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It has started…

August 19, 2009 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 5 comments

 

It must be because of the excessive amount of time he spends with both Hannah and me.  Ethan has certainly started to display some form of inevitable sibling rivalry and jealousy.

It all started about a week after we touched down in Penang.  Pete had started work then, and I was still in the process of looking for a daycare for Ethan.  So meanwhile, both kids would be at home with me 24/7.  At first it was all right, although it was quite difficult for me to juggle cooking, cleaning and caring for both kids at the same time.

But then I think Ethan got a bit bored with staying at home all the time.  He started his tantrums and his whining.  And when I breastfed Hannah, he would say, “No feeding Hannah, Mommy!  Let me close it!” and proceed to *help* me “close up” my blouse.  On the contrary, when we ask him, “What does Hannah drink then?”, he’ll reply, “Hannah drinks milk!”  By the way, he does NOT forbid me to feed Hannah when Pete is around.  And he did NOT forbid me to do so when we were in the States.

Also, Hannah is in the drooling stage right now, so whenever Ethan sees her drool, he would say, “No spitting, Hannah!”  Sometimes he would use his fist and sort of hit her on the head or the chest.  It’s hard to see this happen, and I always try to gently but firmly tell Ethan, “No hitting Hannah, Ethan.  It hurts her, okay?”

And when I pick Hannah up, Ethan would ask me to carry him too!  He’d ask me to “Put Hannah away, Mommy!”  But when I put her down, he will be busy playing with his toys.  I try to *entertain* him at home as much as possible with stuff like coloring, water-color painting, and his favorite videos, but Ethan is at that age where he wants to assert his individualism and independence at the same time, hence the “No!”s that abound time and again.

So beginning August, we decided to put Hannah with Ethan’s ex-sitter, Mrs Tan, for about half a day, just to see how she copes.  At least I would have about half a day to run some errands and find a daycare for Ethan.  I was a little worried about Hannah not taking any milk while away from me, because she does not take to the bottle at all.  Well, anyway, after a few days, I decided to start her off on the regular toddler sippy cup and I am happy to say she is drinking well now.  Psst….might need to get rid of her bottles soon! 🙂

With Hannah away for half a day, we managed to get Ethan started on halfday daycare at a nearby center.  He is currently at the tail-end of his two-week orientation and will begin regular halfday daycare when the new school term starts in September.

That aside, the sibling rivalry still exists and I forsee it will be around for some time still.  Lately he has also started to say, “No crying Hannah!” or “No laughing Hannah!”

But at the end of the day, sometimes Ethan surprises me and does loving big-brotherly things like holding Hannah’s hand while he falls asleep. 🙂

 

Hannah at 2 months

May 7, 2009 in Breastfeeding, Hannah, Milestones | 4 comments

Scrap Credits
I Love Spring QP freebie from Biancka
I Love Spring elements from Seni Designs
“In the City” Alphas from Sahlin Studio

Weight

5.846 kilos or 12 lb 14.2 oz (weighed in at her recent 2-month well child checkup).  Hannah’s weight is charted at 92.35% of growth percentile based on weight-for-age!

Height/Length

56.5 cm

Motor Skills

  • Hannah’s getting stronger in her kicks.  She also loves to splash the water with her feet when I bathe her.
  • She can open and close her hands sometimes.
  • More eager at batting the toys hung in front of her.
  • Can hold head up at an angle when placed on her tummy.
  • Can rotate her whole body while placed on her back on a flat surface.
  • Once, it felt like she was trying to stand when I held her against me, and her feet were pressed on my thighs, as if she was standing with support!
  • Likes to be propped up.  She loves to *sit* on the sofa, or held in a sitting position when carried.

Communication and Social Skills

  • Hannah’s loud throaty sounds are getting less, especially after we started using a humidifier.
  • She has started cooing and making sounds in response to what we speak.  Sounds like “oooh” and “aaah” are her specialties.
  • More smiles now 🙂
  • Cries are getting louder and stronger and more persistent, sometimes to the extend of  “sounding out of key”.  The word we are looking for here is “heartwrenching”.
  • Eye contact is more apparent and she will follow our movements intently with her eyes.

Others

Hannah can sometimes sleep for about 5 hours straight during the night, but it is not consistent.  Hopefully our sleepless nights will be a thing of the past soon.

Food and Feeding

She is 100% on Mommy’s milk.  However, because her weight is on the higher end of the scale, her doctor has asked us to try giving her slightly less to drink; perhaps removing the breast a little sooner or feeding her just one breast during the night, or try going through the night without a feed.  On the other hand, I feel that Hannah can gauge when she is full because she would sometimes reject the breast, unlike her brother the last time.

Unwanted white gold

April 14, 2009 in Breastfeeding, Food & Feeding, Hannah, Parenting | 2 comments

This is the story of my *unwanted* EBM (expressed breast milk)… 🙁

 

I had a one hour conference call scheduled today, so I asked my parents to look after Hannah during that time.  The day before I’d made an effort to express some breast milk for Hannah, just so my parents could feed it to Hannah if she asked for milk during my meeting.  Well, turns out she didn’t, but asked for it as soon as my conference ended, so I decided to warm the EBM and feed it to her instead.

It was the first time I had expressed milk since I had Hannah, and the very first time I was gonna feed her using the bottle.  I honestly didn’t think it would work, but gave it a shot anyway, because my EBM was already kept for 24 hours in the fridge, and I would have to throw it out had I not fed it to her then.

The first few tries were unsuccessful because I didn’t close the bottle properly, so the EBM leaked out.  And then when I made sure it didn’t leak, Hannah used her tongue to push away the nipple, and cried and screamed even louder!  I guess she knew I was feeding her so she flatly refused the bottle!  When I asked my Mom to try feeding her, she still refused, because the smart little girl *knew* that a *better milk package* was around…so why should she settle for less?

So that’s the story of my leftover EBM…being a kiasu breastfeeding mommy, of course I could not bring myself to throw out the milk just like that, although it was just about two ounces…

So I poured a little of the EBM onto a wet washcloth and washed Hannah’s face with it when I bathed her!  Hey…breast milk works wonders on heat rash, y’know? 🙂

Milk, milk and more milk!

March 31, 2009 in Breastfeeding, Growing Up, Hannah | 4 comments

 
Scrap Credits
Strawberry Farms QP from Raspberry Road Designs
Moody Grunge Alphas from Mel Hains Designs

Phew!  We just made it past Hannah’s second growth spurt!  According to baby books and experts, an infant experiences growth spurts at certain periods during the first year of life and the approximate times are:

  • 7-10 days
  • 3 weeks
  • 6 weeks
  • 3 months
  • 4 months
  • 6 months
  • 9 months

During these growth spurts, the baby’s appetite will increase, and a typical sign of a growth spurt is something called cluster feedings, i.e. when baby nurses several times close together, sometimes even in an hour or two!  Hannah’s first growth spurt went by almost unnoticed, because she was still settling into her feeding and sleep pattern then, but just as I thought it was getting easier, she hit her second growth spurt about a week ago, and the LONG nights began.

In addition to waking up several times in the middle of the night, I had to remind myself to burp her properly after every feed and prop her body up at an angle after that.  You see, Hannah has a slight case of Gastroesophageal Reflux (GER), and would sometimes throw up a little bit of milk.  The first time she did that, I panicked, not because I didn’t know babies did that, but because it never happened to Ethan; that boy kept everything down!  I remembered I just had to feed him, and burp or no burp, he would be okay after that.  Maybe girls are more high maintenance…hehehe…

In any case, breastfeeding definitely helps an infant with GER, and I hope she’ll feel much better soon.

Oh, and she prefers to be burped over the shoulder!  Doesn’t like the sitting and burping position…

Well anyway, I am glad we are nearing the end of this growth spurt…for one thing, it has certainly made our girl look more *bulat* by the day!  She is fast growing out of her 0-3months clothes too!

And so my journey begins yet again…

March 17, 2009 in Breastfeeding, Hannah | 1 comment

 
Scrap Credits
Crazy Love Partie 5  kit from Digital-Crea
Photo mask from Scrapmalin

With the birth of Hannah, so begins this second breastfeeding journey of mine.  Psychologically, of course I am very prepared…prepared to sacrifice sleep for at least a few weeks or months, prepared for interrupted schedules and definitely prepared to reap the fulfilling rewards.

I’ll be honest.  The first night I spent with Hannah was VERY trying.  And although mentally I knew that this would be coming, fatigue was taking its toll on me.  Coupled with the fact that Hannah nursed VERY frequently that first night, and hardly slept, it would be really easy for any new mother to give up.  Of course, it didn’t help that the hospital I was in had nurses who *gently advised* me not to become a human pacifier, and tried to coax me to use a regular pacifier instead.  Luckily I did not cave in!  You see, I had clearly stated in my birth plan that I would be exclusively breastfeeding Hannah, and that she was not to have any bottles or pacifiers.

Anyway, that was not the end of my worries.  When I came home from the hospital, I started to get sore nipples due to the excessive nursing.  Hannah was latching on correctly, that much I am sure, but my nipples were very sore, and dry, probably because they were not yet *seasoned*.  I was never a fan of using lanolin to ease sore nipples, but I resorted to it a couple of times out of desperation.  I still prefer applying breast milk though.

This time round, hallelujah, my milk came in on the third day, but I still had to grit my teeth when I nursed Hannah then, so I consulted the internet and I was somewhat relieved to find out that the soreness would (hopefully) disappear come day 6 or so.  Hannah’s pediatrician recommended wearing loose clothing to help ease the soreness (and that help a lot).

Thankfully the soreness left from day 4 onwards and I am now happily nursing a happy beautiful baby 🙂

She is definitely a pro at breastfeeding, but sometimes she can get a little bit lazy after nursing on one side, and needs to be woken up for feeding on the other side.  Hannah is fed on demand and usually asks for a feed every 2-3 hours, but sometimes less frequently.

I am taking it easy now and have not started expressing milk yet, although sometimes I feel my breasts are quite full.  I am allowing my body to make just enough (no more and no less) milk for Hannah, so I will probably only start expressing for storage in Week 3 or 4 or later, when my milk supply is established.

So as far as my breastfeeding journey goes, I am definitely enjoying myself and from the looks of it, Hannah is too, as her weight has increased to 7lbs 6.5oz (3.359kilos) at 2 weeks’ old! 🙂

A wondrous journey

February 21, 2008 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 15 comments


Scrap Credits
Kit “True Love” from Sueli Colbert
Boxed words from Chantal
Delight Series Red Inked Alphas from Foxy Designs

I knew weaning Ethan would not be an easy thing to do. In fact, I started trying out various weaning tactics when he was about 15 months’ old, but I was not firm with it and he certainly did not seem ready to be weaned yet at that time. No amount of distractions, meal substitutions and coaxing could wean him from the breast, not even when I started him on formula when he was about 15.5 months’ old, and I was afraid the weaning battle would become a stressful, terrible one. One of my fervent prayers to God was to have a smooth weaning process for Ethan, where neither he nor I would suffer, for I really cannot bear to see him wail and cry as if someone were abusing him or something.

Anyway, on our way to Singapore last year, one of the senior flight attendants (who obviously used to be a breastfeeding mother herself too) told me her secret method of weaning her boy when he was 17 months’ old. At that time, Ethan was roughly the same age. She told me she used Bonjela. Applied it to her nipples and after a few rejections from her son, he was off the breast. It was as simple as that.

I didn’t use this method immediately after we returned from our trip though. And I can’t remember when I actually purchased a tube of Bonjela. But when I tried it the first time on Ethan, he made a face when he tasted the minty Bonjela, quietly and (dare I say) obediently walked away. That was during one of the evenings after work. I didn’t try it again after that, because I was pretty confident Bonjela works.

When Ethan was a little older, it became apparent that he was ready to be weaned. He could go without breast milk the whole day long while I was at work but somehow he still “needed” breast milk during the day on weekends. I realized then that I was the one who was not ready to wean him off. I realized that all I needed to do was to be firm with him and hopefully he would comply. Although I used the Bonjela method off and on, I was wishy washy about it and so it didn’t really work as I hoped it would. Sometimes when I used Bonjela during the weekends, and Ethan (the smart fella) would patiently wait till the effects wore off before cuddling up for a feed.

But when Ethan was one month shy of his 2nd birthday, I told myself that if I wanted him to be weaned, nobody could help me but myself. Only I alone can do it. And so I crafted a plan. I religiously used Bonjela, slowly eliminating one feed at a time in the weekends. Weaning him off the morning feeds was easy, but it was an uphill task when I began weaning him from the afternoon feeds. A bottle of Pediasure would usually be ready at hand whenever I used the Bonjela method, so I hoped he would get the idea soon enough.

Well, he was soon able to take his afternoon naps without breastfeeding…which was good, except it took him longer to fall asleep, resulting in a more tired Daddy and Mommy. I so took the ease of breastfeeding baby to sleep for granted, I tell ya. And it was a struggle to get him to sleep without the comfort of breastfeeding.

After he turned two, about a week before Chinese New Year, the Bonjela method had already successfully gotten Ethan off the breast from morning till after his nightly shower. He still needed to be breastfed to sleep at that time, though. He would wait till I had had my shower before he asked for a feed. So I told myself that I would continue with the plan after Chinese New Year, since it was not a good idea to make changes to the routine while travelling. I knew it was gonna be a hurdle to wean him from the breast for his nightly feeds.

But God is good, and He answers prayers. A few days before Chinese New Year, Ethan started to go to sleep without the need to be breastfed. I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but it just happened. Sometimes he would just cuddle up to me, just to be close to me and he would fall asleep on his own. He would still wake up once or twice in the night for comfort suckling though, but that did not bother me, because I knew it would be another obstacle I had to overcome soon. I figured I would cross the bridge when the time came.

However, one of the nights during the Chinese New Year break, he started to sleep through without needing his comfort suckling. He still wakes up sometimes, but he will just snuggle close to me and will fall back to sleep. It happened so suddenly that I didn’t even see it coming.

His last breastfed meal was on the night we returned from our hometowns in Ipoh and Taiping. After his shower, he came up to me with this loving look in his eyes, propped himself on my lap for a feed and after a few minutes, he was done. He gave me a “Thank you Mommy, I love you” look and went about his usual business. It was done in such an endearing manner, that I could not help the tears trickling down my cheeks. It was as if he knew our “contract” had ended and he was saying his final goodbye.

Oh sorry…well actually that was supposed to be his last feed, but I breastfed him again a few days later when he was down with fever… out of pity 😛

Anyway, it has now been a little over a week that Ethan has been completely off the breast. What started out as my labor of love became a loving wondrous journey that lasted approximately two years and a week. I thought I would feel a sense of relief because the weaning was now over and done with. But what I felt was a tinge of emptiness…as if something I had grown to love dearly is now missing from my life. It is a sign that my Ethan boy, my darling Mr Bulat, has grown up somewhat, and I am just grateful that I was able to give him the best nourishment a mother can offer.

He’s a fighter, baby!

February 14, 2008 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Growing Up | 5 comments


Scrap Credits
Kit “Memory” from Sueli Colbert
Netter’s Alphas from Scarlet Heels

Last Monday, the first day of work after the long Chinese New Year break, when Ethan woke up in the morning, my maternal instincts told me something was wrong.  His body felt slightly warmer than usual and when I took his temperature, it registered a slight fever.  However, it went down about half an hour later after I gave him the PCM suppository.  But when we arrived at Mrs Tan’s in the evening to pick him up, we were told that he was still nursing a fever.  That day, Pete and I had not had our dinner prior to picking him up, so we decided to go to Old Town for Ethan’s favorite chicken koay-teow.  Unfortunately they had ran out of koay teow that day, so poor Ethan boy had to watch us eat.  He didn’t want anything else except the koay teow, the poor dear.  After dinner, we decided to just swing by a chicken koay teow stall and buy him a packet, but he wouldn’t eat it at all when we got home too.

His temperature had gone up to 38.2°C then, so I sponged him down with some warm Eucalyptus water, gave him another dose of PCM and changed him into his pajamas.  After a few moments of watching Baby Einstein, Ethan, who was way much quieter than usual, fell asleep in my arms.

The next afternoon, we decided to take him to see Dr Jessica, just to be on the safe side.  No doubt his fever had diminished, his appetite was back to normal, and he was grinning away that day, we still felt better if we got some reassurance from the doc.  Ethan was very cooperative throughout the entire checkup, staying very still when the doc took his temperature and checked his ears.  He only complained a little when the doc wanted to check the back of his throat.  In fact, he even obediently sat still on the weighing scale while he was being weighed.  When his name was called in to see the doc, he didn’t want to go in, but when we were ready to leave, he didn’t want to go.  In the end, we carried him out with him giving Dr Jessica a loud flying kiss.

Dr Jessica said he was all right, and the temperature could very well be a viral infection, which our boy had fought off on his own.  When we heard that, we were so proud of our little fighter there… 🙂 It really means a lot to me that he can fend off illnesses on his own now that he is no longer breastfed.  The two years of breastfeeding prove very worth the while.

Poke poke tickle tickle!

January 14, 2008 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Funny Moments | 7 comments

Well, I guess I am gonna hit the 2-year mark for breastfeeding Ethan now, since it will only be a matter of days before Ethan hits 2. It seems like just yesterday that I was struggling with milk supply and here I am, proud to say that I have far exceeded my expectations 🙂 Weaning is still a battle we both have to overcome though, but I know this is a phase we must go through together, whether we like it or not.

One of Ethan’s unique habits while breastfeeding is to put his index finger into my belly button. I have no idea why he does this, neither do I know when this started. It’s almost like a belly button fetish, really. Most of the time, he will just let his finger rest in my belly button but sometimes, he will move his finger a little. Well, that tickles…definitely! So I will tell him to stop and gently take his hand away. But still he will keep doing it. Lately, I have started to sometimes give him a dose of tit for tat. He puts his finger in my belly button, I put my finger in his. Good plan, eh? Surprisingly though, he is not as ticklish as me. So we’re back to square one. Well, there goes my plan 😛

Last One Standing

November 5, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan | 11 comments

 

Last Thursday was my last day expressing milk at work.  I started with four (sometimes five) sessions a day when I first returned to work from maternity leave. Then I was on three sessions a day, and soon I was down to expressing twice daily at work.  Eventually I only expressed once a day and for the past couple of months, once a day every other day.  All the hard work I put in produced EBM for Ethan’s consumption while I was at work.  Since Ethan is now okay with no EBM supply during the time I am at work, I decided to stop my alternate day sessions altogether.  It follows that today, when Ethan is officially 1 year, 21 months and 5 days old, he would have taken the last bottle of frozen EBM from the freezer. It is time I packed up both my Medela dual pump, Avent breast pump and all my breast milk storage bottles and put them away until they are needed again in future.

I already feel a part of me is missing now that this chapter is being shelved.  And now, the next step would be to wean him from my breasts.

Shopping Shortened (Singapore Day 5)

August 20, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Growing Up, Vacation | 4 comments

With 4 days well spent in Singapore, there was only one thing left to do on the fifth day of our vacation.  Yup, you guessed right… S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G!!!

We didn’t have much time to shop to our hearts’ content in VivoCity the day before (or rather, Mommy didn’t have enough time), so we decided to spend our day there again.  We were very much the experts at boarding the MRT now, and VivoCity was an excellent choice because the subway from Little India would take us directly to Harbourfront, where VivoCity is.  By this time, Ethan was really getting the hang of riding in the MRT 🙂

We reached VivoCity before lunch but unfortunately after a little bit of shopping, I started feeling a little uneasy and unwell.  I thought it was because I was feeling hungry, so we decided to have lunch, ending up in Marché again.  Yes, yes, it was THAT good that we simply could not get enough of it  😛  Too bad, my nausea got worse during lunch and I couldn’t eat much, although I know Pete ordered so many many yummy items.  SIGH.  In the end, Daddy had to finish most of it, and Mommy has to be content with well….just these photos…..on the bright side, the blogger in me was satisfied because I managed to take a picture of the glorious Swiss cross buns!

Ethan was getting hungry and fidgety too, so after lunch we took him to the nursing room and I breastfed him till he slept.  Pete and I then decided to call it a day, seeing that I was feeling queasy already.  I carried the sleeping Ethan and we headed towards the MRT station.  However, before we could even walk out of the mall, my stomach decided to do a major churn and I threw up all over the nicely polished VivoCity floor.  Of course, before the throwing up incident, I managed to call out frantically to Pete and pass Ethan to him!  Thankfully there was a cleaner just nearby and he proceeded to quickly clean up the mess I made.  I hurried to the washroom as fast as I could.

After cleaning up, we made our way back to our hotel, where we all fell asleep the whole afternoon.  I could only pray that Pete and Ethan were not affected by whatever virus or bacteria that had chose to attack me.  I awoke with a fever of 38.1°C, and took two Panadol tablets, slept for a little while longer and then mustered up whatever strength I had to go for dinner.  Our plan was to go to Tony Roma’s in Suntec City for dinner again, but we had to kiss that plan goodbye because I was just too weak.  In the end, we walked to the nearby Foodmore foodcourt, a stone’s throw away from our hotel and had pan mee for dinner.  There was no baby chair available, so Ethan had to sit on two stacked chairs. 


Scrap Elements from Anita’s Designs

It must have been the excellent company I had for dinner, because I definitely felt better after that.  Isn’t it apparent from the picture above?  After dinner, all I could do was to breastfeed Ethan so that he would get all the antibodies to prevent him from succumbing to the illness I had.

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