[3 Months Old] Christmas, Deep Cleaning, Shrine Visit & First Meal Ceremony, and New Year's

The first year-end and New Year holidays after giving birth were a whirlwind of days spent on Christmas, deep cleaning, a shrine visit, a photo shoot, the first meal ceremony, and my mother staying over, and they passed by in the blink of an eye.

Christmas and a Stuffy Nose

This year, a friend couple who have a son just over a year old came over, and we held a Christmas party. For the first time in a while, I cooked and served a lot of food, and the adults were able to have a very fun time.

However, it was also an unlucky day that became the trigger for our child's first illness. He probably caught a cold from their son. About two days later, he got a runny nose. The poor thing. It has been going on for about a week, but since I had received a nasal aspirator from someone, it was a huge help. He hated being suctioned and screamed "Ngyaaa!" for the first few days, but lately, perhaps realizing that it makes him feel better, he sometimes stays quiet while being suctioned.

Deep cleaning with a 4-person team

Every year, our family uses a housekeeping service called "Casy" to finish our deep cleaning in a short amount of time.
This year, in addition to Casy, we also called a babysitter to look after our child, forming a team of four.

The reason we needed to go that far was that "we had too many things." Originally, it was a small 1SLDK apartment. The windowless service room had become almost a storage room. After our child was born, we received many baby gifts and hand-me-downs from various people (one person even gave us two cardboard boxes full), and it was literally so cluttered that there was nowhere to step.

While the babysitter watched our child and put him to sleep, we had Casy clean the bathroom and other areas, and in the meantime, we as a couple carried out a "take everything out of the room!" project, and after four hours, we could see the end of the deep cleaning (it didn't end up finished, so we did a little bit more later).

Shrine visit and photo shoot

This year, we didn't return to our hometowns, but instead gathered both sets of parents to hold the shrine visit and the first meal ceremony on the same day. The shrine visit was held at Nezu Shrine, and we only visited without a prayer ritual. For the photo shoot, we used a business trip photography service called "Fotowa" using 100,000 points from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

This Fotowa was very good, so I want to recommend it. I think there is a question of what to use the 100,000 points for in the first place. 20,000 is for child vouchers, and you wonder what to do with the remaining 80,000, but Fotowa was a pretty good choice. It goes without saying, but photos by a professional are completely different. Our child was in a bad mood or just sleeping, but instead, they brought out the expressions and poses of the parents very wonderfully, and they also captured the expression when the child smiled for just a moment with a toy.

By the way, honestly, I didn't think I would be photographed this much. I went to the hair salon before the day, put effort into my makeup, and dressed nicely, so it was good, but surprisingly about 70% were photos of me. I apologize to my parents-in-law for being so pushy as a daughter-in-law. Moreover, the child is sleeping, so he has the same face in all of them. It turned into my photo session completely, which made me laugh. Sorry, but I am very satisfied.

First meal ceremony at a hotel

After the shrine visit, we held the first meal ceremony at a nice hotel. Originally, there was a one-hour photo shoot, but since I was holding him for most of that time (for the shoot), I was already suffering from muscle pain, and I had been preparing since early in the morning, so I was battered.

Shoot from 10:00, move at 11:00. Breastfed in the nursing room from 11:30, and the first meal ceremony from 12:00. I tried to add formula to the breastfeeding, but maybe he was nervous, he wouldn't drink it and cried loudly for some reason. He was completely in sleepy mode. In the end, we pushed the stroller to put him to sleep, and the adults enjoyed the meal on their own. He woke up in the middle, so my mother and mother-in-law took turns holding him and helped with the first meal ceremony, and we managed to finish it safely. It was a fairly tough day. I think it was even tougher for our child. Maybe I'll do it at home for the second child.

My mother's stay

I wanted my parents, who came from far away, to interact with the child as much as possible. Therefore, for the New Year, I made and served pseudo-osechi (it's not really osechi, but food packed in a tiered box), and I left the child in the care of my family.

Even so, I thought it might not be enough, and the topic of my mother extending her stay at our house came up. Well, is that an option? The room became a little cleaner after the deep cleaning. So I decided to have her stay.

Actually, my mother is a housewife, so our values don't match, but since she is my adoptive parent, we have many similar parts, and because of that, I often get quite irritated. I think it's because I can see the parts of myself that I dislike very clearly. However, even so, I found that having three adults makes childcare very easy. Surprisingly, she settled in, and I had her stay for about three days, during which time the child started to laugh out loud, his naps became consolidated (thanks to that, I can write this note now!), and he became able to grasp clothes firmly.

That's quite a growth.
I've been typing on the computer in a rush up to this point, but the child looks like he's about to wake up, so I'll finish writing.

*Thank you for reading! Wishing you all the best for the coming year! (^^)