La La Land

Catch me (again!) in New Sunday Times featuring HM4HB Malaysia!

2011-09-21T08:33:00.000+08:00

18th September 2011, Sunday - Yet another happy day for me and HM4HB Malaysia! All thanks to Tan Choe Choe of NST who did a very good write up about milk sharing for us :D

Part of the lovely (ahem!) mama behind the stage - The administrators for Human Milk 4 Human Babies Malaysia network in Facebook! Can you spot my lil QQ? :D

We (the ladies with bubs in the above pic) met Choe Choe on 3rd day of Hari Raya (2nd Sept) at Subang Jaya, one of HM4MB administrator's house for the interview. She is very keen to know about our milk sharing network in Facebook thus she wanted to do a write up on this interesting topic. By publishing this to the public, we all aim to create better awareness to everybody especially to those who are still skeptical about milk sharing as well as those who are not aware of such activity.

There are a few more admins in our group, but unfortunately some of them were out of town thus only 4 of us could make it. This round QQ was in the picture too, at the far right corner :) If you have missed out reading my very first milk sharing story which was published in The Star newspaper back in May 2011, that time only a photo of YY and I were captured. QQ didn't want to join our cheesy smile action back then. In the above picture, QQ was standing beside Jean and her 11mth old son, and 3 of them ~~pretending~~ busy on the lappy. Jean was also my junior in my secondary school! What a small small world heh!! I really love the picture very much, as it portrays us nursing our loved ones calmly. Portrays only?? Hehehe. The truth is, yeah, not all of us nursing our baby in real at that point of time :P In fact it was only ME who acted out! A big credit to YY who was very cooperative with me and the photographer. I had nursed her in the car, while on the way to this house. So when the photographer wanted to snap a picture of us nursing our baby, I was worried a bit coz YY had enough of my BM less than an hour ago. So, how to latch her on leh?? To my surprise, she didn't make a fuss at all when I put her to my boob. She didn't want to latch on but she stayed on that position exactly like latching on! It was funny to me as I looked at her acting skill. She was facing my boob, her eyes started to wander around - looking at the ceiling, then the stand fan, the sofa and my blouse. She gave me the look "are we done yet??" LOL!! She didn't perform any acrobatic stunt - arching her back with both legs stretch out straight, which she would definitely be doing it at home when I tried to latch her on and she wasn't keen on it. Even the photographer asked me, "you both are acting or for real?". I said "she's acting". Photograher was laughing and said "good actress!!". Oh YES she is!! ^_^

Here's the link to read the articles in NST. If you want to know who and how HM4HB being formed, have a read! Choe Choe came up with 3 write ups! Awesome-moresome!!!

http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/18ccmik/Article/

http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/2milks/Article/

http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/18ccmilk/Article/

EBM is needed for an 8yo liver cancer boy

2011-09-19T14:06:00.002+08:00

After a long missing in action from me....here's my very first back-to-blog post. A very unique one, but a sad post.

This is a very special story of my milk sharing journey. When I saw a post by Mich in HM4MB page in Facebook, asking for donors for her 8yr old nephew who suffered from liver disease, not only me, but a few other mommies responded to her whether the request was for 8mth old or 8yr old? Any typo error? NO. It was indeed for her 8yr old nephew. Poor boy ;( According to Mich, her nephew had Hep C first, and by the time his family knew it, already too late as the disease has turned into cancerous. Doctor has recommended to feed the boy with EBM so that it could help his own body to produce some antibody and hoping that he could live a little longer (for a few months). His family has no objection on this thus Mich immediately approached HM4MB for donors.

The respond was simply overwhelming. Within the same day (or perhaps within few hours after her posting in that page) many mothers with surplus of EBM contacted her. In total, she has collected 80 bags of frozen EBM (each bag 5-6oz). Thereafter she and husband drove all the way to Tangkak (near Johor) to deliver the frozen EBM to the hospital. Her nephew took 5oz of EBM twice a day. A month later, again, Mich appealed for another round of EBM donation. This round, I have given out 32 bottles (each 5oz) of frozen EBM to Mich. Due to her meeting many other donors on that day, HubB sent me to Mich's house to pass to her my stash.With this, the boy was my 11th milk "baby".

My stash of frozen EBM ready to be delivered to Mich

QQ my helper!

By end of August 2011, Mich has informed me that her nephew was not doing so well +_+ Hoping for miracle only, and the family was trying to fulfill his last wishes. It was really sad to hear such news. On 9th September 2011, the boy has returned to God. Sob..... ;(( My deepest condolence to Mich and family. May her nephew rest in peace.

As for the remaining of the frozen EBM, Mich has asked us, the donors, whether her 10mth old son can consume it or not? Well, of course YES from all of us.

Teacher and Parents Day

2011-07-13T15:06:00.000+08:00

Haiiiiih....time flies like nobody business! I always ask myself, what have I done? Tik tok tik tok....Nothing much actually (except for diligently being a moo-moo cow for the past 7mth down the road serving my 2 lil fella) but time is always not enough for me. Not that I'm super busy in the office (thank God!) BUT a new CEO came in lately +_+ therefore....I am busy now (oh God!), and that makes my blog covers with spider web, untouched for almost a month. I have so many ~~rubbish~~ things to write actually. Everything is in que now, till I don't know where and which topic to start. And I've got sooo many photo to be edited and uploaded here. My Sabah trip lah, YY's milestone lah, YY's skin issue lah, QQ's silly update lah, Father's Day celebration lah, etc etc.... All no time to update, cum M.A.L.A.S is part of the reason as well.

Anyway, this should be a very short update (minus the above long intro) So, I met Teacher Nel couple of weeks ago for QQ's first half year performance review. Fuuuh...I tell 'ya, it was just like yesterday I met Teacher Nel for the same matter. Now I did it again.

It's funny to meet my ex-school mate to get feedback about my own child's academic performance in the pre-school. Never thought this could happen. Hahaha. And of course, it was a very relax and happy moment with Teacher Nel coz we were not only talking about QQ though. Kepoh a bit of other student's (and some silly feedback from other parents) performance lah :P Not back-stabbing lah Ok. Info sharing sahaja =)

Overall, I am satisfied with her performance this far. Teacher Nel commented that she pays attention to the teacher in the class, she follows teacher's instruction (and disregard mine all the time!!) and also a fast learner. But even if she doesn't perform very well, I will not force her either. She is just 3.5yo, she still has a looooong way to go in study. Knowing every single thing perfectly is not a good idea actually. My colleague shares with me that her son reads and writes very well in kindergarten. But when her son started Primary 1, he began to complaint the school work was boring. You see, the primary teaching will start from the scratch ie ABC and 123. That's the reason why the boy felt boring. I will feel the same too.

QQ's weakness lies on Mandarin and Bahasa Melayu. For Mandarin subject, she recognises words, quite a number of it. I'm so impress by her lah actually, knowing myself got no exposure on it at all coz I came from Convent Sentul ^_^ So now I'm literally learning Mandarin from my 3.5yo girl. To me, she champions it well as compare to myself! Hahahaha! Occasionally, I will buy some exercise book for her. Too many toys liao...enough of toys. So I would rather spend my money on coloring/exercise books instead, just to keep her occupied and to kill time on the weekend.

Currently the school is busy with daily concert rehearsal (Teacher Nel told me that she gotto train 80 different "species" LOL!) and QQ is very active and sporting in this matter. Guarantee my lil dancing queen can never failed to give full cooperation to the teachers lah. She keeps on performing part of her dance to me, and sing "and the turtle rock, Yeah Yeah!!" That's the loudest and most "understandable" part of her rehearsal so far :P

From flower girl...to bride

2011-06-15T14:40:00.001+08:00

QQ loves to be a flower girl, ever since she had been appointed as one last year. Basically she loves to throw the petals on the floor lah, that's her favorite - throwing things all over the place to be more precise!

2nd time @ May 2011 for my close friend

1st time @ November 2010 for my cousin

And as a result of being hired as a flower girl twice, she has decided to be a bride instead! A run away bride with her very own D.I.Y. gown made out of a Disney princess bed sheet which Popo bought from the pasar pagi. By just tucking in the bed sheet behind her tee and voila! a no sew bride's gown for herself.

She has been very very obsess with this bed sheet lately. She sleeps with it (not sleep ON it ya coz she uses it as her blanket konon). She plays with it. She eats with it. As usual, Popo starts to nag and nag telling her don't walk around the house with it! She practically dry mopping the floor day and night with the bed sheet hanging behind her tee.


Carefully re-arranging her "veil" before she does the cat walk

Pausing her cat walk for this killer pose to the paparazzi!!

I think her 3rd assignment as flower girl might take place sometime in October 2011. Betul ka, cik Teng Teng? =)

More scary news from daycare centre

2011-06-07T12:54:00.000+08:00

In today's The Star newspaper, yet another horrible death story of a 2yo girl found drowned in a bathtub. It happened in a daycare centre +_+

Before this case, there was a news about a young child was chocked to death while bottle feeding. Again it happened in a daycare centre. I know accident does happen, anywhere anytime, but if it happens in a daycare centre, does that mean the daycare centre is short of teacher/child care taker thus lead to these unnecessary raising death tolls of the innocent kids? It's really really sad to hear this kind of news. First thing comes into my mind is my own children. So many "what if" linger on my mind now, although my kids are taken care by my parents.

And this reminds me of a real story about my ex-neighbour, Mdm Chew. She has been taking care of her grandchildren for years, since they were born. When her 2nd daugther gave birth to her 2nd child, Mdm Chew also helped to take care of the newborn and live in with her daughter. One day, while she was preparing hot water to shower her grandson, (I'm not sure how old is the kid when this incident took place, but definitely above 1yo) the telephone rang and so she left the bathroom and answered the phone call. Within seconds, she heard a loud scream. She rushed over to her grandson, and found him got burn by the hot water. Due to this case, the relationship between Mdm Chew and her daughter turned sour. And Mdm Chew finally moved out from her daughter's house. Mdm Chew's husband has passed away long time ago. So she moved in to stay with her youngest daughter. I believe she must have a hard time to forgive herself for what has happened to her own grandson. Luckily her grandson still survive, though still suffer from skin burn (not sure how severe it was). See, this kind of accident can happen even from own family member, all because of careless mistake. 1 single careless mistake can really steal a person's life away. Always remember DO NOT take things for granted.

Rashes, Hives, Eczema - what are the differences?

2011-06-06T12:57:00.000+08:00

3 of them relates to skin disorder/disease which is kinda confusing for me. But 1 thing for sure, catching one of them is not fun. I have not even heard of hives. And I certainly can't differentiate rashes and eczema coz both share some common symptoms like red bumps on skin, itchiness, scaly and dry skin. As I Google further about rashes, I found this website which explains the difference of that 3 types of skin disorder. I get a better picture of it now.

So, after reading that article, I would say that YY's skin condition (rough, dry, itchy) on her shoulders are consider as rashes. I hope my findings are right. Ok at least it tallies with what the Paed has informed me earlier. As per the article and Paed, we need to apply lotion/moisturizer on the affected part to prevent skin from further drying up. Also gotto stop her from scratching since itchiness has developed. Scratching will make it worse +_+

I am still not sure what is the root cause of the rashes on YY's shoulders. I have sensitive skin where rashes will develop, together with red marks and itchiness if I apply perfume directly on my skin. Be it perfume oil or EDP spray, rashes will appear after applying it on my skin for about 3-4 times. But I love perfumes! So I will only spray a bit on my clothes, avoid direct contact with skin. Now I'm wondering whether the perfume on my clothes has caused the rashes/itchiness on YY. I try not to use perfume whenever I have outing with my kids. Somehow, sometimes I still use them a bit, unconsciously! Too used to the routine in bathroom after got dressed up. Strange but true, even Jonhson and Johnson baby lotion doesn't click with my vulnerable skin also leh. It says " this product is hypoallergenic, dermatologist and allergy tested" and yet I can experience itchiness with red bumps on my skin after using it for less than 10x. There's a Chinese song entitled " yoong yi sao seong dik lui yan", literally means "easily hurt woman", best describe me. Hahahaha.

Since YY is not using any body lotion after bath from birth (and also not using any bath gel too, just plain warm water to wash up), now I'm searching for one which is designed for sensitive skin - no fragrance, no color, no preservatives, no paraben, no SLS, and non-chemical base lotion. If it's organic, better still. You may say that's my kiasu cum kiasi action, but to live with sensitive skin is so annoying and suffering. Dealing with my own skin problem is enough, so I want to avoid from dealing with a baby who can't talk but cry or fuss over her itchy skin later. Will update again stuff that I found from the web.

Itchy bitsy tiny and more

2011-06-01T15:43:00.000+08:00

Scratch scratch....

Couple of weeks ago, I noticed that YY skin has developed some rashes on both shoulders, a bit on her upper chest, a bit behind her shoulders, and recently found some on her elbows. I wasn't too sure what has caused those rashes, so during 1 of her routine check up, I showed the affected area to her Paed. Dr. Tan explained that those were rashes, and it would get worst when the weather is hot hence made her sweaty. Yeah, that was so true. Whenever YY started to sweat (even sat under the fan!), I can see the rashes turned red. Initially, she did not scratch on the rashes, so I assumed no itchiness lah. The affected area will look dry, and when touch on it, it was rough. Also can feel "yat lap lap", like mini pimples. Aiseh, I don't know how to describe lah. Dr. Tan has advised us to apply some lotion or moisturizer on the affected parts. It seemed like she is having sensitive skin. I did probed the question whether those were eczema? He briefly said that it could be eczema, another term for rashes, depending how severe it is later. Well honestly, I did not apply any lotion on her body since birth, after her shower. So during the recent Parenthood Fair in Mid Valley, I've searched for some organic and fragrance free cream/lotion for YY. I must do something to stop it before it becomes worst.

And this is what I've finally bought, after checking out a few brands available in the Parenthood Fair. I have heard and read about this brand way before I have discovered the rashes on YY's body. Upon inquiring within about the suitable cream/lotion for YY skin condition, the sales lady recommended this to me - Mei Mei Atopicare Cream to relieve the dry skin and itchiness. According to her, many people has used it and commented that it is very effective for sensitive skin, even to those who had eczema as well. It's quite pricey (RM49), although I bought it at a promotional price there. My mom has been applying it on YY for 2 weeks. The result? Not as what I had expected for. The affected area has indeed became smoother but lately she started to scratch her shoulders +_+ Oh dear....itchiness strike!

Below picture was taken yesterday evening, just before I gave her a quick shower (more on sponging her body with warm water only lah coz her body was so sticky due to her sweats). I noticed that if she didn't sweat, the affected area will looked normal but the moment she sweat, the rashes will turn red as you can see from the picture. That was the best picture I can take coz YY kept turning to my camera each time I held it near her.

Here's my naked YY after a quick shower. Those red marks behind her ears was not rashes lah. It was due to me holding her on the bath tub. Sigh....since the itchiness has developed, I am getting more worried now. I really do not want the rashes to spread any further. These few days I've been checking on the internet to find a better product for YY to combat this rashes before it becomes my nightmare. I don't want my poor baby to suffer from any kind of itchiness and skin inflammation +_+ Will share my search result on next post.

My 10th EBM recipient

2011-05-31T15:37:00.001+08:00

Last Sunday was a very busy yet happy day. Morning, had a quick brunch gathering with my 2 ex-colleagues at Wangsa Maju. Then left the place at 12noon coz HubB's cousins would be coming over to our house at 1pm. Main reason for meeting up with the cousin was, cousin's wife read my milk sharing news last week from The Star newspaper. Thereafter, she contacted me and was asking if I still have any surplus for her 3mth old baby. Yes I have! So she had arranged to come over to my house to collect my frozen EBM for his baby. She is still breast feeding her baby now, but she doesn't have enough time to express her milk during daytime. She is a FTHW, so I know how it feels to juggle between house chores and taking care 2 kids at the same time. Though I'm not a FTHW but to handle my kids without my parent's help on the weekend is darn tiring!! I had given her 28 bottles of frozen EBM (each bottle 5oz milk), and with this she is my officially number 10th recipient =)

Moving on to the next agenda in the evening, we attended another cousin's son's birthday party at Subang. We all had a great time there. YY wasn't cranky at all. Cousin sisters were busy taking turn to carry YY and play with her. That allowed me to have plenty of my own sweet time enjoying my meal there. I don't really have to focus on QQ too coz she was happily running around playing with the birthday boy and other kids.

Here's my favorite shots with YY, with a bling bling party hat on her! See, YY was on my ring sling. I have started to put her on my sling recently and she loves it a lot. I bought this sling from Mama Patch. Actually I've bought their cloth pads way earlier during my pregnancy, wanted to try it out during my confinement lah but then ding dong here and there, I have not collected it from Chinnee (our house are near to each other). So after YY's full moon, I asked Chinnee whether she would allow me to exchange my cloth pads with ring sling. She said OK! =) My first encounter with it was not successful. Really need lotsa practices to get use to it. I really need a sling and gotto ensure that YY is comfortable sitting on it coz next month, we will be flying to Kota Kinabalu. Will tag along QQ and YY too. I'm excited and looking forward to a holiday trip, and this will be YY's very first flight. She beats her jie jie coz jie jie only had her first flight when she was 18mth old to Guangzhao, China. I hope, and pray hard that YY will not mess up the short flight coming June 2011. HubB bought the tickets last year when Air Asia offered zero fare promotion. Gotto start planning what to pack and I bet it's gonna be a massive packing job again.

My angry bird!!

Catch me in The Star newspaper today!

2011-05-25T16:32:00.002+08:00

Tadaaa!!! I certainly don't anticipate this. Never. But it happens today, that my breast feeding story is featured in The Star newspaper. Check out Star2 pull out section and you'll see a lady clad in pink top on the 2nd page. That's ME ^_^ I read the article at 6.50am this morning and it really makes my day. You may read the article here

It all started when Siok Hui, a senior journalist from The Star newspaper read my milk sharing story in Human Milk 4 Human Babies Malaysia page in Face Book, sent me a message asking whether I would like to be interviewed (in a form of questionnaire) about my milk sharing experience. Without second thought, I said yes. Siok Hui shared with me that she was supposed to publish this write up since April, but due to some circumstances, she has to postpone it until the month of May so that is how I came into the picture now.

I really hope that my milk sharing story is able to create awareness to the public, and to encourage more mommies to BF their babies. I am so overwhelmed by my friends' lil note congratulating me after they have read the article, not because I become a "star" today (1 hit wonder :P) but their positive acknowledgement on what I've done means a lot to me. I would like to thank Teacher Nel again for lending me her entire freezer compartment for me to store my "gold" and also thanks to Gina, the lactating consultant who is now my friend, for giving me infinite support during my very first BF journey with QQ. It wasn't a rough BF journey though but I did called her day and night (yes! at night about 10pm++) whenever I have doubt during my confinement period. She has never failed to reply me on time.

My close up! Glad that YY was smiling to the photographer that day =)

Apart from this happening news, today YY turns 6mth old too. Yay!! My double joy of the day!! YY is still not able to crawl nor sit up right by herself. But when I hold on to both her hands while she is lying down on the mattress, she knows how to push herself up to sitting position, without me pulling her up at all. She's quite wai-sek too. Each time she sees us eating, she'll start to move her lips and starts munching! Munching her gums :P I hope that when we really start her on solid food/puree, she cooperates well with us and give us a fuss free feeding time. Happy 6th month old to you baby!

7-11 in the house!

2011-05-20T14:33:00.001+08:00

Not the virtual shop though. I'm talking about my 2 girls. Yesterday I brought YY for her routine check up cum injection. Phew....that was the 2nd last injection for the first 6 month of her life. Next month she's due for the Influenza jab and that's it. The very next jab will only take place after her 1st birthday.

YY's weight fluctuates a bit this month. Her milky appetite doesn't seem to be so good lately. Like Kit Kat, now you want it, now you don't. Last month check up (on 21st April 2011) she weighted 6.8kg. Then on 28th April, we brought her to see Dr Tan coz her right eye had greenish discharge. When put her on the weighing scale, the reading was 6.2kg! Haaiihh...sakit hati ooo to see her weight dropped so much. We noticed the problem arised since she was born. Initially she just had clear discharge very frequent, only from her right eye. Paed said it was due to her blocked tear duct. We need to constantly massage the side of her nose as it helps a bit to prevent from further blockage. We did it but it doesn't help much lah ;( Paed said that this problem will go away when she's reaching a year old. Hey, that's quite a long wait leh. But since the discharge looks greenish already, she has been prescribed with an antiseptic eye drop.

See her big small eyes? :D

Yesterday, her weight reading was 7kg, and measuring at 66cm height. Aaahh...at least got put on some weight and taller by 1cm! Haha! YY will turn 6 month old by next Wednesday, 25th May 2011. Yippie!! Can start feeding her some puree very soon.

Ok back to the subject of this post, 7-11. My 3.5yo QQ is only weighing at 11kg since...erm...last year!! +_+ So here we have this 7-11 duo in the house. YY @ 7kg, QQ @ 11kg =)

7-11 ^_^

I've hit the Baskin Robbin Age

2011-05-20T10:03:00.001+08:00

Happy Birthday to ME!! My birthday has passed way too long but still within this month, so this is a belated post. Didn't realize how time travels lah. Sekejap saja I'm touching 30-ish age group already. Feel so old :P I was just trying to recall back my sweet 16 day.....any sweet memory? Can't think of any actually! (That shows how fast I've started to loose my mind oredi) But to be honest, I think I love my life now more than before. I have a good HubB and 2 beautiful ~~monsters~~ daughters now, and living in a world of motherhood has changed my thinking, my perception, and my lifestyle.

Tagging along my 5mth++ bumbo while dining out, we can't really enjoy our food for longer time coz everything gotto be hurry up. Eat fast fast, drink fast fast, but not drive fast fast lah. YY doesn't really like lying flat on the stroller anymore. She wants to be seated on our lap and enjoy the view of every angle. As if there's nice view in the restaurant huh. We didn't go far that night, just had my favorite chicken and turkey ham cabonara fettucine at Key's Garden, Desa Park City. That's my favorite spot to hang out with Teacher Nel together with QQ most of the time.

My sweet 13 moment. Yeah...still sweet 13, no typo here.

After a quick dinner, we went back home for the cake cutting ceremony. As usual and by default, QQ will always be the one to sing for me, blew the candle for me, and cut the cake for me =) So that's all for my birthday celebration this year. Nothing special, BUT with an added family member ^_*

YY eyeing on the cake!

Muaahh!!

Sweet roll of the day

2011-04-27T17:02:00.000+08:00

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

2011-04-27T07:00:00.002+08:00

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

2011-04-26T12:19:00.000+08:00

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

2011-04-26T08:55:00.001+08:00

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

2011-04-18T14:26:00.002+08:00

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

2011-04-15T14:34:00.000+08:00

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

2011-04-12T12:52:00.000+08:00

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

2011-04-07T10:23:00.001+08:00

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!

SOS call for EBM

2011-03-31T12:48:00.001+08:00

Last Sunday morning, I received an SMS from Gina, my BF guru, whether I still have extra frozen EBM stock or not. She was asking on behalf of a new mommy, whose milk has not "arrived" yet but was pestered by the doctor to feed her baby with formula milk. I immediately replied Gina, "got got got!!".

30mins later, a man called me. It was the little baby's daddy. He sounded so American, to the extend that I couldn't even catch his name :P I always have this kind of problem lah, cannot really digest those thick American accent. I gave him my address and he said he would see me in 2hours time. I have told him to get a cooler bag/box and a pack of ice cubes form 7-11.

Upon his arrival, I was pretty shocked that he was actually an Indian :P I thought he's a mat salleh. Hehe. He bought a brand new Spectra cooler bag, inclusive of 4 milk storage bottles and 2 small cold pack, which were not frozen. Since he needed my stock urgently, I lend him 1pc of my cold pack to keep cold of my fresh EBM in his cooler bag. In total, I've given him 5oz x 7 bottles of my fresh EBM. He was overwhelmed! ^_^ The small cooler bag can only fit in 5 bottles, so my mom lend him a big cooler bag (those in silver color) which she bought from Tesco. We placed the ice cubes on the bottom of the big bag, then we put in the Spectra cooler bag on top of the ice cubes, plus another 2 more bottles of my fresh EBM. That should be safe enough for him to drive back to the hospital in Subang Jaya.

We had a quick chat with him about his wife and his baby girl. Apparently, doctor found out that her baby girl had jaundice and also low sugar level. During the pregnancy period, his wife had high sugar level. Erm, actually I didn't quite get him about this, I was confused then :P Mommy's milk has not arrived, but was able to produce little bit of colostrum. Still, that was not enough for her baby. According to the doctor, if they don't feed the baby with milk, baby's life is in great danger! Doctor insisted them to feed baby with formula milk, since mommy couldn't provide enough BM to baby yet +_+ So that was the reason why I didn't give him my frozen EBM, coz her baby was only 3days old and need to be fed urgently. Luckily I have not transferred my fresh EBM to the freezer lah. I had labeled my fresh EBM with date (all dated 26th March 2011), and I have thought him about the storage method. If baby can't finish the milk in 3days time, he needs to freeze it.

I felt so good and proud of myself, that I was able to help the little baby girl, and the anxious new parents too. Felt like being a paramedic personnel whom attended to an emergency : D

4mth old milestone

2011-03-28T15:36:00.000+08:00

Oooh...at the moment the stone is not moving that far yet. YY is 4mth 3days old now. She's not ready to show me the full flip stunt, just half golek only for now. When put her on tummy position, the most she does is lifting her head up, no mini push up. Ok no problem, take your time ya.

Other than that, 1 thing which she excels is she squeals, gurgles and coos much more than she usually does (since she was 1.5mth old). Is that a sign of her becoming a talkative girl soon, just like her jie jie? As I remember correctly, QQ started to talk - 1 word at the age of 8mth old and in full sentence when she was around 18-20mth old. Also, YY grasps toys easily and hold 'em tight very often too. Since 2 weeks ago, her milk intake has also increased thus currently it's between 4.5oz to 5oz/feeding. Thank God that she is not (and hope not at all) showing any drastic sign of rejecting bottle for the time being. Once in a while, she did reject bottle but the most will only last for a day. QQ started to reject bottle feeding when she was 4mth++ and the terror began from thereon +_+ Cup feeding, syringe, spoon....all these were so time consuming and tiring for my mom. I pray hard that YY will not let us experience such historical torturing milk feeding moment again.

Mei Mei...last time Popo used this cup to feed me milk...slurrpp...fun for ME but torturing for Popo! :P

Mom, must you snap picture each time I sh*t?

My rock-a-by babies

2011-03-24T13:11:00.000+08:00

See my big baby and small baby here....they love this new rocking chair quite a bit. New item in the house, but a pre-loved one. First saw it in my MIL's house, my SIL bought it for her baby. Hers is also a pre-loved one, so that's how I've got the idea to get 1 for my gals as well. I find it a bit silly to get a brand new one coz it'll cost me a bomb. Fisher Price brand ma....sure mahal gile neh. Original price is RM369 and I've got mine from a blogshop which sells branded pre-loved items at RM89 inclusive shipping. I tell ya, this item is really selling like hot cake among the pre-loved stuffs! I've browsed thru many blogshop which sells pre-loved branded stuff, and all sold out. Don't know why my fingers were itchy that time, I text to this particular seller just to ask whether she still have it or not. Jeng jeng jeng!! She said YES and would upload the picture onto her blog shortly. Lucky me lah. It is still in very good condition (no scratches at all on the metal legs of the rocking chair) and not really worn out (the kain part) so I'll say it's a steal! By right it comes with a toys bar but I guess the owner misplaced it so no toys bar for YY. Not important at all so I don't mind. This baby rocker supports up to 18kg child's weight. My big baby who's now 3.5yo is only weighing at 11kg, so she has a loooooong way to go with it =)

It has 2 reclining position. The one in the below picture is the lowest position which is just nice for baby to nap on it. Push 1 level up will be best for feeding. It also vibrates, a very mild vibration only lah, to sooth baby. Can see the white box at the bottom of the rocker? It's battery operated but I never used this function.

Most of the time YY will be using it. I've already told QQ upfront that she needs to share it with her lil mei mei, so no rebut rebut action. So far, QQ is kind enough to let YY use it more often. YY's favorite past time on this rocking chair is to enjoy her fingers and sometimes half of her fist inside her mouth!! Yummy....

It's nice...trust me.

Banana mama vs little learner

2011-03-22T07:00:00.000+08:00

The other day, Teacher Nel was telling me that QQ could read and spell some English words, e.g. ant, bee, bun, cat, dog. But as usual, when I tried to test her, she just gave me her blank face look. Teacher Nel said that she reacted such way because at home no other children appear as her competitor. Whereas in school, it's like a pop quiz session where kids will shout out the answer to compete with each other.

So last week, I brought her to Popular book store to get some very basic learning books, Mandarin and Bahasa Melayu. It took me a while to find the suitable ones from the big shelf. Finally I found this, and it's meant for 3-5yo children. There are a few series so I took Book 1 for beginner. As she progresses further, will get her Book 2,3 and 4. This book is darn cheap @ RM1.90 each.

I really love this book, coz a pure "banana" me can only read Chinese words with the help of translation for each of the word, as seen below. Well, this is meant for the beginners - children and ME!

I knew QQ has been coping quite well in the class for most of the subjects taught in the pre-school. But Teacher Nel did informing me she seemed to struggle a bit to recognise Chinese words +_+ I started to worry when I heard this. See how kiasu of me lah. HubB gonna send QQ to a Chinese primary school. With my superb knowledge on this complicated word with hundreds of strokes (I want to pengsan learning Chinese words!) I don't know how can I do revision with her in future. Get HubB's help? Yeah, when he HAS the time to do it lah. If he continues to travel (or even more often) in future, my last resort would be QQ's Dun Dun and Popo. My dad knows how to read and write Chinese word very well, whereas my mom can only read coz she was English educated. She took extra class to learn Mandarin back then. Not bad ha. At least she can read and understand Chinese news paper.

As I flipped thru the book with QQ in the book store, she immediately read out to me all of the below words, except "didi". WOW!! Impressive!! Didn't know that my little 3.5yo ~~monkey~~ daughter can read so well! See, I underestimated her liao. With this, I took the courage to learn together with her. Erm...more to learn FROM her I guess :P

And she could also match the picture with the correct word, except for the moon picture. Teacher haven't taught her yet. Ok, she has reached far much better than my expectation. I'm happy now =)

Patchy forehead

2011-03-21T14:55:00.000+08:00

Yesterday morning, we brought YY to her paed for her 2nd booster jabs. As usual, it was a long wait (2hr wait with big crowd). YY is weighing at 6.2kg with 63cm height. She will turn 4mth old this Friday =) This round, her reaction to the pain was rather slow. She only let out a loud scream without tears. When Dr. Tan first cucuk her right thigh, she was still happily admiring the baby gym toys hanging above her head. Then moved on the the left thigh, cucuk, still no cry. But soon after Dr. Tan removed the needle from her thigh, then only she started to scream.Ok lah, consider brave lah :P

At night around 8.15pm, she started to be feverish (37.5 degree) and a bit cranky too. So I fed her with 1.5ml of fever syrup. Then I put a piece of the children size cold gel patch on her forehead to help bring down her body temperature. She was Ok with it, not like QQ where she just refused to have it on her forehead when she had fever last time. But when she saw YY having it, she berebut to have one for herself too!

Didn't keep stock for baby size cold patch, so just use the children size one lah.

I BF her to sleep as usual. Her fever subsided an hour later. I couldn't get enough of sleep, coz I constantly woke up to check her temperature. I just had the feeling that she might be feverish again anytime after the fever medicine which she took 3hours ago. That fever medicine will last for 4-6hour.

True enough, fever came back at 2.15am measuring at 37.8 degree. After I BF her, I woke her up to feed her medicine. YY made mommy so proud. She didn't cry at all when I fed her medicine, and was very very cooperative too (plus a big loud phoooooottt from her. She had her biz in the middle of the nite!) . In fact, she was still smiling at me and Popo even though she was feverish. Aaah...so glad to see that happy face of her!! Thereafter, I pat her to sleep....yawwwwnnn....by the time I put her down on bed again, it was already 3am . In another 2.5hr time I need to get up again to pump milk, BF her and prepare myself to work. In total, I only had 4.5hr of sleep today.

No beauty sleep = No look pretty :P = Dark eye circle is my best friend = No mood to work (alasan!!) = NOT easy to be a mama. Never mind. Not that she will remain as a baby forever. This baby phase will pass real soon (another 8mths to go...consider soon??) +_+ Yawwwnn.......

Face the (pathetic) wall

2011-03-17T07:00:00.001+08:00

For the first time, I've demanded QQ to face the wall as punishment. When I said so, she immediately stood right in front of a wall. A very small pathetic wall which you can see in the below picture. Smart ha.

The drama is like this....when I carried YY upstairs for a quick bath, QQ followed me. After I was done with YY, I looked around for QQ and she was not at my sight. Fishy...fishy...she is not the duduk diam diam type. I've spotted her in Ah Yi's bathroom. She was doing something secretly there, and as I called out her name she got shocked and jumped up. I asked her what she did there, and she said "nothing". The more she said so, the more suspicious I felt. She left the place in seconds! I went to that bathroom to check things out.

First, I saw 2 tubes of toothpaste, both kena squeezed already. But surprisingly, there wasn't any toothpaste stain on the sink. She CAN'T be so hak hei, played so little toothpaste only? Cannot be lah.

When I turned around....OMG....she had chosen to attack the toilet bowl instead. There was some toothpaste near the rim.Worst part was, she threw in some sotong crackers inside!! I took a toilet brush and tried to scoop them up for a closer look. Those brownish crackers became big and soggy (kembang due to contact with water) and they really really look like SH*T!! I wanted to take a picture of the disastrous-looking toilet bowl, but I couldn't coz from the look at it, I had stomach upset de. Hahahaha!! I quickly clean up the toilet bowl and tapao all the soggy crackers, and I flushed the toilet. I washed my hand and I think God made me turn around again for the 2nd time. With the clear water in the toilet bowl, there were more to be discovered.

The toilet bowl has turned into a wishing well. See, so many coins down there, with more toothpaste! Duh....although the water is consider clean, but I can't put my naked hand into it to remove those coins. I covered my hand with a plastic bag first before I do the collection.

Of course, QQ get lots of scolding from me. She cried badly when I asked her to face the wall. While she faced the wall, I sat opposite her to BF YY. She cried louder and louder but I just ignore her. Then she apologized to me repeatedly. I gave her my killer look and she turned back to the wall :P She continued to cry cry cry....then I peeped on her. It was crocodile tears!! She was facing the wall, gave me her fake cry and fake sobbing, and she was playing with the wall. Her little fingers were digging the side of the wall!!! She saw me peeping on her and she stopped immediately. She then apologize and said "har chi ng kam" (next time don't dare to do it again). Dear, I've heard this for x-amount of time already. Kinda immune to your pledge lah.

From that incident, whenever she started to drive me up the wall, I will always ask her "want to face the wall?", she would tame back a bit. Don't know how long can use this trick to stop her from doing all the blood boiling stunts.

BUT...that's not the end of the story. She had fever on that historical night +_+ Gosh...I felt so bad. Traumatized due to the punishment ka? In fact, when she was asleep, I had the feeling that she might get fever. Mother instinct. I kept checking her temperature throughout the night. At 3.30am finally fever striked. Luckily her body temperature was not too high, the first thermometer reading was 37.7 degree. I gave her the fever syrup and fever subsided an hour later. The next day almost the same time around 3.20pm, mild fever revisit. I brought her to see Dr. Tan, and her throat was a bit swollen thus trigger the fever. So confirmed not due to the punishment lah. I feel better de.... =)

An avocado away, brings back my kilos straight away?

2011-03-16T10:20:00.003+08:00

I hope so! Avocado is rich in vitamins and fats. Yes, FATS!! Healthy fats which I need the most. Also, since I'm breast feeding YY, I want my BM to be rich in nutrients, to pass on to YY too. So now I'm taking it daily as my snack, right after my moo moo session in the office. But an avocado is not too filling lah, I will take a cup of yogurt (unfortunately it's a low fat yogurt) and some bread /biscuits to cure my shaking hands and legs . After each moo moo session hor, my body will be shaking, sign of hunger! So I need to fill in the blanks with proper food.

QQ had taken lots of mashed avocado with fragrance pear puree mixed with some plain yogurt when she was younger. As she grows, puree foods (even porridge) is too yucky for her, so she has stopped taking this richie rich avocado as snack. I will definitely feed YY with it when the time comes.

When I used to feed QQ with avocado, I didn't quite like it. I find the taste and texture are very...weird and a bit yucky as well. See, I fed things that I dislike to my girl :P And slowly she also dislike it :P But lately, I had no idea why I fell in love with it. Last week, I was in the supermarket and I saw this, a pack of 3 Hass avocado @ RM11.99. Best thing is, there's a guide on how to choose a ripe avocado, as shown on the box cover.

Psst...my dear cousin sister had a bad experience with an unripe avocado. She wanted to make avocado salad, thus she decided to boil it. No matter how long she boiled it, the avocado can never be cooked! Kekekeke. That was her first and last time to purchase 1.

So to those who don't know how to choose a ripe avocado or to make it ripe, here's the tips:

1) if you want to eat it as soon as you have purchased it, choose the black skin 1. Black skin means fully ripe. Also try to press on it GENTLY. If it has soften a bit, lagi best =)

2) if you only found those with dark green skin, you still can purchase them. When you are back home, DO NOT keep it in your fridge (even for 1 day) to wait for it to turn black. If you do so, they will NEVER be ripe even if you take it out and keep in room temperature later. Remember, once already in the fridge, no turning back ya =)

So how do you make it ripe/skin turn black? Easy peasy.....keep them inside your rice container. Firstly clean it with water and then wipe dry before you dump it in. Check on it every day, coz by using this method, the avocado ripe faster compare to leaving it on it's on in room temperature. Once it turns black, cut into half and scoop out the flesh. Yummy!! The taste is very much to "buttery feel". My mom loves to mash it and spread on bread.

My avocado - mixture of ripe and semi-ripe

A soften ripe avocado ready to serve!

Mom said that Hass (from Australia) brand is good. Last time she did lots of baby food research for QQ, and that was why she insisted to feed QQ with avocado, so that her tiny lil grand daughter will grow bigger and stronger. QQ was a small-built baby (due to her mama XS gene), that was why Popo wanted to feed her all the good food hoping that she could have more flesh (to flaunt). Hehe.

Below are some good facts about avocado, which I got it here . Can see the amount of vitamins it carries? That's why it is highly recommended to babies and toddler, even adults too.

Description:

There are 384 Calories in one cup of avocado
1/2 an avocado contains 145 calories and 14gm of fat

Avocados, despite being high in fat are very good for you, and people keep discovering more of the health promoting properties.

Once does want to keep a close eye on overall fat and calorie consumption, but a little avocado in your diet, especially in a salad can go a long way.

The fat in avocado is primarily monounsaturated, and has been shown in studies to lower bad cholesterol, and raise good cholesterol.


Serving Size

Amount per serving
Calories 384	Calories from Fat 319

Hide Daily Values

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 35g		54%
	Saturated Fat 5g	25%
	Polyunsaturated Fat 4g
	Monounsaturated Fat 23g
Cholesterol 0mg		0%
Sodium 18mg		1%
Total Carbohydrates 20g		7%
	Dietary Fiber 16g
	Sugars 1g
Protein 5g

Vitamin A	7%	Vitamin C	34%
Calcium	3%	Iron	8%
Thiamin	12%	Riboflavin	19%
Niacin	22%	Pantothenic Acid	34%
Vitamin B6	33%	Potassium	33%
Phosphorus	12%	Magnesium	17%
Zinc	10%	Copper	20%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

100th day old celebrity

2011-03-09T08:16:00.001+08:00

YY was exactly 100th days old on 4th March, 2011. According to my MIL, we have to let YY lick a kai pei (drumstick) to initiate the "hoi zhai" day. Never heard of this tradition before? Me too! But we did the same to QQ as well. So far, none of my friends have heard of this practice, so it's kinda rare tradition. But fun! =)

This is my favorite picture. YY was smiling when I held the kai pei infront of her, touching her lips. And the forever kepoh QQ tried to adjust her head lah, kept telling YY " sik kai pei lah!! sik laaa...sik laaa!!" O.o See the meaning of fun which I mentioned just now?

After the kai pei licking good session, I told QQ to pose with the kai pei for me before she bite it. Very cooperative. She even said that she would "bai pou si", means show me different pose for my camera! She loves posing for the camera, just like her mama lah :P

There goes the kai pei.....first, QQ declared that she wanted to finish it all by herself. This kampung chicken was a bit kenyal, but surprisingly she could chew 'em nicely. But there were some left over meat on it, so baba didn't want to waste it and he polished the kai pei properly.

And finally, happy mama managed to take picture with her 2 ultimate gaga girls! Small gaga seemed to be happier than me!

24 in 45 out

2011-03-05T14:11:00.004+08:00

24 empty bottles are back, and about 45 bottles of frozen EBM were taken out from Teacher Nel's freezer last Saturday. That was the last batch available in her freezer, all given out to KC. He was happy to sapu all my stocks for his lil baby ;)

Mom's freezer still has about 20 bottles and 20 bags (each bag 10oz-12oz) of frozen EBM. I can still give out the end of Jan 2011 stock. But those stocks dated between 7th Feb to 25th Feb will not be given away coz during that period of time, I was down with flu and cough. To the extend that I need to take antibiotic. Come to think of it now, why in the first place I freeze/keep those extra ounces of EBM while I was on medication? And I'm not giving away, nor feeding YY with it. I've decided to keep feeding YY with fresh EBM and whatever extra ounces will be frozen and to be given out again. For the time being, I can get about 20-25oz of EBM per 12 hour. More than enough to feed YY.

So what am I going to do with those "medicated" frozen EBM?? Down to the drain again I suppose...... +_+

Itchy bitsy tickle me

2011-03-04T07:00:00.008+08:00

Here's the video of YY laughing as I tickle her armpits =) We all just love to play and chat with her coz she will surely respond with a big broad smile. Seeing a happy baby like her everyday really make our day!

p/s : notice QQ's voice behind? Due to too much of attention given to her lil mei mei, she wanted some from us =)

Dim chong chong...

2011-03-03T07:00:00.000+08:00

Chong chong fei!! That's the all time favorite stunt we love to play with QQ last time, and now with YY. Here's the video of YY laughing out loud while playing with her. I always play back all her laughing videos whenever I'm free (especially during my moo moo time), they are simply irresistible!

Original video is quite lengthy with many more laughter from her in the beginning. So I just trimmed the video featuring this singing part only. Come to think of it, did I record this type of video for QQ? Let me x-ray all my thumb drive first......

My 2 yellow gaga

2011-03-02T07:00:00.000+08:00

YY @ 3mth old

I just love taking this picture, as I remember that I did the same for QQ too. Baby looks the best, smells the best right after the warm shower =)


QQ @ 9mth old

I thought that when I took this picture of QQ, she was around the same age as YY. Nope...I was wrong lah. I've managed to dig out this old picture and found out that she was then 9mth old de. I will do this again when YY reaches 9mth old....provided that I still REMEMBER to do so lah.

A mutated rabbit

2011-03-01T08:13:00.000+08:00

Here's the very first "complete" drawing from my 3yr 5mth old QQ =) It's a RABBIT!!

I couldn't figured out this in the beginning, until my mom told me so. But my very first wild guess was a pig =) Initially QQ drew a big circle only. Then as my mom asked her 1 by 1, where's the eyes? where's the nose? etc....QQ drew accordingly.

I think she did a great job, although it didn't really turn out like a "normal rabbit" :P At least she knew where to position the body parts. But the hands.....hahahaha! Lari margin liao!

I'm gonna keep this and will show to her again when she's older.

Happy 3mth old to YY

2011-02-28T09:00:00.002+08:00

YY is exactly 3mth old on 25th February 2011. Happy!! Here's her milestone achievement so far, from birth to-date.

3week old ~ her neck is quite strong, as she had attempted to lift up her head many times, whenever we carried her in cradle position.

1mth old ~ a good poser! YY smiles a lot, very much more than QQ's baby time. So I can always capture her cheeky smiles easily.

Newborn ~ 3weeks old

@ 2.5mth old

1.5mth old ~ she already started to giggle, and even laugh out loud many times! Lately, we discovered that she can't stand the itch of being tickle behind her ears and armpits =) Whenever we do that, she'll definitely be laughing. She loves people chatting with her. Each time we talk ~~rubbish~~ to her, she will respond by cooing a lot. Sometimes she's a bit long winded, and ended up membebel non stop. Though we don't understand her language, we just say "yes ar?? Oooh yes meh?? Hai yar?? Hai meh??" Lol!! Her neck is getting stronger as well.

2mth old ~ reaching out her hand to grab toys which we hold in front of her. Popo started to put her on potty, and she seems to be quite cooperative and enjoy herself on it most of the time. Very seldom to find her nappy kena stained or soiled, so lesser washing involve - on both nappy and her lil bouncy buttocks :P

I strongly feel that introducing potty to a baby at early stage will help a lot in potty training journey. My mom put QQ on potty when she was 1mth old, and by 1.5yr old, she already fully potty trained for day time. She only wears cloth diaper during her nap and night time. Will blog further about it separately. Start early, and that really save us lots of trouble and headache too. This is also 1 of the benefit for having own parent as baby's care taker. I'm lucky to have my parent's help to take care of my 2 gals =)

3mth 4days old (as of today) ~ over the weekend, she showed us her new stunt i.e. turning her body to the side way. Now we've gotto be more careful with her, and always surround her body with pillow/cushion while lying on the sofa, in case she makes a big flip and the next thing we know....she might end up on the floor head down.

@ 3mth old

When I don't smile....

In 4 days time (4th March, 2011), YY will be 100days old and we will celebrate it with a BIG steamed chicken drumstick for her (to lick only)! That's to initiate her "hoi zhai" day, one of the Chinese tradition lah. I don't know, just follow as what MIL has asked us to prepare for this earlier. QQ had this too, last time.

Happy 7th Anniversary

2011-02-24T17:01:00.000+08:00

Little did I realize.....today marks our 7th Wedding Anniversary! I don't really know what makes me remember this day. Coz for the past 2 years (at least!), I have totally forgotten about our anniversary *_* How pathetic.......

But nothing much to do on this special day, as HubB is out of town today. But I've managed to pamper myself with some goodies on this special occasion. Ahem...as if I've never pamper myself with shopping on normal days huh :P Same old lame excuse to shop!

My friend went to Nose warehouse sale yesterday. The price is crazy, starting as low as RM10/pair!! Apa lagi, my colleagues and I zooooomed over to the warehouse to help them clear their stocks during lunch hour :P

Here's the catch of the day.....

Satisfied....satisfied....

Dear Mr Pang,

May we be blessed with more wonderful years ahead, to spend together with our 2 lovely lil ~~monsters~~ princess. Wishing we both white head till old ya! ^_^

RM20/pair

RM10/pair


RM10/pair

Long overdue jab

2011-02-24T09:07:00.000+08:00

Yesterday morning, I took time off from office to bring YY to the pediatric clinic for her jab. She's weighing at 5.8kg (increased 200gm in a week) and 61cm tall. It was an overdue jab actually. Due to her phlegm attack during CNY, she has to postpone her 2nd month jab until she has recovered from it. She will turn 3 month old this Friday, and she yet to take her 2 month old jab! Erm...there was a miss communication lah. When we first brought her to see Dr. Tan for her phlegm problem, she was supposed to take her jab at that point of time. But Dr. Tan said to wait till she recovers first. I thought that she has to be FULLY recovered in order to take the jab. Last week, we brought YY to see him again as she has already finished her medicine and yet still having phlegm. Only then I realized, the moment we noticed YY had recovered a bit, we may have sent her in for the jab much earlier +_+

So yesterday, she had taken 2 jabs + 1 orally for Rotavirus. The total damage was.......RM551!!! I took the "better" one from Wyeth (13 in 1). And the best part was, they are now having promotion. Funny....injection also got promotion?? Buy 3 get 1 free. Hahaha! So for the 4th jab, I only need to pay Dr. Tan's consultation fee. Anyway, I can claim the medical bills from company, my entitlement is RM2,500/yr :)

When Dr. Tan poked in the first jab on YY's left thigh, she was steady, no crying. Wow, I turned to my mom and said "eh, not pain leh". But when Dr. Tan was about to poke her right thigh, YY screamed! So...it was a delay respond from her lah. She felt the pain actually :P She didn't really cry, just screamed a bit only and was back to normal within 5 seconds =)

In the afternoon, mom told me that she was very cranky and even refused to drink milk. She was very restless and wanted to be carried all the time. From morning till late evening, she didn't show any sign of fever. When I reached home, I had been taking her temperature every hour, coz Dr. Tan has informed me that she might get fever due to the jabs. At around 8.30pm, I measured her temperature and the reading was 37.4 degree. Another 0.1 degree the thermometer will beep. Seemed like on the way to be feverish liao, so I gave her the fever medicine. The texture was quite thick, so it was not easy to feed her. I poured bit by bit onto a small spoon (got it from Baskin Robbins ice cream) and feed her few times, till she finished the 1.5ml dosage. She was OK when I breastfed her yesterday night, not cranky at all and even smile and laugh happily when I played with her. Looks like she was looking for my 2 au de naturelle pacifier during my absent =) so she "protest" to her Popo the whole afternoon.

She didn't have fever throughout the night. Mom will keep monitoring her temperature today, hopefully no recurrent of fever lah.

Ms Chatterbox

2011-02-23T13:23:00.001+08:00

QQ is in year 4 class this year, although she's only 3yr 4mth old now. I always feel that a year end baby benefits a lot in academic coz in QQ's case, she gets to learn year 3 stuff when she was only 2yr old , same for this year too. This is the first academic feedback from Teacher Nel, written in QQ's message book. I was so happy to read the first few lines, coz she got all the praises from her teacher for being able to catch up with her lesson very well. Yeah, QQ is indeed a fast learner =)

BUT....check out the last line of the message -------"sometimes she is TALKATIVE in the classroom".

Does this really work? Fast learner = good memory skill = talkative?? :P

I had a word with Teacher Nel about this, to find out more how my lil rascal can be so talkative in the classroom. Teacher Nel said, "I've moved her seat from middle to front row. And yet she dares to talk while I'm teaching. Other pupils already kept quiet, but QQ still happily chatting with her buddy, XR". But luckily that QQ speaks English with XR. At least there's a good point out of this bad behaviour :P Last time, she used to speak in Cantonese with her classmates.

When I asked her did she talk to XR while teacher is teaching, at first she denied it. When asked her again for the 3rd time, she admitted with a broad smile on her face. Instead of nagging her, I told her that if she continues to talk while teacher is teaching, other pupils will learn more than you. And you won't get to learn as much as your classmates. I asked her "do you want to be left behind, where all your classmates can answer teacher's question except you, coz you were talking and not listening to the teacher". QQ replied "I don't want....". Well that's her default answer most of the time. She'll say it with her sad looking face. Nah...she's not that sad actually. In less than 3 seconds, she is back to her chirpy joker face =)

Anyway, I've gotto confess this.....that I am also a talkative person. VERY talkative :P But I don't talk while teacher is teaching =) I actually love to talk and laugh a lot. Sounds like a soh-poh ha? And when I was back to work from my 2mths maternity leave, my colleagues said this to me "when you are not here ar, the office is like dying, soooo quiet". I'm an amplifier is it? Maybe a woofer cum tweeter, I guess :P

I'm slimmer, she's fatter

2011-02-18T11:59:00.000+08:00

As what I've predicted during my confinement period, that I'll be back to my original skeletal body when I report back to work. True enough lah, now I'm weighing at 40.7kg only =( Sob...Sob.... But at least I know that all my precious fats have gone to my precious baby YY.

Although YY is still having mucus/phlegm problem, she sleeps well and eats well , thus her weight increases "beautifully" :P

At birth ~ 3.17kg

1 month old ~ 4.2kg

2 month old ~ 5.5kg (as of yesterday)

YY weight gain pattern is much more better than QQ's baby time. I still remember that during QQ's first few months checkup at the pead clinic, she only gained a pathetic of 300-500gm/mth. QQ was a small eater too, and she started to reject bottle at the age of 3-4mth old. That even slow down her weight gain also.

As for myself, I really don't know how to gain more fats. I'm too thin!! Many people feel that I'm so lucky to be back to original shape in such a short period of time after gave birth. Tummy turned flat on 2nd week after gave birth and at the same time shed off 10kg too. Yeah...I'm lucky. But I still prefer my pregnancy look. Back then, I had more flesh, more fats. Now....only left with bones underneath my thin skin. Chinese says "phei bao kuat" +_+ I know I know...as long as I'm healthy I shouldn't worry so much right? But hor, I want to be healthy and pretty at the same time ma! Greedy me =)


BEFORE : That's me with my big tummy, 5days before I "letup"

AFTER : Me and my ex-schoolmates, pic taken 2days ago.

Extra frozen EBM stock give away

2011-02-16T15:54:00.001+08:00

2 weeks ago, after I came back from Ipoh for CNY, I have done something which I felt really bad. Mom's freezer is full of my frozen EBM again and I can't sumbat anymore frozen EBM into Teacher Nel's freezer too as hers also fully occupied by my stocks as well. I had thawed more than 25 bottles of frozen EBM (each bottle 4-5oz) and all went into the drain ;( Before I decided to do this, I've thought of donating them to the needy babies. But I was asking myself, if other mommy offer me their EBM, am I willing to accept it? Honestly, I'll be in dilemma then. Somehow I just find it a bit weird to feed my baby with EBM from an unknown mommy. My concern focus on the cleanliness and worry on the risk of disease/contamination . BUT if I feed baby with formula milk, then it will be like feeding my baby with cow's milk from soooo many unknown cows too! LOL!! I don't have short supply of BM for my baby so let's not crack my head to think whether I can accept or reject other mommy's BM or not lah. All I know is, donating breast milk is just like donating blood to the hospitals/blood banks. No harm doing so.

Even after throwing away so much of my precious EBM, I still need more space. But I was very very reluctant to do it again (throwing away my milk), as it will be such a big waste. So I've decided to just try my luck to offer my frozen EBM stocks to public by posting it at The Breastfeeding Advocates Network page in Facebook. I was thinking there might be some mommies out there who can't meet their baby's demand but only wish to feed baby with breast milk and not to supplement with formula milk. 2 days after my posting on that page, there were 3 mommies responded to my post! Wow!! I was surprised and very happy reading mommies who have feedback that they need my stock. I quickly PM them my mom's add and my mobile no so that we can arrange for collection soonest possible.

Out of the 3 mommies who had responded to my post, I was only able to keep in touch with 2 as the other one was actually responding on behalf of her friend. From there on, I've discovered something greater.

JC was the first to accept my offer. Due to logistic problem, she has asked her brother, KC to collect on behalf. But after discussing with JC via email, apparently KC also needs some of my stocks too. Both of their baby boys are of same age i.e. 3mth old now and the 2 babies are sharing the same date of birth too! How cool is that, bro and sister's son both same DOB =) JC's problem is her baby boy eats more than what she can supply, whereas KC's wife is on a long term medication which makes her unable to feed her baby with her own BM. FYI, the wife has to take steroid, so baby can't be fed with mommy's BM =( I am very glad and happy that KC supports BF very much. Although his wife is not able to do so, he's searching high and low for BM stocks for his son. According to KC, his baby boy was only weighing at 1.8kg at birth, so baby was very much underweight. Just a few days before our meet up, I stumbled upon my ex-college mate's photo in my Facebook. And to my surprised, in my that friend's picture I saw a lady who was seated next to her carrying a baby was tagged with the name JC. Both of them sharing the same surname. Uhhh Oohh....as I investigate further (try to be Agent Scully konon :P) JC and my friend must be sibling. I quickly PM JC about that picture and BINGO! JC is indeed my friend's younger sister!! The world is really really small lah. So now I'm actually supplying my EBM to her nephews. With that, I've become the babies' "nai-ma", ibu susu :P I've given KC a total of 24 bottles of frozen EBM. And BTW, as I'm typing this, KC sms me that his son has no problem taking my EBM =) He has kept aside 12 bottles for JC so he will only use the other half for his son.

Another mommy whom I met yesterday is actually staying very near to my own house in Kajang. But since my stocks are in Kepong, her husband drove all the way to Kepong to collect my stock. I have given her 30++ bags of frozen EBM, ranging from 6-10oz per bag. Her job requires her to travel quiet often thus not able to have sufficient BM supply to her baby son as needed.

Now both freezer units are pretty spacious already, leaving behind mid-end Jan 2011 stocks, and now I can start to pump more frequent to fill in the blank :P But I've been sick for almost 2 weeks, currently coughing very badly. So my BM supply has dropped a bit. As long as I continue to nurse YY more and pump every 3hr in the office, hopefully I will be back on track soon. Also I have not been giving YY any frozen EBM ever since she has those mucus/phlegm in her throat (or lung?? not sure) since last week. She needs more nutrient and antibody to fight against the infection, so I only let her drink fresh EBM. At the same time kinda worry also, once she has recovered I'll start thawing frozen EBM for her and she might reject the frozen EBM taste after enjoying the fresh milk for so long. Hope not.

If you are a breastfeeding mom, do join this and this page on Facebook. There are lots of stories and info shared among the mothers regarding breastfeeding. Eats on Feets Malaysia is a dedicated page meant for mommies who want to share her EBM with others. For those who are looking for BM offer may also check out that page as they have a list of donors too. I get a message from a lady who's managing this page in Facebook, asking me to post my offer on Eats on Feets' wall. She saw my post in The Breastfeeding Advocates Network =)

Happy Breastfeeding to all gorgeous moo moo mommies!!

CNY @ Ipoh

2011-02-14T09:52:00.000+08:00

This year, we went back to Ipoh a day before the CNY eve. We departed at 5am to avoid the massive traffic jam on highway. Luckily not many cars on the road =) so we reached Ipoh around 7.15am. We had a smooth journey all the way. When I carried YY into our car, she almost woke up so I quickly breastfed her and she was back to slumber very fast =) I put her into her car seat and she slept all the way to Ipoh, same to QQ too.

Reunion dinner was done at home, as MIL cooked for all of us. It would be quite messy if we were to eat out. Both my SIL's baby and YY were still very young thus to handle 4 kiddos in a restaurant seemed to be quite handful lah.

At night, QQ refused to sleep with her daddy next door, she insisted to squeeze in our queen size bed with me and YY. Adui, I had a hard time to rearrange the sleeping position for 3 of us. I was like solving jigsaw puzzle on bed. QQ doesn't really sleep quietly on 1 position throughout the night. She will surely turn her body 360 degree. What I worry most was her "mou ying geok" shadow legs. The moment she turn a bit and spread her leg to another side, YY will be roti canai liao...kena lanyak by her sister. The very first night, I let her sleep on bed first. As soon as she was in deep sleep, I get HubB to carry her down to the tilam on the floor :P Did it really quietly and slowly. The next morning, she woke up and looked up to bed with a smile on her face, greeting me Good Morning Mami!! Then, she looked at herself on the tilam, and started to ask me "eh, why I sleep here keh?". Hahahaha I thought she didn't realized it :P I just bluff thru saying that there was mosquito so I carried her down to tilam, so that she won't get bitten :P Well...she bought my idea!

The second night, I didn't want to let her sleep on tilam coz there would be massive fireworks going on when the clock strikes 12. So I slept in the middle with QQ on my left and YY on my right. But these 2 fella couldn't be bothered at all by the loud noises out there. The dark sky was so colorful, with lots of fireworks in the air! They continued to ZzzZzzZzz.....Good, good.

We headed back to KL on Chor 3 (Day 3 of CNY) after breakfast. Again, the traffic was smooth, and weather was great too.

Here are some of the shots taken before and during CNY in QQ's pre-school and in Ipoh.


Hand-in-hand with her classmate, Belle. Belle's mommy used to be my classmate in college too =)

Buddy buddy with her cousin TT.

Also buddy buddy with another cousin sista, MM.

See....both of her cousins are so much BIGGER than her physically :P Both her cousins are just a year younger than her, but it looks the other way round rite?!

Me and my 2 yellow lil huat huat girls + MM

Happy Family! =)

Our Huattchew CNY

2011-02-09T12:11:00.002+08:00

This CNY is not a very pleasant one for the 4 Heavenly Queen - Popo, YY, QQ, me :P

Just before CNY, we all shout "Flood ar!!". Then during CNY when we "lou sang" with family we shout "Huat ar!!". Finally the 4 of us now say " Huatttchew!!" +_+

The first victim was YY, as she started to have blocking nose on Chor 2 (day 2 of CNY ) while in Ipoh. QQ and I caught flu when we were back from Ipoh last Saturday (Chor 3), and finally my mom also had flu and cough since Chor 1!!. Besides collecting ang pao with $$ inside, the latest collection for QQ, YY and I are the below - bags of ubat!

Here's some update on YY's condition. On Monday, we brought her to see Dr. Tan. To our surprise, the clinic was full house! As I registered YY's name, she was patient no. 71 and at that point of time, Dr Tan was with patient no 34 @_@ We purposely went there at 12.30pm (clinic will close at 1pm) hoping that there would be lesser patient hence waiting time can be shorten. Unfortunately, still have to wait 2hours there. Luckily YY was quite Ok there and while waiting for her turn, I've breastfed her twice too. Most of the kids had cough, flu and fever. Weather is bad plus all the irresistible cookies and dried meat, these are the culprits I believe.

Dr. Tan has informed that YY had lots of mucus and phlegm deep down her throat and lung. I told him about the flu medicine which I get from the normal clinic. He said that a small baby shouldn't be taking flu syrup as it is too strong for a young baby. Thus Dr. Tan prescribed her phlegm/mucus medicine as this is not as strong as the flu medicine,` and a bottle of sea water solution spray. It's 100% natural and it helps to clean baby's nostril. Furthermore, YY only needs to take 1ml of the phlegm syrup. The flu medicine which the other doctor prescribed, the indicated dosage was higher i.e. 1.5ml *_* I personally felt that 1.5ml was way too much for a young baby, thus I only gave her 1ml. Dr. Tan will determine the medicine dosage base on the child's age and weight. Whereas the normal doctor didn't weigh YY at all when we met him that day. Sigh.....moral of the story is if baby is sick but not too serious, best not to refer to normal doctor. If can wait, just go straight to the Pediatrician lah.

Despite to the nose block, YY is still very active and happy as usual. Phew... at least she still smiles and coos a lot to us, so this is a good sign =) Please get well soon my dear baby. I really feel terribly sorry each time I need to feed you ubat ;(

Oh btw, although I had super bad running nose yesterday, I still breastfed YY as usual. My antibody will be transferred to YY thru my BM. Hopefully it helps to speed up the recovery process lah.

Get well soon YY!!

Mucus mucus go away

2011-02-06T15:08:00.002+08:00

2 days ago when we were still in Ipoh for CNY, YY's nose was blocked. I can hear some wheezing sound from her when she had a deep breath ;( Then she started to sneeze a few times too. Cham....looks like she has caught some flu. Must be due to the air-cond in our bedroom. She didn't have running nose, so whenever she sneezes only the mucus will be out from her nostril. She is still active and happy as usual, thus it's not a very serious case though.

Yesterday, as soon as we reached KL, HubB and I brought her to the clinic. I was very hesitate though, coz she's still very young and I would prefer to refer her to a Pediatrician. Unfortunately, Dr. Tan's clinic was closed for CNY and only reopen on Monday. We worry that YY's condition might get worst so we brought her to the nearby clinic. Upon checking her body temperature, the doctor told me that YY had fever and the thermometer reading was 38 degree!! @_@ I couldn't believe it coz I've been checking her forehead with my hand many times and I don't feel any extra warm on her. The doctor has prescribed her 3 medication : flu, fever and antibiotic. Oh dear, I felt so bad coz YY is only 2mth old and she has to take antibiotic +_+ The doctor even asked me to cover YY's head with a hat, reason being that she had fever. Huh?? Fever = must wear hat? Have you heard of this before?

When we reached home, I quickly measured her temperature with my thermometer (Microlife brand). I did it 5x and the reading was 37 degree!! Meaning NO FEVER!! What went wrong leh? How come the doctor's thermometer showed 38 degree whereas mine was 37 degree? 38 degree is consider very high for a small baby. Anyhow, HubB and I decided not to feed YY with fever and antibiotic medicine and only let her have the flu syrup. On the same night, YY seemed to sleep well. She was not bothered by the mucus which stucked deep inside her nostril. I did try to suck out the mucus from her nose, but after a few attempts I still couldn't get a single drop of mucus. Suan ler ba....

Tomorrow, we will still bring YY to see Dr. Tan. We will be much relief with a Pediatric's advise =)

I hope YY will have speedy recovery as I really don't like feeding her ubat. When QQ was a baby, she didn't fall sick at all for the first 1.5year of her life.

Wishing everyone good health and Gong Xi Fa Chai!!

Nen nen issue :P

2011-01-28T07:00:00.000+08:00

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

2011-01-27T14:02:00.000+08:00

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

2011-01-24T14:04:00.000+08:00

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

2011-01-22T01:35:00.000+08:00

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?

2011-01-11T07:00:00.005+08:00

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

2011-01-10T08:00:00.003+08:00

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

2011-01-08T22:32:00.000+08:00

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

2011-01-08T09:37:00.002+08:00

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

2011-01-08T09:06:00.000+08:00

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?

YY stretches her body and then.....

2010-12-23T18:55:00.000+08:00

My 3 weeks old baby can really moves her body that much? Check out the below picture. Originally, she was placed on the white kain lampin. The next thing I knew, she was already just an inch away from me! I know that newborn tend to stretch their body very often, so does YY. But due to that, she has actually moved her body from 1 place to another O_O This is amazing lah. But this only happen when she sleeps on my bed. If she sleeps on the baby cot or on the sofa in day time, she hardly moves an inch. When QQ was a newborn, she stretched her body a lot but has never been able to move her body like YY.

I wonder how she did it....I can't be staying up late night to record her movement :P

Sorry for this gloomy picture, as it was taken before 7am

QQ loves her mei mei very much

2010-12-21T22:17:00.000+08:00

So far, QQ has been playing her role as big jie jie pretty well. She sayang her mei mei very much, giving her lots of hugs and kisses till I behtahan! Sometimes overly "yit cheng" O_O Hahaha. Whenever YY makes noises or cry (crocodile tears!!) QQ will rush to YY and say "yes yes..jie jie is here, don't cry". Muahahahaha! As if YY can't live without her jie jie huh :P Lately she even attempted to carry YY and that really scare me off!

QQ has been assigned to monitor/detect her mei mei's poo poo action too. Each time YY passes out wind, QQ will quickly go near YY and snif snif her buttock, see got any poo smell or not :P She does it happily though :P

1 thing which QQ surprised me was she didn't get jealous or angry when friends and relatives came to visit YY with a mini Disney baby hamper as a gift. QQ loves pressie very much. When I open the hampers, she was excited and showed the baby clothings to YY and said " mei mei you see, you got new clothes. yeah!!". Wow....I couldn't believe it. She's indeed a big jie jie already.

But there were times where QQ will merajuk a bit, especially when I was breast feeding YY. Luckily not everytime she merajuk, just once in a while only.

QQ enjoy herself very much during this school holiday break with us. Too happy and too much of free time until she wanna experience/touch every single thing at home. Despite to our numerous warning/scolding, she happily goes up and down the staircase as she likes, frequently sneaks into the bathroom to wash hand (play water lah tu), digging drawers and cupboards, and so many other blood boiling activities. Gosh....she really gets into our nerves everyday. After so much of scoldings, she is still repeating things that we don't allow her to do. I really behtahan her already. Sometimes I almost want to smack her. But I end up jentik her fingers instead. Whenever I say "show me your hand" or " do you want me to jentik you?", she seems to be scare of me and quickly stop her disastrous act.

Here's what she likes to do most of the time.... cam-whoring and self-tattooing =)

Funny faces which I adore very much

And here's something better she does, i.e. to let her play with MS Words, Paintings and some games on my net book occasionally. After she tried on it a few times, she can control the mouse very well, even manage to move the cursor pointing to some very small icon on the screen efficiently. Good eh =) QQ is a fast learner!

Her joyful holiday will end very soon, coz school will re-open in 1 week +. My last day of confinement is on 24th Dec 2010, and coincidentally it is also YY's fullmoon day as well as my sista's birthday! Wowee!! 3-in-1 happy day!! I've ordered Baskin Robbins ice cream cake to celebrate together. This Xmas Eve day is the most happening lah! Can't wait for de day to come.... ;)

Bepanthen ointment is good

2010-12-17T20:25:00.000+08:00

YY poo poo a lot, that's normal for a newborn. She'll poo while having milk too =) In and out at the same time :P But due to this, her bottom turns red....got nappy rash already. She's on kain lampin during day time, and on disposable at night. Her bottom gets rather more serious since yesterday. As soon as I notice the development of nappy rash, I've already start applying cream on her bottoms. Initially I use Drapolene Cream.

But yesterday as I was blog hopping, I read a blog about night diapering and nappy rash problem. Somebody commented that Bepanthen Ointment works so much better than Drapolene Cream. Without much hesitation, I immediately SMS HubB to get a tube for YY from the nearest pharmacy.

It does work well!!! CL and I started to use Bepanthen Ointment on YY's bottom since yesterday night. And now, we can see the improvement on YY's bottom. Nappy rash has subsided so much. In fact, this ointment can also help to heal sore/cracked nipples, dry, chapped and cracked skin and other minor skin injuries too.

Bepanthen Ointment is free from colourant, fragrance and preservative. Just nice for baby's delicate skin!

YY is a "happy spitter"?

2010-12-17T18:38:00.001+08:00

As compare to QQ, YY spits the most. As of todate, YY spitted 4 times after feeding. Twice when bottle fed her, and another 2 times after I have breast fed her directly. But I would say she vomitted instead of spitting, coz all her meal came out, not a little bit. CL and I will burp her after each feeding. When bottle feed, CL burps her at least twice before she empties the bottle. After I witnessed her 2nd vomiting, I've decided not to bottle feed her anymore. As mentioned in my earlier post, CL loves to feed her a lot of milk. Thus her initial vomiting might due to overfeeding. She still vomits if I direct breast feed her though +_+ Really don't know what went wrong. There were once she kentut quite a lot...must be due to gassy stomach.

My lil happy YY

Honestly, I was quite worried when I first saw her vomitting. So I googled about infant vomitting and after I've read about it, I felt more relieved. It says that if after the baby has vomitted and she's still Ok - not fussy, not arching her back, didn't cry non stop, no breathing problem...then mommy doesn't have to be so worry. So if she meets the above, she's a "happy spitter". YY is about 3 weeks old now, and I'm not too sure whether she has gain any weight since birth. If despite to her vomitting and she's still gaining weight, then she's fine. Will see her performance next week, as she's due for her first check up upon reaching 1 month old. Yay!!! That means I'm gonna be free from confinement period next week!! I just can't wait to end this coz confinement is quite torturing for me - can only wash my hair every 5 days once (eeewww!!!), can only drink hot water (red dates wate/ginger rice water) and this make me sweat all day long!! Those rice wine chicken, urrgghh.....anything with wine/alcohol is a big no no for me. Counting down my out-of-jail day =)

Something new for my confinement

2010-12-16T21:09:00.000+08:00

3 years ago, I get my confinement herbal bath raw material from my uncle who stays in Bentong, Pahang. He harvested those special leaves which he planted behind his house and dried them up under the sun. Those special dried leaves will be used for each of my bathing time for the entire 1 month of confinement period. My CL will prepare the herbal bath for me, just dump in some dried leaves into a big pot and bring to boil for an hour. I really love the aromatic smell of this herbal bath. It smells exactly like 1 of the Chinese herbal tea call "pak zhi chou". But it was quite mah fan when CL poured everything into a big pail for me to use. CL gotto filtered out the leaves before I can use it for my shower. Messy...messy.

But this round, my herbal bath is so much more easier to prepare and hassle-less. Actually ar, I have forgotten to prepare those special dried leaves for myself. During my early pregnancy, MIL already had those dried leaves in stock. And I thought that those were for me. When I was back home from hospital, CL was asking for those dried leaves and I pointed to her the big black plastic bag. Silly me, those dried leaves were not meant for me! MIL said " eh, these are for baby's shower lah, not for you". Oooh uuhh...communication break down :P I've made the wrong assumption. CL said "don't worry, now you can get it from the kedai ubat cina, all pre-packed nicely. very convenient". So my mom went to get it for me. This special dried leaves are call "dai foong ngaai". See the nice packaging on the right side? It costs RM1.70/pack.

This is how it looks like. Remove it from the transparent plactic bag and put it into the pot, boil for about an hour. With this packaging, CL doesn't need to filter the dried leaves anymore. But there were times where the whole pack koyak while boiling...don't know why.

Another MUST DO thing is to drink red dates water as substitute for plain water. According to CL, drinking plain water will cause gassy stomach wor O_O Really?? But last time I took hot plain water also, coz I had gastric after taken the red dates water for 2 weeks. And this round, I had the same problem too. So my CL prepares ginger rice water for me instead. She'll stir fry (just heat the wok and fry without oil/water) the plain white rice and sliced ginger separately. To prepare the drink, just take a few spoon of both and pour hot boiling water into a vacuum flask. It can be served 15min later. Once I started to take this drink on alternate day with the red dates water, my gastric stopped =) The taste...not bad though. Mild ginger rice flavor.

Ginger rice water.

All in 1 crock pot = red dates + black dates + kei zhi + dong sam + pak khei + longan + sao woo

This drink is nice actually! but stomach can't tolerate that much +_+

My kilograms and bulging tummy - gone with the wind!

2010-12-11T20:22:00.000+08:00

Before I give birth to YY, my last weight record was 55kg. 10days after my delivery, my weight was 45kg. Dropped 10kg already? I want those KGs desperately!!! 45kg is my ideal weight, and I don't think I can maintain it. It's in my gene, I can't gain weight normally :P I'm pretty sure by Jan 2011, I'll be back to my same old underweight reading i.e. 40kg :( I know there are mommies out there who wanted to shed off those extra kilos soonest possible, but here I am now, recalling back my "blood sweat fats".

But that's not all. The most amazing part was, my little bulging tummy has gone too!!! This is really out of my expectation. I remember that during QQ's time, I still can't fit into my old clothes during her full moon party due to my little bulging tummy (and not forgetting my 2 milky assets :P), which was then more like 5 month pregnant. But this round, my post natal 5mth-pregnant-tummy has vanished in such a short period of time =) Yay!! I have not even contacted my urut kakak. Save my $$$!!

My milky way life

2010-12-11T00:01:00.000+08:00

I'm happy and blessed with abundant of BM supply for YY. Breast feeding YY directly throughout the day and night has definitely increases my BM supply very much. But it is equally vital to invest in a good dual breast pump too.

Here's my personal review for my brand new Ardo Calypso Dual Breast Pump.

My first time using it was not really a pleasant experience, in fact I was pretty disappointed with it too. Firstly, I have never used a dual pump before, thus to handle 2 breast shields at the same time was rather mah fan, I felt. In order not to hold both breast shields for 15min, I've bought Pumpin' Pal hands-free breast pumping strap, as recommended by my SIL. Though it is meant to ease mommy during each milk pumping activity, I still need time to get used to it coz initially I find it very troublesome. When my BM supply came, I had engorgement on the day after. I happily assembled all the gadgets to start using my breast pump right away. After using it for less than 10min, suddenly my breast pump stopped operating! The LED light was also blinking, flashing green and orange light, as indicated in the below far right picture.

Manual book

Oooh uuhhh....something not right. I switched it off and start all over again. 10min later, the same thing happened. Duhhh....baru start using it and already malfunction?? +_+ I quickly called Mr. Tan, the 1 and only after sales service guy, for help. After explaining to him what I've experienced with the breast pump, he has advised me to bring it over to his shop so that he could inspect the breast pump motor. If it can be repaired, it will be done on the same day on the spot. HubB went over to his place in the afternoon and he came back with a brand new breast pump. Mr. Tan has replaced a new 1 for me. Honestly, I've loose my confidence on this brand

WAIT!! Maybe I've made my conclusion rather too early. The replacement unit worked well. After using it for about 3-4 times (and till todate), my perception over this dual pump has changed, and I started to love it! The Individual Phase feature is really good.

Firstly, I will adjust the cylce speed to the max (full bar on right side) and the comfortable vacuum suction as shown in the left side. The higher the cycle, the more rapid suction I will get, just like how rapid a baby sucks the moment baby is latch on. The rapid suction will promote milk let down. In about 1min++ I will have let down feeling on both breast.

Step 1

Once I have let down feeling, I will then change the vacuum suction and cycle as per below picture. Cycle has been reduced so that it'll be a deep suction to remove milk from breast effectively. This is the same like how a baby sucks deeply too when there's let down.

Step 2

During let down, milk will be oozing out fast. Once my milk flow starts to drip again, I will repeat Step 1 . Amazingly, I will experience another let down too! That is why I love the the Individual Phase feature on this breast pump. More let down means can collect more BM =)

I have tried all the different sizes of breast shields provided in this breast pump package, and what suits me best is the large size shield which fits with the silicon OptiFlow massage insert.

Breast shield with OptiFlow massage insert

Initial output of my EBM using a dual breast pump

As I continue to directly BF my baby and express out my BM an hour after feeding (not for every feeding, depending how full my breasts are), my BM supply has increased dramatically. Once I've emptied both breast thru the dual breast pump, my breast will be full again within 45min later. That's fast!

As of today, I can get this much per session (average of 6-8oz of EBM) an hour after BF my baby.
Most of the time YY only takes 1 breast.

Best to use this type of masking tape to label your bottle of EBM.
Do not use the pre-cut sticker as it's hard to remove.

Now, I have more than 35 bottles of 3oz frozen EBM in my freezer =) Very happy with so much of frozen EBM stock!! Keep buying more and more bottles for freezing purpose, also bought some pre-sterilized BM storage bags too. I've chosen Jingle Jungle brand BM storage bag. It has double zipper lock feature. For storage bag, I will store 6oz of EBM on each bag.

Btw, I still need to express my BM at least once (max twice) in the mid night as YY can only take from 1 breast. Thus I have to remove milk from the other breast otherwise I will not be able to sleep with the engorgement. Normally I will BF her around 9pm, then CL will bring her to our bedroom at 10pm. YY might need milk again at around 11pm-12am. Most of the time, the next feeding will be at 3.30am - 4am, subsequent feeding at 6am-7am. Thereafter, CL will take over. She'll carry YY downstairs to bath her and then bottle feed her. I will normally get up from sleep at around 9am, and I'll take over the entire feeding, depending on YY's cue.

Breast feeding VS Confinement Lady

2010-12-06T11:45:00.003+08:00

This topic is not something new for a mommy who's in the confinement period, together with the newly hired confinement lady (CL) for a period of 1 month. It's not easy to get a CL who's well verse with facts about breast feeding. And I have to deal with 1 now.

My CL is from Ipoh and she's a good cook. She handles my baby with love and care. But when comes to feeding, she's yet another typical CL who just loves to sumbat newborn with lots and LOTS OF MILK!! This is my only complaint of her lah.

Not that she doesn't support me breast feeding YY. She will ensure me to have enough fluid throughout the day coz I will express my breast milk and also breast feed (BF) my baby whenever needed, round the clock. She prepares papaya soup for me to boost my supply. She even encourages me to let my baby sucks more often otherwise baby might reject my boobies if she's on bottle too much. Impressive!! HOWEVER, she made few statements and even materialize it and that really drives me up the wall.

"Oh, baby is hiccuping. MUST feed water"

Before my breast milk supply came, YY was on formula milk. And at that point of time, I did allow her to feed YY a little bit of water. But as soon as YY on full breast milk, I have reminded her not to feed any water, which she fully agreed too. But when YY hiccups a bit, I caught her feeding YY with some plain water. I gently reminded her again not to do so. I told her that all I did was just putting her in sitting position and stroke her back for a while. Within seconds, no more hiccup! So no need water! If hiccup persists, I will just BF her a littl while and it's over.

" She's still wide awake after taking 2oz of BM thru bottle feeding. Must be STILL HUNGRY lah. MUST add more to satisfy her hunger".

Neh....this is the point which boils me to the max. YY is not even a week old, and my CL already tempted to feed her more than 2 oz of BM per feeding. Gosh, I've already talked to her earlier that newborn stomach is very very VERY SMALL. It's better and safer to feed her less, but more frequent rather than sekali gus sumbat her with 3 oz of BM at every feeding. She's just a few days old lah. Why want to pump her with so much of milk at this early stage?? That's very bad! Then my CL will keep saying "yes yes newborn stomach is small, BUT after she wee wee twice, ma empty liao lor". I mau pengsan lah. She doesn't seem to understand me. I use alien language ka?? Sigh.......

The worst case happened 3 days ago. YY used to sleep with CL, but when feeding time CL will let me know so that I can BF my baby in her room. The reason why I didn't co-sleep with YY is due to QQ, as she will be awaken by YY's cry (she doesn't really cry out loud, just 1 or 2 "OooNgar" noise only) in the midnight. When YY cry for milk, QQ will also cry! Kecoh...kecoh. So on that particular night, CL bottle fed YY with 2 oz of EBM at around 12am. I told her that after this feeding, please wake me up for next feeding as I want to direct BF her instead of expressing my BM. She nodded. At 4.30am, I woke up due to engorgement. I was puzzled why my CL didn't wake me up to feed YY. I went into her room and saw 2 empty bottles on the table. I thought that she might have bottle fed her twice separately . Then YY started to make some noise, an indication to feed her lah. While I BF her, I've asked CL why are there 2 empty bottles and now YY still wants milk? Guess what??!! CL said "oh, that was for the 1st feeding actually. At 12am, after I've fed her with 2oz of BM, she was still wide awake and make some noise for about 30mins. She must be still hungry lah, so I gave her another 2oz of BM lor". OMG!! My tiny little YY has been fed with a total of 4oz of BM in 1.5hour!!! How disastrous!!! Again, I repeated to her what I've told her earlier. 4oz of BM is way too much lah aunty!! From then onwards, I've decided to let YY sleep in my room, in a baby cot. I've advised QQ many times not to wake up and join the noisy band whenever YY does so. I said " little mei mei cries a bit coz she doesn't know how to speak yet. Whereas you are a big jie jie and can speak well so you don't have to cry". Ok, she got it! So far so good, she didn't really wake up whenever YY made some noises in the midnight for feeding. Good jie jie =)

Anyhow, my CL is still a nice lady lah. She's not the calculative type of person. She'll cook for my sister and dad whenever they drop by to visit me and YY in the weekend. If you are looking for a CL, I would like to recommend her to you too. Just ensure that you take charge of your newborn when come to feeding, other stuff just leave it to your CL will do.

My baby was delivered on Thanks Giving Day!

2010-12-03T07:08:00.009+08:00

Double joy on year 2010 Thanks Giving Day as my 2nd child was delivered on this special day, 25th November 2010, Thursday @ 10.17pm =)

It all begun on that morning, around 9am I started to have some minor contraction every 8-12min. After 1hour monitoring the pain, it stopped. Nothing after that. So.....it was a false alarm. Then at 7pm when I was about to have my dinner at home, I had the contraction pain again. This round, it was a bit more intense compared to the morning session. I really don't feel good at all, and can't even finish my dinner too. Thus by 7.30pm HubB brought me to see Dr. Tan and grabbed my hospital bag + Cryocord Kit along as well. I had the feeling that I will give birth on the same night.

As Dr. Tan checked my dilation progress, he said " Ok, it's about 6cm already! You may be warded now and give birth tonight". WOW!! 6cm already??? It was only 3cm 2 days ago! That means my EDD has been brought forward 8days earlier.

By 8.30pm, I had those heart beat detector patches on my tummy to monitor Lil BB's heart beat and my contraction as well, hand kena pocked with needle for dripping cum induce and water bag broken. The wet feeling with amniotic fluid leaking out slowly....Eeewww....felt so geli and dirty lah :P

At 9pm, I had my contraction pain every 5min. The pain was still bearable, thus I can still smile for the camera and chat with HubB and Dr. Tan as well. Dr. Tan kept reminding me that once I have the urge to berak, that would be the right time to push.

Tik tok tik tok.....an hour has gone and my contraction pain has only increased a bit only, about every 3min once. Still can smile though =) Then Dr. Tan decided to help me out a bit +_+ Gosh, when I heard him said that, I had goose bump leh @_@ It was truly painful when he stretched my cervix so that I can dilate faster. Just after that torturous moment, my cervix has opened up to 8cm and contraction pain has turned greater, up to every 2min once. All I could do was to breath in and out during each pain. This round I had sworn in for No Epidural, and I did it. Not even any local painkiller too. Ahem, a bit proud of myself lah, for being able to go thru the pain without any painkiller aid. But the pain was really indescribable. At 1 moment, I even asked myself why am I going thru this pain again?? Looking for own trouble izzit?? Haha Yeah, I asked for it!

At 10.10pm, behtahan liao.....and I finally felt the urge to berak so I quickly tell the nurses " I think she's coming out!!". Waaa....I can really feel the baby's head at the exit. Dr. Tan immediately put on his gloves and get ready to deliver my baby. I followed Dr. Tan's instruction not to scream my lung out, just use my full force energy to push the baby out. Screaming will drain out my energy. Ok, I had to keep my mouth shut throughout the pushing activity. So hard to keep quiet lah. It took me 2 long push to get her out. My first push was a failure, and I wondered why was it harder that before? Last scan showed that Lil Bb was only around 2.7kg

2nd attempt succeeded and once Lil BB was out, they put her on my arms immediately! I wasn't prepare for it actually! Coz I didn't had the chance to carry Smellybutt the moment I delivered her. So here she is....my Lil BB fresh from my oven, with the faufu-fa look :P

Lucky me as I've managed to get myself a private room with a queen size bed for HubB. Only 1 room left coz there were quite a number of patients there. Mostly already given birth a day before and 1 mommy was in the labour ward next to mine. It was a nice spacious room, cost RM180/night. Pricey? Never mind, it'll be covered in my RM2,500 allowance for maternity =)

Here's my Thanks Giving girl after cleaned-up, nicely wrapped in a fleece blanket like a sushi roll :P To my surprise, her weight at birth was 3.17kg. I've never expect her to reach 3kg. No wonder so hard to push out her head lah....Her size is considered big for me, coz Smellybutt was only weighing 2.3kg at birth! See the difference ka?

My best shot!

I've tried to breast feed her while in hospital but unfortunately, the same old history repeated i.e. my milk team has yet to check in! During Smellybutt time, my breast milk supply only came on day 4 after delivery. Sad....so sad....Anyhow, I still let her suck hoping that she can 'bring in' the supply earlier. But aiyah....true enough that I can only breast feed her on day 4.

So here's the picture of my satisfied consumer :P Btw, she accidentally scratched her tiny nose while in the hospital, quite a deep scar actually. But now subsided a lot already.

"Life is great...." =)

Before I was discharged from the hospital, a Pediatrician has examined her and gave us the green light to bring her back home. Due to my speedy delivery, we don't have to worry about the GBS infection affecting her. He has also guided me to monitor baby's jaundice which might be noticed on day 4. If only her face looks yellowish, it is alright. But if her chest has turn yellowish too, we have to bring her back to hospital for jaundice treatment. Luckily she only had very minor yellowish face on day 4 - 7, thereafter ok liao.

Lil BB has been named as Yi Ying. In Cantonese, the word "Ying" means translucent, shining. We kinda like the meaning of this name. Hope that this name may bring out her inner shine in future! As for Smellybutt, her name is Yi Qing. "Qing" means clear, bright sky. Hmm...from now onwards, I have 2 little Smellybutts!! Maybe I should start referring both of them as QQ and YY here =)

YY's umbilical cord has dried up and dropped off exactly 1 week after birth. That was very fast! During QQ's time, the confinement lady was very rough on her (while cleaning her umbilical cord) thus caused some bleeding =( Poor QQ, it took her another week before it finally drop off.

That's all for my delivery news. It was a quick and smooth delivery and we really thanks Dr. Tan for his great job!

Next post, I'd like to share the beginning of my breast feeding journey together with my brand new Ardo Calypso Dual Breast Pump. And not forgetting my confession towards my confinement lady!! Urrgggghhh!!! +_+

Confuse with all the signs....

2010-11-25T15:52:00.006+08:00

Today is my 2nd day at home, monitoring myself for the labour signs. I tell ya....it's so hard actually! Yesterday, I have some brownish discharge cum little bit of bleeding. But no pain at all. This morning around 9.30am, also have very minor bleeding, and my tummy did "squeezed up" accompanied by some little pain almost every 8-12min. That only lasted for an hour. After that, apa pun tarak. Just feel the usual baby's movement from time to time.

When I had the pain/contraction feeling this morning, I really can't differentiate whether it was the REAL contraction pain or was it just a sign to go pangsai :P To verify it, I went to the toilet and in the end, nothing happen. Hahahaha. HubB seemed to be more kan jeong than me, as he kept asking me "got pain or not?? want to go see doc or not?? want ar??" Aiseh....I'm still pretty steady, and now he made me kan joeng liao. I really want everything to go naturally....no intention to induce myself although I had been told that 27th Nov 2010, Saturday, is not an auspicious day for me to give birth. With my "super luck" of getting GBS infection (rather than hitting the jackpot from ToTo/Magnum/Da Ma Chai!!!) I want to follow Dr. Tan's advice, i.e. to just continue with my antibiotic and watch out for labour signs. If I still can't deliver yet after I've completed my 6 days antibiotic course, then Dr. Tan will induce me for labour. Ok set!!

Almost 3cm NOW!!

2010-11-23T21:18:00.007+08:00

I just came back from my check up. Guess what?? As of today, 23rd Nov 2010 @ 8pm, my cervix has soften, Lil BB has engaged (Dr. Tan said "waaa I can feel the baby's head, heading down already!) and I'm almost 3cm! Wowee!! Dr. Tan said I'm SUPPOSED to deliver by tonight, as he'll help to stretch my cervix to the max. BUT, unfortunately my swab test result showed positive. Meaning I had contacted Group B Streptococcus (GBS Infection) down there =( Heavy growth result some more!! @_@

This bacteria is harmful to both mother and baby. But how did I get it? Nobody knows! Even doctors also can't explain it either.

Thus I was given 6 days course of antibiotic to get rid of it. Sigh.....I can't avoid that antibiotic now, coz if it is left untreated, my newborn will be in extreme danger, and may even lead to death +_+ Some little side effect from taking this pill, that I might get minor diarrhea. But it's Ok, no worries. Dr. Tan even added that minor diarrhea may help me to dilate faster too. Hahaha!

So.....what's next? I'll just have to wait for the time to come. Just watch out for any bleeding sign or contraction pain lah. In the event that I need to go on labour before I have completed my antibiotic, it's Ok. I will be given an antibiotic jab once I have admitted to the labour ward and still can go for normal delivery despite to the GBS problem =) But if this is my first child, the case is different then. According to Dr. Tan, if I'm delivering my first child with GBS infection, it is not advisable to go for natural birth as the chances of passing the bacteria to the infant is very very high. Thus, gotto go for C-section liao.

Geeeezz....it seems like my very first instinct, i.e. early delivery is so true! When I was carrying Smellybutt, she was late by 4 days, so now it is proven that the theory of "if first child is late, second child also late ke lah" is not so true :P I should be giving birth within this few days, the latest will be early next week. HubB asked me to stay at home, don't go to work anymore. But tomorrow I'll go back to the office for a while, to complete a little bit more task and handover some work to my superior lah.

I'm happy and very kan jeong at the same time!! Wish me luck please!

Flower Girl : She did it!

2010-11-22T08:37:00.001+08:00

Here's the picture of the lil flower girls who did a good job for my beloved cousin's wedding banquet at The Ritz Carlton Hotel on 13th November 2010. Flower girls were needed twice as they had separate wedding banquet from the bride's family on the following week. Smellybutt wasn't smiling when I snapped this picture. She's always like that, ikut mood.

Me and the lovely bride during the cocktail session

Always got caught with this action :P

Mommies with the flower girls

This is the 2nd round of wedding banquet which we attended last Saturday at Grand Imperial Restaurant, Hartamas Shopping Centre.

Me @ 38weeks 3days tummy :P

That was Smellybutt's very first lollipop!! No idea who was the culprit offering her that forbidden food. I have never offered her sweets, and she yanked this whole piece of lollipop happily that night. The first and the last ya.....no more after this! I don't want to introduce her sweets as I feel that she's still too young for it, and I don't want to deal with any of her tooth decay issue later. Sweets are definitely not healthy for young kids and she may be addicted to it after a few try, so better stop it now. She dislike proper meal so mommy dislike sweets. Even if you take your meal properly, no sweets either :P Moreover, I believe she will have PLENTY of opportunities to have this evil junk food on her own without my knowledge, when she starts her primary school in 4 years time. So what's the hurry of introducing sweets to her? =)

And here's a short video of their rehearsal. Btw, that 2 boys are my cousin's sons too, kakilang =) And Sonia is my cousin's best friend's daughter.

Well done to 4 of them! =)

P/s : notice Smellybutt indulging herself with the lollipop to the max? She refused to let go of it during the rehearsal @_@

Her very first Gold Medal

2010-11-18T08:00:00.000+08:00

Wanted to post this long time ago, but due the the size of the photos were too big (at least 5MB for each photo! coz HubB used his canggih HD camera +_+) I need time to re-size them. And now after re-sizing the photos, the quality is not so good pulak. Haaiii......

We have arrived at the Damansara Club House at 8.20am, as they need to have 1 round of rehearsal at 8.30am sharp. The event will kickoff at 9am. See....she was very happy with all other students. Smellybutt belongs to the Blue House.

After the marching session, it was followed by Rukun Negara reading lead by a senior student, and then they all sang the Healthy Song with dance. The kiddos were all so cute with their action! And I just couldn't stop laughing while watching them marching and singing the Healthy Song with dancing. HubB has recorded all the 3 sessions, and the only voice over from the video was my loud laughter :P

Just before the 3yo sports game started, disaster striked! At first, I noticed Smellybutt was rubbing her eyes non stop. I thought her eyes were itchy. Then my mom went to her, to give her a clean handkerchief to clean her eyes. Only to find out sthat he was sobbing from far, facing us = ( I went to her and asked her why did she cry. She said " I want to go home. I want to sleep. Mami you carry me to sleep ok? I want to go home eat rice". Oh dear, at this point of time, she wanted to back off from the sports game. I was puzzled why all of the sudden, her emotion changed 360 degree. I asked her class teacher, and she said "she cried because of others are crying too!" @_@ Yeah, I saw a few of her classmates were crying for their parents. I can tell that children's crying is VERY CONTAGIOUS! They follow each others mood! Mau pengsan lah. I've tried to console her and assured her that after the game, we will head back home for lunch and ice cream!

red eyes, red nose ;(

So....after many attempts of coaxing, she agreed to play the game (Spoon Water Game). She was the 1st player in her group, and also the fastest compared to her other team members so she has been doing it twice, during her 1 month rehearsal at the pre-school. But due to her emotion was not stable on that day, teacher get another student to replace her. Worry that she might not want to do it twice, and will ruin the whole game +_+ There were some who still cry while playing the game! They surely have the semangat kesukanan lah!

And the Champion was Blue House!!! Hip Hip, Hooray!!! See the sobbing winner here. Went up stage for gold medal presentation also sob! sob! non stop :P

The moment we stepped out from the hall, her mood changed immediately! And willing to pose for the camera too. See the below picture, she can give us her cartoon face again, all back to normal. It was a memorable Sports Day for all of us, filled with lots of fun, laughter and.... crying! :P

My 38th week pregnancy check up

2010-11-18T07:49:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I was exactly in the 38th week of pregnancy. Had my check up a night before, after office hour as usual.

I have yet another surprising result that night. When stood on the weighing machine, the reading was 54.5kg. I have gained 1.5kg in 2 weeks time and that was quite a lot for me. And Lil BB weighing at 2.7kg too!!! I know I know....though it was just an estimated calculation from the ultra-sound scan, but still....that was far more than my expectation. She was just at 2.1kg - 2.2kg since 2 weeks ago. Lil BB can really put on weight that much in such a short period of time? Smellybutt's weight was only 2.3kg at birth. Hmm.....maybe my earlier prediction was right, that Lil BB's size would be slightly bigger than her jie jie.

Dr. Tan performed vaginal examination on me, to check whether I have any infection down there, and secondly to check whether my cervix has dilated or not. Luckily it wasn't too painful this time, more to uncomfortable feeling only during the examination. And the result was, my cervix has only dilated 1cm and not even soften yet. So, next week I'll be seeing him again for the same examination. He added that if still not dilated yet, he'll "help" me to dilate faster! I get what he meant @_@ Again, he has advised me to walk more, and squat more to speed up the dilation process. Ok Roger!

During the ultra-sound scan, he said "see, you are having Brixton Hicks now. that's a good sign". Oh yeah, I've started to experience Brixton Hicks since 2 weeks ago. I never had this during my first pregnancy. So this is really something new for me. But yesterday I had it pretty often than usual. And that made me asking myself non- stop, was that the real labour contraction or just some prolonged Brixton Hicks?? Naaah...if real labour contraction, I don't think I would be able to sit still on the sofa and enjoying the TV so much :P

Gosh, my due date is just 2 weeks apart. Time flies!!

Thiew-ing??

2010-11-16T07:57:00.003+08:00

Me : QQ, why did you sweat so much?
QQ : Because just now I.... I thiew-ing on the sofa lah!!

@_@ I couldn't get her, and asked her to repeat again. She still mentioned the word "thiew-ing".

Then only I figured out that she was trying to tell me she was jumping on the sofa, that was why she sweat so much! In Cantonese, "thiew" means jump. But there's another meaning for it in Cantonese, which I do not want to share it here lah :P You must be smiling now, if you know what I mean.

We had a good laugh over this newly invented word, and we can't find it from the Oxford Dictionary ya :P

But 1 thing for sure, my 3yo knows exactly how to use "-ing" now, though lari margin a bit. Good try!

When is Mei Mei coming out?

2010-11-12T11:16:00.005+08:00

That's the question which Smellybutt has been bugging me lately. To answer her, I've asked her to come nearer to my tummy and get her to "advise" her little Mei Mei this, "Mei Mei, you come out after 20th Ok? We need to attend wedding dinners for 2 consecutive Saturdays (on the 13th and 20th Nov). Some more Baba is very busy with his work, and will only stop traveling until the 20th". My lil counselor did it obediently =) And 5mins later, she asked me again the same soalan cepu mas! Hmmm....then it was my turn to go nearer to her ear and repeat it again to her, what she has just told Mei Mei :P

She does seems to be very eager to meet her Mei Mei in person. Coz I've already assigned her some task which she needs to help me out after I have deliver Mei Mei. Example; bring me some water to clean up Mei Mei after poo poo, help me to change her diaper (say only lah, maybe just get her to bring me the diaper saja cukup!), play and teach her more...all because you are a big girl already and you'll be her Jie Jie! Maybe she feels that, finally she gets to rule someone at home in future. All this while, she has to listen to the adults only ma, so now there's someone who has to listen to her. Hehehe.

Yesterday, she shared something funny with me, which happened in her classroom. Apparently, her buddy classmate TT said to her " you are a small girl". She protested and responded to TT, "No, I'm not a small girl. I'm a big girl. I will become a Jie Jie very soon". LOL!! That was a pretty good answer!! Make sense also huh? ^_^

Anyway, I really hope things will go smoothly and peacefully for all of us after I have delivered Lil BB. I wish Smellybutt and Lil BB clicks well together and I'll try my best not to neglect her when I need to attend to Lil BB more often.

I love you both!!

Healthy Song

2010-11-09T12:54:00.003+08:00

This is the song ( 健康歌) which the kiddos have to sing and dance on their Sports Day. Those lyrics from Smellybutt....none of it tally with the actual song @_@ EXCEPT the word "sieh yeh yeh sieh yeh yeh" and "siao mi mi siao mi mi", that's all. But it's Ok....I still admire her singing and dancing very much will lots of laughter =)

News on her actual Sports Day coming up soon!

Improved version of Rukunegara

2010-11-08T13:33:00.004+08:00

This has been recorded just a day before the actual Sports Day. Smellybutt has managed to memorize the Rukunegara, almost 90%. Though some lintang pukang oredi, but still acceptable lah =) She's not going to present it solo, so it's Ok, some more got leader mah :P She was a bit restless in this video, turning around and spread wide her legs +_+

That green stripes hat...it was a brand new 1, only cost RM3 from F.O.S. Bought a red stripes for Lil BB actually, then soon-bin get another 1 for Smellybutt lah. Else she might question me, "why I don't have?" :P Also plan to let her wear it on her pre-school Xmas Party, but I have not planned for her Xmas Party costume yet lah. I can't accompany her this round, coz Teacher Nel said the Xmas Party might be held on 19th December 2010 =( That's the time I'll be in jail with my confinement lady.

My 36th week pregnancy check up

2010-11-03T07:50:00.004+08:00

The last round of check up was on 13th October 2010, that was 3 weeks ago. Yesterday night when I stood on the weighing machine, it showed 53kg. I only gained 1kg for the past 3 weeks +_+ Very little lah. But Lil BB's weight has increased from 1570gm to 2100gm. So the 1kg extra is being shared quite equally by 2 of us.

Since I've touched the 36th week already, Dr. Tan said "anytime from now". He has advised me to walk more and squat down more! Waaa no way for me to squat down more, coz the urge to give birth is so intense each time I do it. Very scary ler. What if suddenly the baby's head is out? LOL!! If giving birth can be that simple, I wish!

I'll be seeing him again in 2 weeks time. He'll perform an internal check down there, to see whether got any infection or not lah. And to see whether my "smart tunnel" exit is ready or not as well :P Haaaii....the geli part is finally here. I remember that 3yrs ago after I had that internal examination by my previous gynea, I couldn't describe more about the soreness experience after the examination . And I felt like it was just yesterday I had that soreness feeling. Now gotto go thru it again very soon....

I'm still packing my stuff a little bit more for my hospital bag. Also looking for a part time cleaner to do spring cleaning for my house, coz those ice age dust on the grill and window must be get rid off before Lil BB arrives. But my neighbour is renovating his house! Dust will still be accumulated even after a few round of spring/summer/autumn cleaning until the renovation is completed! @_@ Pening kepala liao.....that house next to mine has been empty for the past 5yr, and at this point of time lah somebody bought it and renovate it. Those major hacking and drilling is over, I guess. And please start painting the house NOW, before I start to stay at home for my count down. Unless if you use Nippon Odorless paint....hehehe.

Parents and Teacher's Day for 2nd term

2010-11-02T13:33:00.005+08:00

My Progress Book a.k.a report card!

Last Saturday, 30th October 2010, we went to Smellybutt's pre-school for the Parents and Teacher's Day. The so called "report card day" lah. Since my parents were not at home on that morning, so we have no choice but to tag her along. Luckily this round she behaved well, sat and play at the hall while HubB and I met her class teacher in the classroom. The 1st semester meet up with Teacher Nel was a bit drama, coz I went there with her and just before I'm done with the discussion with Teacher Nel, she started crying at the hall looking for me @_@

Overall, her performance for the 2nd half of 2010 has improved =) Glad to hear that! I guess she's doing very fine at her age now. Coz when she join the pre-school on Jan 2010, she was only 2 year 3 month old and is studying with those already 3 years old kids. She's officially 3 years old early last month. Not bad ha.

So here are some of the good points which the teacher has shared with us.....

1) She pays full attention to the teacher during lesson time
Wow.... that impress me very much. Coz the teacher told me that there are some of her classmates who will walk up and down, stare at the ceiling or wall, or even chit chatting with others during lesson hour. She can control herself from not joining the "happening" crowd =) Good job Smellybutt!

2) She has good memory
I bet she is! For instance, whenever we teach her something new, being a new word/phrase/song, immediately she can repeat after us fluently and accurately and she still remember it when we ask her about it after a long time. Her teacher told us that she can catch up well with the lesson, for counting and reading. She can recognize the letters and numbers pretty good.

3) She likes to repeat after the teacher

Err...I don't know if this is consider good or not lah. This is not the case where she repeats things which the teacher has just taught in the class. She's being a bit kepoh I would say :P When the teacher says " Lily, don't color outside the line ok", Smellybutt will repeat that to Lily again, who's sitting next to her! Sibuk rite! Hahaha!

Ms Kepohchi ^_^

4) She speaks louder than before

Before this, she used to answer her teacher very very softly....to the extend where the teacher almost can't hear her at all. But now she has increased her volume a bit =) Teacher said, "now can hear her answer from far, at least". At home, she has never been so soft spoken!! Not her style at all. And see what did the teacher wrote in her Progress Book...." Yi Qing is a soft spoken girl.....". Can't believe it lah..hehehe...that's my lil drama queen!

I don't expect her to be excellent in all subject. Achieving good or even satisfactory result is more than enough lah. She's still very young, still has a long way to go on studies. I want her to have a happy childhood experience!

Halloween Party - Round 2

2010-11-01T15:11:00.004+08:00

31st October 2010, Sunday @ iCreate Studio

Hand made haunted house by my cousin! Cool!!

That's my creative cousin, also the owner of the art centre

Smellybutt de mini pirate!

Popo and Smellybutt, same tee!

Then she complaint head itchy, so off the bandana!

Then kids started to decorate the hat

After the hat decoration activity, it was the prize giving ceremony. By that time, Smellybutt already rubbing her eyes and told me "Mami, I sleepy already". It was only 7.30pm! That was the result of not taking her afternoon nap lah. So we headed home, and by 9am she was in her slumber land liao....ZzzZzz...

I've started to imagine myself handling 2 kids next year ^_^ more fun, and more preparation! ^_^ Looking forward to next year Halloween Party!

Halloween Party - Round 1

2010-11-01T14:23:00.008+08:00

30th October 2010, Saturday @ Halloween Party organized by Artworks Children Art & Craft Centre.

Mama Devil with De Lil Witch

My lil witch!

Upon arrival, gotto que-up for registration

Then registrant will be tagged and given a goody bag

That's Smellybutt's classmate, both same height but Smellybutt is the champion lah coz she's the lightest in her class!

Picture time

Part of the food for the kiddos

Art & craft work has begun...

Smellybutt had to assemble Mr Frankenstein
(with my help of course, otherwise all upside down!)
By the time reached home, Mr Frank loose 1 of his eye ball de :P

Art work done...waiting for the food to be served.
Err...no hand to snap picture after that coz I had to feed de witch! Mami was there, so the manja action took place lah.

Then all hold circle for the game!

By that time, both my legs almost detached from my body lah!! Freaking tired standing and walking around +_+ Kam si ng thung wong yat....with my big tummy, actions and movements are very much limited already. But despite to the tiredness, I really had a great time there with all the kids. Smellybutt was very happy too!

Bling bling DIY Halloween props

2010-10-29T08:58:00.010+08:00

These are my Halloween props, a bling bling props I would say. Don't like it to be too plain straight from the printer =)

I've bought a packet of this from kedai ubat cina, only cost RM1.20/pack. I'm using it to decorate my props, to give them a more lively look ^_^

From the plain Jane pirate's hat, eye patch and a cute little devil patch for my black top....

They look so much better now with the bling bling effect! Ooh... I haven't touch up the pirates hat yet, coz yesterday night was too busy with the jelly preparation for Smellybutt's Children's Day celebration at the pre- school today.

To make an eye patch :
1) google for pirates eye patch clip art, print, cut out and stick on a hard cover paper using double sided tape. It sticks very well, so no need to use special fabric glue lah.
2) punch 2 holes at both side
3) I used a worn out niu pin (ordinary baby napkin), cut into strips and tied 'em on the eye patch so that I can adjust the tightness when I put it on.
4) finally, decorate with the bling bling stuff =)

This bling bling little devil patch should "bling nicely"
on my black top + black legging

My very last minute DIY devil headband.
At first glance, it's more like a cow's horns hor? :P
Should look better with full costume...I hope!

If you want to make a devil headband, click here to view the full guide video. It's very simple!

So...I'm done with all my DIY Halloween costumes and props, except the pirates hat which need to be bling-ed tonight. Can't wait to parade my proud production tomorrow and day after!

Have a happy spooky Halloween folks!!

Be witched!!

2010-10-28T09:05:00.008+08:00

Halloween melloween hickedy puff!

We'll dress up ourselves with DIY stuff!!

It seems like Smellybutt's minor fever has gone. Pooofff!! Glad that she didn't have any fever at all since yesterday morning until today. So now we are all geared up to get wild this weekend!

I get her to dress up yesterday nite, just wanna see how's the outcome of my DIY no sew tutu skirt match up with the brown romper with a witch picture on her chest (malas to sew thus I just use double sided tape instead) and pair it with a light pink legging plus a witch hat which I bought last year.

So here she is.....

Zam Zam...Alakazammmm!!!!

She LOVES it

I LOVE it too!

Smellybutt de Lil Witch!

Side view of her tutu skirt. Pretty puffy also =)

BTW, I might change my look, to be a Devil Mommy instead :P Will see how lah....my itchy hand, wanna make a devil headband now!

Next, will finalize our outfit for the Pirates theme. Gotto deal with the eye patches only. And I've just completed a DIY pirates hat yesterday nite, just for Smellybutt. I'll update more with pictures tomorrow.

He made my day!

2010-10-28T08:09:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, my friend has shared this link in Facebook. And I had a good laugh over it! I've played it over and over again.... just can't get enough of it lah!

Doop doop doop...do do doop doop doop...LOL!!!

Check this out ya =)

Usher - Love in this club (Indian cover)

More upcoming exciting activities

2010-10-26T12:45:00.002+08:00

See....there are more fruitful events awaiting us on almost each weekend right up to mid November!

Newest agenda:

Children's Day cum birthday bash

The pre-school will be organizing a party for 2 occasion this Friday, 29th October 2010. Firstly, they will be celebrating Children's Day altogether. Students are allowed to wear their favourite attire on this special day. Parents are encourage to chip in some food for the party too(light healthy snacks, sandwiches, etc). My plan is to make some yummy jelly for the 70 kiddos. Quick and easy to prepare :P Secondly, there's a birthday celebration for students who were born in the month of October. That's the reason why I don't intend to buy a cake lah. For sure there will be lots of birthday cake available on that day.

Parents and Teacher Day
This Saturday, 30th October 2010, HubB and I will be meeting Smellybutt's teacher for the year end Parents and Teacher Day. We'll see how much she has progressed so far, how's her behavior in the classroom and etc. I am really looking forward to meet her teacher!

Sports Day
It'll be an indoor sports event at Damansara on 7th November 2010, Sunday. Luckily indoor lah. If all of us gotto stay under the hot burning sun, it's gonna be a massive BBQ-grill-me-to-death day! According to Teacher Nel, Smellybutt belongs to Blue House team. To my surprise, she's the fastest among her group for the water game. Blue House team has got odd number of participants, thus Smellybutt has to do it twice (scoop water and pour into a bottle with funnel). So far, during her daily rehearsal in the morning, her team emerges as champion @_@ unbelievable! Well, it's just a game for the kids. If her team looses out on the actual day, no big deal lah. As long as they are all happy will do. But I really hope that she won't give us a negative reaction if her team looses out. Teacher Nel told me that there are some 4 year old boys who are so into winning the game. The moment that 2 boys see the other group is winning, they will freeze themselves and refused to continue the game. They cried out loud instead +_+ Gosh...they are just 4 years old leh and they took it so hard! It's just a game. I wonder what will happen to them if they don't get full mark for their exam. Scary.....

Btw, Smellybutt was feverish since yesterday evening and throughout the night. Not too serious, her temperature was at the border of getting fever, 37.3 to 37.6 degree. But this morning at 11am, her temperature shot up a bit to 38.1 degree even after 1 hour of medication. My mom brought her to see Dr. Tan, her beloved Pediatrician. She had throat infection....that's what triggered the fever lah. Must be overdosed of Rocky biscuit over the weekend, so it's HubB's fault (coz both of them were happily munching it non stop!) :P Glad that she is still very active, so no worry. I pray hard for her speedy recovery, coz she certainly doesn't want to miss out the Halloween Parties which all of us are looking forward to!

Get well soon my dear!

DIY cum mix and match halloween costume

2010-10-22T12:50:00.003+08:00

Here's what Smellybutt gonna look like on 30th October ~ being a cheecky puffy tutu witch! Pooff!!! And I will be the preggy mama witch!

These are the sketches I've made, on how to mix and match the DIY stuff with the clothing that we have at home in order to transform ourselves into a lovely witch....a witch without a flying broom =)

For Smellybutt

For Mommy

There's so many DIY stuff available online, just google a bit and I get loads of "how-to" info.

How to make a witch hat? click here.

Where to get a witch picture? Just google for witch clip art and you'll get thousands to choose from. This is the witch clip art (with yellow back ground) that I've chosen, printed, and shall be pasted on a piece of used cloth to be lightly sewn on our baju later. With the yellow color back ground on this clip art, it'll look outstanding on our dark brown/black top =)

another cute witch with a pumpkin

* pictures downloaded from Google

Since I'm done with the no sew tutu skirt for Smellybutt, now left the paper craft work only - witch hat and the witch picture sewn on our tops. Will do it this weekend.

My first DIY No Sew Tutu Skirt - mission accomplished!

2010-10-22T12:00:00.001+08:00

Halloween is approaching and I'm sooooo excited getting dressed up for the 2 upcoming Halloween Party (back to back some more!) with Smellybutt.

30th October, Saturday

As updated earlier, this will be organized by Artworks Art and Craft Workshop. No specific theme from the organizer (it's Teacher Nel actually, she runs the art class too) so it's all up to our own preference to dress to kill on that night :P Will share my idea of my DIY cum mix and match halloween costume later.

31st October, Sunday

My cousin who's the franchisee for Da Vinci Arts & Crafts Creative Development Centre, will be organizing 1 as well!! Again, as updated earlier, she couldn't make it at first as she is still very busy with her wedding preparation (on mid Nov). But.....due to the demand from her art class students (and their parents as well) was very high, thus she decided to have 1, last minute. She has come up with a theme, Pirates vs Mermaid. Cool!!

I can't sew and I don't know how to sew. So I'd like to share my very first no sew tutu skirt project here. I had fun doing this, and it is superbly simple! Any dummies like me also can do lah. And most importantly, it's CHEAP! To buy 1 from the market will cost me a bomb, easily around RM70/pc but of course those in the market are much more nicer and fluffier than my DIY tutu skirt lah. I don't intend to let her wear it so often, thus a DIY tutu skirt for the halloween party is enough.

Materials :

1) tulle or netting
I bought 1 meter each of the below netting from Kamdar @ RM3.80/m. What a steal!!!!

2) scissor

3) ruler

4) ribbon (about 2 meter)
I'm using a red recycle ribbon, from the mini hamper which I got last year (Crabtree and Evelyn products) han dak, zhao han :P

Initially, I had no idea what is tulle. I assume it's something like organza material. When I was in Kamdar store, I straight away looked for organza fabric. Cheap ooooh, they have those in loose pieces only RM5/meter. But looking at the organza fabric, it'll fray when cut into many pieces. So don't think that organza is the correct material to be used for my project. Then I asked the staff, that I need something "harder" than organza fabric. He then showed me the netting material. Aaaahh...that should be the right one!! No fraying, no worries!! And best of all, it's even cheaper, only RM3.80/meter. Just be careful, as there's another type of netting which is harder than those which I've bought. Price is still the same too. The harder it is, the more kasar it'll be, so kids won't feel comfortable after putting it on.

closed up picture of the netting

My preferred combo color : purple + light pink + dark brown

Then I cut them out into 3" width stripes and 9" length . That's the measurement for my lil 3yr old lah. You may adjust the length according to the height of your child.

And I tied each of the 3" stripes onto the red ribbon. Please watch the video at the bottom of this post, for full guide. I got the idea of doing this from that lady in the video too.

Here's how the finishing of the knot looks like.

I've completed the tying process within 30-45mins for a total of 72pcs of 3" stripes. Did it when Smellybutt was having her afternoon nap. If I do it with her presence, it'll take me ages to complete this simple work lah.

Here's the final outcome of my no sew tutu skirt.

I love this tutu skirt very much!! Proud of my own production lah :P Muahahhaha. When I showed this to Smellybutt, she was very happy too! Effort paid off with her smiles and jumping up and down when trying it out =)

My home made tutu skirt @ RM11.40 only!!

Happy tutu-ing to those who are keen on this!!

Busy bee weekends

2010-10-15T07:21:00.003+08:00

October and November will be a busy month for me. Birthday celebrations all done for my 2 Octoberians VIPs - Dun Dun and Smellybutt. So my upcoming agendas are :

16th October, Saturday (9am~1pm)
Attending a breast feeding talk by Gina Yong at Bandar Utama. It's a sponsored talk, so it is FREE you know! I'm very excited, as this will be my so called "refresher course" =) I didn't attend any breastfeeding talk before I give birth to Smellybutt coz I really didn't have any exposure on BF. And yet I was very determined to breast feed her even before she was born. So what I did was, made countless of phone calls and SMS to Gina for SOS and browsing kellymom.com repeatedly to get some guides and info as well. With that, I managed to sustain my breast milk supply till Smellybutt self weaned off at the age of 16th month old.

30th October, Saturday
Gonna bring Smellybutt to attend a Halloween Party organized by Artworks Art and Craft Workshop. Again, I'm thrilled over this! Last year, we had a fun Halloween Party at my cousin's art centre. Unfortunately, she's not able to host for it this year coz she's very busy with her wedding preparation. So what would be Smellybutt's costume for this year's Halloween Party? I'm up with some DIY costume, will talk about it separately.

6th November, Saturday
It's Sports Day for Smellybutt! She will participate in a competition, i.e. hold a spoon, scoop some water and then fill in the bottle. Of course, there's a funnel on top of the bottle, otherwise the kiddies will not complete this game until dawn :P 3yr old student need not do marching, only 4yr old and above gotto do it. But according to Teacher Nel, 3yr old students will be walking next to the marching team, while holding a pair of pom-pom. Sort of a cheerleader's role for them lah. I did some rehearsal for her at home, for the water game. But this fella overruled it, coz half way practicing, she'll start to pour the water on other places and in the end wet the floor so much. What else...get scolding from me lah.

13th November, Saturday
That would be my beloved cousin sister's big day. Yeah, the same cousin sister that I've mentioned earlier. Wedding banquet will be held at Ritz Carlton Hotel. Smellybutt is the flower girl....and until today, there's no rehearsal for her yet. Cousin said, just go to the hotel earlier a bit and then practice a bit enough wor, walk straight only ma! Hehe. Sounds too simple ha. I really really hope it turns out well lah, don't embarrass the zhu kok couple and me Ok!

I'm so happy and looking forward to each of the above Saturday!

My 33 week pregnancy check up

2010-10-13T08:04:00.005+08:00

Had my routine check up yesterday and this round I've gained almost 2.5kg, which was just nice for me, said Dr. Tan. I'm now weighing at 52.1kg with my bulging belly measuring at 104cm. Lil BB's weight has increased, from 1120gm to 1570gm, a total of 450gm increment. Dr Tan commented that Lil BB's growth and weight record is just nice also lah, no worry. Everything was fine, so it was a quick check up yesterday.

Thereafter, HubB and I went to 1st Floor to check out their rooms. They have 3 types of room:

1) plenty of single bed in a room with curtain as partition - RM60/nite. For this type of room, the husband is not allowed to stay back with his wife as space is limited. Mommies without complication after deliver may opt for this type of bed.

2) Family Suite - a nicely furbished queen size bed (those that we use in our own house ya) plus a single hospital bed at RM240/nite. I was pointing at that cozy queen size bed and said to HubB "waa I can sleep on that bed wor!". Then the nurse smiled and said "no lah, that bed is meant for your family, maybe husband and kid. You will use this single hospital bed". LOL!! Dreaming ha...

3) Double Single bed - RM120/nite. There's only 1 single bed for husband to stay overnight plus another hospital bed for the mommy. I guess that I'll take this unit lah. Room is not too small also.

They won't provide 3 course meal, only bread and a cup of Milo drink. We may bring in our own food. That's fine with me. You know lah, hospital food sucks a big time ma. Last time when I delivered Smellybutt at HUKM, Level 7 private sector, the food ar...wuaaaa... @_@

My next check up will be 3 weeks from today. Thereafter will be every 2 weeks. Due date is coming soon and I feel like as if I've just conceived the other day =) Tik tok tik tok.....I'm getting more and more excited!

Oh btw, HubB and I have also decided to keep the stem cells this round. We did the same for Smellybutt too. So here's the kit from Cryocord, which we need to bring to the hospital the moment I've been admitted. But Dr Tan said that they also have a spare kit with them, so in case we didn't bring it on the delivery day, we still can pinjam theirs and thereafter we return ours to them.