Mirai and Taishi’s 10 Month Update

As we enter the spring season it’s starting to hit me how close these babies are to being a year old! Despite a few colds and tummy issues, the last couple of months have been busy with several transitions and developments, particularly in the realm of sleep and eating. I’ll start with our daily schedule (which is much more consistent now thankfully!)

7:00-7:30AM – Wake up
8:00AM – Breakfast then play time
10:00AM – Nap #1 (usually lasts 1-2 hours)
12:30PM – Lunch then out for a walk or to run errands
3:00PM – Nap #2 (usually shorter than the first nap)
5:30PM – Dinner
6:30PM – Bath and book time
8:00PM – Bedtime

Developments

This last month has been full of physical changes for both babies, although Mirai is progressing slightly faster than Taishi. Just in the last couple of days, Mirai started crawling finally! She can crawl a few meters on her own now and I’m sure will get faster every day. Taishi is still working on crawling but he is much heavier than her (he weighs 9.5kg and she only weighs 8kg!) so I’m not surprised it’s taking him longer! He is much more stable with standing up though and loves to stand while holding your hands or another surface. I’m curious if they will crawl for a long time or go right into walking like Asahi did.

Eating

These kids love to eat! I didn’t experience this type of enthusiasm with Asahi so it’s all new to me! Both babies have been eating three meals a day for the last month or so. They love all types of food at this point and tend to clear their plate at most meals and eat second portions as well. Mirai tends to eat her veggies first and some of her favorite foods are broccoli and carrots. Taishi seems to like more acidic foods like mikan and tomato. They both love pasta and anything on bread as well. This month they also learned how to use a straw and they LOVE their straw cups. We were using cups before which worked great as well but I think they drink more water using a straw. It’s fun cooking for them because they actually eat! Washing dishes for two babies three times a day isn’t quite as fun though ha!

Sleep

We have gone through a lot of changes with sleep recently but luckily things seem to have settled down for now. Just over a month ago, the three of us began cosleeping together. Before it was just me sleeping with Mirai but then Taishi started waking up a lot in the crib and showing that he didn’t like it anymore. We went through a period of sleeping on the futon in our tatami room which was fine but we wanted to find a solution involving our bedroom as it’s the quietest place in the house. Plus sleeping on a bed is much more comfortable in my opinion. We ended up buying the exact same bed frame and mattress that we have from Ikea and putting them together to make one super bed! It’s working well so far!

Around the time we began sleeping on the futon, I started trying to get Mirai to sleep in the bed for naps as well as nighttime sleep. Since around 3 months old I had been carrying her for every nap, so having her sleep in the bed was a game changer for me! So far it’s working well and I just nurse her to sleep and then I can sneak away to get some things done or just relax. It really just shows that sometimes you just need to wait for the baby to be ready to sleep independently and things will change on their own. I’ve also realized just how different my two babies are. Taishi never wakes up during his nap and needs to be resettled. In fact, I often have to wake him up because he would sleep for 3 hours or more otherwise! This isn’t necessarily a problem but Mirai tends to take shorter naps so to keep them on a similar schedule I have to wake him up around 30 minutes after her if they don’t wake up naturally at the same time. At night he also only occasionally wants to nurse and instead generally favors the pacifier. Mirai on the other hand often wakes up during her nap and can be resettled with nursing. She wakes up more frequently at night and is generally a lighter sleeper than Taishi. However, cosleeping all together is making the night wakings a lot easier. Even when they wake up at the same time, I can generally settle one (usually Taishi) quite quickly and then roll over and settle the other one. Bedsharing has truly made a huge difference in the amount of rest we all get and I am so glad we made the change when we did!

Breastfeeding

Despite breastfeeding being fairly drama free up until this point, recently due to teething I have had some issues nursing Taishi. He tends to avoid nursing if he is teething or sick, which can be quite challenging. I have dealt with two nursing strikes with him now since he is getting several teeth at once. On the day I am writing this he only nursing once in 24 hours! Fortunately, he is eating solid foods well and drinking water so I am not as worried. I just keep offering breast frequently (usually before and after naps) and see if he will nurse. After the first nursing strike, once his tooth came in he started nursing again so I think that will happen again. Mirai is nursing as normal but since I nurse her to sleep she doesn’t have a chance to skip feedings. It’s possible that Taishi will wean earlier than Mirai but also just as possible that things will return to normal once all the teeth are in. I’m in no rush to wean because my breastmilk is still nutritionally beneficial for as long as I am nursing and also passes on important antibodies which you can never have enough of!

I guess the next update will be the one year one! These last couple of months haven’t been the easiest and I have been TIRED. But things are fairly smooth right now so I am just going to enjoy it while it lasts!