Slack blogger!

I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged. I have been meaning to for weeks and keep on thinking of things to write about but then something comes up and I forget about it. I also have been terribly slack at commenting on every one's blogs so big apologies for that!

Kayla is 7 weeks old today! The time seems to have flown by but it also feels like she has been around forever. It has been quite a drama filled 7 weeks. Well not really but things seemed a bit more peaceful after Liam was born. I had to go back to the clinic when she was 2 weeks old for her weight check and to see how she was feeding. She was pretty much up to birth weight again by the time she was a week old so I thought everything was fine but she hadn't put on much weight for the week after. There was a youngish midwife there who I hadn't had much to do with earlier and she was completely evil! She told me that I wasn't producing enough milk and that I should put her on formula. I exclusively breastfed Liam and feel pretty strongly about doing the same with Kayla and when I told her that she suggested that I take some medication. I asked what kind of medication and she told me it was for people who suffer from mental illness but it has a side effect of increasing your milk supply.I refused that option and then said that I would increase her number of feeds but she didn't seem to think that would help so demanded I come back again in a week and if things hadn't improved I would have to give her formula.

So I was pretty upset by the whole experience but decided to start feeding Kayla every 2 hours night and day and see what happened. I even set my alarm to get up during the night and on the Monday (I went to the clinic on the Friday) rang the local health centre to see if I could her weighed. I did and her weight had gone up normally over the weekend which was a relief. I was still a bit paranoid about how much milk I was producing so organised to go and see a midwife who worked from home that a friend had recommended. I had a good chat to her and what she said was completely different to the other midwife and she told me I had nothing to worry about. She then gave me a breast massage and said there was no problem with my milk supply either. Phew! I was still a bit worried so got her weighed again on Thursday. All was still fine so I decided not to go back to the clinic. They ended up calling me and I told them I had been elsewhere and had no desire to go back there and to be stressed out by their crazy ideas lol.

Okay, I am now back 2 days later! Kayla is asleep in the swing so let's see if I can finish this post. So back to my drama filled month! What else happened? Kayla had lots of goop coming out of her eyes so we had to visit the pediatrician a couple of times. She now has really bad baby acne which seems to be getting worse so I am thinking about taking her back to get some cream or something. Liam never had it this bad and as we are going to Australia in just a few weeks I want her to be looking her best :-) In other health dramas, I had mastitis which was very annoying. I got it once with Liam but he was much older. Thankfully this time I could pick it up quickly so went back to see the evil midwives at my clinic to get a massage and get some drugs. I seem to be over it but will have to keep an eye on it.

Everything else with Kayla is going really well! I am amazed at how much easier it all seems the second time around. She is not a fantastic sleeper and usually wakes up when you put her down during the day but she doesn't cry much and is quite easy to comfort when she does. She does love the swing though and it often sends her to sleep. She is also happy enough going down in her cot for most of the night after feeds which is good. She is still feeding every 3 hours or so at night but I am still managing to get a fair bit of sleep and with my mum here helping out so much around the house I feel very genki :-)

I am very excited about going to Australia next month. I have sorted out Kayla's Jp. passport and renewed Liam's and also organised our travel insurance (so so expensive as we are gone for almost 2 months) and Kayla's Australian visa. Now I just have to figure out what we need to take. We are flying from Kansai on July 8 but are going up there a day early to meet up with my NZ friend who used to live in the Guch and possibly a Japanese friend. It will probably be raining and miserable but I am quite happy to hang out at shopping centres and coffee shops. Not sure how Liam will feel about that but at least mum will be there to help entertain him.

I am doing a bit of teaching this month to earn some pocket money for Australia. Just 3 adult classes and one kids class. I am taking Kayla to a couple of them and then mum comes along to look after her for the other two. With the classes and meeting up with friends we are out and about almost everyday. Yesterday, Ryuji and Liam hung out and mum, Kayla and I headed to Ube which is about an hours drive away. I went and saw SATC2 with a friend. I took Kayla in for the first hour and gave her a feed. Then I dashed outside with her and handed her over to mum who looked after her until the end of the movie. The movie was okay but wasn't as good as the first one. There was plenty of eye candy though and a few laughs as well. The fashion is always fun to look at as well.

Liam has just come downstairs so he had a good sleep in. He has been going to bed late recently though. He always used to need someone to stay with him in his room until he went to sleep but lately we have been making him go to sleep by himself. He usually comes into my room and I read him stories while nursing Kayla. I send him off to his room when we are done but he doesn't want to stay there and often comes back in to see me or goes into mum's room. So he doesn't usually get to sleep around 10:30 but hopefully it gets earlier as he gets more used to sleeping by himself.

Anyway, I had better stop rambling. Hopefully I will be able to post more regularly again and won't need to write such marathon posts.