Tomoe and sakura

Sakura is a girl’s name, but Tomoe didn’t meet a girl named Sakura.  She saw sakura, or cherry blossoms, last Friday. Unfortunately, they weren’t fully blooming in the park we were at.  But we got to enjoy the park.

Having fun in the park.

What’s that back there?

Walking along.

Grass doesn’t scare me anymore!

I used to cry when I touched the grass.

Help! Daddy’s chasing me!

This is fun!

I love slides!

Why am I in this stroller? I want to walk!

 

I’m flying up to the cherry blossoms!

 

Daddy and me!

That was our fun day.

Now Tomoe is 14 months old, and her separation anxiety is quite strong.  She really doesn’t like sleeping in her own bed again.  In fact, she now tries to climb out of her bed.  She can get her leg over the side, and I’m afraid that she’ll completely climb out and fall on the floor.  She cries a lot at night, even if she’s being held.

She’s also been hugging a lot lately.  She’ll lean into me and hold on sometimes.  She really enjoys being close to us.  A couple days ago, she walked over to me while I was on my computer and just wanted to sit with me.  She happily watched me use the computer.

She just won’t sleep

Tomoe has been quite difficult at night lately.  She’ll sleep for about an hour, then wake up crying.  She’s been sleeping on and off for the past 5 hours, crying half of the time.  It’s not that she’s hungry.  She has no fever anymore.  She seems to be fine while she’s awake.  She just won’t stop crying.  I have a feeling she’s teething, and it’s a rather irritating tooth.

To top it all off, whenever I hold her, she cries.  She seems to not want to be held by me at all.  She’ll be in bed and need a diaper change, and I’ll pick her up.  She used to be happy to be picked up by me.  Now she just starts crying, and she cries really hard.  I don’t like this phase.

Too young to be rebellious?

Tomoe’s going through a new phase now.  She’s become a rebel.

One of her favourite things to do is to throw everything.  She usually throws all of her toys, pillow, and blankets from her bed when she’s playing in it.  She’ll throw it on purpose, just to see what we’ll do.  She’ll keep doing it over and over, never stopping.  If she’s playing with a toy on the floor, she’ll often try throwing it.

She often resists doing many things.  Lately, getting her diaper changed has been difficult.  She complains loudly when she can’t roll over while I’m doing up her diaper.  She’ll start crying most of the time.

Most of the time, she’s actually happy.  She smiles a lot and loves to laugh.  Actually, when I came home last night, she was still awake and as soon as she saw me, she reached toward me from her bed.  She was obviously happy to see me.

Another situation is her bath time.  When she’s waiting to go into the bath, she resists.  Recently, she’s begun crying when it’s time for a bath.  She doesn’t like the water being sprayed on her.  Getting into the bathtub, she used to really enjoy it, but she has been a bit fussy lately.

Ready for her bath!

This is the age when most babies have separation anxiety, as well.  She’s shown signs of it.  Hopefully, this will be a short phase.

Another milestone! Her first cold

Maybe this isn’t a milestone to be celebrated.  Tomoe is sick.  She has her first cold.  Luckily, it’s mostly just a runny nose, and boy does it run!  She needs it cleared out quite often.  We have something that sucks out the mucus into a small bottle, and she hates it.  Every time it’s used, she struggles and fights against us, crying loudly.  The look on her face when it’s done is saying “How could you do this?”  Well, she’ll have to endure it until her cold is gone.  She doesn’t seem to have any other symptoms, thankfully.

We’ve been hoping to get her to a baby centre these days, but thanks to her cold, we’ll have to start after she’s recovered.

It’s been a scream

Tomoe’s new thing to do is scream at the top of her lungs.  I guess she’s exercising her volume now.  She does this at the worst time, too.  It’s late evening and my wife is trying to sleep.

These days, she’s been quite noisy.  A couple reasons are separation anxiety and teething.  When is that first tooth finally coming in?  I thought teething was only supposed to last a few days for each tooth.  Her separation anxiety happens whenever she’s left alone in a room.  Tonight, my wife was on the bed trying to sleep, but as I left the room, Tomoe started crying.  Not so much we can do about this.  I know she’ll grow out of it, though.

No pictures this time, just a quick update.  Also, she can stand on her own for about 3 seconds now.

Moody baby discovers her hands!

Lately, Tomoe hasn’t been taking naps well at all during the day.  She’s been spending her day awake and crying.  She’s full, but keeps crying.  Her diaper’s been changed, but keeps crying.  She drools a lot, but she doesn’t seem to be teething.  Still a little early for that.  She just doesn’t settle down.  She only seems to settle down if she’s being held or if she’s outside.  I’ve been finding it difficult to do any blogging or writing.

Tomoe’s definitely developing at a fast pace mentally.  She’s extremely aware of her surroundings now.  She watches everything.  She focuses on us when we speak, and she’s very attentive about how we speak.  If I talk to her, she’ll stare at me and follow my mouth movements.  She often smiles when I talk to her.  She’s beginning to make sounds that are almost laughs.  Can’t to wait to hear her laugh.

She’s also found out that those hands that are waving around in front of her are actually hers.  She’s gaining control of them, and now directs them to her mouth to suck on.  Whenever I hear a kissing sound from her, I know she’s sucking on her hand.  She’s also grasping at things, usually a finger, her blanket or my wife’s lip or hair.

She sleeps quite well at night these days, probably because she’s awake all day.  I think the longest was more than 8 hours in one stretch.

Now that she’s looking around a lot and she’s probably restless while laying down alone, we need to consider getting her a toy that hangs above her so she can be occupied and stimulated.  We saw something at Akachan Honpo that looks good.

In other news, a couple other Japan bloggers have just had babies of their own, David of Ogijima and Salaryman of Foreign Salaryman in Tokyo. Congrats!

And now, a picture.

Oh no! What did I just do??? (Actually, she's asleep and her mom put her hands like this)

Tomoe, 8 weeks old

Another week has passed, and Tomoe keeps growing up.  Well, she’s still a baby, but a lot can happen in a week.

She’s continuing to smile.  She smiles a lot now, especially when I talk.  It seems that whenever I’m talking to my wife or to her, she watches me intently and smiles quite often.  But she’s not all smiles these days.

It appears that she may be suffering from gas on occasion.  Tonight, she’s been good, but for the previous two nights, she’s been extremely fussy.  She’d drink only a little, then refuse to have any more.  We’d put her down for a while, then she’d start crying again, because she was still hungry.  She continued doing this all day both days.  I did manage to get her to smile in the middle, though.  I told her “You smell like old milk,” and she just gave me a very big smile.  I said it again, and she smiled again.  After about 5 times of smiling, she started crying.  Feeding time again!

Her skin continues to be quite dry at times, often looking red.  The following picture of a smiling Tomoe shows how her skin can get red and dry.

She's smiling a lot now!

Tomoe’s first three days home

In my previous post, I’d wanted to post some pictures of Tomoe’s first day at home.  Well, here they are!

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.

Tomoe, 6 days old

Today, I wasn’t able to go to the clinic.  I did get a couple of pictures, though.  I’m really glad that they’re out of the clinic on Thursday.  It’ll be so good to see them home! Today, she’s been pooping a lot, and hasn’t been so peaceful.  She’s been crying a lot more, and wanted her mom to hold her.  Sounds like she wants more contact.

Here are the two pictures my wife took.  Enjoy!

Tomoe is making a funny face at mom.

A closeup of her eye. They're blue-grey, though it doesn't look like it in this photo.

Tomoe, 5 days old

After working a day, I could finally go back to the clinic to see my wife and daughter.  It was great to see them!  But last night, after my last post, my wife sent me a picture.  This is what I got.

Last night, my wife took this picture of Tomoe feeding.

She’s feeding pretty well, but apparently, she’s drinking milk sometimes and formula other times.  Today, she was supposed to be fed around 4pm, but when I arrived, she was sound asleep. A nurse said she’s the kind of baby that drinks a lot, then sleeps a long time.  My visit today was shorter than usual, but I got some great pictures and a great treat from her.  So, to start, here is what I got to see when I arrived.

She was sleeping peacefully when I saw her today.

Tomoe now has 4 roommates. 1 other girl and 3 boys.

She's making a funny face after stretching.

It was time for her to be fed, so I went to the dining room to wait and read a while.  When feeding was done, my wife came and got me to see her.  She was awake!

After being fed, she was awake for a while.

Looking right at me!

Oh, she's crying now.

Just before I went home, she looked at me again.

When she started crying, I was surprised about how I felt.  I wanted to help her somehow.  I guess there was nothing I could do.  She could have been tired or still a bit hungry.  She has a big appetite!  She stopped crying just before dinner service started.  I had to go home.  But she gave me one last look before I went home.

Unfortunately, I can’t see them tomorrow or Wednesday due to work.  However, they’re coming home on Thursday!  I can’t wait.