baby

My Very First Mother’s Day

May 10, 2011 By Misono in Family and Friends, Mio, News and Updates, Pregnancy & Parenthood Tags: baby, Mio, mother, Mother's Day, motherhood

Sunday was Mother’s Day, and this year was my first time celebrating it as a mother myself. It still feels a little surreal that I’ve become a mother and that this day will now hold a special meaning for me for the rest of my life. Though it’s only been a little over a month since I have joined the ranks of motherhood, it’s already been such a wonderful and life-changing experience so far.

For my first Mother’s Day, I awoke to this cutie:

Later, Dan surprised me with a colorful bouquet of flowers.

admiring the flowers — Receiving flowers for my first Mother's Day.

loving the array of colors — Love the array of colors... Dan got a custom bouquet made and picked out lovely tulips, roses, and Gerbera daisies.

Our friend and uber-talented photographer Tea came over to take some photos of Mio for us, and she brought me some flowers as well! So thoughtful and sweet of her… thank you, Tea! 🙂

flowers from Tea — Sweet mini roses from Tea!

Thank you also to all my friends who sent me Mother’s Day cards and e-cards to commemorate my first Mother’s Day… I was surprised but of course very touched to receive so many from everyone. You made my first Mother’s Day truly memorable! â™¥

In the evening, we went out to dinner with Dan’s family to celebrate at Yusan Sushi. So happy I can finally eat sushi and sashimi again! 🙂

Happy Mother's Day! — Dan's parents. Happy Mother's Day, okaasan!

Ted and Hanna — Ted (Dan's brother) and Hanna. 🙂

our little family — Our little family. Mio slept through the entire dinner, as well as the car ride to and from the restaurant.

We ended the day by taking some photos to remember our first Mother’s Day together… 🙂

I couldn’t help but be consumed by an overwhelming feeling of gratitude this Mother’s Day.

I have always been thankful for the amazing mothers in my own life — my own mother who gave birth to me and raised me with love, my mother-in-law who has always welcomed and embraced me from Day One with such warmth, as well as my grandmother back in Hiroshima whom I rarely get to see but writes me letters every month.

But this year, I have even more to be grateful for. For the wonderful husband I have and for this precious, precious daughter we have brought into this world together. I feel like nothing I have ever done in my life warrants this incredible gift that has been bestowed upon me.Â I have never been — and never will be — the most beautiful, the most talented, the most successful. I am as imperfect as they come. But somehow, despite all of my innumerable flaws and shortcomings, I have been given so much in this humble life of mine, and now have been entrusted with the greatest blessing yet.

I look at Mio and am dumbfounded that she loves, trusts, and needs me more than anyone else in the world.

I am so undeserving, and I wonder if I ever will be worthy of all of this.

Tummy Time!

May 6, 2011 By Misono in Milestones, Mio, Videos Tags: baby, backside, Mio, newborn, rolling over, tummy, tummy time

Since Mio was around two weeks old, we’ve been giving her 5-10 minutes of tummy time every day. From the beginning, she seemed to have pretty strong muscles and she’s been able to lift her head during tummy time, albeit for only a few seconds (and with a fair share of grunting).

This week, she surprised us by rolling over from her tummy to her backside! She’s done it a few times already, but I haven’t been able to capture it on camera until now. Even so, I was only able to capture halfway in, when she had already made it onto her side. Pretty impressive for only 5 weeks!

We can’t wait to see what other things she’ll start being able to do!

Mio’s Nursery

May 5, 2011 By Misono in Mio Tags: baby, Classic Pooh, Mio, nursery

I wrote last November about how I wanted to create a Classic Pooh-themed nursery for baby Mio, and realized I never posted photos of the finished nursery! Unfortunately, since we rent and don’t own our place, we couldn’t paint the room nor use decals that could potentially damage the walls. But we did our best with the space we had, and the framed Classic Pooh prints that were given to us from our baby shower ended up being the perfect alternative to wall decals! (Thank you Megumi and Sam! â™¥)

the crib, yet to be slept in. — ...yet to be slept in, since Mio still sleeps in her bassinet.

mobile borrowed from the Bowlings — The mobile we borrowed from the Bowlings. 🙂

Sleep Sheep! — Sleep Sheep, a gift from Pat and Theo! 🙂

Classic Pooh crib bedding... love the print on the sheets and the crib bumper!

changing table/dresser — Our changing table and dresser combo.

where the dirty business happens — Where the dirty business happens.

Classic Pooh diaper organizer — The diaper organizer, where clean diapers go...

Munchkin diaper pail — ...and the diaper pail, where dirty diapers go. (We got the Munchkin one that uses baking soda to keep odors to a minimum!)

burpcloths and washcloths — You can never have enough burp cloths and wash towels...

Inside the dresser, I have Mio's baby clothes rolled, layered, and organized by size. (I have to put away the newborn sizes now though...)

sleepwear, towels, and accessories — Sleepwear, bath towels, and accessories.

lots of blankets! — Apparently, you can never have enough blankets either!

Mio's laundry hamper — Mio's little laundry hamper... We end up doing her laundry more often than ours!

from the baby shower! — Classic Pooh prints from our baby shower, courtesy of Megumi and Sam.

Classic Pooh prints — We hung them above the changing table... I love the subtle colors and the Classic Pooh illustrations are simply adorable!

toiletries and gifts — Bathtime toiletries and some baby gifts...

Papasan Starlight cradle swing — Mio's cradle swing, which helps Mommy rest her arms once in a while...

Mio in her bassinet — Mio asleep in her bassinet. We're thinking of transitioning her to the crib soon....

This concludes the tour of Mio’s little nursery. I’m so glad we were able to fit everything in! (I can’t believe how much stuff babies need.) There’s so much more I would have liked to do had we had more space and creative freedom, but all things considered, I’m pretty content with the finished nursery!

One Month Old.

May 2, 2011 By Misono in Mio, Mio's Monthly Photo Tags: baby, Mio, month-by-month, monthly onesie, monthly photo, one month, one month old

Happy one month birthday, Mio! I canâ€™t believe how fast time is flying and how big you have gotten already.

(Iâ€™ll be taking photos of Mio sitting in my white desk chair and wearing her monthly onesie every month until sheâ€™s one year old.)

The Rundown at One Month…

Stats: I can’t believe how fast you are growing! Strangers we run into while we’re out think you are at least a couple months old and are always surprised to hear that you’re actually only a month. I have no idea how much you weigh now because we don’t have a baby scale at home, but I can feel that you are already noticeably heavier than you were a couple weeks ago. You outgrew the newborn size diapers at 3 weeks, and last week was probably your last week fitting into your newborn size clothes — they were getting quite tight! You still have the impressive head of hair you had from birth, and your hair is not quite jet-black — it’s actually quite brownish, and the nurse at the hospital commented on how you had highlights from birth! It will probably get darker with time and as you lose your first cycle of hair, as they say newborns do during their first few months. You had a pretty bad case of baby acne but it’s finally starting to recede a little in the last couple days, much to Mommy’s relief. You continue to exude that intoxicatingly sweet newborn smell (except, of course, when you have a poopy diaper).

Things You’re Doing Now: Your eyes seem like they are able to focus and track objects now, and Mommy is elated that you now gaze back into her eyes instead of her always just gazing into yours. Your smiles are still reflexive and fleeting, but they give us a preview of how your social smiles will look in a couple months. We are entertained daily by the wide array of expressions that frequently play across your face. You’ve been more awake and alert for longer periods during the daytime, and often fuss if you are not held during these times. You love when Daddy comes home and carries you around in the Baby Bjorn, and usually within minutes you blissfully fall asleep against his chest. You’ve been able to hold your pacifier against your mouth since birth, although you sometimes reject said pacifier depending on your mood. You seem to love bathtime — although you initially tense up when we put you in the water, you immediately relax and enjoy soaking in the warm bath… until you burst into tears when we take you out. While you’re asleep, you often jolt and twitch like you’re having hypnic jerks, which makes both Daddy and I chuckle. Sometimes you’ll startle us with a sudden, loud cry, to which we’ll come running and find that you’re still silently asleep. Lately, you have started to coo from time to time in your sleep as well, which we find pretty darn cute.

We can’t wait to see what else you have in store for us in the coming months!

Three Weeks!

April 24, 2011 By Misono in Mio, Pregnancy & Parenthood Tags: 3 weeks, baby, Mio, newborn, pacifier

Mio turned three weeks old yesterday, and at her 2-week checkup last Wednesday, she weighed in at 9 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 21 inches long.Â She is growing fast, and I cried this morning when she graduated to size 1 diapers because the newborn size was getting too tight for her.

To be honest, I had never been a fan of the newborn stage, and during pregnancy I repeatedly told Dan that I wished babies came out of the womb walking and talking, because I thought they were so much cuter and more interesting at that stage. But now that I have my very own little newborn, I can’t bear how fast time is flying. There’s something so sweet about how tiny, helpless, and innocent they are during this time, and there are dozens of moments every day that I want to freeze time so that I can preserve the feeling of her little body snuggled up against me. There is no rewind button in life, nor any way to preserve and bottle these fleeting moments, and an overwhelming sadness consumes me when I think that I will have to rely on memory alone to remember these first weeks spent with my little darling. While I look forward to watching her grow and thrive, there’s a part of me that’s not willing to let go of the way she is right now. I need to slow down and appreciate this chapter because before I know it, it will be gone.

Dan and I have been snapping a lot of photos and video of Mio so that we can at least capture this time on camera…

sweet Mio — Taken from my phone... Poor Mio has been breaking out in baby acne this week.

This past week, Mio has been awake for longer periods of time during the daytime (usually the afternoon). I’ll try putting her in her swing or bassinet to try to lull her to sleep, but she fusses and will only calm when she’s held or strapped to me in a baby carrier. My mother and other older moms warn me against holding her too much because it might spoil her and get her to used to being held (called dakiguse — æŠ±ãç™– — in Japanese), but I honestly don’t believe that a baby can be manipulative or be spoiled at such a young age. Crying is the only way that newborns know how to communicate. To me, it’s heartwarming to see your baby calm and fall asleep as soon as you hold her close because all she wanted was to cuddle with her mama.

That said, there are some times during the day that I need to put her down for a while so that I can take care of other things around the house… I wondered how I could trick her into thinking that she was still being held so that she’d continue sleeping, and I heard that it helps to put something that smells like you near them. So I tried placing Mio within my nursing pillow once she fell asleep in my arms….

experimenting with getting Mio to sleep on my Brest Friend — Mio looking mildly uncomfortable but still asleep on the Brest Friend.

waking up mid-afternoon — Alas, she woke up after a while, catching on that something was amiss.

This position worked a little better. — I tried again, and found that this position worked much better. I heard that nursing pillows like the Brest Friend and the Boppy are also great for tummy time! 🙂

She loves sleeping next to Daddy — Nothing beats sleeping in next to Daddy on a Saturday morning, though...

Batgirl! — Sporting the Batgirl onesie that our friends Jen and Juli got for her. We love it!

We’ll conclude with this short video of Mio with her pacifier. The night after Mio was born, the nurses took her away for some testing, after which they gave her a pacifier to soothe her crying. They brought her back with a smile, saying that all the nurses had been impressed by how she was able to hold her pacifier in her mouth with her hand. Sure enough, when she is in the mood to take the pacifier, she’ll bring one of her hands up and hold the pacifier in against her mouth, so that it doesn’t fall out. Pretty remarkable!

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