Hanging Out

Well, Hana and I are just hanging out at home. I'm trying to get laundry done, and get it all hung out to dry. Today is the last day of sunny weather; it's supposed to rain from tomorrow for a few days. I really miss having a dryer.

Yesterday, Hana nursed most of the afternoon, but since she was nursing properly I don't mind at all. It looks like she's going to do the same thing today. So, she should start putting on some weight finally. When we went to see the midwife on Tuesday, she hadn't gained as much as she should have. I don't think that will be a problem from now.

Merry Christmas!

(I don't have any new pictures to post so here's one of Hana from a week ago.)

Well, Monday was a rough day with Hana not nursing well. In the evening I finally expressed my milk and fed it to her in a bottle. What relief!! Hana finally stopped crying and I had a bit of a break. Yesterday, in the morning we went to see the midwife and everything is going better now. She's nursing well again.

Yesterday was Christmas here. We had a Christmas party downstairs with the Mukai family. Afterwards, I was doing a count and I figured out that there were 13 adults, 5 kids, and 1 baby. The food wasn't the same as what we'd have for Christmas in the States - chicken, pizza, sushi, steak, salad, cake. But the atmosphere was definitely there. All of the adults were eating, talking and enjoying themselves, while the kids were running around playing with their new toys and eating lots of junk food! Gaku started getting kind of fussy at the end of the evening. He had gone to daycare all day and then had a busy, fun evening.

When we got home, I was nursing Hana. Tak and Gaku were in the other room. I could hear Gaku calling, "Daddy" over and over. I figured Tak was already asleep and Gaku wanted to be covered. So after I finished nursing Hana I went to the other room to check on Gaku, and couldn't find him right away. He wasn't in the futon or next to it anywhere. I turned back to look at the door and noticed him curled up, sleeping under our small table. How funny! I pulled him out, put him on the futon and covered him up. He didn't even stir at all.

It was a fun Christmas that really felt like Christmas!

Early Christmas / Poor Hana

Our early Christmas morning was fun. Gaku likes opening presents. He's not always so concerned with what is in the presents, but really likes to open them. We let him open all of our presents for us as well.

Then we let him watch the couple of DVDs he received (Ratatouille and The Jungle Book). I think Ratatouille was more fun for me. Gaku really likes The Jungle Book. He just got it yesterday, but has already watched it three times now. He really likes the scene with the song The Bare Necessities.

We usually don't let him watch this much tv, but I'm humoring him today. Tak is working so it's just me home with Gaku and Hana today.

Hana (and I) had a rough night last night. I think she's caught a bit of a cold. Her nose is a bit stuffed. Last night was a really long night. She wanted to nurse, but then wasn't really sucking well. I tried to clean her nose out once with no luck. The second time I tried I was able to clear a bit of it out, but she was still quite fussy. This morning was also rough. Again, she wanted to keep nursing, but wasn't really taking anything in. After about three hours of non-nursing she finally fell asleep.

I'm a bit tired today and don't have as much patience as I usually do. So, I figure Gaku can watch as much tv as he wants today as long as he's not getting into trouble! So, we're now watching The Jungle Book for the fourth time...

A nice big brother

Gaku had a better night last night. We snuggled for a while in the living room where he is sleeping for now.

This morning he was pretty cute. He still calls Hana "akachan", the Japanese word for baby, not "Hana-chan". This morning he asked to hold her and then gave her a nice kiss on her head.

Then just before leaving for daycare he came and gave her another kiss goodbye, and gave me a goodbye kiss. He's really being a good boy!

Tomorrow, we're going to celebrate Christmas a couple of days early, since Tak has tomorrow off of work. Tonight while Gaku is sleeping I'll have to smuggle all of the presents out from the closet and put them under the tree. We haven't put a single present under the tree this year because Gaku wants to open all of them. Tomorrow will be fun!

Poor Gaku!

Gaku has been being such a good boy, but he had a rough night last night. Hana was sleeping in her chair in the living room for quite a while in the late evening yesterday, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to spend some special time with Gaku. We were having lots of fun playing with his toys. Then we went to the bedroom (where Hana and I are sleeping) for some cuddle time. We were listening to music from one of Gaku's favorite movies Cars and he had a few of his toy Cars with him. He wanted to keep bringing in more toys and I said no, so he finally decided to go play in the living room where all of his toys are. When I went to get Hana to nurse and go to sleep, Gaku had a serious meltdown. He wanted to come with me to sleep in the other room. He cried and cried for over 20 minutes. "I want Mommy." "I don't like Daddy." "I want to go to the other room." Just like the night after Hana was born, he got kind of snuggly with Tak at the end, hugging him and saying, "Daddy, I love you." It almost broke my heart to hear him crying so much from the other room. I really wanted to go get him and say come on and snuggle with Mommy, but it just wouldn't work right now with Hana waking up in the middle of the night. I guess the trick is to make sure we snuggle in the living room (where Gaku is sleeping) and not go to the bedroom in the evening. Sometimes in the morning he'll come in and snuggle just after waking up, which is fine. Actually, he's much more calm and snuggly in the morning when he's still half-asleep. Whereas, in the evening he's usually trying to fight sleep and is more squirmy.

Hana is one week old!

Hana is just over a week old now. She's nursing well, and sleeps almost all of the time!

The blanket that Sarah and Brian gave us for Christmas a few years ago works perfectly as a cover for the baby chair that I bought for her. It's a chair with a rocker on the bottom that can be completely flat for her as a baby and sit up more when she's bigger. Yesterday, Gaku was trying to claim that the blanket was his, but we corrected him that the blanket is everyone's and Hana is using it now.

So far, Gaku is very interested in Hana. He wants to share things with her. He is giving her toys that we told him belong to her, but he could play with. He tries to share his snacks with her. A couple of days ago he even gave her his special Mickey Mouse towel (his blankie), but only for a few minutes! He wouldn't give her his new Curious George stuffed animal, though. "Gaku's George," he said.

I'm doing very well, and feel mostly recovered from giving birth. I'm able to do a lot around the house already. I can remember two weeks after Gaku was born; I wanted to do things but my body didn't want to cooperate, which was really frustrating. This time, I'm having no problems doing laundry and getting up and about. Yesterday, I made a quick trip out to the bank and nearby grocery store.

Tak took off most of last week and went back to work on Monday. When Gaku was born Mi-chan (Tak's mom) came and stayed for a month to help us out, but she couldn't come this time. It's a good thing that I can get up and about more this time. Otherwise, it would make things really hard for Tak.