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.

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.

Festive Eats !

I know it's kinda late in blogging about this but heck, I always believed in better late than never right? Enough said, in my country, Malaysia, last week was a week of fun, eats and play as we have a time called Hari Raya for the Muslims in my country. It's a time where family get together, eat together, and other wonderful things after a month of fasting. The best thing about these two month is that, FOODS!! Never ending of wonderful mouthwatering foods!! 

Most of the foods are without doubt, very sinful, and very delicious. I would say it is all a must have. It's undeniably fattening, but hell, which awesome food is not? That's the reason why they are awesome right? The top picture is what we have, called Lemang. It's sticky rice cooked in bamboo and believe me, together with the curry, it's fabulous! I'd never have enough of that.

 This one, I believe most knows it. The infamous satay ! Depending on your choice, you may have various type of meat to cook. My personal favorite, beef and chicken! Some even comes with rabbit meat or camel meat. Ohhhh, ostrich meat are delicious too. Juicy and tender! Together with the curry that's mixed with nuts, it's an awesome treat that one can have for dinner and yes, just by eating this alone, you can be actually very full. Price vary but cheapest of chicken meat it cost about RM0.30 per stick. Totally worth it. 

The lovely darling here, is the traditional nasi lemak ! The name itself mean fats. But then again, it's delicious!So, who cares! Really, when it comes to this one, it's also another must have during this wonderful season. It's a must have, cannot be missed, MUST EAT meal. I do so insist. You can practically find it everywhere and I personally like those that is served like this. Brings out the tradition in it and yeah, for some reason, it taste better served on banana leaves. 

This is like an extra, but also one of my favorite. It's called Ayam Percik. Not sure how to translate this into english but it's chicken meat with some awesome marinated sauce. Seeing it with the sticks, yes, it's meant to be grilled. It's definitely a huge piece, with each stick enough for a person, especially if you're a small eater. Mostly, during the fasting month, this is sold in the market and the aroma of this would overwhelm most ! :D I do miss this the most as I can only find awesome ones during the fasting month. Other than that, it's not so nice. 

Of course, another perks of having these sort of festive season here in this country is that, in town, it's usually empty and there's no traffic or whatsoever. We always look forward to such festive seasons as it gives great foods, smooth as white tofu traffic, family gatherings and of course, away from work and classes. It's a get fat and lazy moment, but, everyone loves it.

It's the Life !

Pretty much everything has changed for me and I'd say, a hell lot of things changed in fact since the last post. Undeniably, I was lazy, now, I might as well a pick up my pace. I half considered closing this blog down and carry on with the new one elsewhere. That will be discovered soon. As of now, I'm going to keep on using this site for my blogs. Technically, for now, I'm lost at what to post, thus the constant delaying on updates. I'm no longer the one going out for parties and clubs or whats not. Rather, the life has gotten really dull. Maybe it's what most people say, part of the process of growing up and sacrificing for something else. 

 True enough, I am indeed sacrificing most of my time for something else. That's to be announced when it's all done :D On a side note, I'd like to point out to all that stop expecting party pictures,hot chicks, hot hunks or whats not in trend. I don't do trend. I set my own trend. Look at it this way, people are crazy about minions right now, here, in my country. Minions as in those mini yellow guy who speaks alien language in Despicable Me.

Yes, these little yellow guy in jumpers with goggles on. People rushes to McDonald's and queue up from midnight or whenever to it's open just to get their hands on these little guys. See what the crazy queue and traffic it caused? Both caught at different state in my country.

These two pictures is sourced from my friend, Shuffler Kenneth. Notice those long ass queue? I'm probably dead asleep while these people try to get their hands on the minion toy and throw the foods away, untouched. Now that's truly despicable. But, hurrah to these bunch of people! 

These guys collected the unwanted meals from those hobos that bought the the meal set for the minion toy and donate them to various homeless and orphanages. It seems like they have taken down their Facebook page or  I'm just purely lousy at looking up for people/group in Facebook. Whatever it is, if you don't eat them, give them to those who can't have proper meal, damn it. Don't go wasting foods and just cuz we're not living in Bosnia or Africa, doesn't give you all the damn right to waste foods. 

OctoberFest @ One Utama

I know it’s pretty late for me to write bout this, so, I will not write and instead, I’ll post all the fun pictures of what boyfriend and I together with some friends did. Enjoy

Going in the line to take number…

Not even 6pm and this is the number that we’ve gotten for the RM1 beer >.<

Now look at the amount of people waiting and it’s drizzling !

Half passport chop that we got after the ticket is given.

Didn’t wanna take picture of the people but that’s where the line for the One Card members go for free beer.

Hello there !!

The RM1 beer !!

Happy man he is…

Well, doesn’t really look happy but, it’s all right xD

The amount of people that had taken their beers… or rather waiting for people to bring the beers would be more correct…

I got the Octoberfest hat !!

Face painting after me…

Tadaaa !!

Another one…

Taadaaa ~~!!! I refuse to show mine =p

Ah crap I was freaked out twice by this guy…

Yep, they sell good foods here !

Like this baby here for instant, roast lamb, yum yum.

One card members get something free from every food stalls (except the beer stall) when they purchase something.

The sausages was seriously awesome-ness…

The second round after the RM1 beer is the RM50 for 5 bottles of beer of your choice !

Pure fun, pure drinks all the way.

Holy shit look on his face…

Holy shit look on my face hahaha !!

The aftermath 1…

The aftermath 2…

The final aftermath >.<

We’ll be back again next year !!

RM2 Bonanza @ Sushi King

It’s definitely the time of the month again. No, you know I definitely don’t mean about the period for ladies. I’m talking bout the foodies !! This is definitely the time when the hungry ones go and clear all the foods possible served. 4 big eater plus 1 moderate eater. Wait, I am included in the big eater part ok? Although unintentionally, I did starve myself throughout the day just to be able to stuff myself crazy. Check out the plates that we cleared off…

That wasn’t really all of it…yet… This is how it looks like when we got the bill….

See, one of boyfriend friend cleared most of the purple plates. It was all the sushi with the tempura prawns except for the last one which was the fat piece of unagi. The purple plates top it all off.

We call this our personal Sushi Challenge and when we asked for the bill, everyone was staring at our stack of plates. Imagine what we could do if all 5 of us were big eaters. The duration of time to sit down during the RM2 bonanza has been shortened since a lot of people visited and there’s barely a seat left. From two hours to one hour only. I’m not sure bout the amount of people that a member card can bring last time but now, it’s 5 pax per card. Don’t miss out on this !! It’s only until 14th Oct, which is this week Thursday !

Die for it while you still can