Taking care of a child alone was quite mentally draining. It wasn't so much difficult as it was bothersome. Once I started, I couldn't take my eyes off him, so I had to keep checking on him.
Feeling bored taking care of Shi-u alone, I held him and went next door. When I rang the bell, Mi-ra answered, and her reaction changed drastically as soon as she heard my voice.
"What is it?"
"I, I was bored."
Despite her curt response, Mi-ra readily opened the door.
"Heung, what's his name?"
"Shi-u, isn't he cute?"
"So, why did you come?"
"I was bored being alone."
Mi-ra glared at me slightly before letting me in.
Similar to our house, there was a space in the living room where a baby could lie down. And there, my niece Ye-rin was lying down.
"Hello, Ye-rin-a."
Of course, my niece was asleep and didn't respond. I laid Shi-u down next to her and sat on the sofa.
"So, what's the matter?"
"Just, I was bored being alone."
"Whatever, let's just say that's it."
"More than that, didn't you say you were short on breast milk?"
"Why?"
"How are you managing?"
Mi-ra looked at me suspiciously.
"I'm feeding her formula too."
"Really? Should I give you some of my leftover breast milk?"
"What?"
Mi-ra's eyes were scary.
"Ah, no, I just have too much."
And Mi-ra looked down at my chest. And clicked her tongue.
"You have that much to spare?"
"Yeah, about 200mL left over each day."
"That's a lot left over...."
"Right? The amount keeps increasing, so it's hard to deal with."
For some reason, Mi-ra's eyes were eerie.
"Bring it."
"Okay, watch Shi-u for me."
I went back home and brought three bottles of breast milk that I had stored in containers.
"Here."
"So, you really do have some left over."
"Yeah."
I felt a bit embarrassed, but since it was going to be thrown away anyway, it seemed more useful to give it to my niece than to someone else.
"Thank you."
"It's just leftover anyway."
We spent time talking about the hardships of childcare. In the meantime, my niece woke up. Is it because she's over 7 weeks old? She moved around more than Shi-u. Moreover, she reacted to Mi-ra's actions. I wish our Shi-u would react like that too....
"Cute."
"Your son will be like that soon too."
It's only a month and a half difference, so I guess so? I could see her trying to turn her body or lift her head, and my niece had changed while I hadn't seen her. Our Shi-u can only grip my finger when I touch his palm.
There was a convenience in taking care of the baby together. One person had the leeway to do other things, so they could do housework or run errands.
The most anxious thing when taking care of the baby alone was when I was in the bathroom, but with two people, there was no worry. My niece was awake for long periods. She was more active compared to Shi-u, who was still sleeping. In particular, it was so cute to see her reaching out with her hands and feet while looking at the mobile hanging above her head making sounds.
"She's active, shouldn't you put her to sleep?"
"If I let her sleep too much during the day, she'll be a mess at night."
Huh? I just let him sleep whenever he wants, day or night?
"Shouldn't they sleep when they want to?"
"Basically, yes. But to make them sleep longer at night, you have to let them nap less during the day."
It's called sleep training, and they say you should start teaching them around 6 months old, but you have to be careful because teaching them now can be stressful. There's something you can apply now, which is to increase the time you spend bonding with the baby during the day to reduce nap time.
"Heeh...."
I usually didn't touch Shi-u when he seemed to be sleeping... Thinking about it, the days when Shi-u bothered me in the early morning were the days he took a lot of naps. Adults can't sleep at night if they take a lot of naps, so why would it be any different for babies?
"Why?"
"I just left him alone when he took naps."
"If they sleep too much during the day, they can't sleep at night."
"So, is that why he bothers me every dawn?"
Because he took too many naps? I should be careful from now on.
"If you don't have any problems, you can let him take long naps."
If I don't have any problems? I was worried. Should I reduce his nap time a little and increase bonding time? I was worried.
"Childcare is hard after all."
"They say if you give them a massage or something before they go to sleep, they sleep well."
"Really?"
Does that mean I should massage him to relax his body? I should look it up when I get home later.
I spent about 6 hours at Mi-ra's house before returning.
As expected of a childcare senior! She gave me a lot of helpful advice since she had experienced what I was going through first.
I actually played with Shi-u for a long time on purpose when he was awake. As a result, Shi-u, who used to be awake for about an hour before falling asleep, was awake for more than 30 minutes longer than usual. Of course, he took another nap after that, but the sleep time was almost the same. Is this how you reduce nap time even a little? Will he sleep more at night then?
In addition, I tried giving him a baby massage 1 hour before he went to bed at night. It said on the internet that it had various benefits, but I didn't know if it was true, and it was okay as long as Shi-u could sleep well. I had to carefully control the strength when I tried to do the massage myself. Thanks to that, my hands were shaking by the time the massage was over. Shi-u yawned widely after the massage and prepared to sleep together.
Shi-hyun wasn't here today, so we had to sleep together.
And what did Mi-ra say? She said to feed him at the same time when breastfeeding in the evening, right? She also told me that if I set the vibration alarm on my smartwatch, I could wake up without waking the baby. I was worried if I could wake up properly since I had set the vibration strength to weak.
I go to bed at 10, so 2 o'clock should be fine, right? After setting the time, I went to sleep.
And I woke up to a slight vibration in my arm.
It was tiring to wake up from sleep after all. But I had to do what I had to do. I was about to check his diaper right away when I saw something strange.
Huh?
"His umbilical cord fell off?"
It was about time for it to fall off. First, I roughly found a zipper bag to store the fallen umbilical cord and disinfected his navel. I heard that I should be careful because it's not completely closed yet? When I wiped it with an alcohol swab, a little blood or pus came off on the swab. They said it was normal, but I was still worried.
After quickly changing his diaper, feeding him, and doing this and that, 30 minutes had already passed. I carefully laid Shi-u down on the bed, and Shi-u quietly yawned and closed his eyes.
"Is he, is he sleeping?"
I was worried he would be awake again, but thankfully he wasn't. I checked for about 3 minutes to see if Shi-u was really asleep.
And after confirming that Shi-u was asleep, I gently kissed Shi-u's forehead before lying back in bed.
"Sleep well."
This time, I woke up to the vibration alarm set for 7 o'clock, and Shi-u was already awake, looking at the shaking mobile. He woke up before me?
"Our Shi-u is diligent, isn't he?"
There were traces of a generous amount of poop in his diaper, so I quickly changed it. I hugged Shi-u, who had waited without crying, because I was so proud of him.
*
Shi-hyun came back in the evening. He said he wanted to see us so he came back even though he's leaving again tomorrow.
"Shi-u-ya, Daddy's here."
When Shi-hyun put his index finger on Shi-u's hand, Shi-u grabbed it right away.
"You worked hard."
"I missed you and Shi-u so much, it was hard."
"Really?"
"Did you have a good day?"
"Yeah, more than that, Shi-u's umbilical cord fell off?"
"Really?"
Shi-hyun slightly lifted the bottom of the onesie that Shi-u was wearing.
"Oh... is this okay?"
"Probably? I'm disinfecting it three times a day."
"What are you going to do with the umbilical cord?"
"I don't know?"
It smelled bad and was useless. Should I keep it anyway?
After much deliberation, we decided to seal it and store it. The storage location was next to the growth journal that I was diligently writing.
"You're writing the journal diligently, aren't you?"
"Yeah, it's annoying, but...."
Every day, I write down the changes in his weight, whether there are any special events, whether he ate well, and his sleep time. Have I ever written so diligently? I never worked this hard when I was studying in school. The growth journal, which I write with trivial small talk, felt like a diary.
"Ah, that's right!"
Shi-hyun suddenly remembered something and got up and left the house.
"What is it?"
And after about 10 minutes, Shi-hyun came back into the house.
"This is a gift."
He handed me two boxes, one of a moderate size and one slightly larger.
"What is it?"
I opened the box with a suspicious face. What came out of the box was a camera.
"This is?"
"It's an instant camera. You said it would be nice to have pictures when you write the growth journal."
"You remembered that?"
Shi-hyun smiled.
"It's harder to get film than a camera, and it's more expensive."
"Really?"
"Yeah, so don't take too many pictures."
"Shouldn't you tell me not to worry about money and take as many pictures as I want?"
"If I say that, I think you'll use up all the film in one day without restraint?"
I put away the box with the camera and opened the box below, and there were films and a laminator.
"Laminating?"
"If you want to keep the pictures you take for a long time, you have to laminate them."
"Thank you."
"Should we laminate the photos we have stored first?"
"Which ones?"
"Our Shi-u's ultrasound pictures or pictures taken after he was born?"
"Let's do it!"
While Shi-u was sleeping, we found the pictures and started laminating them one by one and putting them in the growth journal. Then we heard crying from the room.
"Oh my, I left Shi-u alone for too long!"
I threw away what I was doing and got up and went to Shi-u. While I was holding and soothing Shi-u, Shi-hyun was finishing up what I had thrown away.
"You worked hard."
"Wait there for a second."
"Why?"
"I'm going to take a picture."
Shi-hyun took the instant camera and put in the film.
"Hold him naturally like that."
I was worried that my actions would look strange since he suddenly said he was going to take a picture. While I was feeling awkward, I heard a click.
"Di, did you take it?"
"Yeah, it'll be printed now."
The film was actually coming down from under the camera.
"Doesn't shaking it make it come out faster?"
"What? It's the opposite, shaking it prevents it from being printed properly."
"Re, really?"
I didn't know. The picture came out after about 1 minute.
The picture was cleaner than I thought.
"It came out well."
The picture showed me and Shi-u looking friendly. It was the first picture taken with the instant camera, and it was okay.
"It's good, I should take this."
"What?"
Was Shi-hyun planning to take it? I was thinking of taking that picture and putting it in the journal?
"Why?"
"Take another picture!"
I urged Shi-hyun to take another picture. To be honest, I liked the first picture better, so I was going to take it, but after hearing Shi-hyun's words, I couldn't do that. He said he would look at it when he went to work alone, how could I take it away! I just had to give it up.
Various pictures were added to the growth journal in just one day. Shi-hyun spent time with Shi-u while he was awake, and I organized the journal in the meantime. And before I knew it, it was time to sleep.
"I need to get ready to put Shi-u to sleep."
"Get ready to put him to sleep?"
"Yeah, I heard from Mi-ra and learned a little."
Shi-hyun looked at me massaging Shi-u with wonder.
"It's a massage."
"Yeah, they say if you do this, he sleeps well."
When Shi-u fell asleep, we also lay down on the bed. I was happy to be able to sleep in Shi-hyun's arms today.
"Sleep well."
"Yeah, you sleep well too."
Shi-hyun hugged me from behind and gently kissed the top of my head.
"Thanks for the childcare."
What hardship, it's my job. I was so sleepy that I couldn't say it out loud.
Good night.