Sweet roll of the day

Yesterday, 26th April 2011 (Tue), YY was exactly 5 month 1 day old. My mom told me that YY had made her first roll over all by herself in the afternoon. Yay!! 

That's all I want to pen down today :P Just wanna mark down this date coz I had forgotten when did QQ made her first roll over stunt last time. I want to read this again some other day....the day when my memory runs out of space!

My EBM with freezer burn condition

See the geli looking frozen EBM here. These are mine. At first glance on it, looks like fungus infection ha? This is call freezer burn BM. I've never came across this until a friend of mine posted this issue on The Breastfeeding Advocates Network in Facebook. At that point of time, my frozen EBM were still good, never in this ugly looking condition. But last week, as I was sorting out my stocks to be given to KC, my regular receiver, I was shocked to find this +_+ I didn't give away these affected stocks to other people, coz I can't even accept it myself to feed YY with it.

Date from L - R : 10 March, 10 Feb, 27 Jan 2011

I got to know that freezer burn BM is still Ok for baby. But if we have enough of BM supply, and yet still can't decide whether to feed our baby with it, discarding them would be fine :) I agree, coz no point keeping them and keep asking myself whether to use it of dump it. I have plenty of affected bags in my freezer now. I will just thaw them and offer my dry feet a nice and warm foot spa :P Will do it when I have the extra time lah. Juggling with 2 kids are not easy lah. Wanna find time to go pangsai (poo poo) also very hard!

There are a few factors which can cause our frozen EBM in freezer burn condition. Do check out this link, it has good explanation on how it happens and how to prevent the same.

I've google about it too, and found an article which says it is not safe for baby. I really have no idea who's right and wrong now. So to play safe, I choose not to feed YY with it, nor donate to other babies. The conclusion is, don't keep EBM for too long in the freezer. Too long means more than 1 1/2 month lah, that's what I observe on my affected EBM. Sigh...what a waste.

 

YY is 5mth old now

Last Thursday, YY was due for her check up. Luckily this round no feverish at all after the jabs.  Yesterday she turned 5mth old and is now weighing at 6.8kg and 65cm tall. Also glad to know that there isn't any more phlegm in her lung, but still have very little bit left in her nostril/throat. See, it all started during CNY. It took her almost 2 month to get rid of the stubborn phlegm. She still can't roll her body 100% yet, just half way thru only. But each time I carry her in front facing position, she will not lean against my chest and she'll be in up right position. When put her on the bed in tummy position, she doesn't want to lift her head up! Confusing.....she's just being lazy or what ar?

Anyway, that doesn't really bother me much. She'll do it right when the timing is right.  QQ was pretty slow  in performing the same rolling stunt too. YY smiles and laughs a lot throughout the day. Each time we just stare at her without  noise, she'll look at us and smile back without fail. But she starts to  cry when my cousin, who's a stranger to her, carried her few days ago. This is the so call  "recognizing people" stage lah.  She really loves to interact with QQ. No matter what kind of funny or weird noise QQ made infront of her, she'll laugh out loud. And her favorite activity would be having her to sit on our arms and gently swing her front and back while QQ  jumps  up and down non stop +_+ I tell ya....my lidi arms cannot tahan any longer!!  I can't barely have her on my arms (and gotto swing her some more!)  for more than 5mins. 

YY's favorite position on my skeletal arms

Overall, YY is growing well and eats well. Currently she's taking 5oz - 6oz of my EBM at every 2.5 to 3 hour in day time. But sometimes when she is asleep for longer hour, the interval may varies. So that sums up to at least 3 to 4 bottles of milk per day while I'm at work.

I notice that YY shares the same birth mark with her jie jie. See the small patch near to their belly button? Almost the same spot huh. QQ's one is getting more and more unnoticeable as she grows. It was once looked exactly like what YY is having now. 

Happy sista!

4th SOS call for my EBM

Last Friday at about 10am, I received a message from a mother asking for my EBM. VC needed BM to feed her newborn as she was having very sore nipple, I guess to the extend of bleeding and cracked badly. VC's husband called me to arrange for the collection of my frozen EBM. He told me that for the first 2 days after her wife has delivered their baby, her wife was able to BF baby successfully. But on 3rd day onwards, the soreness began plus the cracks and bleeding. The nurses advised her to rest for a day first before she  could continue to BF her baby again. Unfortunately, her condition didn't seemed to recover thus VC contacted Gina for help. That was how VC got to know me, thru Gina again =) VC was not able to pump out her milk and would like to take my milk to feed her newborn. I told her husband that he may go to my mom's house immediately to collect 5 bottles of my frozen EBM which could last for about 3days. As what Gina has advised earlier, the mother should be producing her own milk thus I may just help her out with 5 bottles as a start.

On Sunday, he called me again that VC was still recuperating but not able to pump out much milk yet. Thus he needed more of my stock So I met him again and given him another 5 bottles of my EBM. Later in the afternoon, VC sms me sharing with me how the soreness developed. She has a friend whom delivered a baby on the same day with her. And her friend was having the same problem that she is facing now. A Paed checked the baby and found out that baby's tongue is rather short, and that has caused the soreness, cracks and bleeding on mommy's nipple. VC said the Paed snipped a bit of the baby's tongue and voila! No more painful BF experience for the mommy! So, VC will bring her baby to the Paed and might go thru the same procedure. Hopefully all went well for VC's baby lah.

On the other hand, I have also donated 15 bottles (each bottle 4.5oz) of my frozen EBM to another mother, AW last Sunday. Her daughter is touching 1yr old soon but her milk supply has dropped tremendously due to her hectic job. From a freezer full of EBM, she's now left with 5 bottles only. She couldn't find time to pump in office and can only nurse her daughter when she's back home. Glad that I can help her out, but not much though.

And with that, my freezer is now left with less than 10 bottles of frozen EBM. But I still have plenty of stocks which I would say "spoil" milk. Will talk about this separately.

3rd SOS call for my EBM, plus a heart wrenching news

It was on 14th April night, after we had our finger licking good birthday celebration with HubB, I've received a call from my cousin sister that a friend of her needed my EBM stock. Her friend, CY called her as she saw my BM offer in Facebook. So happened that CY noticed the mutual friend between the 2 of us is my cousin sister, thus she contacted my cousin in order to look for me. I allowed my cousin to give CY my contact no so that I can liaise with CY directly for the BM collection. It seemed to be a very urgent case too. I've asked my cousin how old is CY's child and she said, "not small kid.can walk can run already wor". Huh?? Already grown up so much, and yet still want to give BM to her son? Wow!

I've spoken to CY that night. Here's our conversation.

CY : Hi, do you have BM stock with you now?

Me : Yes I do. How old is your baby?

CY : 3 days old. They are twins.

Me : Twins? Wow, that's good! (I was a bit confuse too actually, just now cousin said the child is kinda grown up de) May I know why do you need my BM stock ya?

CY : Actually, they are a pair of premie twins. They were born 2 months earlier than the expected due date. But unfortunately, 1 of them couldn't make it. The baby was pronounced dead yesterday. 

Me : OMG!! I'm so sorry to hear that. [wanna cry already =( ]

CY : So now only left 1 baby who's in the incubator with life support. Baby is very small size and very weak too, and refuse to eat (drink milk). Mother's milk has not "arrived" either. Doc said that if continue to feed the baby with formula milk, this might worsen the baby's condition. It is best to provide BM to the baby. My friend called me informing me the condition of her baby. Luckily I found you in Facebook about your BM offer. 

Me : Wait a minute. You mentioned that your friend called you about her baby? Erm, sorry to say I'm a bit confused now, who's baby is that actually? Not yours?

CY : No lah! If I am the parents of the baby, I wouldn't be talking to you so calmly now. I will be crying out loud non-stop! 

** Doink!!! What a miscommunication!**

Me : Ooppss!! Sorry for the misunderstanding. So where's the baby now? and how many bottles you need?

CY : Baby is in Seremban Hospital now. It is so sad to know that initially, the parents was rejected by 2 private hospitals due to the wife's condition (having a pair of premie twins). So in the end they were being referred to the Govt Hospital. Mother's milk has not "arrived" yet, and I don't think a premie can take so much of milk now. I'll take 6 bottles from you first. We are heading down to Seremban tonight to deliver the milk to my friend. 

Me : Ok, no problem. I'll give you the fresh EBM stock dated 13th April. Baby is weak, better give her "fresher" milk. 

Half and hour after our chat (almost 10.30pm), CY arrived at my house and I've handed over to her 6 bottles of my fresh EBM. I am glad that the mother of the premie baby has such a wonderful friend to help her. Though it is not very far to drive from KL to Seremban, but CY and her husband have shown great support to their dearest friend who needed help under this emergency circumstances. It involved life and death. I do not know how much my BM can help the lil baby to survive, but that is the best of help I may render out, at least.

I pray that the lil premie baby is of good health and has strong will to survive! May God bless you.

* An hour after I posted this, I sms to CY, asking about the baby's condition.CY responded that on that night upon arrival at the Seremban GH with my BM supply, the Paed and nurses didn't allow her to store and use it to feed the pre-term baby. Luckily the mother's milk came the next morning, thus she was able to supply her own BM to her lil baby. Well, can't blame the hospital for rejecting my BM. Coming from the hospital's point of view, they were trying to take high precaution treating the pre-term baby. All I can think of is, they do not know the donor of the BM (that's me) and they were worried that if anything goes wrong to the baby, the Paed has to be answerable for it. I think so lah. CY immediately freeze my EBM on the same night. She will return back to me soon, so that I can keep it for my "regular receiver", KC . Yesterday, KC came to return to me the 40 over empty bottles. I had given him another 20 bottles (4.5oz each) + 17 bags (10-12oz each) of frozen EBM. Sad to know that his son is down with flu and has lots of phlegm too. Even the Paed had to let his son to use the nebulizer twice a day to ease his breathing. Get well soon baby.

Hub's birthday

14th April was HubB's 33rd birthday and we had a finger licking good celebration for him at KFC. He's a great fans of this White Head Uncle =) See, so easy to celebrate for him, no need to crack my head for special preparation in terms of food and venue!

HubB and QQ both love kai-pei (drumstick) very much. QQ was so happy when we let her hold the kai-pei and eat it on her own.

After the chicken feast, we headed back home for a birthday cake treat. QQ sang for her Baba and soon-bin blew the candles for him! This is by default lah, can't escape.

I love the below picture! Check out the toothless kepohchi, she was smiling and eyeing on the cake!

Happy Birthday to you Hub!! May you be blessed with wonderful health (and wealth :P)!!

Baba's fav girlfren :P

QQ enjoying the white chocolate strip from the cake. See, this is what I mentioned before, the once in a blue moon sweet treat.

Geez, I'm feeding QQ with 11-15 teaspoons of SUGARY milk everyday

Sigh....I guess many mommies must have got shocked over the latest TVC about the sugar level content in the growing up milk powder which are available off the shelf. When I first saw that TVC, I told myself that maybe QQ will not be the "victim" coz she's not taking those ordinary milk powder.  Don't know why  my first impression over that TVC was "aaah, COW's milk powder is high of sugar".  QQ's  milk is meant for picky eater and needless to say, price is sky high. So it is not really a pure cow's milk powder. The purplish color tin. Can guess which brand ka? Hehehe.

But later due to my itchy hands, I went to check out the ingredients printed on the tin. And after reading my friend's blog about the same matter, that add on my worrisome so the more I wanted to find out the fact or rather the sugar faith between QQ and the milk powder she's been taking.

Here's the result @_@ Very the scary and disappointing. You may check the sugar level contain for your choice of formula milk brand at this website www.semakgula.com

There were once my dad tried QQ's milk (the leftover from the bottle) and he told me that the taste was superbly sweet. So now it is proven that the milk which QQ has been taking really contains high sugar level. But what can I do ya? Change to the brand which the company declares that it has zero added sugar?  QQ is a picky eater. She's very much underweight (11kg @ 3.5yo) but luckily she catches up pretty well in her pre-school. Only when she started attending pre-school last year, I can see some slight improvement on her appetite. She eats the most while in pre-school. She takes 8oz of milk as breaskfast, then 9.30am snack time and lunch at 12.30pm. Dinner time at home is the most pathetic lah, but she eats more than before lately (with so much of nagging and scolding from us!) For the past 1mth, she's kinda addicted to the milk, where she'll ask for a small bottle of milk (5oz-6oz) before she sleeps. Even if she took quite big amount of dinner, she still asks for her milk.

11-15 teaspoons of added sugar per day for her milk intake is crazy. I forbid all sorts of sweets for QQ - lollipops, gula-gula, chocolates, etc. She only gets to try some on special day, which happens once in a blue moon. My thinking is, she's already a picky eater so why want to let her help herself with these unhealthy food? Yes, she's just a small kid and some told me EVERY kid EATS chocolate/sweets as they grow. NO. I don't grow up with these junk food, same goes to my elder brother and sister. So in my family, none of us fancy sweets/gula-gula, or anything that is sweet. And I thought that giving her this special milk as food supplement is a wise choice. Now think twice.

With my over supply of BM, how I wish that QQ accepts my BM now. Once again, it is proven that breast feeding is the best feeding =)

I did it again - 2nd SOS call for my EBM stock

Mother's instinct can never go wrong lah. Few days ago, I was thinking to post my 2nd offer of my extra frozen EBM in Human Milk 4 Human Baby (HM4HB) page in Facebook. My "regular receiver" didn't come to collect my stock, but I've already told him earlier than I can still give out to him. So on 1 fine afternoon, I decided to post my offer again, coz I just had the feeling that there might be some other babies out there who need my BM under emergency circumstances.

Yesterday noon, I got a message from SN asking about my EBM stock. She has to travel for 1 week and already have some frozen EBM stock but she worried that her stock might not last till she comes back to KL. She was actually a bit hesitant, whether is it alright to share breast milk. I have my own theory of formula milk vs BM, so I've decided to share it with her, hopefully she can make up her mind after reading it.

Mommy can naturally produce milk for her own baby. Some people might think that it's a bit geli/yucky to take other mommy's milk to feed their own child. But how about formula milk? Formula milk powder derived from HUNDREDS & THOUSANDS of UNKNOWN COWS :D You don't know the cow, you didn't meet the cow. Just because it comes in a form of powder, looks clean and presentable in a tin, so people feels that formula milk is better lah. So if you can accept formula milk (means accepting milk from sooo many different unknown cows!), why not accepting milk from a human? You'll definitely be meeting the donor face to face!  Again, this is my very own personal theory ok =) Not that I'm trying to hard sell my stock :p So after SN read it, she replied saying that she would like to have my stock for her baby. I gave her my add and contact no. Now waiting for her call to arrange for collection.

And here's the 2nd emergency request which I got yesterday night. At 11.30pm just before I hit the sack, I checked my email via my HP. I get another message in my Facebook with regards to my BM. LC wrote to me that her newborn baby is having breathing difficulty, thus baby is now under ICU. Paed doesn't allow baby to latch on mommy's breast due to her weak lung. Unfortunately, LC could only expressed out very little of colostrum milk which is not enough  for feeding. Nurses have told her that baby is starving already, and the 2 choices given to them were either feed baby with glucose or formula milk. And that was how LC stumbled upon my post in HM4HB in Facebook. So she quickly wrote to me so that she could get some of my stock to feed her baby. 

As soon as I read her message, I immediately sms her that I can offer her my stock and to call me back immediately for arrangement of collection. We spoke yesterday night. She told me that  Gina, my breast feeding guru, has also given her my contact no too. Haha, looks like I'm the top (BM) supplier in Gina's mind :P LC's baby is in Pantai Hospital, Bangsar. Great!! Coz my office is just nearby the hospital! I do have fresh EBM in my fridge but due to I'm having minor cough now, I guess frozen EBM would be better for her baby. I really do not want her weak lung to become worst. So to play safe, I've packed 6 bottles (each bottle 5oz) of my frozen EBM for LC, all nicely wrapped with newspaper to prolong  the coldness. And yesterday midnight, I've already transferred another 2 bottles of frozen EBM to the fridge, so that by the time I meet her, she will have 2 bottles of defrost EBM. See the below picture, that 2 bottles of frozen EBM already half way melting =) Just nice for her to feed her baby today.

I didn't get to meet LC as she had C-section thus it's not convenient for her to move around too much. So her hubby came down to collect from me this morning. Hubby was overwhelmed with my offer - 8 bottles of EBM for her newborn. I had advised him about the storage method, and I called LC again to inform her the best way to defrost/thaw the frozen EBM. 

Once again, I felt very happy and glad to be able to help the little newborn baby girl, effortless! Wishing her baby get well soon ya!