The saga goes on!

It's the end of the semester... not easy to be in school, working, taking care of a baby.... AND a husband...

I am exhausted. I am so ready to be done. Two more assignments, lots of marking and one class left... and the semester will be thing of the past...

Now how has Hudson been since I last wrote. Well after having all of those major improvement, we are back to square one... She started teething again last Friday... since, she has barely slept, no naps... up every 25 to 60 minutes. So... yeah... great...

Whatever I do, I just don't seem to be able to catch a break! But then, today I thought : "it must be murphy's law". It's like "if you stop looking for what you lost, and you buy a new one, you are bound to find the one you lost!"...

So if I can't sleep train my baby... I decided to potty train her! So for the last 5 days, we had a 100% success rate with morning... she loves the toilet... but not so much the potty. 

We are not using any reward system... really if she goes great, if she doesn't "oh well"... I don't expect her to go without a diaper either... if things keep going well (and minus the Christmas holiday)... the goal is to have her daytime potty train by 18 months (April)... as for night time potty training... well I am hesitant doing anything there because of her poor sleeping habits.

So that's that!    

My baby who never sleeps is sleeping!

It is 11 am...
I made breakfast
Did the weekly grocery, stopped by Dollarama...
Prepared a crockpot dinner
Did 2 loads of laundry, folded one
Stripped my cloth diaper
Did last night's dishes
Cleaned the kitchen
Swept the floor
Checked my e-mail
Wrote this post...

Did I mention Hudson has been with me all this time... Did I mention she is teething again and is in a crappy mood (and has been for 2 days now).

You see, my baby who never sleeps is sleeping much better. She is still not sleeping through the night but that was never my goal! My goal was to have a baby with proper sleeping habits, who would wake up well rested in the morning. As a bonus, I would wake up well rested as well.

So we made lots and lots of changes... the biggest one was without any doubt the fact that we were not going to force her to bed, actually we were not going to put her in bed anymore... We did as usual... dinner, playtime, bath, lotion, pj, reading a book... and then instead of going to bed, breastfeeding and fighting with her to sleep... we now go to the bedroom with the book, we put just a dim light one. I sit on the ground with her, read the book, breastfed her and then I tell her good night and close the light. The first night you could tell she had no idea what was going on... she played for close to 3 hours before she got upset and finally went to bed. It took her 2 nights to figure it out. Now when I am done breastfeeding her, she goes to the mattress, lights up her glowworm and usually drink a bit of milk from her bottle. Yesterday, she was asleep within 5 minutes! Just like that... I was still standing by the light switch... 

Actually even more impressive is the fact that yesterday morning, she went up the staircase, directly to her bed... (she brought me with her) I breastfed her and then she went to nap... once more on her own...

This morning was a bit different, I was not expecting her to nap this early. I was just giving her a snack and she fell asleep.

So Hudson now has 2 good naps a day, and my house is finally clean... my homework is finally getting done... and I am finally well rested! 

Hudson knows where her bed is... and she can get to it on her own. Basically when we realized at around 4 months that our daughter was not a good sleeper... and that the crib we had was useless in teaching her proper sleep habits... we went around looking... and this is what I found : the Montessori bed. I liked the idea and so did Tristan. We did the set up but then we never ended up utilizing it. 2 weeks ago, we really kick it in high gear... perhaps it is only a coincidence, perhaps she was just "ready"... but it has been working really really well for us... I still find it nerve wracking that she can basically get up and go anywhere in the room... but we baby proofed beyond imagination and so far, she really has not been wondering around (other than coming to our bed).

So this is where we are at... I am happy! I am so happy! The next step for us, is to get her to fall asleep when we are not in the room with her... we will see how that goes! 

The day we did not go to Yanai

On our way back from Nara, we saw posters of what seemed to be a very very impressive festival! The Gold Fish festival of Yanai! So the next day, we decided to head out that way. It was far about 3-4 hours from Osaka, but it really looked like it would be worth the trek. So we took a very early over packed Shinkansen... We had no seats, so we had to stand for close to 2 hours, with a baby in my boba.... Not fun.... but hey! We really wanted to go! 

We passed Hiroshima and kept on going towards Yamaguchi... and then... the rain... Not just a little bit of rain.... torrential down pour. So much rain that our connecting train stopped running because of severe track flooding. So we waited for close to 2 hours... just in hope they would reopen the seaside track. No luck... So we headed back towards Hiroshima unsure of what we would do next. Talk about a long trip for nothing.

 

In Hiroshima the weather was nicer, but by fear of getting stuck in an over crowded train in the evening, we kept on going toward Osaka... But once we got to Mihara station, a lot of people got out. We were curious... why would so many people, all stop in such a small place... so we got out as well. Turns out there was a Octopus festival on that day! So we joined in the fun and ate grill octopus arms for lunch...

Then we went back on the train and stopped in Fukuyama to take some pictures with the very nice castle...

And later that night we finally made it back to Osaka...


Not the day we had planned, but we had lots of fun still!

Nara

After our very emotion filled day in Hiroshima, we headed out to another one of my favorite city in Japan, the historical city of Nara. While planing for this trip, I was really excited by the prospect of bringing Hudson and Tristan to Nara... The city with the deers crossing at the intersection (while obeying the pedestrian signal...) But after our little mishap with the deers in Miyajima, I started to be a bit more concern about having to face hundreds if not thousands of deers in the city. So we headed out in mid-morning and got there right at lunch time.

We first grabbed lunch, and since Hudson decided she ONLY wanted to walk, it took us all afternoon to make the trek to the Daibustu temple. By the time we got there, it was closing but we managed to sneak in with the last few people. The place was so empty it gave us great opportunities to take lots of pictures. 

 

And that is pretty much the only think we saw in Nara... We had plan on temple hopping, but with an eight months old baby that only wanted to walk, it slowed us down tremendously. Still we had a blast as Hudson tried to catch deers, and even fed one.

Ode to My-baby-who-never-sleeps

Dear baby who never sleeps, I would write you a poem but I am just too tired to get my brain going. Each day is a struggle to get you to sleep. Last Friday, out of despair, mommy went out and bought you a very very expensive stroller just so you would nap in the afternoon. You know one of those stroller with a memory foam as a seat. Comfy! Mommy, spent countless hours on the internet trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Yes, because I have come to believe that it is not you... but me the problem. Mommy refuses to just let you cry yourself to sleep. I would hate to cry myself to sleep! I did it as a teenager when my dad passed away, I did it again after loosing your unknown sibling. I do not wish it to anyone. I will NOT let you cry yourself to sleep. No one deserve to fall asleep that way! What kind of sweet dreams would you have?

So there is where we stood. You wanting to play and eat all night, and me wanting to sleep. You know, just a little. Just so I would get enough sleep to get my brain working to get my school work done. Remember my dear little Tuna... mommy is TRYING to get her PHD. Not that it matters to you... but really... it matters to mommy.

So does this mean that I failed? I just can't believe I'm alone. There has to be other babies out there who just won't sleep... You? Do you really get a full night of sleep?

So 6 days ago, I tried something that was completely against my idea of parenting... I said "Screw your schedule"... Yes that same schedule I have been insisting on for the past 12 months. I said... here you go darling. Here is a book, here is a stuff animal, and here is your glowbug night light... mommy is going to bed. And so I did. I left my daughter on the bedroom floor with full access to her bed and went to sleep. (Mind you we share a room so I was but an arm length away from her). She played from 7 pm to 10h30 pm... she fussed a little and then on her own, like a big girl, she went to bed. Just like that. As if she had always done it! Even better, she only woke up once over night! 

So the next day we tried again... by 9pm she was fast asleep... no crying... woke up 3 times only... 

Since then, we have kept on going. I set her up between 7-7h30 and by 8-8h30 she is asleep. I do get a little whining but no hysterical crying. 

Sunday I was really worried because of the time change, but to my greatest surprise, she just went with the flow and was seemingly completely non-affected by the change... she even slept that extra hour (this morning too).

So somehow, for the first time in months, I feel like there is hope... I feel like things are improving. And even better, Hudson has a smile on her face as she falls asleep, and I have a smile on my face as I wake up rested in the morning... if all goes well, I will start limiting her night time feeding in the next few weeks... And with a little bit of luck and a whole lot of hard work, this child might actually sleep through the night by the time she is 2 years old! Who knows! 50 weeks to go!    

Party Time!

 

I love October! I love Halloween! You can only imagine how exciting it was for me to be due at the end of October! For the whole pregnancy, I kept telling my OB that the baby could not come more than a week late! The baby had to be born in October!!! And as you know, Hudson was born the day before my due date or exactly a week from Halloween!

I have been sewing costumes for years (theatre, cosplay, Halloween....)! Off course, Hudson's birthday was going to be a costume party! Now I have to admit, it was hard to get everyone excited about it! I guess most people are not into wearing costume... (That truly makes me sad!) Anyway, I was going to make sure Hudson had an awesome costume, so I started working on it back in April! I crochet a whole Naruto outfit (including the hair). I used wool because I wanted to make sure it was going to be warm enough to go trick-or-treating! I was going to make the outfit of the 4th for my husband (since you know he is Naruto's dad) and Tsunade-sama for me, but I ran out of time. So instead we wore our old Bleach costume from 4 years ago.

My sister came down for the weekend and was kind enough to make a cake that would go with Hudson's outfit. We googled Naruto Cake for some inspiration and were surprised at the amount of cakes! (So much for being original). At first we wanted to make the Nine tails, but we ran out of time and decided on something a lot more simple!

 

I also had a special candle holder, cake topper made for her birthday! This great local artist made it for us! It's a paper crane (off course ;-) She is also the one who made my mom's wedding cake topper and the clay-photographe of Hudson I received at my baby shower! Here is her website, if you want to check it out!

So here are some pictures!

We did it! Hudson is 1 year old!

We did it! We made it through! Because that is exactly how it feels... yes! We made it through the ups and downs of the first year! A year that at time flew by, while some other times felt like an eternity.

A marvelous, scary, fun and exhausting first year. There was not a day I was not amazed at the sight of this little miracle. Not a day I did not wonder, as a parent, "what the hell am I doing?". No text book, no manual to follow. Well meant advices left and right,  common sense and circumstances. Very different from my literary academic life to date.

My little Tuna went from a healthy 7lbs 18 inches to a respectable 19.8 lbs, 27 inches. Little Tuna, month after month discovered the wonders of her environment and beyond. She traveled to Ottawa, Québec city but also Manila, Bohol, Cebu and Japan! She took part in her first Terry Fox walk and is now being amazed by the flying colorful leaves at the park. She loves looking at birds, cats and dogs. She fed dears in Nara and goats in Barrie. When you ask her "Where Mini-fox is?" She goes and find it! She knows cheese from a cookies and milk from water. She just knows so much. I said it before and I will say it again.... I wished I could learn so much in so little time. I wished I could soak up the world like her, one sight, one sound, one taste at a time. 

So a year has gone by! And really, looking back, it wasn't that bad! I had a quick and very easy recovery from my c-section. I was up and walking the same day I give birth, I was off medication on day 5 and back at the gym on the dot at 6 weeks. We made it through the first year without any colds, we did have some harsh teething episode but still not much to show for (the very first tooth is still in the process of cutting through, it is currently 1/3 out and slowly making it's way up). We battle an UTI all the way across the planet and an antibiotic reaction but still managed to pull through. In the last few months, Hudson is slowly getting accustom to being babysat and does better every time. Hudson has been walking for over 2 months and is starting to run. She can go up and down the staircase and she can terrorize the cat like no other baby has done before! So with all this being said, I am ready for a new year! I guess here starts toddler-hood (or is it later? Sorry I am new at this). To another great year! 

A fish at the Chiro

So I caved in. I brought Hudson to a pediatric chiro. Actually, by now, she's already been in twice. And, not only that... I also went. I actually let a chiropractor touch my back! Because, you see, after some horrible experienceS 15 years ago, I don't let chiro anywhere me. I do however LOVE acupuncture. And well, this chiro also does acupuncture, so that was the real reason I willingly went in. But let's go back to Hudson first.

I, as everyone must be aware by now, am desperate to get my daughter to sleep better (or some days sleep at all). I had heard that some people, on the very same day they leave the hospital with their new bundle of joy, stop by the chiro to make sure their baby is well align. (You know birthing is after all very traumatic). So at this point I though, well... maybe she's hurting. Maybe that is why she hates being on her back (and always has), maybe that is why she is not sleeping well. So as I said before, I caved in. We went last Friday for our first time. The lady chiro was great, and made us feel very comfortable. I was very much hoping she would look at Hudson and say : "OMG! This poor child is so misaligned, no wonder she can't sleep! Let me fix it for you!" but unfortunately for us the discussion went more along these lines : "Wow! Look at this perfect little one! What great motricity! Her pelvis is slightly off and we can fix it, but I don't think its affects her sleeping at all...." And so she fixed that slight pelvis misalignment. We were back again yesterday and now she's all good. I mean physically. She did however sleep really well last night, but I doubt it had anything to do with the chiro, So now I am back to square one... Tomorrow we are starting message therapy with her to see if at least we can maybe get her to calm down...  We will continue to see the chiro once in a while but as the Dr said it herself... there is very little work for her with Hudson.

As for me, it is a whole different story. I am a major work case. That is not a surprise, between my circus injury, my competitive swimming wear and tear, the car accident and the pregnancy, my whole body feels more like I am 60 years old. So I started chiro/acupuncture/message therapy session. Hopefully everything can improve sooner than later!

  

European Mad-dash part II : Mini-fox in Paris

October has been incredibly busy... First my trip to France, then my mom's wedding, and soon Hudson's birthday followed by halloween... all this while being in grad school fulltime and taking care of my little Tuna. Ouf........... absolutly exhausting......... so you will forgive me for being a bit behind in posting. I will try to finish the Japan trip posts by the end of november, and here is the last part for my France trip!

 

I presented in Nancy as part of a conference on "Passeurs de culture et transferts culturels". It was very interesting and a great chance to meet other people working in a similar field. Now just in case you wonder... what exactly is my field of study. Well... I will do my best to offer here a proper translation but it goes along the line of... "East-asian representations (China, Korea and Japan) in french-canadian litterature : cultural and formal hybridity." I am currently doing my PHD in Francophone studies.

 

One of the bigest disapointment of the trip was the fact that Hudson was suppose tp come with me... unfortunalty I lost my babysitter over there because of conflicting work schedule and had to leave Hudson behind. To make up for it, I brought Hudson's favorite stuff animal with me (well actually I brought his twin) and took picture of Mini-Fox at all the interesting sight.

So Mini-fox visited the Eiffel tower, l'Arc de Triomphe and more...


 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin for my little Pumpkin

Hudson loves everything "squash". Off course she does! She's an October baby!! So in my quest to stray away from the good old fashion "let's have cheerios for a snack" way... I decided to play around with a few pumpkin muffin recipe I found online and finally came up with my own version which I find fit for my little 11 months old girl. (I am not a nutritionist... I simple try to use common sense).

- 2 cup of flour (white, whole wheat, gluten free... they all worked fine)

-1 1/4 cup of mashed pumpkin

-2 eggs (I have yet to try the recipe with applesauce instead, so if you do let me know how it turned out)

-Vanilla (Sorry I never measure)

-Cinnamon (Sorry I never measure)

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-1/4 cup olive oil

and....

hold your breath....

SUGAR! (I tried without and honestly it just tasted horrible. I tried with 4 teaspoons... it wasn't so bad. With 1/3 cup it actually taste really good without tasting sweet at all. So I would recommend you try different amount, depending what you feel comfortable with.)

If you put 1/3 cup of sugar, that comes down to 1.7 gram of sugar per muffin (does not take in consideration the natural sugar from the pumpkin)

I just put everything all at once in my kitchenaid mixer... Yes you know me... no fancy step. Give it a good mix. Then poor evenly in mini-muffin. Bake 20 min at 350C The recipe gives about 24 mini-muffins or 12 fullsize muffins.

Now let's come up with a fun name for this recipe just because I can ;-)

 Let's call it... Huddy-Sue's Kabocha-pan