I was exploring the Baby Center website again, looking at what a 4 week old is like.  At this age, she should be starting to play with brightly coloured toys.  I tend to play with her myself a bit, and today, she was making sounds like she was excited.  She’s becoming more vocal, too.  She watches us quite a bit now.  She should also be noticing her hands and feet now.

We’re going to have to consider getting her some toys and picture books soon.

Today, Tomoe was awake a lot.  She seemed to be far more aware and paid a lot of attention to things.  She’s been watching us.  As we go up to her, she looks at our faces.  She’s been looking around a lot, as well.  She’s been moving her head quite a bit to focus on various things, although her eyesight isn’t good enough to make out things farther than half a metre or so.  However, she is focusing on light and colour.  I’ve used my iPhone to give her something colourful and bright to focus on, and she tracks it quite well as I move it.  She has far more control over her eyes and head movements now.  Another thing we’ve noticed her doing is looking at the TV, most likely because it’s giving off a colourful light that moves around.  2 weeks ago, when I looked into her eyes, she didn’t seem to have any kind of focus.  Just a blank stare at times, though she did watch my face a bit.  But now, I see so much expression in her eyes.  Her personality is starting to show.

Another big milestone is her ability to hold up her head.  Today, I placed her on my chest while I was reclining, and she lifted her head to look at me.  She held her head up for quite a while.  This is important, because she can soon sit up and hold her own head up.  Her neck muscles are developing well.

Just a few pictures now.  Enjoy!

Stretch time!

Making funny faces is my job!

Back to sleep peacefully.

Hello!

Last night, she slept well, and I could actually sleep the full night.  The night before, she would not sleep until 5 am.  She would only sleep if she was sleeping with us.  So, she finally went to sleep on our bed with us.  Last night, she slept in her own bed perfectly fine.  Tonight, she’s a bit fussy again.  She’s been really hungry, and wouldn’t stop demanding food.  Finally, we filled her up just a few minutes ago.  She’s now in her new bed on a bed.  That’s right, she has a new bed, but it’s a small mattress that she can use on our bed.  It’s designed to keep her in one place, so she doesn’t move around, and also to keep us from rolling onto her.

Tomoe's new bed on a bed.

Now, my question is, do you or did you let your baby sleep in your bed with you?  It’s quite common in Japan, but in Canada, I believe it’s not so common.  If you allow your baby to sleep with you regularly, they won’t get out of this habit until they’re 3 years old.  Hopefully, we don’t make this too regular.

She actually held my hand near her face so she could suck on my knuckle.

Another thing she’s been doing in the past couple of days is making a lot of facial expressions.  One that she’s been doing quite frequently is smiling.  I’m sure she has no idea what it means, but she’ll probably understand in about 4 to 6 weeks.  Babies usually have their first smile at 6 to 8 weeks.

It's a smile!

One thing we’ve noticed today is that she has some dry flaky skin on her scalp.  This is known as cradle cap.  It occurs in babies between 2 weeks and 3 months old, and is a side effect of the mother’s hormones still inside the baby.  Dry skin is quite normal for young babies, and it shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

Tonight, I’ve noticed how much more aware she is.  She’s looking around a lot, and she’s paying attention to things a lot more.  For example, when I look at her face, she’ll look back at my face.  Not necessarily at my eyes, but she’s looking at me.  When I was burping her, she suddenly turned her head to look directly at me, and her eyes went very wide as she realised how close to my face she was.  It was quite funny.

Today was also her first time vomiting.  Another first is her snoring.  That’s normal for babies, though.  Her air passages are quite narrow, so it happens to most babies.  And finally, maybe this wasn’t intentional, but she let go of her pacifier, and it fell into her open hand.  She then pushed the pacifier back into her mouth and kept it there.  Not sure if she meant to do that or if it was just happenstance.

This morning, my wife put her in our bed with me, and let her sleep next to me as I slept.  Then, without me knowing, she took a picture and posted it on Facebook.

Her next visit to the clinic is February 29th.  That’ll be her one month checkup.

I was feeding Tomoe, and when she finished, she relaxed comfortably in my arms while I made faces at her (more on that later).  She started making faces back at me, but not in response to me making faces.  I suddenly felt and heard an explosion.  She took a rather soupy poop.  My wife asked me to change her diaper, and when I took it off of her, I noticed that she pooped a lot.  Gee, thanks.  My wife describes her poop as “tuna curry.”  It has the colour of curry.  Well, I did eventually get her diaper changed, after she put her own foot in her poop.

Tonight, she’s been quite peaceful.  She’s been sleeping very well today and not so fussy.  But newborn babies tend to be irritable in the late evening, but sleep well during the day.  That seems to be true for Tomoe, but she’s been good so far tonight (it’s not over yet!).

As I said before, I was making faces at her.  There’s a reason for this.  Babies her age tend to focus on people’s faces all the time.  They like to watch the mouth and eyebrows more than the eyes.  So, according to Baby Center, 1 week old babies try to mimic mouth and eyebrow movements.  I decided to test this.  She actually has copied my mouth movements a bit, but not so much.  She loves to look at our faces, though.

Her legs have been straightening out and less bowlegged than they were a week ago.  She’s been holding things with her hands quite a bit more, and has been moving her hands closer to her face.  Her neck also seems to be getting stronger.  We’ll have to try putting her on her stomach while she’s awake for short periods to help her strengthen her neck muscles.

Here’s a couple pictures for those of you who want to see a peacefully sleeping baby.

Tomoe has been sleeping quite peacefully tonight.

One hour later, still asleep.

We had to bring papers given to us from the clinic (including birth certificate), as well as our bank account information (this is for the government to pay us the child allowance).  Be sure to have your bank book if you have a Japan Post Bank (Yuucho) account. The bank card doesn’t have the account and branch numbers.

All of the forms were in Japanese, except one that I had to fill out myself.  That one was a modification of my family registry.  One thing I feel is unusual in Japan is that for anything involving city office, I had to tell them my employer’s name and phone number.  My daughter’s birth has nothing to do with my employer.  One thing that was interesting is that I didn’t have to show them any ID.  Other than that one form and signing another form, my wife did everything.

Overall, it was a fairly easy process for me, since I didn’t have to do much.

Tomoe is in her new bed for the first time.

She's sound asleep. She slept all the way home.

Before I went to work, she wouldn't let go of my finger.

She looks so peaceful sleeping on the sofa.

She was quite peaceful her first night at home.  She was quiet, ate well and went to sleep after being fed.  I got to feed her around 1 am on Thursday night.  She woke up at about 5 am, ready to be fed again.  I was up between 5 and 6 am, because she was being a bit fussy and was waiting for some formula.  Just as I went back to bed at 6 am, my mother-in-law was just getting up.

In the morning, after getting up, she was pretty calm and peaceful again.  It seems she’s quiet during the day.  On Friday evening, when I got home, I got to experience another side of her.  She was extremely fussy from the time I got home until we finally got to bed around 1 am.  My wife was exhausted.  She didn’t get a nap and didn’t sleep well during the night.  But that night, as I fed her again, she held on to the bottle.

She had a firm grip on her bottle. She was also sleeping!

The other big thing that happened on Friday was that her umbilical cord fell off.  It happened while I was at work.  We’re keeping it in a small box that’ll keep it dry.

Tomoe's umbilical cord fell off.

Well, today was a bit of a sleepy day, although I worked long hours.  When I got home, Tomoe was sleeping, but soon woke up.  Then the fun started!  She cried off and on, was fed a couple of times, and didn’t sleep at all.  And then, in the past hour, she pooped 4 times.  She had to have her diaper changed 4 times in an hour.  She is a poop factory.  And as I write this, after sleeping for about 10 minutes, she’s crying yet again.  She seems to get quite fussy in the evenings.

As I was about to leave for work, Tomoe was awake, and I gave her my finger to hold.  She wouldn’t let go.  She has a pretty strong grip.  But I had to go to work, so I had to break free of her vice grip.

After work, I got to feed her for the first time.  It took a little getting used to, but I got the hang of it.  Now, burping I don’t have the hang of yet.  But she didn’t seem to burp at all.

Anyway, I wish this wasn’t such a short post.  If only Yahoo mail would work properly.