3 months old

Our little TR has turned three months old! I am so grateful that he is growing and healthy. He has almost doubled his birth weight now. No wonder my hands and arms are sore everyday.

When I look back and look at photos of his birth, he was so tiny. I can't believe that we have sustained this life and only with breast milk thus far.

Before his arrival, I have never- danced around the house this much, sang children's songs and looked up lyrics on the net, did this much of laundry everyday, walked around on tiptoes, eaten dinner and lunch so fast, used one hand or even feet to do things, felt fresh after five hours of sleep and known that I could have something so precious in my life.

毎日、泣いたり笑ったり色々な表情を見せてくれるうちのキューピーさん。３ヶ月長かったようなアッと言う間だったような。これからも元気ですくすく育ってね。

しゅうまつ

Quiet weekend at home (other than baby's crying..)  

M.FR is quite busy these days with work, so happy to have a family chilled out time. 

オフィス訪問

FR氏の事務所に朝出勤する彼に付いて行った、私とTR君。最近まで自宅が事務所だったので、FR氏（と諸々のスタッフも）が家にいたのに、静かになってしまって寂しい。まあ赤ちゃんがいて、事務所にされるのも困るのだか。

事務所ではスタッフさんに順番にだっこしてもらって、２時間ほどいたけど、ほとんど私のところにいなかった。人見知りが始まるまでは、誰でもご機嫌にだっこされているので助かる。お利口にしていたけど、私がお昼を頂いて、帰ろうとだっこしたら急に泣き出した。赤ちゃんでも、他の人には一応気を使ってるのかなあ。お出かけしたいけど、雨期だし、レストランやお店は徒歩ではいけないので、あんまり遊びにいけないのが残念。

祝７時間 Seven hours!

Finally achieved the seven hours of sleeping! We have been following the method of the book called “Contended Little Baby” which provides schedules of babies week by week. It’s quite rigid and doesn’t work always, but I find it useful that it gives certain structures to the day.

Now TR (baby’s initial) days are something like this (at least what we strive for):

7:00 wake up and meal, followed by play time
9:00- 10:00 Morning nap
10:00 Meal, followed by play time
12:00- 14:00 Lunch time nap
14:00 Meal (trying to delay it as much as I can) and play another 30 mins nap in-between
17:00 Bath and meal
18:00 Getting ready for sleep
19:00 – 22:00 Sleep
22:00- 23:00 Meal
23:00- 7:00 Sleep

He may have one additional meal time if he is too hungry before the bath time. The timing of each schedule varies from day to day of course. We are not always home to follow the same schedule either. We just used it as a guide as to how often to feed and when he gets tired and needs a nap. We also time our outing with his nap time, since he falls sleep when he is in a sling. It’s useful in a way that it is easier to tell what the TR wants when he cries.

The other night TR went to bed at midnight and woke up at seven. He even smiled at me instead of crying to tell me that he was hungry. I was so impressed! The unfortunate thing is that I didn’t get to enjoy the long night sleep as I had food poisoning and up a few times that night…

The key is he eats well during the last feeding. For him to eat vigorously he has to have a good evening sleep to be awake during the last meal time. So, naturally each routine of the day has a domino effect of how well he eats and sleeps, which leads to determining the quality of nighttime sleep. It’s good that we now know he is capable to sleep through if he eats well. We will continue with this to stretch it eventually from 8 to 7.

The next challenge is to let him sleep without ricking him every time. This is much more difficult…  I really dread it. 

お昼寝

久しぶりの面接で思う事

I had a job interview last night. It was the fourth time this was re-scheduled, and I was just glad to get it done finally. It’s always a bit of a challenge when you have interviews for international positions. It usually involved people in multiple locations, multiple time zones and not so optimal connections in certain countries.  I’ve had many interviews when I had to repeat my response three times. 

For this interview the first time I got the notice too late, as I was alone at home with the baby. The second time, the HQ had a trouble connecting one of interview panel members. The third time one member could not hear me through my mobile phone connection. So finally, they asked me to go to their local office at 8 at night to use their land line!! At this point, I didn’t care as much about how I did, as I just wanted to complete it…

This was the first interview after I have given birth, and it makes me think about my (immediate) future career and work/family balance. I thought I would be the kind of person wanting to go back to work as soon as possible. I enjoy what I do, and work has been always an important part of my life and identity. Now I am home all day mostly alone with the baby. I don’t do much other than taking care of him, and days can get a bit monotonous in an intellectual way. But, I enjoy spending time with him. It’s been almost three months, and many working mothers will be soon going back to their office. In the US the maternity leave is only two months, so I would have to be already back. At this point, I can’t imagine leaving him all day to someone or at a day care. It must be so hard for these mothers.

M.FR went back to work after taking two months off last week. He now rushes home every day to see the baby. Yesterday, I bathed the baby without him, and he was rather disappointed. I am sure he would rather spend time with him at home than working. I am lucky to get to stay home, because I am unemployed and the primary (and only so far) source of baby’s nutrition. 

Till now, choosing a job has been flexible. I quit the last fixed term (staff position) to be with M. FR, but I ended up taking two consultant contracts away from him: north of this country and BKK. Now that we have the baby in the picture, it will not be the same.  It will be harder to balance my and M.FR’s career. He is also applying for jobs in different places. Let’s see what come up for both of us.

昨日は久しぶりの面接。１ヶ月前に面接のお知らせが来てから、やっと4回目のトライで面接を終える事ができた。出産期初めての面接で、この仕事は取れるかどうか分からないけど、今後の事を色々考えさせられる。内容によっては出張が多い仕事もあるだろうし、私とFR氏のどちらの仕事が先に決まるかで、お互いあきらめないといけないことも出てくると思う。家族が増えて、ややこしいこともあるけど、３人でいられることか優先だな。今年中には何かの動き（仕事や国が変わるとか）があると思う。  

Harvest

From our garden

M.FR has an amazing driver, who transformed our garden. I had no success growing chillies, but he took good care of our plants while we were away. I had the first harvest of the chillies and cooked them for dinner. Nice to be home....  

Jet-setter baby

We have come back to YGN last week. We are slowly adjusting back to the life in our house and this time with an additional member, who is tiny but takes lots of space (figuratively speaking.)

It was pretty intense to get to the airport with a crying baby and four enormous pieces of luggage at 6:30 in the morning. Everything went smoothly for the baby's first international flight. A small thing like taking one hour flight with no crisis feels like a major accomplishment....

The little guy has his own passport and even the first visa!! This will be the first stamp on his passport of many more to come...

First infant seat-belt (attached to mine), first breastfeeding in the air.

He looks quite comfortable, putting his legs up on the arm rest. (the hairy arm is not mine FYI)