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.

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") 

Get The Pee Stain Off My Bed !!

Ever since getting a puppy of my own, life was kinda busy and pretty much a different learning curve. Many thinks that getting an animal is of no big deal, just like pet fish. NO ! That is NOT TRUE. Even getting a fish means lots of commitments! If that's in your mind all the while and you want to get a pet, throw the damn idea off that wee brain of yours then. 

Getting either pet, whichever that tickles your fancy, means devoting your time, love, money and everything to them, like you do to your dear family members, because, the moment you get a pet, you add in an extra family member. In my case, feedings and clean ups are mainly my chore. Playtime? Leave it to the man to do it. 

So, back to the topic, the lil' dog, being the sweetpie that she is, sleeps with us on the bed at night of course.

This is my lil' baby ! Coco ! But like a human kid that has gotten used to wear diapers, they do not know when to NOT PEE on the bed. Yes, my little baby pees on the bed on and off. Imagine the horror in my face when I saw it each time. Having to wash the sheets is one small matter. The biggest problem, the mattress. The stains and the odor ! They are the main killer. So what do I do? 

The God that I pray to. The answers that this God gave me is, nonetheless, awesome. Why? I got the one best solution to get the stains and odor out of my mattress. Since it worked on kids pee stains, I figured it should work on pets too and voila! It does! Details below is all credit to: Inspired Housewife Blog 

So here's what you need to get started:

You need a measuring cup, tablespoon, funnel, and spray bottle.

8 ounces/237 ml hydrogen peroxide 3% (this can be found in a brown bottle in the first aid aisle of most pharmacies or stores. It's sort of an antiseptic for washing wounds. Best place to find it in Malaysia is the pharmacies.)

3 tablespoons/45 grams of baking soda

1 drop of liquid hand dish washing soap

Mix all ingredients into the spray bottle, do not shake the bottle, and use within 20 minutes.  Do not attempt to store the leftover solution. because it will leak out of the bottle.  The mixture only works if you use it immediately, because the cleaning byproducts are active for only a short time period.  You should see the stain lift and disappear within 5-10 minutes.  Once the mattress dries, if a baking soda film remains, then simply wipe or vacuum it off.

Here's my before and after result. I'm seriously glad it worked for me. It's a cotton bed by the way. 

After the whole thing fully dried off, even the watermark is gone. This solution really works wonder. So, moms at home and pet owners, have no fear on putting your kids/pets on bed with you!! Takes time to train them to pee on proper designated place, even for kids. 

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.