Nen nen issue :P

Yesterday, my mom told me something real funny about nen nen. Here's the conversation between QQ and my mom.

YY was a bit cranky coz she was looking for me. My nen nen, to be more precise =) So when my mom was carrying her, YY turned to her breast and tried to suck. Hahahaha. QQ saw it too, and here's what she said.

QQ    : Popo, mei mei wants nen nen ar?

Popo : Ya lah. (while looking at YY) Mei mei, I don't have nen nen, you wait for your mommy come back from work ok.

QQ   : Popo, you got nen nen ma!!

Popo : I got nen nen? LOL!! But not for mei mei. You also have, why not you give yours to mei mei?

QQ   : I don't have nen nen lah. You don't believe? (while lifting up her shirt) You see, where got nen nen? 

She even said that while stroking her flat chest!! Hahahaha!! So she was trying to say that she doesn't have bulging boobies yet, but Popo and I have! :P

In a way, QQ understands pretty well about the function of nen nen, to sooth her crying mei mei =)

Good night sleep

For the past 3 days, YY treated we soooo good =) Normal sleeping routine at night is to bring her up to bed at 9.00pm, breastfeed her and she'll knock off at around 9.45pm. She'll sleep for a stretch of min 6hours then only will show sign of hunger. Aaahh....isn't that wonderful? That's part of my eye bags treatment also :P 

Since she only wakes up for milk at around 3.30am - 4.30am, I breastfeed her and then I continue my sleep. My alarm takes off at 5.40am for me to express my BM, then get ready myself to work. I  kinda like this arrangement, so I really hope that YY will maintain this beautiful schedule for mommy (so that mommy will look beautiful instead of a zombie :P)

Chinese New Year is just around the corner, and I need to start packing for our trip back to Ipoh. With QQ alone I almost pack as if we are moving house. Now with an additional member....maybe need a lorry lah....

Happy Chinese New Year all!! Gong Xi Fa Chai & Huat Huat Huat arrr!!! =)

Back to work with my gadgets

I'm soooo sleepy while typing this +_+ and the office is so cold! Nice to hibernate under the blanket now :P

I had my post-natal check up last Saturday, did my pap-smear and everything was fine with me. As I stood on the weighing machine......jeng jeng jeng.....I'm now weighing at 42.5kg, and that means I'm heavier than my pre-natal weight! Hahahaha. I used to be 40kg only :) I know the extra 2.5kg will disappear in no time +_+ But I hope not lah....coz I really need some extra kgs desperately!!

Today is my back to work day. I'm fully equipped with my below gadgets, which I used to carry them up and down 5x a week 3 years ago. Except the breast pump lah, coz last time I used Madela Mini-E breast pump so it was less bulky.

I've tucked in 2pcs of Techni Ice cold pack and 1pc of MLO's cold pack to keep my stock cooling till I reach home.

 

After each pump session, I store my breast shields in a zip lock back and keep it inside my cooler bag. This saves me lots of time from going to the toilet to rinse my breast shields after each session. By keeping them cold with some BM stains on the shields, I may re-use the shields for my next session without rinsing. The cold condition will prevent from bacteria growing.

 

This morning, my pre-planned feeding schedule seemed to work well. Here's what I did, in order not to kacau my mom from waking up too early to feed YY before I leave the house.

(23rd Jan, Sunday)
9.00pm : Breastfed YY and  then put her to bed
9.45pm : She already ZzzzZzzz

(24th Jan, Monday)
2.30am : I woke up to check on her. She still sleep soundly
3.20am : Showed sign of hunger. Fed her 3.5oz of EBM, changed her diaper then proceed to pump BM
4.30am : Washed breast shields, label and then refrigerate my EBM, then I went back to sleep
5.40am : Alarm clock rang. Washed up and changed myself.
6.05am : Fed YY 3.5oz of EBM and then changed her diaper
6.25am : Left house for work

With the last feeding at 6.05am, this enable my mom to send QQ to her pre-school at 7.30am and thereafter can even drop by the market for a while. YY's next feeding time was at 8.45am. Tomorrow morning during the wee hour feeding, I will breast feed her instead and will see whether the same feeding pattern jalan or not.

Wanna catch my afternoon nap now before continue my work.....

No more honeymoon

Watching both of them grow...I wish!

 I can't believe it, that my maternity leave has ended. 2 months have passed with blink of eyes. Not enough lah with 2 months of maternity leave :P Even Bangladesh is offering 6 months of maternity leave for the mommies!! Unbelievable huh. I'm soooo lazy to be back to work on Monday +_+ But honestly, to get back to work will actually give me more time and freedom as compare to stay at home taking care of my 2 kids. Though very tiring, I still prefer the latter. 2 simple reasons - wanna reduce parents burden and to watch YY grows! Parents are old de....taking care 2 active kids are tiring for them.  YY also an active baby? Yes. Sometimes, she sleeps so soundly round the clock. But there are time where she will be wide awake from 8am till 3pm. When that happens, I can't sit quietly coz she doesn't want to be on the sofa quietly! She'll starts to make some noises first. If I continue to ignore her, there comes her crocodile tears. And the moment I carry her up, sit on sofa and continue with my TV show, her alarm will trigger again. I have to carry her while standing up, and with that she'll be steady, quiet, and happy!! She just loves to stare at the ceiling fan. Maybe she wants to get a close look at it, that's why she makes me to stand up while carrying her. Panai ar...

Some ask me, why not get a nanny to take care of them? NO.  None of us like this idea.  My mom said that even though it's a bit tiring for her, but she ng seh tak to put her grandchildren under other people's care. Too many bad news about child abuse and even death records under nanny's care. So to retain kids in own home sweet home under my parents' supervision, all I can do is to help out as much as I can. How? Again, the role of being a SAHM starts to linger on my mind.  I've been considering this repeatedly, even before I was pregnant with YY. Now with 2 kids already, the more I need to make up my mind. But before I quit my job, I want to have a part time work or work from home, so that I can have some own pocket money. At least I have some little bit of own savings for the rainy day. To be a SAHM with HubB as the sole bread winner, don't think it's a good idea in long run. Kids are growing up and cost of living is getting higher nowadays. Have to consider about food, all sorts of bills, school fees, college/Uni fees.....haiih....really not easy to be parents.

The good news is, I might have a chance to work 1/2 day in a different field. Of course this 1/2 day work will not promise me much benefits (medical claim, luxurious annual leave, time off) but at least I have more time for my kids.  Gotto "lai seong bou har" a bit.  Things are not firm yet, waiting for the boss to work out her new biz plan first. So for the time being, I'll continue with my current job lah. Most importantly is to claim my delivery allowance (RM2,500), certainly not to be missed! And also to claim as much as I can for all the jabs which YY gonna take soon. 

To scald or not to scald?

Lately, I've started to thaw some frozen BM to feed YY. I know that frozen BM taste and smell weird, so I want YY to get use to it before I get back to work on 24th Jan 2011. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to like frozen BM so much :( I'm a bit worry now coz I have LOADS of frozen BM stock in freezer, to the extend where I borrow Teacher Nel's freezer for extra storage space too! Her house is just a few blocks away from my mom's house, so that's the most convenient for me. Otherwise, I have to bring my stocks back to my house, a long drive lah. Mah fan. 

Whenever I try to feed YY with the frozen BM, she gave me the blluuueekkk face and even spits them out too. She insisted not to take it after many attempts of feeding, so in the end susu masuk longkang. Coz left over BM has to be consumed within an hour after heating, and not advisable to reheat it repeatedly too. The only way to overcome this is to feed her the same in midnite, or when she's semi-asleep. This way, she'll gulp down 3oz clean clean, without much struggle. If she's wide awake, no way to force it down her throat. I even tried to mix 1oz of refrigerated milk + 2oz of frozen milk for her, hopefully to reduce the metallic/soapy/sour taste of frozen BM.  This way only works once a while.

Actually I feel gross over the smell of  frozen BM too. So I don't really blame YY for rejecting it. Even when QQ was a baby, she didn't quite like it too but she was Ok with it after a while. Those weird smell of frozen BM is caused by lipase. Below info is extracted from this website. 

Why does my frozen milk smell unpleasant when I thaw it?

Lipase, the enzyme that digests fats, stays active when milk is frozen. Some mothers have a high level of this enzyme and their milk smells and tastes soapy when thawed. The milk is not harmful but the baby may refuse it. You can scald your milk before storing it to make the lipase inactive by heating the milk to about 180 degrees F (82 degrees C), or until small bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Chill quickly and store.

Now I'm thinking whether should I scald my BM before storing? Scalding (heating) the milk before storing it may help to reduce lipase activity, hence reduce the weird smell after heat up the frozen milk. But scalding will destroy some of the milk's anti-infective properties and may alter nutrient levels too. So how? Want to scald or not leh?

Any mommies out there have tried scalding method? Please share with me =)

YY begins to sleep lesser

Mami & Popo, stop rocking me to Zzzzz. I want you all to entertain me!

That's her face telling me she doesn't want to sleep so often now during day time! In fact, that's what I read from Baby Centre about my 6weeks old baby, that by now she will sleep lesser. True enough lah. Which means, gotto entertain her and QQ more, pening....pening.....

That's not all. She even gets crankier than before. Worst case scenario is always at night, around 9pm onwards. That is the time where I bring her to bed. From her full moon day until now, there are time where she ROARS fiercefully whenever I try to put her to bed. She seems to want nen-nen endlessly +_+ There were once where she sucked too much till she vomited. Haiih...susah betul. If don't give her nen-nen, she'll scream her lung out. And if I continue to offer her my boobies, in the end overfed pulak. Sometimes, we both struggle together for about an hour (lucky me!), and if bad time, the drama will only end 2-3hours later @_@ 

YY has never been on the sarong since she was born. Popo and I prefer to rock/pat her to sleep. She will doze off pretty fast and we can just leave her on sofa/bed thereafter. But lately she sing mook (becomes smarter) already. The moment she is away from our arms, she'll be wide awake. And then starts to make noise, want to snuggle with me or Popo. So now the trick is, we will rock her to sleep on our arms for about 30mins++, then only put her on sofa/bed. That way, she seems to be able to sleep longer. Still, it doesn't work well every time though :P Depend on our luck lah. 

Each time QQ screams or when YY cries loudly (crocodile tears only!!), I mau surrender liao. But then I will think back what my mom has told me before. That I should be grateful to be able to witness baby's crying. I should be grateful to be able to carry a baby so often (even though old folks always say don't carry baby too much else baby will stick to you day and nite). I should be grateful to be annoyed by all the crying and screaming of my own kids. Why?? Simply because there are many other women out there who are not able to have their own child. They are longing for a chance to handle the most cranky baby too. This is very true. So I shouldn't complain so much. I SHOULD be grateful with what I have now. When baby cry, shut my ears and open my mouth to sing to her lah :) All she needs is comfort only... =)

Smiley YY when we cuddle together

QQ's new booster seat cum back pack

QQ has outgrown her current car seat, so she needs a booster seat as replacement. But that's not really the main reason for me to get her a booster seat. Now I have 2 kids already. If I get another giant car seat for YY, it'll be too pack at the passenger seats with me kena sandwich in between. This is not fun for me, especially when we gotto travel back to Ipoh.  Thus I've planned to let YY use QQ's car seat, as it is still very very new and the seats can be recline for newborn too. 

I've been looking around for QQ a booster seat, but those that I saw in the mall is quite low. Low in the sense that when QQ seats on it, she's still not ngam to use the adult safety belt (thanks to my XS size gene running in her blood) Last week, as I was browsing the baby online stores, I found this! A booster seat cum back pack by Trunki. This booster seat level is definitely higher than those normal one. Bought it from www.thebabyloft.com

Back view

Front view

Unzip the bag and here's how it looks like inside. Quite spacious also.

Overturn the bag to transform into a booster seat

Lift up the side handles and it's almost ready to use. There's a seat belt adjuster on it too, so that your child won't be irritated by the adult seat belt while being strap on. 

I'm happy with it, so does QQ :) Will get her a neck support pillow so that she sleeps better in car. I can even  let her use it if we travel by air plane and don't really need to rely on those dirty rusty high chair when go makan makan outside. 

YY fullmoon already

This is a very belated post, as YY already celebrated her full moon on 24th December 2010. No time to update my blog as I've to handle YY and QQ more. 

Sister full year, YY full moon :)

My sister and dad came over to my place on that day. It was also my sis's birthday! As mentioned earlier, I had ordered an ice-cream birthday cake for the 2 stars, my all time favorite Baskin Robbins ice-cream cake. This round, I wanted to try the combination of ice-cream and brownie. Rabbit design was the chosen 1, coz sister was born in the year of rabbit. Design wise, boleh tahan lah. But the taste was superb! The brownie was  not too sweet, in fact it tasted a bit salty. So it was just nice to eat together with the chocolate flavor ice-cream. Minus the smudges on the rabbit's face, still a thumbs up from all of us. What surprised me was the rabbit's ears. Once I scrap off the icing on the ears, only then to realize those were the spoon's handle. Hahaha, creative lah.

QQ was the 1 who got excited the most. She had been eyeing on the cake from noon till night, kept asking "when are we going to cut the rabbit cake?", "kam loi keh", "when want to blow candle ar". We behtahan her also, very very long winded. So soon after we had our dinner, cake cutting ceremony began.

Though it was just a simple celebration at home, we still enjoyed ourselves very very much! Unfortunately, HubB wasn't around that time coz he was travelling for his job.

Again, Happy Full Moon to my dear YY!!

She's asking me those question already

Ms Question Air

QQ is 3yr 3mth old now. She has always been very curious on every single thing so we often get lots of question - what when why who where from her.

Ever since I gave birth to YY, she has been asking where is my big tummy? mei mei come out already lah? But now she prompted me further with this :

QQ: mami, mei mei come out already la?
Me: yes. U came to visit us in hospital, remember? and now u see her daily rite?
QQ: mei mei dim yeong choot lei keh?? (how did mei mei come out??)
Me: sang choot lei lor (thru giving birth)
QQ: dim meong sang keh? (how to give birth??)

Me : (eyes rolling...trying to get some answer from the ceiling)

QQ : mami..dim meong keh? haa?? dim meong sang keh?? mami....

Me : kam meong sang lah! Let's sleep!!

Haiihh....baru 3yr old, so fast wanna learn alam dan manusia?? +_+ Sooner later, she's gonna ask me the million dollar question - where did mei mei come from (",) 

Here's another funny episode from her, yesterday night.

Me: QQ you sayang mei mei?

QQ: sayang!

Me: good. must sayang ok. can give away mei mei to other people or not?

QQ: cannot!

Me: if give away how?

QQ: (without much hesitation) lei zhoi sang dor yat kor la!! ~ you give birth to another 1 la!!

+_+ I'm not a pig, and I don't look like a pig. What makes you think that I can give birth like a pig?