Oct 27, 2014

Wattpad 30 Days Challenge

With me being brain dead on what to write on lately, let me just wrap up some stuff.

Having just changed to a new job, I'm still adjusting and since it's year end, my boss are ALWAYS flying on holiday and not around *bore*bore*bore* Besides the new job adjusting, baby is celebrating her one year old birthday on November, which is just next month!! YES! It's the BIG 1 and I've been busy searching for her cakes, venue for the party and also the decorations! Lots of things to do and very exciting! But also being a lazy person, I'm always looking for the best way out to solve whatever issue I have on.

So now, on to the topic, what is the Wattpad 30 Days challenge? It's just a writing challenge, you see. Start on 1st November 2014, they are challenging writers to pledge to write a 50,000 words write up until the end of November 2014. Challenging , isn't?


Now I wonder if I can accomplish this feat... ? Of course I'd be worried and shits like that because I'm always having writers block! I just hope that other accomplished writers on Wattpad can give good writing tips for my heads up and stuff like that. I pledge to do this #JustWriteIt ! Follow my work here !

Aug 22, 2014

For Charity, Not for Your Bloody Publicity

Before touching onto related post about the topic, let's have a moment of silence for the victims of #MH17 as they are coming home today to Malaysia for burials. They will always be remembered and condolences to the friends and families of those affected. I'm again deeply saddened by this as I know, in this very flight of MH17, there were a great number of kids in the flight, all just awaiting to go for holiday, not the last flight of their life. Rest in peace, poor souls.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/themalaymailnewspaper?fref=photo

Now, seriously, I believe most nowadays know about this #IceBucketChallenge but, does anyone really know what is it for and the true cause of it ? I believe not. Everyone seems to find it fun and wanting to do it for the sake of publicity, and most especially, wasting the precious drops of water.

Hey, the true hashtag of ice bucket challenge was #ALSIceBucketChallenge and what is ALS? Not much people even bothers to go look this up and let me tell you what it is for the benefit of you lazy bums out there.

The official website of ALS : http://www.alsa.org/about-als/what-is-als.html

To summarize this, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or a disease often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease"  affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. In time, ALS patients suffers from movement difficulty to total paralysis. As of current, there are no cure for this disease although there are some medicines here and there being developed to slow it down, not totally stopping it. Probably because not much people knows about it since mostly affected was those adults between 40 and 70 and with only 2 out of every 100,000 people will get the disease each year, this Ice Bucket Challenge thing started as an awareness campaign.

So, I don't need to further explain the ice bucket challege since most people knows about it. But what people don't know, is why are the celebrities doing it. People, it's not being done out of fun, it's being done to raise awareness about ALS and also to DONATE. See, you don't know bout this part now, do you?

The ice bucket challenge started in the States when this golfer guy, Chris Kennedy, a golfer from Sarasota in Florida, was nominated by a friend to it and soon his friends started doing it and the hashtag #StrikeOutALS came along together with the #ALSIceBucketChallenge . The craze started on July and by end of July, the ALS Association reported a dramatic increase in donations. Yes, DONATIONS is what it's all about.



Starting from the States, the craze went on to infect people all over the world, doing videos of them doing this. The videos usually consist of the person saying who nominated them, pours the ice water on themselves, nominates someone else to do it within 24 hours or donate $100 to ALS Association and that's it. What they FORGET was the part to DONATE.

Kudos to Charlie Sheen for doing it right and Steve-O from Jackass for saying it right.


Source: https://uk.celebrity.yahoo.com/gossip/omg/charlie-sheen-does-ice-bucket-challenge-but-with-money-instead-water-legend-122120251.html




Source: http://instagram.com/officiallysteveo

So there you go, the challenge is one thing, the donations is another thing, so people, once you've done the challenge, don't forget to educate them WHERE to donate for the ALS Association.

Aug 19, 2014

Kids, For Love, NOT FOR FUCKING ABUSE

It's been quite tormenting to see news of child being abused physically, mentally and sexually. It's even more tormenting to see news of newborns being dumped just down the drain like that. It kills me further to see what happens to kids in war zone.

One would always ponder, does these tormentor have no sense of humanity left in them? Does these tormentor knows the pain felt by the child ? In a human of such small size, such innocence and they have to suffer the wrath of the grown ups? You'd think that serial killers and psychopaths have no sense of what I just said, but I would say those people, those beast that harms a child, is far worse than anything. Oh wait, even a beast would fight for their child, so these are lowlifes worse than a beast. They do not feel, they are humans reanimated into life. Zombies. Dead wearing a human mask tormenting only kids (Walking Dead theme playing in background)

The worse lowlifes that I've read about, is the child very own parents doing harm to them. I definitely cannot comprehend what goes in their mind and I am loss at words to describing them. My vulgarities fail me here.

As a mother, as a human, we feel pain even when we pinch ourselves, and know that the pain is amplified double when it happens to a small child. So how can these lowlifes not know? Oh wait, they mostly don't because simply they are lowlifes.

Renting Out Daughter to Beg? Seriously? Being poor is not the reason you should use your child like this! You have hands and legs, you are not disabled are you? A family of seven, why can't you just do something simple like offering cleaning services or even sell nasi lemak on the streets to make a living ! Why push your child out to beg!

This is totally unbearable. Students forced to perform oral sex? Why in the first fucking place you made a knowledge institution to teach !!! To garner monies and have free sexual fun? These institutions, kindies, nurseries, they are supposed to be a heaven, a play place for the kids to learn and grow, not your fucking money making night clubs. You fucking pedophile should be bloody stoned to death or tied to pole with rats chewing your balls off. Yes, this is a torture sentence of the Middle Ages. Lots of lowlifes made these kind of place and in the end, either they could not care enough for the children sent in, or they just have to beat the kids senseless just for simple things. AGAIN, WHY MAKE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Newborns being dumped in toilet or just left to die moments after coming out. These... (grips knuckles and cracking 'em) I don't know why these horny sluts can't just get a fucking pack of condom which costs bloody RM3++ from 7-Eleven and use it. Instead, they just have to get fucking pregnant, and give birth and dump the babies leaving them to die. Hey, even if they have given birth and can't afford to raise the baby, can't they bloody fucking put them at orphanage? WHY THE FUCKING MENTALITY OF LEAVING THEM TO DIE? DAMN SLUTS. What have these poor souls done to you? You yourself chose to have unprotected sex and get pregnant, nobody fucking forced you. Even if you are fucking forced onto or raped, godforbids, don't be an asshole and kill the poor soul, give them away or fucking abort before they fully developed into a fetus.

Vulgarities are not even enough for me to curse at these lowlifes and I need more than simple curses at these people. Speaking of torture sentence of the Middle Ages, some of it could be relived to use for these lowlifes.

Unfortunately enough, cases like these happens often all over the world and not much of people tend to report them for fear of something bites them back in the end. People, please, there are tons of NGO for you to turn to if you ever come across cases of child abuse or whatsnot. You've even got the government counterpart Talian Nur from Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to assist. Appealing to them or the political parties may help in whatever ways people need. Hell, please, USE MR.GOOGLE FORGODSAKES. STOP CHILD ABUSE.

Let me share a dream I once had, it wasn't a pleasant one. I dreamt my baby was taken from me violently, kidnapped I'd say. I can't be sure because I don't remember the details, just vivid details and the feelings but why I say kidnapped? Because I remember the frantic, anxious, sad, angry, nervous, worried sick feeling in the gut. The next thing I remember is that I went berserk in midst of trying to find her and the world gone red. Meaning? I will stop at nothing and it will cost you your dear life slowly and painfully that you'd wish it's Satan himself instead of me coming at you for taking my baby away from me or causing harm to her.

Aug 6, 2014

My Breastfeeding Journey (Part 3)

This time, this is definitely gonna be the part that most parent dislike the most, but definitely no way of avoiding this. I mean, everybody does this no matter the age. POOP. Yes, everybody dislikes this part, same goes to me. But you still gotta clean up that mess your kids made. 

Normally people would think that it naturally stinks. But believe me, breastfed babies stools smell differently. Not badly stinky smelly type, but more like stinging maybe like sickly sweet smell. That's how I would describe it. Most parents would not be sure how it would look like or smell like or even how many times a baby would poop a day or within a week. Questions like that arises all the time because, this is definitely how you'd monitor your babies health.


Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBreastfeedingAdvocatesNetwork/

This picture above says it all. Follow the guides and it will tell you perfectly how a baby roughly should be although most people would say, different babies different thing. More or less true that. But, generally, it should follow as per the picture. This way you do not need to worry if they are well fed or not. 

Another part related to poop is that, most mothers raise their concerns that when their babies reach 2 months and above, some babies just don't poop for more than 3-4 days. Now, reverted from my pediatrician, some babies just don't poop for up to 7 days. But once over the 7th day, you better bring the baby to go check up. I mean, you don't want to get bloated belly and not knowing what's going on inside. Bad stuff.

Again, different babies different thing. Once a mother even shared that her baby did not poop near to a month, either you send the baby to check up or some would revert that if the baby is fully breastfed, they can even go up to 40 days no poop. So long the baby is healthy, good appetite, clear urine, no fatigue or temperature, then all is good. You'd be worrying for no pooping, but some mothers worry bout pooping almost every feeding, THAT is normal too. 

Poop colors may change from time to time due to mommies diet, for instance, that greenish poop could be from moderate to heavy fruits and vegetables intake or more foremilk than hindmilk. Differences in poop color, you may refer to this useful bunch of information here: Diaper Decoder. There's nothing to be worried about usually when it comes to poop and pee. 


Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBreastfeedingAdvocatesNetwork

This wonderful network really shared a tremendous lot of information that a breastfeeding mother would need and thanks to this great bunch of mothers inside, even with bumps here and there, I manage to breastfeed my baby girl up to 8 months now heading to my second milestone which is the BIG 1 year old. Yay to me !

Of course, as the baby grows, their intakes consist of solids and let's not forget the scariest part, teething. These two condition do affect the stools. For instance, intakes of solid, depending on the diets, babies MAY or MAY NOT poop that often and their stools gradually loses that sickly sweet smell to just plain nasty smell but not as bad as fully solid like your own poop smell. REALLY.  The color may also change to be a little blackish, or brownish maybe. When it comes to teething, it would be stickier and looks ... seedy but not seedy. There might even be slightly hard stools. This is where the parents would have to remember that each time you feed your babies with solid, you'd have to feed them equal amount of water. Of course the mother would have to drink more water as well. 


So you see, there is no way one can really avoid doing this part of the job when you're a parent! 

Jul 23, 2014

Darkness In The Hearth

Darkness looms over the day,
Paths become unclear,
Trees and flowers wither away,
It doesn't matter where you hide,
It will still haunt you by the end,
It will still haunt you endlessly.

Nervous, fear, anxiety covers you,
Cold sweats breaking out,
Bloodshot eye darts left and right,
You can run,
But you cannot hide,
You know it will and can still haunt you.

You cry out for help,
Your silent cries went unheard,
Like water poured over leaf, 
It went ignored even if it is heard,
Nobody listens, 
Nobody cares.

You reach out your hands,
In hope that someone will reach yours,
Held out as you may,
The hands were frozen overtime,
No warmth came to you,
All that's left is just hard cold chills.

All that's left to do,
Is wonder if anyone,
Or anything,
Will hear you,
Will see you, 
Will cross your paths,
Will reach out to you,
Or not. 

Jul 21, 2014

We Grieve, We Pray, We Remember

This month has not treated me any better than it should. All I can do is drown myself in my musics while working and at home, hug my little baby tightly. By now, the whole world are talking about the crash of MAS airplane MH0017. Hashtag #MH17 and #PrayForMH17 are going on wildly now at all social media. I have my own post on it as well, and this will be my blog post about it.

This year itself, MAS have suffered from the worst aviation incident ever, twice in a year. As we remember, it was the #MH370 which had tragically went missing and not found until now. Nights ago, on July 17th, slightly before midnight, news of MH0017 being shot down near or at Ukraine was all over the world. I couldn't be bothered with pesky news, I definitely wouldn't want to share the pictures.

People, here, I ask all of you to stop sharing those images and respect the privacy of those grieving families and leave them alone, especially you slobbing journalists. I know you people are trying to work, but people are hurting, they are grieving. So please give them a peace of mind, stop pestering these poor souls.

Here, a little short tribute to the lost souls on board:

All set,
Ready to go home,
Ready to go for holiday,
Ready to meet the loved ones,
Ready to spend memorable time with all,

Exhilarated with excitement,
Can't wait for the moment,
The next thing knew,
Everything went black.

Loved ones cried their hearts out,
The souls bleed,
The hearts cracked,
Millions grieved.

Pain stays, only to be numbed,
Prayers given,
Hope goes on,
Faith is that you finds it better to be with God,
Happily and merrily.

Memories were made,
It lives on when those that remember lives,
Memories will be passed on,
Memories will never fade,
We grieve, We pray and We will remember.


Jul 11, 2014

My Breastfeeding Journey (Part 2)

I know it's been a delay for quite sometime since I've last posted. Taking care of a baby is not easy and it is definitely tiring. My salute to other parents out there who have more than 3 kids. I do not know how you guys did it but it was simply awesome that you did.


Source: www.hlntv.com

On to breastfeeding part two, there is so much information and stuff to talk and teach about breastfeeding that I just don't know what to say now.

Okay, some simple ideas that you'd need when you need to stock up before going back to work, milks stored in deep freezers (below zero celcius) can last you up to 6 months at max. Milks stored in normal two door freezers lasts you up to 3 months at max. Milks at chiller can last you 3-4 days whereas milk outside at room temperature can last you up to 4-5 hours. Now, besides storing the milks, note that most time we'd have to smell the milks especially those stored outside on room temperature so that it does not have sour smell, if it does, discard immediately or make milk spa for baby. When you take out the frozen milk for feeding, you gotta thaw it by taking it out from freezer and put into chiller. Once it's thawed, it have to be consumed within 24 hours and if it's not finished, THROW THEM AWAY. Once you warmed up (NOT BOILING HOT cuz you're gonna kill the good bacteria inside) the thawed milk, it have to be consumed within one hour and again, not finished THEN THROW IT AWAY ! or save for baby milk spa, which I always do.


Source: http://blog.medelabreastfeedingus.com/

For different mothers, there are different types of food that boosts the milk supply and food that decreases the milk supply. Here are some samples:


Source from: http://healthfulmama.com

It's just some as listed on the picture. But, it's all about trial and error. For my case, nothing i eat increases my supply, it does help a little while, but after that, it doesn't help anymore. It's only of late that I stopped trying that my milk supply is a normal 4-5oz at every pump. Speaking of pumping for working mothers, I don't look at the schedule. I look at the last time I fed my baby, then every three hour gap at max four, I'd pump once. You MUST pump or feed your baby at midnight especially between 2-5AM as these are the hours when a certain body condition works the hardest to supply more milk. This ensures your milk supply is there and not dropping, which is equally important for all mothers.

Back to the foods that boosts or decreases milk supply. There are herbs that does the same. On early research for all mothers, the most common you'd hear about is fenugreek to help increase milk supply. But what about Alfalfa? Let's not forget that too. Herbs like mints, parsley, rosemary and a few more as per picture below, decreases the milk supply, so beware.


Source: www.pharmacologyweekly.com

If you're not sure on what to eat or not, go download this app called LactMed on your smartphone. It has most details on what to eat or not and side effects (if any). Visit http://kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/herbs_to_avoid/ for more information or ask Mr.Google, your best friend or call your paed.

Apr 16, 2014

My Breastfeeding Journey (Part 1)

It's kinda long to be writing about it down now. But heck, here goes. Before that, credit goes to a good friend, Jenny, and the great group The Breastfeeding Advocates Network (TBAN) for support !

As some of you probably noted, I'm a new mother of a wonderfully adorable daughter, Elanor Wong
I know, she looks like a boy and she's bald. She looks exactly like her father, thus, the boyish looks... By the way, this is her at 4 months old.

While I was pregnant with her at my first trimester, Jenny recommended me to join this group at Facebook. She shared quite a number of great details before I joined them. Surfing the web on how to take care of myself while pregnant is one thing, getting into labor is another thing... the hardest part, the most wonderful part, breastfeeding her. 

The moment she was born, I regretted not telling the nurse and the doctor that I wanted to breastfeed her immediately, skin-to-skin contact to get the bonding started. I know a lot of mothers complained that they do not have a lot of milk or it doesn't kick in immediately. Rest assured that by latching the baby on, the colostrum (the first phase of the yellowish milk that is darned good for the baby for them to build the antibody) will come in and not much. Why? Bear in mind that newborns do not have a big stomach. 

So, please don't worry about supply not being enough until after 2nd month.  After finding out about how much newborns feed, I proceed to think bout am I latching her on correctly or not. This is where the government clinics nurse comes in to the picture. They came to visit, checking on my dear daughter see if she is healthy or not and teaches me how to latch correctly, how to hold her, how to pump the milk using the hand (this technique is called marmet) and so on. 

Apart from that, in the first few days after I'm discharged from the hospital, I got badly blocked milk ducts. This could lead to a situation called mastitis. One could get fever and probably discouraged from keep breastfeeding the baby. Thankfully, my mother was being supportive of me and went checking with other experienced moms on how to handle it. She made fish head soup with raw papaya (green ones), rice paper pith and red dates for me to drink. The night itself, the milk came leaking out and the relief comes as getting engorged with no release really hurts and I can barely sleep. Besides helping with the relief, it apparently boosted my milk supply and I have to pump my milk out as my daughter can barely keep up with the supply. 
Here she is as a newborn !

Of course, she was not spared of the jaundice. Her readings was over 200 and she had to be admitted to the hospital for phototherapy for one night. My heart broke and I can't stop myself to tearing when I heard that she had to be admitted for that. Thankfully, with breastfeeding, although it took almost a month, her jaundice reading decreases and she's fully healed. All I need to avoid during her jaundice was to eat lesser or totally avoid ginger and wine. Oh, I forgot to mention that there's a confinement session for Asians (not sure bout how other race does it) and being a Chinese, there's a lot of rules of what to do/eat and what's not to do/eat. 

She gradually healed and as a normal healthy baby, she gained good weights throughout the journey. She was born at 2.7kg and now at 4 months old, she's weighing a good 6.5kg. Tripled the weight and I feel the pain in my arm whenever I feed her. Not that I'm complaining. Happy but exhausting but in the end, it's all totally worth it.

At this age, the cheeky-ness becomes her trademark already... Speechless but hilarious!

She really had me laughing all the time and nothing else matters when she is around me. She is all that I can see now, well, of course hubs is jealous at that but he also does the same, so all is fair ! I already foresee myself spoiling her badly and despite what people says, I always wished that she is stuck at this age, never growing up so I can keep her like this forever. But of course it's impossible. 

On my next post on breastfeeding, I will share out foods to eat/avoid to boost/that decreases milk supply and other details ! It's definitely a good learning moment as she grows and despite being exhausted, it's terribly fun and the bonding is the most precious moment ever.

Apr 1, 2014

It's the Prank Day

SO.NOT.COOL. Yes, I don't really like getting pranked on April Fool Day but again, who on earth likes it. Pranking others is definitely fun, but not when you are the one getting pranked. Let me know if you like getting pranked okay.

Apart from this, I stumbled across a video of funny pranks. I'm suddenly reminded of a prank that actually caused a death. (Yeah, that is why pranks are NOT COOL) But heck, that video is not true. It's kinda like an educational video of pranks-gone-wrong.


So yeah, imagine if this is a real prank and real thing, that girl, Rachel a.k.a Cindy Vela, would have died for real... But no, it's not, so here's to ease your mind that it's a fake prank. Snopes website proved that it's fake. You want to know what's more hateful ? Those freaky-almost-real-ghost pranks... I hate those the most. I know it's hilarious when you watched it... But imagine if you are the one there... Oh I can be scared shitless and I admit it...

This... seriously, is damn good, but without doubt, scared the shit out of everyone in the toilet... And another one below...

I'm sure everyone knows this devil baby in New York. It's a famous video made by a professional team who made the devil baby as well. Kinda gross if you ask me... When it comes to babies / kids.. I'd prefer something like this ok...


She is without doubt the cutest kid in Youtube for now. I mean seriously, look at her expression and the part when she says yes to eating ice cream at 0:16 second. She is seriously adorable !!! I'm MELTED, like literally.

Mar 26, 2014

Moving On

Well, it was just the other day when our country Prime Minister announced that the plane MH370 is "lost" and "ended in the Southern Indian Ocean". Basically now all the hashtags in facebook and twitter has changed from #PrayForMH370 turned to #RememberingMH370. Following the announcement, the next day all the radio stations in Malaysia played sad and solemn songs as well as words and thoughts of the public is played live. Even the news announcer also read out the news with a sad voice. Or was it just me?

Irregardless, as this is an international case, media all around the world questioned the words of our Prime Minister, asking for evidence to support his statement that the plane is truly lost and all hope of survivors gone. A lot of people put a lot of hope in the search, still in hope for a sign of survival. Some denies the statement and some just go on as announced. I for one, could not be bothered about it, not because it has nothing to do with me. It's as simple as I still have a slight hope for miracle and IF there are no survivors, all I know is that God loves all the people in MH370 more than anyone else and they are with God. Of course, they will forever be remembered by everyone...


Believe me, it hurts to read about the news especially after finding out that there are toddlers in the flight and I, being a mother to an incredibly adorable daughter, aches for the parents and relatives because I couldn't bear to even imagine losing my daughter. NO, CUT THIS BLASPHEMOUS THOUGHT. That is beyond freaky. Worse than your worst nightmare.

Saying I know is definitely easier than done, but, life is all about moving on. Whether we like it or not, the world and time keeps going and moving without waiting for anyone. I do believe Every lost souls, even those not in the flight MH370, wishes their loved ones to move on and not dwell in grief, just mourn for a little while is fine. Again, I know it's difficult, not easy but we have to do so. I know how it feels so because I've been there and it hurts like a bitch but I have no choice but move on, because of a very simple reason... the dead ones don't come back...


Prayers and thoughts are with you and for you people out there suffering. Let's have a moment of silence for all of them...


Mar 13, 2014

Malaysia Airlines MH370 Missing and Haze Madness

It's totally crazy. Malaysia is like suffering from two insane situation at the same time and so sudden. Beginning with the first one, the missing Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines Plane MH370 that has left from Malaysia and was supposed to be heading to Beijing. It has already been missing for 5 days now since Saturday 8th March 2014 shortly two hours after its take off. The greatest thing is that, Malaysia is at the world stage now where everyone is focusing on this incident and trying to locate the plane. US sent out their warships to help to find, the Viets and Indonesia sent out planes to help, China digged their satellites for images to look for clues of wherebouts of the plane. So many other countries are helping to look for our poor missing plane.


From a small search area, it has been expanded when they failed to find the huge Boeing 777 plane. Seriously, with a total of 239 people inside and including infants, I'm totally sick to the core hearing about this news in the first place and now, the world especially China and Malaysia are praying hardly for the return of these people. 


If you notice the building on the most right, next to Aurora, there's a display of MH370 word there. This is their method of praying I guess. Various images of praying for the return of this plane has been shared all around... 

Everyone just want them to be returned. It's most devastating when news of your loved ones are suddenly missing and with the whole world helping to find, you still can't be calm as there is still no news about their whereabouts, are they safe or not... So upsetting... 

On the other hand, the other thing that should be frowned upon... Despite the effort to look for the missing plane, let's not forget that Malaysia are suddenly clouded heavily with... HAZE the most health threatening thing that's going on right now. Visibility are reduced badly for those on the roads, those working outdoors are constantly breathing in bad air and suffering from various problems, difficulty in breathing, skin dryness or itching, depending on the person. Despite the large volume intake of water, hey, we're also suffering from lack of water! 


It's bad enough to the extend where I can even smell the bad smokes in my room with all the doors and windows closed. It's bad enough that this haze time made me purchase an air purifier for the sake of my family, especially my little girl. Thanks to the bad haze that has been going on nowadays, so many jokes are being made...

Ultraman fighting a monster here... Oh there's also a case of Ultraman King banned in Malaysia. Google it up.

Another one seen here... Apart from the top caption, there's also a small caption at the bottom that reads, "Who's afraid of Godzilla? We've got the Haze!" 

I can't wait to see what other people gonna cook up to talk about the haze and the missing plane. In case you do not know, there's tons of embarrassing thing happened while the plane is missing. I'll give you a hint for you to google for... "Shaman" (In Malay, it's "Bomoh")