mama series

Mommy’s Diary 26

October 20, 2011 By Chie

I like Thursdays. I like Fridays more, but on Thursday begins my expectation for the coming weekend. I’m longing for the weekend because this week was so incredibly hectic!

Anyway, back in August, Kiko and I had the opportinty to model for a baby magazine, called Akasugu (赤すぐ）. My high school friend works for the magazine publisher, and her team was looking for baby models ages 1-3 months.
It was an interesting experience to go see the shoot. I’m usually the one who is planning and working at the shoot and I never get to take in the experience. The time before a normal photo shoot begins is always busy, but man, it must be really hectic for the photographer, stylist and other assistants to do shoots involving babies! Kiko wasn’t a particularly good model, there was a long wait time, and she got cranky. I cranky too because I while I was waiting I started to feel bad, it felt like I was exploiting my child!

But when the photos came out in the magazine, it was fun to see my baby in print :p By the way, the clothes she is wearing cost around 5000 yen (60 bucks) a piece! It’s crazy! What kind of parents can afford to pay that much for small baby clothes, I wonder.. Definitely not me. I’ m glad I can sew! 🙂 I like the idea of baby leg warmers, because some of Kiko’s pants and onesies are too shot for her, but her other body parts still fit. Leg warmers will provide the coverage for the legs and I can still use the clothes before she is grown out of them.

After the first shoot, we were invited for another shoot. This one was a dual shoot. One where Kiko and I could participate together. The make up part was fun. I felt like a princess with a make up artist applying nice make up and getting my hair done! The make up artist worked a miracle with my eye lashes, I didn’t want to remove it!

By the way, Helloween is coming up soon..what are you guys wearing, and what are your kids going to be??

Mommy’s Diary 25 – The End of Breastfeeding

October 13, 2011 By Chie

My baby is almost six months old, and I’m done with breastfeeding. The end to my breastfeeding days came rather suddenly. One day Kiko decided not to take my breasts. She was three and a half months old. I was shocked. I thought my breasts were her most favorite thing in the world. Although I had a difficulty with breastfeeding (terrible engorgement) in the beginning, I learned to be okay with it over time. But one day, the switch happened, and Kiko would scream when I would try to breastfeed her. At that point it became impossible to breastfeed her while she was conscious. I switched to nursing her while she was groggy during the early morning feeding and late night feeding. The rest of the time I pumped. Slowly, Kiko started to reject those groggy feedings as well, and as I pumped less, my body produced less milk. Over the past two months, I slowly decreased the frequency of pumping, and now I don’t pump at all.

It was sad when she rejected me at first. Andy knows, I cried. I’ve read in the Baby Center about some mothers comments about missing “the bonding time” with baby. It seems like babies get selective around three months and not taking breasts seem to be a common problem.

But now that my breastfeeding days are over, I must say, I am kind of glad that I don’t have to carry around a pump, worrying about leaking, washing nursing pads endlessly, bearing with engorgement pain, or smelling disgusting with leaked milk. I almost exclusively breastfed Kiko for the first three and a half months, and I was glad to be able to do that. But at the same time, I am glad my breasts did whatever they needed to do and it’s over. Now I can have some “bonding time” with Kiko by playing with her, singing to her, reading her books and praying together.