rice cereal or something.

By the way, I’ve been feeling guilty….  It’s been busy weeks for me, and I think that I’m not playing with him enough.  I sometimes have to let him cry to do my things, and watching and hearing him crying makes me feel bad.  He doesn’t stop crying – even though his voice becomes sound-less and his face turns to super red.  Hmmm…..   Other mums I know seem to concentrate on their babies more.  I also wanted to do things like taking him to play group every week and taking him for swimming (as I mentioned before), but I haven’t done it.  I decided to not go to the play group we visited, because of few reasons.  I was going to call-up other places, but I haven’t.  We also missed joining on this term of swimming class, so we’ll need to wait until next year (because the next term will start in Oct and we will soon have to go to Japan then).

Writing these things is making me think about it clearly, actually.  Ok, I will call-up some play groups next week and have a visit.  And, Hiro and I are taking swimming class when we come back from Japan, next year.  It might be a better thing to do considering his skin problem.

Oh, and, we are (probably) flying to Jakarta before we go to Japan, actually.  D is going to JK to extend his ID thing around Oct, and I was originally going to stay here with Hiro, but I’ve changed my mind (because I’m blood type AB).  It will be a short trip – not longer than 1 week.  We can practice taking him on a plane before we take long flights to Japan.  And also, I’m dying to get some massage!!!!

Hmmmm, play group, flight to JK, flight to Japan, swimming class…..  I think Hiro will be 1 year old before I know it.

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Hiro’s First Night Out

The other night I was invited for dinner with in-laws to Tony Romas on Hay street.  At first I didn’t want to go, because I’ve been doing “night time routine” for Hiro for almost 5 months now and didn’t want to mess it up.  He normally takes bath around 6pm then feeds, and goes to bed around 7pm.  But, sisters were saying “it should be ok~” , and I know I should be doing some trials of taking him out at night as our flight with Cathay Pacific is midnight.  So we all went out.

Before we go, I searched the topic on internet and read someone saying “Don’t do it! My baby didn’t sleep afterwards at all and it was a nightmare”.  Hmmmm….  bit scary, but we should try it anyway!  The dinner booking was at 18:30, so we bathed him around 17:30 and fed him until he fell asleep.

When I put him in a capsule he woke up, but stayed very quiet and looked drowsy.  He fell asleep in the car. Yey 😀

At Tony Romas, we started with few entrees : garlic bread and onion loaves.

I was very hungry that night, and ordered regular-size St Louis Rib (pork ribs with choice of sauce : Original, Carolina Honeys, Blue Ridge Smokies or Tony Roma’s Red Hots – I had Carolina Honeys). D ordered St Louis Sampler (a dozen of ribs with all the 4 sauces) .  Boy, it was a big portion!

I did finish mine, and helped eating few ribs from D’s plate too. 😀

Hiro stayed asleep while we were dining.  Everyone was asking “Is there really a baby in the stroller?!  Maybe you left him in the cot in the house!.”  But when we were about to leave the restaurant, he started moving and opened his eyes.  In-laws started talking to him, so he was completely awake when we put him in the car.  ….. Screaming and screaming…  He didn’t shut up…  Because he was screaming so hard, his voice started to be dried and high-tone.  Poor baby…

When we got home, I quickly took him out from the capsule and held him in his cot room.  He then fell asleep, and didn’t wake up when I put him on the cot.  He stayed sleep until 2 am!

His routine went back to normal from the next day, and he’s been good.  I’m glad to know that taking him out at night won’t mess up the routine we’ve established.  Crying hard  part (because he was exhausted and sleepy) is a bit of worry to me, but I’ll think about what I can do about it before out flight.  I heard a baby hammock will do good job on the plane.

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Target Toy Sale

Today I went to Target to grab some toys for Hiro, and it was CRAZY!!!!

This Target opens at 9am, and I arrived there 10 past 9.  Then I noticed few mums with bubs and kids already leaving the car park.  The car park was full.  It’s not a big shopping mall, just Target and some other small shops, so those people must be after toys at Target’s toy sale!

I run inside the shop, with Hiro in Baby Bjorn, then I was surprised to see so many people in Target.  It was crazy.  The shop opened 10 minutes ago, and some toys that I was going to get were already sold out.

I made a list of toys I wanted to buy a day before, but I was overwhelmed buy the atmosphere and bought few more…   :p

One thing I really wanted to buy was this baby walking chair thing.  Because Hiro keeps trying to stand up, step forward, and jump a lot (with support) these days, I thought this was a perfect thing for him to play at the moment.

Others are spoons, a toy for a cot, and toys for his cousins and my friends’ babies.

When I saw my in-law buying lots of toys for her first son few years ago, I thought she had bought too many toys for the boy.  I didn’t know that each toy actually has meaning and supports baby grows.

Now I’m at home, longing to have a cup of hot coffee…. I’m so tired.  Wait, Hiro seems to be bored now.  I’ve gotta play with him, feed, and put him to sleep.  Then I get my time… (only 30 minutes though, as he only sleeps maximum 30 minutes during the day)!

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パースでの出産 -プライベートホスピタル-

2012年3月4日に、パースのMurdochにあるホスピタル、St John of Godで元気な男の子を出産しました：）

私は元々プライベートホスピタルで出産を希望していたので、妊娠するかな、と思った時からプライベート保険に加入していました。パブリック病院だとメディケアがあれば無料なのに、何でわざわざプライベートに？という感じですが、私の場合はこのプライベート病院が家から近かったのと、OB（産科医）を選べるという点、また、病院は個室を選べて自分の気が済むまで滞在できるという点からプライベートを選びました。以前流産を経験しているので、今回はもっとしっかりと妊娠＆出産を見守りたいと思ったのも理由にあると思います。

パブリックとプライベートの病院の違いを大まかにまとめると、下記のようになります：

パブリック(公立病院) e.g. King Edward in Subiaco

利点:

メディケアがあれば医療費がかからない

超音波はSKGで約半額自己負担

欠点:

毎回違う医師が診察(平均待ち時間2時間)ミッドワイフが診察する場合もあります

超音波や腹部計測などの妊娠中のチェックが少ない

プライベート病(私立病院) e.g. Mercy Hospital in Mount Lawley

利点:

待遇がよい（食事がおいしい、新生児を助産婦が見 てくれるため産後ゆっくり回復できる）

個室が選べる。パート ナーも滞在可。保険に寄ってですが、私の場合パートナーの滞在費も無料になりました（何日でも）

公立に比べると長期入院が可能（平均4- 6日）

担当OBを指名でき、妊娠初期から出産後まで同じ医師のお世話になる

日本同様２〜４週毎の診察で、OBのクリニックで毎回超音波検査をする

欠点:

医療費が高い（プライベート保険に加入していれば出産費は全額カバー）

何か異常があったら対応できる施設がない為、結局はKING EDWARD病院へ転院される

（参考:虹の会)

プライベート病院ではOBは選べるので、良い先生をインターネットの情報等から調べて予約します。でも人気の高い先生は予約待ちで、出産予定日に都合が合わない場合があるので、とにかく早く予約しないといけませんでした。

日本とは違い、出産当日まで内診は一度もありません。毎回の超音波検査で、写真を記念にプリントアウトしてもらってました。：）

ただ、プライベート保険に入っていてプライベート病院での出産をする場合でもお金はかかります！出産費は全額カバーされますが、それまでのOBでの検診費用は全額はカバーされません。また、他の検査費用も有料です。無痛分娩の場合の薬代なども。私の場合は結局トータルで$3000かかりました。私のOBは特別費用が高い先生だったみたいです m(_ _)m

病院はとても良かったです。ナースは親切だし、出産後のサポートもすごく助かりました。LC(ラクトスコンサルタント)の免許も持つナースも居り、授乳の仕方も徹底的に教えてもらいました。夜中にヒロが泣いて寝なかった時も、ナースが別室へ連れていって夜通し世話をしてくれるので、私もパートナーもゆっくり寝て体を休める事もできました。また、これは別に大した事では無いですが、赤ちゃん誕生の祝いとしてパートナーと一緒にキャンドルライト•ディナーを無料で受けました。といっても、病院食をレストラン風に盛りつけ、テーブルクロスを敷いたテーブルでキャンドルを点けて食事をゆっくりする、といったモノです。

私は４日間入院しましたが、パートナーも４日間ずっと一緒に滞在しました。部屋は個室でベットも大きかったので、居心地は良かったです。ただ、この病院はプライベートなので駐車場も有料で、月〜金の間は駐車料金をずっと払わなければなりませんでした。幸いにも私が出産したのは週末をはさんでいたので、そんなに高くつかず、ヒロを見に来てくれた友人達も土曜日を選んでもらったので無料でした。

出産後はPediatrician(小児科医)が部屋を訪問して様子を見に来てくれたり（有料）、OBが出産後の様子をチェックするのに見に来てくれたりしました。他に、Physiotherapyの人が来てセラピーを受けたりしました（有料）。

私の出産体験談は、こちらを読んで下さい☆

退院するタイミングは、ナースや医者から「じゃあ今日退院だね」と言われると思っていたら、何と自分で決められると言われてビックリしました。私が加入していたプライベート保険では最長３日までしかカバーされなかったので、４日目に慌てて「もう退院する」と申し出ました。それでも追加費用はキャップ式になっていて１日ごとに＄100くらいだったと思います。

退院後は、ローカルのチャイルドナースが家に来てくれて様子を見たり、といった感じです。

出産に関してですが、他にも「自宅分娩」という方法もあります。

利点:

担当助産師が妊娠中から産後までケアしてくれる

家族一体となって自然なお産が経験できる

欠点:

何かあったら病院搬送までに時間がかかってしまう

自宅分娩は早期妊娠時に希望を出さないと受け付けら れない

出産後はあっと言う間に時が経つ感じで、毎日あれこれ考える事があり、体だけで無く頭も疲れますm(_ _)m　今では妊娠していた頃が懐かしく、胎動を感じて心も穏やかにノンビリできていたなあ、と思います。次はあるかな？？

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4 Month Old

Someone says it will be much easier when the baby becomes 3 month old, but in Hiro’s case, it was the 4th month.

He “knows” that night = sleeping time.  Even if he takes lots of nap during the day, after bath time and feeding at 7 pm he fells asleep straight away.  He wakes up around 12am – 1am, then feed, sleep, until 6am.  It’s been like this for last few weeks!

He stays awake longer during the day, wanting to play.  He now rolls over to his back when he is on tummy. (it might be because of his heavy head ?) He makes lots of bubbles and sometimes need to wear a bib.  He used to sleep through in a capsule while we are out, but now he wants to look around people and places.

We went to a Japanese play group with my friend and her baby this week, and I’m glad I did.  As I don’t speak much Japanese to him (I try, but English comes out), I think it’s a good chance for him to get used to Japanese environment.

Other kids were older than Hiro and friend’s baby, so they’re just watching kids running around and playing games.  Hiro was so curious about other little people and kept looking at them.  When he is older he can do things like drawing, running, jumping, reading, and singing!

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Baby Rash?

Rash on his face went clean, but under his chin and ear area stayed all red for weeks and it was getting really worse.  It started bleeding and his ears were cracked. Every time I put cream on the area he cried, as if it’s painful.

I stopped using soap in the bath long time ago, and clean his face and body with soft cloth every day.  I moisturise the rash as often as needed, but he kept wiping it off with his shoulders and hands.  He does this “scratching motion” using his hands/arms since he was newborn, so I thought it’s his habit and is not because it’s itchy.  I just wished his face returns to beautiful baby skin.

But, after the bleeding and the skin becoming dark red colour, I finally took him to GP.  I really should have done it earlier, but I thought it was just normal baby rash.  The skin condition went terribly bad suddenly (in 1 or 2 days).

GP said it’s pretty bad, and told me to put steroid cream on his rash.  Although he is still a 4-month-old baby and steroid cream maybe too strong on his skin, it’s the best way to soothe the rash.  Only a thin layer, twice a day for a week.

The cream worked like magic.  It must be a really strong medicine, yap.  But I’m happy to see his skin being much cleaner.  Hi ears are not cracking anymore.

I don’t know why he got this terrible rash…  Cold air, blanket, saliva, milk, etc etc… there could be many causes, but I hope it doesn’t recur again.

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Happy 4 Month’s Birthday…

Today Hiro turned 4 month old!!!

He now reaches his arms forward when he is on tummy.  He may start crawling soon…??

And, lots of saliva and lots of eating his fingers (and fist).  He grabs things and triesto put into his mouth.  It has started….

I made balls of chocolate cake – I call them “choco cake ball pops”.  The recipe is for Italian style chocolate cake, so it was very rich and sweet.  The half of them are already in our tummy. (not Hiro’s)  I will post the recipe later.

The air is really cold this morning.  It is winter, yap.  I bought Vicks Warm Steam Vaporizer to put in Hiro’s room.  He doesn’t have any coughing or breathing problem, but I wanted the air to be moist when he sleep at night.  This one works good, you can use it without adding the Vics inhalant, and the warm steam makes room warm too.  But, it’s super noisy (noise of water boiling) …. Hiro woke up few times during night because of the noise 🙁

The sun is out today.  We may go out later ! 🙂

Green Turtle

This green turtle is his current favourite.

A cozy afternoon…

He was crying and crying, trying to catch the turtle….

Then, dozing off…

After this, he woke up few times, crying again, and finally caught the turtle in his hand and went back to sleep while holding it.

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Back Pain

I don’t know if it’s because of my posture, or the result from having epidual, but I’ve been having this pain around my lower spine since around the time I had Hiro. It may be because of the way I sit – when he wakes up at night and doesn’t want to go back to sleep, I hold him and sit on a chair, then I kind of lean my body towards the side cushion on my left side every time. Or, it could be from carrying heavy Hiro too often? Or maybe all of them are causing me this back pain.

I used to have bad posture when I was in elementary school. I didn’t notice it, until my mum saw me walking to the stage to make a speech at a school event and told me “Ume, you walk like the Neanderthal!”. I was so shocked, and started to watch my posture since then. After awhile, I started to be said “wow Ume, you have such beautiful posture” from many people. But now, I think I stopped thinking about my posture while I walk or stand, and it’s bad again.

A masseuse who I had pregnancy massage from (post) is now my friend, and she also gave birth to a boy on March this year. Her son was supposed to be born on May, so he was (and still is) very small when he was born. He has no problem with his health now (just under weight) and we meet up sometimes to have a cup of coffee or to walk around the park with bubs.

The other day we sat at Pumpkin Cafe in Garden City to have a chat .  We both ordered a scone with clotted cream and jam.  Ummm, a combination of warm scone and these accompaniments tastes so good once in a while.  I had it with a glass of decaf latte.

I asked her about my back pain, and she said she’d check it for me at her house next time.  Unfortunately she won’t be able to give me a full massage anymore, but anything to ease this uncomfortable spine would help.

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Day Dreaming and Photo Albam

Hire wakes up every 4 – 5 hours at night for a feed. It was quite disturbing when someone woke me up while I was comfortably snuggling in a warm bed and having a deep sleep, but now I’m starting to like the mid-night feeding time. One of the reason might be that I’m used to be woken up by the noise Hiro makes, but I also like sitting on a chair in a dark quiet room while I’m still half asleep. While I feed him, I think (dream?) about the things that I want to do in near future, like, how I want Hiro’s first birthday to be, what to make for the party, what furniture I should buy for our new house (if we buy), the floor plan of the house, what to buy in Japan, what to make for Hiro’s first solid, etc. I can’t think about these things with busy head during the day, so the night time feeding is the perfect time for me to just day-dream about my future plan.

Before, quite a long time ago, one of my friends went back to Japan for good and she gave me some interior magazines that she collected while she was in Australia. I didn’t open these magazines to read until recently, but now they are great reading materials during Hiro’s nap time and pumping milk. Thinking about designing the house with furniture and interior is quite fun.

Recently I ordered a campus print of Hiro’s photo online and am waiting for it to be delivered. I also have a big flame of Hiro’s hands and feet sculpture. They are going to be on the wall when we buy a house 🙂

Hiro smiles and laugh a lot, and seems to have discovered his hands.  He tries to touch the turtle plush toy and also put his whole hand into him mouth and suck.   Since I take lots of photos of him, I’m been sorting out his photos to make an album online. D and I made our wedding photo album online at Blurb, and this time I’m making one for Hiro. I hope I can finish it and get delivered before we go to Japan so that we can show it to my families too 🙂

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Pizza Making

The other day Hiro and I visited our friends’ house.  My friend’s son is almost 1.5 years old, and I’ve known him since he was 0 day old.  They’ve also known Hiro since he was 0 day old too.  We sometimes catch up at her house, cafe or park.  Her son and Hiro can’t really play together yet as he can walk around but what Hiro does is sleeping…  I hope to see them running around together sometime next year 😀

While we were at their house, she started making pizza for lunch. (from scratch, of course)  Her husband works at a famous Italian restaurant in Perth, and he helped cutting the ingredients and making the dough (well, she ordered him to .. :p )  It’s so fun watching them talking (arguing?)

Hiro took nap shortly after we arrived their house (sleepy head…), but woke up just before the pizza is done in the oven (though he can’t yet taste the delicious food).

He is so relaxed as if it’s his own house.

Pizza is ready…

Three of us (and Hiro on the side) enjoyed the pizza and home-made pumpkin soup ♪

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Eczema?

Hiro has been having this red rash on his forehead and around ear for a quite long time now. I thought it’s just something all babies have, so I wasn’t worried about it at all. I just put some moisturising cream in the morning and after bath.  But, at the last visit to a child health center, nurse told me it’s actually eczema.
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It was very shocking to me, as I’m a healthy person and so is D.  Is he allergic to something? Is it what I eat and he gets through BM, or, the house is really dirty?? There is no one who is allergic to food and has eczema in D and my family.  But, to think about it, I’m actually allergic to some metals.  Could it be the cause?

My mum told me not to worry too much as some babies have this when they are young.  And, when I told about this to my friend, she said “don’t believe what the nurse told you!”  Her daughter also had similar rash on her face when she was a baby, but it went away eventually.  Her dermatologist recommended vaseline, she said.  I think I will visit dermatologist sometime next week to find out…  I hope it will go away from his face sometime.

Other than the skin problem, he is a very healthy boy. He weighs 5.8kg now, and the face is rounder than ever!

It’s Winter… Two More Seasons to Go

Hmmm … Hiro doesn’t drink much milk at night these days, and sometimes keeps waking up.  During the day is ok, he drinks around 150ml – 180ml per feed.  At night, just 60ml per feed.  He doesn’t take long nap during the day, and we do play-time at least once a day, so he should be tired, sleepy, and hungry at night.  And, he is happy during and after bath time, but once I finish dressing him he starts crying – every night.  Is there any reason?  Too tired? Or he know he’s going to be put to sleep?

I go out with Hiro very often now.  Just two of us.  Bit boring to stay at home all day… and I keep eating something if I’m at home. 🙁  But, I ‘m still not 100% comfortable about going shopping with Hiro.  How people go shopping with babies??  I mean, I can’t push a stroller and a shopping trolly at a same time.  Just carry a baby on shoulder?  Using a baby sling or a carrier?  Or just put him/her on the shopping trolly?  Every time I go shopping I can’t buy big stuff, as I push Hiro in a stroller.

It’s been raining since yesterday, as forecast predicted.  Outside is still dark around 6:30 am.  I feel that there is no “autumn” in Perth.  It’s hot in summer, then suddenly the air becomes very cold.  In Japan, autumn is very distinguished.  The sky is high, the air is cool down, less humidity, dragon flies everywhere, rice fields turns brown colour, and mountains start to change their colours to yellow, orange and red.

In Perth it’s winter now (It should be.  It’s almost June), and it’s the middle of rainy season in Japan.  Very humid season….

Two more seasons, then we are all in Japan 😀

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Finally…

Here is Hiro’s hand and feet sculpture when he was just a few weeks old (post).  It was ready to be picked up around Easter holiday, but we kept thinking “let’s go and pick it up next week” “oh well, maybe next week”…. until now.  Finally we did go out and pick it up from them, and now it is in our room. 🙂

Looks great 😀

Oh my gosh…  He looks so skinny when he was getting his hands and feet done!

Hiro’s best shoot last week ↓↓↓