Food Idea for Babies

Posted September 29th, 2012 in Food, Ume and Baby | No Comments »

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!


Problem on UMEBOSS website

Posted August 30th, 2012 in Ume's Thought | No Comments »

I have been contacted by few UMEBOSS viewers that they can’t leave comments on my website.  I apologize for the problem.

I don’t know what is wrong with my blog.  I checked it with WordPress but not certain answer.  I found this though:

” Folks trying to comment now with an email address attached to a WordPress.com or Gravatar account will have to log in first.”

So if you encounter any problems then please try to log in first.  Or email me directly @ me(at)umeboss.com.

This week one of my friend gave birth to her second son.  She didn’t know if it’s boy or girl until she gave birth to him.  She kept it a surprise. I’ve been visiting them at the hospital – newborn baby is so tiny!  I have totally forgotten about that.

 


Baby Food Recipes

Posted July 15th, 2012 in Food, Ume and Baby | No Comments »

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!

 

 


Baby Food Recipes

Posted April 26th, 2012 in Food | No Comments »

Since Hiro started eating finger foods I’ve been enjoying cooking for him more than for myself.  Now, as a one-year-old boy he eats variety of food (although he doesn’t like steamed rice and egg sometimes) 3 times a day + snack.  He loves eating!  I’ve taken him to Miss Maud lunch buffet the other day, and he ate as much as I did – bread, roasted vegetables, fruits, cheese …..  a lot of them.  And I didn’t even need to pay a cent for those food he ate as he is under 4 years of age.

As I note what he eats everyday on mybabyatewhat.com I cook variety of food each day.  Sometimes he doesn’t like the food and I have no idea what to give him instead, but most of the time he enjoys my food.
Here are few recipes of the food he likes : if you happen to have kids you may wanna try them out, I thought 🙂

<Potato Okonomiyaki>

• Cabbage, chopped, 1 tablespoon
• Spinach, chopped, 1/2 teaspoon
• Potato, cut in cubes and soft-boiled, 1 tablespoon
• Egg 1/2

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

2. Lightly spray a small frying pan with oil.  Drop 1 table spoon of mixture into the pan and cook until the bottom is set and colored.  Flip it and cook another side until the hamburg is cooked through.

<Tuna Pumpkin Curry Rice>

  • tinned tuna in spring water, drained x 1 tea spoon
  • soft cooked pumpkin x 1 ~ 1.5 table spoons
  • broccoli x 1 floret
  • frozen mixed vegetables (I use corn, peas and capsicum) x 1 tea spoon
  • tomato, skinned and seeded x 1 tea spoon
  • super tiny amount of mild Indian curry powder
  • steamed rice
  1. Place tuna, pumpkin, vegetables and curry powder in a sauce pan and add water to just cover the food.  Cook until all the food is cooked and soft.  (add more water if needed)
  2. Serve on a bed of steamed rice.

<Salmon Udon Noodle>

  • cooked udon noodle, about 1.5 table spoon, cut into small pieces
  • salmon, small piece
  • 1 broccoli floret
  • carrot, small piece
  • 1 tsp milk
  • 1 tsp mixture of cornflour + water
  1. Place salmon, broccoli, carrot in a saucepan, and cover with water.  Bring to gentle simmer, and cook until tender.
  2. Add udon noodles and milk to the saucepan.  Simmer.  Add cornflour mixture to thicken.

<Tuna & Pumpkin Sandwiches>

  • tinned tuna in spring water, drained x 1 tea spoon
  • cooked pumpkin, 1.5 tbs
  • 2 slices of bread
  1. Mix the tuna and pumpkin.  Spread on 1 slice of bread, and place another slice on top.  Cut off the crust.  Cut into finger size.

<Chicken Meatballs>

  • chicken mince x 1 table spoon
  • tofu (I use Japanese tofu, either silken or firm) x 1 tbs
  • soft cooked pumpkin x 1 tbs
  • 1/2 egg
  • 1 tsp cornflour (optional)
  1. mix all the ingredients, and shape into flat balls.
  2. spray oil lightly onto a frying pan, and grill both side until well-cooked.

<Soup with Tofu Dumplings>

  • tofu (I use Japanese tofu, either silken or firm) 3 tbs
  • plain flour 1 tbs
  • cornflour 1 tbs
  • chicken mince 1 tsp
  • vegetables (brocoli floret, carrot, potato, onion etc)
  1. Place chicken mince and vegetables in a saucepan, and fill water to cover the food.
  2. Bring to gentle simmer, and cook until vegetables are tender.
  3. Mix tofu and flour.
  4. While the soup is simmering, scoop 1 tsp of tofu mixture and drop into the simmering soup.  Repeat with remaining tofu mixture.  Cook until the tofu dumplings are cooked.

Tamago Boro

Posted February 28th, 2012 in Food | 5 Comments »

Tamago Boro, egg biscuit for babies, is a very popular snack for children in Japan. It melts inside your mouth without biting, so it’s easy and safe to eat for little children.

As you cannot bring anything containing egg into Australia, I couldn’t bring packs of this tamago boro when I left Japan.  Some shops may sell this snack here in Perth, but I’m sure it won’t be a reasonable price compare to that it’s just  ¥100 for 5 packs of boro in Japan.

After coming back to Perth I made this tamago boro for my  I-want-to-eat-everything-because-I-have-a-big-appetite-and-stomach son.  It was my first prompt and it tuned out to be ok.  I think I made it little too big (store-bought one is much smaller than what I made) but it tasted and melted just the same.

<Tamago Boro>  makes around 30

  • 1 egg yolk
  • 80g cornstarch
  • 30g icing sugar
  • 1.5 tsp milk (either cow milk or formula)

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  1. Mix the yolk and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add cornstarch and mix will using a spatula.
  2. Add milk, and mix well.  Add less or more milk to make into shapable consistency.
  3. Shape the mixture into little balls.
  4. Line the balls on a baking paper, and bake in the oven 160℃ for about 15 ~ 20 minutes.

Actually I don’t like tamago boro.  Haha, it sounds funny ; I don’t like it but I’m making it for my son.  I don’t really like the texture (that melts on the tongue) but I’m sure Hiro enjoyed it.

And he loves bagel, actually.  Bagels are hard so it does the same job as rusk.

He saw me eating a plain bagel, and when I gave it to him just to joke he grabbed it and didn’t want to let it go.  He actually eats the bagel just like the photo, and I had to take it away from him as he was eating so much.  The crust may be too hard for him so now I cut the crust off before giving to him.


Parenting Room in Shopping Mall Japan

Posted November 26th, 2011 in Japan | 4 Comments »

I never paid attention on parenting rooms and babies/children play area in Japan until I had my own baby.  Since Hiro was born I appreciated the existence of parenting rooms in shopping centres in Perth.  They are clean, convenient, and roomy (most of them).

As I planned a homecoming trip to Japan, I was worried that there may be no such area in shopping malls in Japan.  I just didn’t remember seeing one.  So I was relieved to see such a clean, big parenting room in a small shopping mall near my house!  If a shopping centre in Shiga has like this, I’m sure there’s one as big as this or even bigger one in other prefectures.

Cushiony changing tables.

There is a scale for weight and height!

Sink to wash hand….

Inside breastfeeding area.

And, there’re many strollers for babies in shopping centres as well.  Few different kinds – the one attached to a shopping cart, the one with just a baby seat, and the one looks like a ride-on toy.


Royal Life Saving

Posted November 14th, 2011 in Perth WA, Ume and Baby, Ume's Interests | No Comments »

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

Posted November 11th, 2011 in Ume and Baby, Ume's Interests | 1 Comment »

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


Character Kamaboko

Posted November 1st, 2011 in Food, Japan | No Comments »

Over the long weekend we had sister-in-law’s baby shower, and it was such fun.  I ended up staying there for 5 hours. I enjoyed the games and talking with other guests. The cake was so cute – a shape of pregnant belly. It was actually a velvet cake, and everyone seemed to be shocked when they saw the very red sponge inside :p Looked like bleeding… too realistic.

Sister prepared a small baby bottle filled with roc candies as “thank you” present for the guests, and the roc candies reminded me of kamaboko (fish cake) I used to eat while I was a kid.

There are many kinds, including Hello Kitty, Pokemon, Disney characters etc.  They are great item to decorate bento box!


What to Feed a Baby

Posted September 27th, 2011 in Ume and Baby | 4 Comments »

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!


Review of Chicco Cortina Travel System

Posted September 20th, 2011 in Ume's Interests | No Comments »

I’m using Chicco Cortina travel system stroller, and I want to write about how I like and don’t like this product.

First of all, there are few types of baby strollers available in the market. They include “umbrella strollers”, “jogging strollers”, “pram/carriage strollers”, “stroller travel system” ect. The reason I chose travel system is because my friend was using it and looked so handy and practical.

The biggest difference between travel system strollers and other strollers is that you can take off the capsule from the stroller and use it as a car seat by attaching to the base (dock). This way, you don’t disturb sleeping baby when taking him/her out from the car. That’s the top reason why I bought it.

There are few travel system strollers available, but I chose Chicco brand because ToysRus was doing a sale when I was looking for a stroller. I liked the features and the looking. Chicco has two travel system strollers (in WA): Cortina and Trevi. I didn’t like the handles and the position of luggege net on Trevi. I liked the drink/food holders for baby and mum on Cortina, so I chose this.

I actually didn’t search about other strollers before buying Chicco, but I’m pretty happy with it. Here are my review (Pros/Cons) of Chicco Cortina.

Pros:

– The stroller stands up by itself when folded.

– It has a drink holder and small storage compartment near the handle, so I can put my phone, car key, a bottle of drink, etc there and it’s useful.

– When the capsule is attached, you can cover the capsule entirely by closing the canopy. So, it shuts out the noise and light from baby inside the capsule.

– The capsule is very easy to install. Easy to attach and detach between the stroller and the base (dock).

– The stroller is easy to collapse (3 steps), and easy to open (1 step).

– Capsule can be used as a rocker as well

Cons:

– The stroller is pretty big and heavy. It just fits in my car’s trunk, so I think it doesn’t fit in some small cars.

– When the capsule is attached, the seat of the stroller has to be flat and there is only very small gap between the seat and the storage net, so I couldn’t use the net at all while using the capsule. I guess I could put my bags etc while the seat is up, but I wouldn’t be able to take anything out from the net while the capsule (and baby) is on.

– Like some of other strollers, there is no “peeking window” on the canopy. It’d be great if it had one.

– After the baby is too big for the capsule, baby sits on the seat. I felt that the seat is too low in position. I couldn’t see even his head from the handle side, so I had to walk to the front and check if he is still there.

– No bag hook on the handle area.

Overall, I am very happy with this stroller. I really loved using a capsule. It was just two motions (detach from the stroller and attach to the base) when putting my baby into a car, and it was great when you have lots of shopping bags or it’s raining. My baby loved the capsule too, and he slept very well in it. If I could I wanted to use the capsule longer, but I had to use another baby car seat when my baby is too big for it. Now I hate the normal car seat because he wakes up and cries every time I take him out from the car. If he was in the capsule, he’d keep sleeping comfortably.


Shopping Baby Stuff Online

Posted September 6th, 2011 in Japan | 2 Comments »

I’ve started buying things from Japanese online shops that we may need while we are in Japan.  Most of them are baby stuff; baby carrier, baby record goods, etc.  Some of them are cheaper buying in Japan, and I can find more variety of goods there.  For example, I bought this baby carrier called “Clmin”.

Baby can “wear” it as if s/he wear a pair of pants, and it’s easy for mum to wear too.  The supportive & durable material is used for comfort for both mum and baby.  I found it on sale at ¥1980 (about $20 AUD) and bought it straight away.  All the reviews are good.

And, I was going to rent a small baby stroller so that we could put Hiro down when we go outside for a walk or shopping. The cheapest rental price I could find was ¥800 per month plus a shipping fee of ¥2000.  Then, I found this stroller for ¥2990 from an online store.  It’s light, easy to maneuver, and is exactly what we were looking for.  We’ll be in Japan for 3 months and it will be cheaper than renting one, so I bought this too.

When my in-law told me I should buy Grobags from Bambinipront (coz they were doing sale) I instead found this First Year Sonogram Frame. You can display photos of 3 milestones in baby’s first year, and I thought it’s so cute.  I have my favorite ultrasound photo of Hiro and I thought it would be nice to display it on this frame. It’s around $27 at Bambinipront.  I searched this item online in case somewhere else sells it cheaper.  Then I found one Japanese online shop selling this for ¥1050.  I’m very happy I bought this!

Oh, by the way I was surprised to know that you can get a “talking” potty in Japan!  It talks “good job!” “well done!” in this an-pan-man (Japan’s popular kids’ character) voice.  Very cute!  Then, D said “well, I’m not surprised.  Japanese toilets are high-tech!”. Even for babies !?:p


Baby Massage

Posted August 27th, 2011 in Ume and Baby | No Comments »

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.

a


I Did Not Shave!

Posted August 7th, 2011 in Ume and Baby | No Comments »

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!

a


Hiro’s 4th Month

Posted July 30th, 2011 in Ume and Baby | 8 Comments »

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.

a


First Week

Posted March 12th, 2011 in Ume and Baby | 6 Comments »

My first week with MIHIRO (we call him “hiro” or “hiro-chan”) was … full of things and pain.  I feel like it’t been few weeks already, as there were so many things happened.  Very concentrated 7 days.

I said “pain”, because my body was still sore from the delivery…  And probably the muscle ache from the lack of sleep and tiredness.  I was having little problem with my breastfeeding too (his mouth is too small and he can’t suck properly) for couples of days so I’ve been using an electric pump at the moment.  Lucky I had bought it beforehand!   I still try to breastfeed him, but need to have a top-up with pumped breast milk.

A nurse from Child Health Centre visited our house to check on Hiro during the week.  His weight had dropped about 6% of the birth weight, but it’s normal for newborn babies to drop around 10 %, so I’m not worried much.  I just hope he will catch up on weight gain soon.  To do so, I need to feed him well!

I knew people say that parenting is hard job, no time for yourself, etc etc.  I didn’t believe it was all true…  until I experience it.  But, it’s all normal and people are doing it, so I think I will manage it too.


Hello World…

Posted March 9th, 2011 in Ume and Baby, Ume's Pregnancy | 14 Comments »

Meet my first baby – he was born on March 4, 11 days before the due date.  2980 g / 49 cm

In the morning on 3rd (a day before delivery) I thought my water was leaking, so I called my OB and went to hospital to check.  It was not water from my uterus (it was just pee!) and I went back home.  But, around 7PM I had a huge gush of clear water come out while watching tv in the living room.  There was no doubt that my water had definitely broken.

I called hospital and went there with my hospital bag.  At the labour ward, midwives checked the water and confirmed that it was the water from my uterus.  I was 2 cm dilated.  There was little blood too.  They put something on my belly to check baby’s heartbeats and contractions.  It was around 8PM.

According to the monitor I was having mild contractions, but they weren’t painful.  I was thinking “maybe I can cope with the contraction pain without any pain relief”, but it started to be stronger around 9PM past.  It was like heavy period pain (I have very heavy period pain and the contraction was exactly like that).  Luckily D had asked midwives that I’d need epidural (we had talked about it earlier and he remembered it), and anesthesiologist was on the way.  By the time she arrived my room, the pain was super – I couldn’t talk and had to squeeze D’s hands every 2 minutes.  After the anesthesiologist explained all the risks and side effects of epidural to me, she inserted the needle on my back.  I was given IV by a midwife too, so there was a thick needle on my left wrist and a thin tube on my back.

Thanks to the epidural, the pain was gone few minutes later.  Around midnight, D and I fell asleep until 2:30AM.  I was awakened by the contraction pain.  I told midwife about it and I was hoping that she would top up more epidural to ease the pain, but she was worried that too much epidural might make me have no feeling when I have to push the baby.  She checked my cervix, and it was about 7~8 cm dilated.  She topped up with 10 ml of epidural first.

The 10ml didn’t make much difference.  The pain was not around my tummy, but around my bottom.  It was like a huge pressure around my anus – as if I was holding a big poop or gas.  Midwife told me “it’s not a poop, it’s a baby!”.  She told me NOT to push it.  It was really big pressure and having to hold it was quite hard.  I told midwife that it’s very painful – she checked with my OB and topped-up with more epidural.   My OB was on the way around this time.

The OB arrived just before 4AM, and he checked that my cervix was fully dilated.  Since the pain around my bottom was not as strong as before (because of the epidural top-up), OB and midwife assisted me when to push.  I tried to push when they told me to – no pain, but I could feel something was coming down.  I pushed 3 times on each contraction, and after several times I knew my baby was out!  First, a head, then shoulders… two big pressure (pain?).  It was 4:16AM.

Now I have my baby on my arms.  I can’t believe he was inside my belly, and my pregnancy was over.  He is the same person as the one I saw on the screen at my first ultrasound test.

His head is already covered with dark black hair.  I am so happy that he was born without any complication and unhealthy condition.  Now I’ve been super busy with this totally new life cycle.  As a first time mum, everything is new (I’ve never changed a diaper before) and I’m leaning bit by bit each day….