We were looking back on the photos we took of Mio when she as a newborn, and came upon the sad realization that we aren’t taking nearly as many photos of Mirei as we did with Mio. Life is a little more chaotic with two and it’s sometimes hard to remember to pause and snap photos, but we’re trying to make more of a conscious effort to take photos of Mirei too, as her newborn days are flying by! Hence this post is going to end up being sort of a photo/video dump… don’t say I didn’t warn ya!
Mirei a couple weeks ago, at the beginning of March.
Wide awake in Mama’s arms
I end up taking most of my pictures of Mirei at night, once Mio has gone to sleep and I have some one-on-one cuddling time with her.
She looks unhappy that we took her out of our bed and into her bassinet.
Getting chubbier by the day!
Hanging out at my friend’s baby shower.
Mirei at 6 weeks.
Napping next to Daddy while we watch TV in bed.
Hanging out next to us in bed:
In her swing.
Mirei makes a lot of funny noises while she sleeps, since the day she was born! Here’s a video I took of her on her first night after birth, back at the hospital:
Here’s a video that Dan took a couple evenings ago when she was asleep in her bouncer.
When Mirei was just 8 days old, we had some newborn pictures taken by Stephanie Elizabeth Photography to capture her first moments as well as our first portraits as a family. I love the dreamy look of her natural light photographs, and we asked for a balanced mix of lifestyle photos as well as her more traditional posed photos. She was amazing — we love how beautifully the pictures came out and will treasure them for years!
The above photo of Mirei with the mobile hanging over her is my favorite. I had been looking at this beautiful mobile on Etsy, and my girlfriends all pitched in together to gift it to me at my baby shower back in December. I wanted to include it into one of the photos because it’s so gorgeous and because of the sentimental significance of it, and Stephanie incorporated it in such a lovely way.
With the lovely photos, I was able to design birth announcements for Mirei to send out to family and friends. I rarely get to work on personal design projects for myself these days so it was fun and I’m pleased with how they turned out. 🙂
Today was Hinamatsuri, or Girls’ Day, in Japan. We are so grateful for our precious, healthy daughters, and wish for them both a lifetime of happiness. ♡ 今日ã¯æ¡ƒã®ç¯€å¥ã€ã²ãªç¥ã‚Šã®æ—¥ã€‚ æ„›ã™ã‚‹å¨˜ãŸã¡ã®å¥åº·ã¨æˆé•·ã‚’ç¥ã£ã¦ã€å¹¸ã›ã‚’願ã„ã¾ã™ã€‚æ„Ÿè¬ã®æ°—æŒã¡ã‚’è¾¼ã‚ã¦ã€ã“ã‚Œã‹ã‚‰ã‚‚å¥ã‚„ã‹ã«è‚²ã¡ã¾ã™ã‚ˆã†ã« ♥
Mirei is one month old today! This past month has been a blur, and I can’t believe how fast time is flying this time around.
(As I did with Mio, I’ll be taking photos of Mirei sitting in my white desk chair and wearing her monthly onesie every month until she’s one year old.)
The Rundown at One Month…
Stats: You’ve definitely plumped up! We took you to the doctor this past weekend and you weighed 10 lbs 4.5 oz. You’re feeding very well and sleep a lot too, and you’ve gotten noticeably heavier in the past couple weeks. Your arms and legs, which seemed skinny at birth, are now pretty chubby, and your cheeks (which were quite impressive to begin with) have filled out even more. We’ve introduced bottle-feeding with pumped milk to give me some freedom, and we’re impressed that you drink a solid 4 – 5 ounces at once sometimes!
Things You’re Doing Now: We love watching you when you’re awake, because you always stare back or look around with a very intense, wide-eyed look as if you’re always startled. You sleep well during the night and after we feed you and put you to bed at around midnight, you only wake up to feed around 3am and then 5/6am and go right back to sleep after nursing, so we haven’t been too sleep-deprived! During the times that you’re awake during the day, you are sensitive and seem to always want human touch and warmth, so I have to constantly hold you or put you in the Ergo baby carrier if I want to multi-task. You don’t seem to like the swing as much as your big sister did, but like being rocked in the bouncer. Your umbilical cord stump fell off relatively quickly within the first week, so we’ve been giving you baths every couple days. You would scream and cry every time for the first few weeks, but you seem to be a little calmer the past couple times we’ve bathed you. You make a lot of funny sounds while sleeping, and we can’t help but chuckle at all the coos, whimpers, wheezes and grunts that we hear coming from your bassinet. You liked the pacifier for the first week but like Mio, you didn’t seem to care for it much afterwards — which is probably a good thing, since we want to avoid pacifier addiction (it can be embarrassing if you’re still sucking on one at two or even three years of age!). Your neck seems like it’s already somewhat strong, and we noticed you’ve been starting to lift your head for a couple seconds at a time before we even started tummy time. Your legs muscles also seem to have been strong from birth, as you’re always trying to push against the floor or our legs while we’re holding you upright, as if you’re attempting to stand… must be from all the kicking you did inside the womb! Though you can be fussy at times, we feel so blessed and fortunate that you are so healthy and sweet, and we’re looking forward to watching you grow in the coming months and years. But while I was anxious for Mio to grow up and start talking, walking, etc., I don’t feel like I’m as in a hurry this time around now that I know how fast it will all fly by… so don’t grow up too fast! We want to cherish each of these moments with you.
Here are a couple videos I took recently of Mirei on the cradle swing. She seems to like the swing and bouncer and they seem to help lull her to sleep at times.
Below is a video of Mio on the same swing (a gift from Dan’s parents when Mio was born) when she was 5 weeks old. Notice the similar grumpy/sleepy expressions… haha*
Mio in her cradle swing at 5 weeks from Misono on Vimeo.
Below are some more photos of Mirei from the past few days…
