She Drinks It!!!

Mummy was very surprised this morning En En requested to taste breast milk. Mummy was pumping halfway and En En was accompanying mummy throughout the whole process because she wanted to see.

After finished pumping, mummy asked her whether she wants and she said YES! Poured abit into the small container that used to store breast milk and she took it. After that mummy asked again whether she want some more and she said YES again! But this time she pointed to the MILO tin and told mummy to add this one.

At first mummy was reluctant coz unsure whether she really means to take the breast milk otherwise we have to throw away after adding in MILO. But to mummy's surprise, SHE FINISHED ALL!!!

Funny talk about BooBies!

Since En En is not breastfed exclusively, she finds mummy breastfeed DiDi strange to her and can't even imagine how it was like except seeing DiDi "bites" mummy. Maybe that's also why she finds it uneasy to see this scene.

One day, mummy finally invited and introduced her the manual breast pump. She thought it's a toy that she can play but mummy explained and demonstrated to her saying it's a pump to get milk for DiDi. She looked at how mummy pumped out the milk and she finally realized there's really milk coming out from the breast. She was amazed and "happy" to see it.

Mummy: "Do you want mummy's nen-nen?"

En En : "Don't want!"

Mummy: "Why? Mummy got milk for you..."

En En : "Want Po Po's (milk), want Ah Mah's (milk)!"

Then, at night mummy saw En En talking to her Pooh Bear while cradle holding it.

En En: " Give Ah Pooh nen-nen!"

After that, change to lying down position pulak... She said this is how mummy feed DiDi!!!

Breastfeeding Journey

It was never an easy job for mummy... Mummy can recall the moment when Baby Zheng arrived, it was really a blessing that he is a healthy and demanding baby. This is going to be a long story starts from the failure mummy encountered when trying to breastfeed En En 3 years ago.

Lack of knowledge and support from family members is the major cause of mummy's stress and depression to breastfeed successfully with En En. Mummy never knew breastfeeding is a demand and supply cycle until mummy met with a few successful breastfed mothers from this forum. The chance of becoming a blogger also widens up mummy's network to get more information and tips from mummies blogger.

Mummy joined MMPS group thruogh Facebook and attended the monthly meeting as much as possible. Lots of experiences sharing moments and that reinforced mummy's awareness about many different ways to handling problems that may occur during breastfeeding time.

On the first day when baby Zheng was delivered, he was passed to mummy's immediately after wrapping to start suckling in order to stimulate breast milk production. Mummy was very proud and surprise that he did know how to suck! Never have this experience before with En En because didn't know that this is the first stimulation which is very important for breastfeeding.
Mummy was worried baby won't be send to mummy in every 2 hourly and thus keep reminding nurses and midwife to help sending baby to breastfeed.

During the 3-days stay in Adventist hospital, mummy was very alert to make sure baby is keep by the side most of the time. Baby Zheng is a nibble baby... he sucked for as short as 15 minutes to 3 hours... mummy was having a breastfeeding marathon with him on the first 2 days and nights. Some mothers told mummy normally babies will have 1-2 hourly interval of feeding but this is just an average as baby Zheng feed almost every half hourly! Different baby has different feeding pattern, mummy just have to observe and offer the breast even it was so tiring.

Mummy went back to hometown with baby Zheng for confinement. By Day 3, the milk already dripping like the tap water! Mummy was delighted as this means the milk will comes abundantly. Luckily the confinement lady is experienced with breastfed babies as her daughter in law was a breastfeeding mother too. Mummy was able to learn how to identify baby's poo during the early days from her.

Nipple pain - this is what mummy felt from Day 1 until Day 11!!! Definitely, this is a WARNING sign of baby's latching on problem. During the first 3 days mummy thought it is normal if nipple feels pain as it wil toughen up after baby sucks. Things went very terrible after 7 days as the pain was so severe till mummy felt scare and tensed whenever it's feeding time. Baby nursed very frequently during daytime but mummy was reluctant to offer both the breasts since they were cracked and bleeding. At that time, the confinement lady and Po Po also advised mummy to give bottle for the baby. Mummy insisted to pump and feed by spoon or cup with the help from them. (Mummy got spare milk bottle, but hide away...)

Mummy fell sick twice during the first 2 weeks of confinement because lack of proper rest. Mummy still very persistent but was very sad when both nipples were bleeding and baby was screaming for suckle! Finally, mummy sms mothers from MMPS and went to see a lactation consultant in Penang immediately.

Poor breastfeeding position led to baby's unproper latching on. Luckily with the help from Dr.Balkess, the lactation consultant, mummy was able to learn all over again on cradle hold position and side-lying position to ease the back when feeding. Mummy was very surprised with the correction on feeding positioning and checking on baby's lips (to be turned out like the mouth of a gold fish) there's no more pain!!!

Mummy had a log book to record down how many times baby was fed, how many times baby pee and poo as well as how many cups of water intake for mummy per day. This is to ensure mummy have enough fluid throughout the day to avoid dehydration from breastfeed and reminder that breast milk consist more than 80% of water. Baby had jaundice for over 2 weeks but fortunately didn't need to admit to hospital. At this moment, mummy kept on feeding baby on demand and monitoring very closely on baby's daily output. Finally by the end of third weeks old, the jaundice dissapeared.

Mummy believes breastmilk is the best for baby even mummy went through so many challenges and difficulties. It feels so rewarding to breastfeed my own baby!

Multi-lingual?

It's between adults... why? Simply because we don't want En En to know we are talking about her. She understands on whether we complain anything bad about her behaviours, habits or tricky actions,... or even when we praise her (don't want her to be too proud of herself too much)... So, we speaks:

- Mandarin - She will reply us...

- Hokkien - She understands and will react immediately...

- English - She will understand eventually but Ah Kong said it's a good training as she will learn by ears...

- Malay - She understand too, imagine she knows what our Indon maid was trying to tell her too!

Now we are back to mummy's hometown for holiday, normally we speak Mandarin at home too BUT mummy is forced to pick up and speak HAKKA!!! Well, this little girl is definitely blank with this language! Haha...

The 34 months old and the 5 months old

It's sure a long way to keep them close to each other. Especially En En, as she's still feel scare (?) and lack of security if DiDi is around and even worst if DiDi screams! We realized she doesn't like to be alone with mummy and DiDi in a room, maybe she feels she's not the main attention now or maybe she just unable to accept or adapt herself in such situation.

We have been trying... and still is... to put them together in the same room to play or sleep. En En will say either "Mummy go out (with DiDi)" when mummy is carrying DiDi or "Baby Jie Jie run away!" She can't bear the screaming of her little brother and will burst into tears if DiDi continues... Baby Z on the other hands, seldom cry out with tears but screams his lungs out. Most of the time baby Z already becomes silent BUT En En still continue for quite a long time before she can stop crying (with tears!)

Lately, mummy knows how to turn off En En's "speaker" by distracting her with stories and new stuff to play. Only one thing mummy is unable to understand is that she will be very anxious and feel uneasy whenever she know mummy is going to breastfeed baby Z. Is it because this is so different from what she has since she's a formula-fed baby till today. She just couldn't accept and will cry out loud if no one is attending her. So weird....

Otheriwse, she's one active and playful little girl with big eyes and a sweet smile!

When she is in good mood, she loves to sing. She has good memory on any rhymes or songs that we taught her even there's some pronunciation mistakes. She loves to sing:

- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- London Bridge is falling down
- Two Tigers (in mandarin same tune with Are you Sleeping?)
- Baa Baa Black Sheep

She even use the microphone attached to the PC and sing non-stop when mummy was chatting with aunty Jess through Skype!!!

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Baby Zheng is very good at turning up from his back or flip downwards to sleep (on tummy). He's slower than En En at 5 months old last time who is able to roll and fell off from the bed!!! He's starting to recognize people and rooms as he won't feel good if we are in a strange and darker room. I think he's a sunny boy, he prefers bright places and smile or laugh very easily even there's no one talking to him! He's now loves cooing or perhaps trying to talk with us when he's in good mood.

He's very good in grabbing stuff around him AND PUT INTO THE MOUTH! Oh... he's in the walker now as he's too active being jumping and bouncing non-stop. We don't think he's tired but anyone who's holding him will sure encounter painful arms (therefore, mummy got to sling him!) He can moves front and back in the walker but most of the time will stuck in between furniture. Then, we'll hear frustrating sound from him... :)


Baby Zheng loves to be around with Jie Jie. He will smile and giggles whenever he sees Jie Jie and can't wait to jump in and play together! En En on the other hands, loves to see baby Z laughing and will imitates what he's doing or cooing together...

Lately, mummy found out he dislikes to be fed when mummy is sitting especially when he's overtired. He wants to lie down! Quite a demanding little master... hope this is not going to be forever... Planning to bring him for the 5th month injection next week and he's exactly 5 months old TODAY!

Can't stop to knit!

Currently working on a lacy baby kimono...

and a wool shorties for baby Z. Screwed up on crocheting baby booties... Hiya~

Bake... bake... bake...

Cakes or cookies?

Supposed to be muffins!

Technically error occurred... only the last 5 survived as m-u-f-f-i-n-s.

All I want is...

Mummy's attention!!!

We know why this happen, it's jealousy. She is now keen on doing what DiDi does to get attention. Mummy also try to spend as much time as possible with the "big one" together with the "small one".

Up till today, she is much more better than before and never cry or scream when DiDi is crying. But, only if DiDi's "speaker" too loud, she will continue with hers too. We still need time to overcome the sibling rivalry... :(

Flu went off... finally

Mummy was battling with flu for almost 2 weeks plus and now finally can declare for the victory! Yeah!!! Was worry that baby Z got flu from mumy too but luckily he's only discovered with a little coughing 2 days ago when mummy was getting well. That's the wonders of breastfeeding!

So, from the previous post, this is the so-called "Ang-Moh" mint. Pardon as the leaves are supposed to be all green but the one in the pic were taken out from the fridge after 2 days... therefore already layu lah... It's very big compare with the normal mint leaves that we used in cooking and it has some fur-like feeling when touching. Surprisingly, it's quite tasty as a drink after cooked with rock sugar but it also can be chewed raw. Immediate soothing for the throat irritation.

Just for a record of medication that mummy got from Dr.Zovi's prescription... in case in need for future while still breastfeeding (CHOY! CHOY! CHOY! touch wood...)

Cough - DURO-TUSS FORTE 0.3% SYRUP / PHOLCODINE

Antibitotic - AUGMENTIN 1g (amoxycillin + clavulanate potassium)

Baby Z's had flaming red "little bird" since last week but now it's under monitor and proper care with frequent changing of nappy, use lampin instead of modern cloth diapers. Visited paed and most probably the cause of it was too humid and didn't clean properly. In fact, it's just a mild case and paed only gave LACTACYD to be used in bath and nappy change. Well, sometimes he was soaking wet espcially using cloth nappies overnight... maybe need to add another layer of microfleece to wick the moisture away.

Oh... if you are new to modern cloth diapers, do drop by my diapering blog. Moment like this it always give mummy a mix feeling to use disposable and cloth diapers when you are so in love with the modern cloth nappies. No doubt disposable never gives any skin problem to both mummy's little ones but the impact of the environment... well, it's just feeling so waste to use and throw... Anyway, right now mummy needs to take more precaution at this moment for baby Z's little bird as mummy discovered there's some peeling of skin happening... Poor baby Z... Guess mummy will resume in full time cloth diapering soon.