Hao @ 10 months

2 more months, Hao will turn 1 year old. We have not decided how to celebrate his birthday yet. When I brought him for his hospital appointment, his weight was 9.3kg. His progress so far: -

• Can sit firmly without support. Can sit on a stool too Can crawl at much faster speed. Sometimes he will crawl with four limbs on the floor, but sometimes he will crawl with palms and knee on the ground.
  Able to pull himself up.
• Very playful. Single little noise will get his attention. Will say mum mum or nen nen when he see us eating, to tell us that he wants to eat too!
• Know how to play peekaboo with us. When we say “chak” he will cover his eyes with his small hand and then open it and with big smile on his face. :)
• He has 4 teeth now! 2 from the bottom and 2 from the top. All 4 teeth come out at the same time. Drink his water from sipping cup. But not very good at it. Get choked easily.
• Become more and more attach to me. Always ask me to carry him.
• Still on fully breast milk.
• Likes to play ball and also objects that can make sound.
• Very active baby. It’s tiring to carry him as he will move non-stop.
• He has 4 teeth now! 2 from the bottom and 2 from the top. All 4 teeth come out at the same time.Know how to play peekaboo with us. When we say “chak” he will cover his eyes with his small hand and then open it and with big smile on his face. :)
• Likes to play ball and also objects that can make sound.
• Refused to be alone. Always look for someone to play with.

The last day

Yesterday during work, I was thinking of the boy all the time in the office. After work, we quickly went to pick him up. I got a cold shoulder and long face from the babysitter. She was not looking at me and not talking to me. Apparently, she was still angry with me. Well I did nothing wrong. When I was looking for babysitter I had already told her that the baby is on fully breast milk and if she think she can’t support that, please do not accept to take care my child!

Next week I’m going to send Hao to parents’ house and then in the month of May, Hao is going to the playschool together with Lynn. I had talked to the person in-charge of the playschool. I can send him over next month (they are limiting to 5 babies only and Hao will be the 4th one). After the incident, I don’t trust this babysitter anymore. Sending Hao to her will only make me worry. Moreover, now she is showing long face to me, how do I know will she harm the baby to release her anger to me? I do not want to take any risk. However, giving me a choice I would like to end the relationship with the babysitter in a better way. She maybe thinking that she is good and experience in taking care of children but I’m sorry aunty you are not good at all in our eyes.

Lynn was lucky. She was blessed with a very good babysitter when she was a baby. Until today, we still maintain good relationship with that lady. We know all her children and grand children. Her grandchildren are Lynn’s playmate. Unfortunately, Hao did not come on the right timing. The aunty needs to take care of her own granddaughter who was born 3 months after Hao. She alone could not take care 2 babies at the same time. That is why I could not send Hao to her. But she helped to take care Hao until the granddaughter was born. She’s a very nice lady, and has been supportive to breastfeeding.

The playschool has been established for more than 30 years. They are ok with Hao on breast milk. It is a better environment too. Hao will get the opportunity to learn from other kids. This should help for his growth. However on the bad side, is maybe he will pick up some bad habit from the older kids too. Well there’s always good and bad. We just have to keep an eye on them and correct them if they are doing something not right or not good.

4/28:

Went to the babysitter's house to collect Hao's things after work. I also gave her some branded and pricey chocolate, as an appreciation to her for taking care Hao all this while. Even though I may not agree with her on everything, but to me these are separate issues. Finally, a smile from her - I guess she did not expect I will say thank you to her. Well, I'm a person who likes good ending. :)

Enough!

I feel like want to cry. I had to throw away an unused, 5oz, thawed frozen breast milk. Yes, you hear me right. I HAD TO THROW AWAY AN UNUSED, 5OZ THAWED FROZEN BREAST MILK. (Well, it is actually still inside my fridge, as I feel so heavy to throw it away. However, I know I have to, as it is not good to drink already.) How this will happen?

Apparently, Hao did not finish his milk for the day on the day before. However, the babysitter did not tell me about it. Therefore, I still gave her the same amount of milk this morning when I sent Hao over to her house. She did mention to me this morning that Hao seems like does not like to drink those milk anymore. However, so far I have no problem nursing him at home. He did not show the sign does not want me breastfeeding him. In fact, he is looking forward to it every night.

When I went to pick up Hao after work, the babysitter told me tomorrow no need to bring any milk to her. Hao did not want to drink the milk. He just finished whatever left over from yesterday. And the BM that I gave her this morning remained untouched. Well of course, Hao won’t want it. Everyday, I gave the babysitter both expressed BM and frozen BM. I expected all milks to be finished on that day itself. Therefore, I did not tell her, which one is frozen, that Hao had to take first and which one could be later. And any leftover milk from the milk bottle, if not being consumed within the next 1-2 hours, had to be discarded (the same rule apply to formula milk too). And thawed frozen BM cannot be kept until the next day. I don’t think she knows all this. Obviously, Hao would not want that ‘old’ milk, as they did not taste good anymore. But she should have told me this yesterday.

As I did not give her any formula milk powder to stand by, I wonder if Hao was not taking the BM, what he takes? The babysitter said he just take the normal cereal and porridge. Other than that, he did not want the milk. I did not understand, wont he feel hungry? Just when I wanted to ask more questions, I heard the babysitter was telling Hao “嘿, 长大了囖, 知道不好吃了啊.” (means now you have grown up, you know the BM does not taste good.) After hearing this, I could not hold back anymore.

Immediately I told the babysitter in a very stern and serious tone, showing my unhappiness and disagreement “Aunty, how can you be so negative. I’m very sensitive to this. Breast milk is the best milk in this world. All this while you like to ask me when am I going to stop breast-feeding. Commenting the texture of the milk, the taste of the milk etc. Milk is not the main food for baby after 6 months old. In fact, the paed just told me to replace one of his milk with semi solid food. This is the beauty of the breast milk; it will adjust to the baby’s need. However, despite all the benefits, you are not encouraging at all. Even if the baby is rejecting the milk, this is his choice. How can you tell the baby it does not taste good? Well seems like the baby is listening to you now.”

I dislike this babysitter as she has been acting and talking negatively all this while. I and hubby already have plan to change babysitter for Hao. But I did not expect such thing would happen before Hao switch to new babysitter. When Hao was about 7 months, I requested the babysitter to cook porridge for him. She told me Hao did not like to take porridge. I did not rely on the babysitter. I took my own initiative to find out what Hao likes and what he does not like and updated the babysitter. Apparently she did not listen to me. One day, she told me Hao was not ready to take porridge yet as he vomited right after taking the porridge. Well I did not have such problem back at home here. I did not argue with her. I just checked with her how she cooked the porridge and the texture of the porridge. I doubt she cooked it in the way that Hao likes.

She stopped cooking porridge for Hao after that day. I did not get mad at her. One or two weeks later, I asked her about it. I told her back at home during weekend, Hao’s evening meal was on porridge, no more milk. So far, I had no problem feeding him porridge. Only after hearing me saying this, she resumes giving him porridge and no more complains from her on this.

I gave her a box of Baby Bites biscuit when Hao reaching 6 months old earlier. I told her to give to Hao as snack. After 2 months later, I checked with her. She told me the biscuit is like the Japanese rice biscuit, she thinks it’s too hard for Hao. Therefore, she did not give him. I was like – what? If I did not ask, means she won’t tell me about it. I assured her the biscuit is soft enough to give to a baby. Lynn started eating those biscuit when she was 5 months plus. I personally also had given Hao those biscuit to eat and he knows how to eat those biscuit. Very obvious she made her own judgment without trying it. Still after that, she did not give it to him. She complained to me that Hao did not like to drink plain water. I suggested change to sipping cup for him. This happened to Lynn before. She also did not like to drink plain water from milk bottle. But she’s ok after we change her to sipping cup. Guess what the babysitter told me? She said Hao won’t want to drink from the sipping cup (how she knows if she never try?), he does not know how to drink from the sipping cup (no one come to this world know everything, we have to learn). She even asked me to try first, if he drinks then only give her the cup. Well I did try at home. Hao did not reject sipping cup. But I did not tell the babysitter. There are many incidents already. Since she won’t listen to me, I let her do the way she wants. She is being lazy. She thought as long as the baby is not grumpy, not cranky, she has done her job. All the babies that she previously take care, the parents only brought the baby back home during weekend. I doubt those parents know how this lady take care of their child.

Since then, we know she is a very negative person. She uses the same method same way on all babies, but we know this will not work as every baby is unique. In addition, a baby needs a positive environment to grow. Hubby and I have been talking about changing babysitter. We actually have decided to send Hao to the same playschool that Lynn is going now. We just need to sort out some of the arrangement.

My experience on baby wearing

Come to know about sling a baby was 3 years back when Lynn was still a baby. Lynn was very clingy to me. She required my attention all the time. She refused to stay in the walker. I could hardly do any housework. Then I saw sling in the internet and thought this should be helpful. About 3 years ago, sling was not very popular here. I did not know anyone using sling. I could only get information from the internet.

I bought my first pouch sling from the Kiddy’s Place in Cheras Leisure Mall. The sling pouch cost me RM 149.90. It was quite expensive at that time. The shop people there did not know much about sling, could not help me to choose a correct size and could not show me the correct way to sling a baby. I downloaded the instruction on how to sling a baby using pouch sling from internet. With some practice, I managed to get hold of Lynn using the pouch sling. Well, I did not know if I sling her the correct way. As long as I feel comfortable and she was not complaining, I was happy with it.

Therefore, I started to sling Lynn a lot at home, when I need to do the housework. From working in the kitchen (except cutting food and cooking), to hang the clothes,  I sling her all the time at home, but not so much when we were going out. Lynn was already more than 6 months old when I started to sling her. If we went to supermarket to buy groceries, we could place her on the shopping cart. Therefore, I did not need to sling her. The only time I sling her a lot outside was during our trip to Bali and Singapore when she was 9 months old. We did not bring any stroller along. Hubby could not fit into the sling pouch. Therefore, we took turn to carry her. I used the pouch sling while hubby used the baby carrier, which we got it from a friend.

When I sling Lynn in Bali, the local people there was looking at me. Well I am not sure was it due to my position was not correct, or they had not seen a Chinese people like me sling a baby. However, I did not quite remember about this part when I was in Singapore.

As the sling pouch that I bought was a reversible type, so it is made of double layer cotton. Yes, it was quite hot. Well, considering I was a newbie at that time and know nothing about choosing a sling. In fact, only recently I realized that it was not the correct size for me. May be it fit me well 3 years ago, but not now. Even though the size of the sling pouch is S size, I found it is a bit too long for me. When I sling Hao, I could not achieve total hand free. Moreover, Hao sweats very easily. When I sling him on this double layer pouch sling, we both sweat heavily.

After looking at those beautiful slings from De Gallery, and reading so much from De Moments talking about ring sling, I decided to try it and got myself a new ring sling. (Sorry, still have no new camera with me yet so no pic of the new sling in this post.) As ring sling is adjustable, so I need not worry about the size. Nevertheless, I become smarter now; I chose the silk cloth, which is more cooling compared to cotton, and NO more double layer.

With the experience in pouch sling, and some tips from Chinnee, I do not have much problem using the ring sling. In fact, I like it a lot. Firstly, it was a very beautiful sling. Secondly, it was cooling. Thirdly, it fit me well. Now I can achieve total hands free!

With Lynn around to play with Hao at home, actually I do not need to sling him at home to do housework. I use the ring sling more for when we are going out, especially if I am out with the kids alone. It is so much easier for me to move around alone, without the need to load and unload the stroller from the car boot. Before I buy the ring sling, we seldom use the stroller when we went out. Hubby said it is troublesome. Now with the sling, there are even less chances for us to take the stroller along. There are people looking at me in the shopping mall when I sling the boy. Oh well, I usually just ignore them. All I know is my boy enjoy in the sling, and I love the feeling hugging him close to me. To me, he is at the perfect size for me to carry him. Sling Hao really gives us a very good bonding time. I want to remember this feeling for very long long time.

P/S: Chinnee, thanks for sharing so much on baby wearing with me. Without you, I won’t be able to enjoy the special moments with the kids. Thank you so much!

Technorati Tags: baby wearing,sling

CDC – 2nd appointment

Hao got his second appointment with the Child Development Clinic (CDC) in HUKM on Monday. I took a day off from work to take him there, as his appointment was in the late morning, at 11.30am.

Hao was in rather good mood that day. Unlike last visit, this time he was very friendly to the paed. The paed asked me many questions about his development and his diet. She also played some games with him to check his abilities on -

• Able to pick up small items
• Will make sounds like ba, mum, da etc.
• Play small blocks using both hands to make some sound
• Able to throw
• When throw or drop thing into the ground, his eye will follow the object
• Able to follow the instruction
• Will search for hidden object
• Able to focus on moving object
• Able to crawl
• Able to stand
• Able to pull himself up

The paed wanted to see Hao walking. She put him on a carpet, and placed his hand holding to the grill of the handle of the stairs case. Then I used a toy to attract him to walk. The paed checked his leg while he was walking.

In overall, she was very happy with Hao’s development. Oh yes, she also told me that I should expect Hao has slower speech development. The reason being he is the second child, most of the time the first child will tend to speak for him. Thus, he will not need to speak much. Well this is something new to me. Currently Hao is having five servings of milk, and two servings of semi solid food (baby cereal and porridge) in a day. The paed suggested me replace one more serving of the milk with semi solid food, to increase his weight. Alright, now I got to plan his meals again. Hope this will help increase his weight. I wish he will be at least 10kg when he become 1 year old.

 

Related posts:

1. Poor Zhe Hao
2. 4 days in the hospital
3. Child Development Clinic

Stay alert

When economy is not good, social crimes will increase. Sigh... some people just have "money" in their mind. Heard of my SIL last week, her business partner's house was broken in. During day time! It's like a man came saying repairing the air-conditioner. So the MIL opened the door for this man. Apparently he's a thief. The business partner had lost in total RM 20k value of cash and items. Luckily other rooms were locked. So the man only manage to take the things from the master bedroom. Well, it's a big lost. Probably he had 'earned' so much, he did not harm the MIL.

We should always tell whoever at home if they are expecting anyone to come over. Do not open to door to anyone without any verification. We should stay alert all the time.

Thumb sucking

Lynn has this bad habit of thumb sucking since she was a baby. Actually I and hubby did not allow her to suck her thumb. However since she had this comfort sucking habit to sleep, when she was in her nanny house without me being around, she was on bottle feed and could not have comfort sucking. So she turned to suck her own thumb. Nanny had tried giving her pacifier but she rejected it. Nanny had to give way as she could not sleep without sucking her thumb. Since then, the bad habit had been following her till now. She's going to turn three next month!

We had tried applying ginger, chili, and the minyak angin to her finger. However she still continues sucking her thumb. Until now, you can see there is an extra bump in her thumb. We keep on telling her no good sucking thumb, she's a big sister now, her thumb does not look good anymore etc. And yet she still continues sucking her thumb, especially when she goes to bed, or when she is bored. Sigh... anyone has any better suggestion on how to make her stop sucking thumb?

 

Technorati Tags: parenting

I know I'm going to miss this the most...

Thanks for all the comments on whether I should continue breastfeeding Hao or not. Actually the night after I had published the post, while I was nursing the boy to bed, as usual I was admiring his face. I always like to see him having his milk with his both eyes closed, enjoying all the comforting moments that he is having. This is the time where I will automatically put my hand gently touching his head and his body. Amongst all breastfeeding sessions, the last feed for the day is my favourite and feel we are at the closest. At that moment, I realized that if I ever stop breastfeeding him, this would be the moment where I will surely miss the most. You do not get to see this if he is on his milk bottle. Then I started to ask myself - am I really want to stop breastfeeding him after he has reached 1 year old? I know the answer will be no.

Although hubby would like to have one more child, but I'm not in favour of the idea of having one more baby. Most probably, Hao will be my last baby. I felt regret and missing something when I stopped breastfeeding Lynn 2 years ago. During that time, we would like to get ready for the second child. (My body only resume the monthly menstrual cycle after I had stopped breastfeeding.) Thinking about that, I would not want to make the same mistake again. If I not going to have another child, I will not be able to enjoy the bonding moments with the kid anymore.

Hao is a different baby compared to Lynn. In some degree, he can be by himself. In certain time he will look for me and will not stop crying or complaining until I hold him. Sometimes he will let me go after he has enough milk. Sometimes he would not want to let me go even after almost 1 hour of comfort sucking. Even though we have planned for second child, but he came earlier than our plan. (We did not expect able to conceive at such short time.) His arrival has a special meaning to me. He comes to this world for a special mission.

My dear Hao, alright mommy will continue to breast-feed you, until you are ready for self-weaning. You are mommy's strong boy. Mommy loves you!

Technorati Tags: breastfeeding,self-weaning

Monster in the bathroom?

As usual tonight, before going to bed I gave Lynn a quick shower. No soup will be used, just plain water to wash away the excess sweat. Lynn is an active child. She likes to run and jump around a lot. So she tends to sweat very easily.

So tonight after giving her the quick shower, I dried her up at the area outside the shower area inside the bathroom. She was still making the whoa whoa whoa sounds.  I thought she was still in the playing mood which she always likes to play with me whenever I shower her. I asked her why is she making such noise. To my surprise, instead of giving me the cheeky look and smile, she replied me "monster shower Qian Lynn."

"What? Monster shower Qian Lynn?" I asked her back. She said yes. "There, monster is there." She pointed to a corner of the shower area. Immediately I feel very scary. My hair was standing up. I quickly finished drying her up and we came out from the bathroom. I don't dare to ask so much. But honestly deep inside me I feel very scary and eerie.

Hubby was outside in the master bedroom looked after the boy. I told hubby what's Lynn told me. He said I made him feel scary. I probably a little over sensitive to her words. Well.... I'm not sure. I believe child can sense and see something that we  as adult are not able to see. Moreover now is the Ching Meng month. Luckily hubby accompanied us for a while, until both kids have fallen asleep, before heading out of the bedroom to use the PC. Then I tried to brave myself, to take a super quick shower (I probably won't bathe if I don't feel sticky.)

I pray and hope she was not right. And nothing will happen.

New Look!

Recently I get bored with the look and feel of my blog. So I have decided to give it a new look. Have been searching for a new theme that I like. As I'm a simple person, I like simple thing. So from all the themes that I have downloaded, finally I have chosen this Birdies-Spring-Time theme. I like flowers. Birdies are good. White background is just perfect. I like it! Give me a happy feeling. Hehehe! What do you think? Do you like this new look?

Wait for self-weaning?

There are people asking me for how long I intend to breastfeed Hao. Well, my original plan is at least he is 1 year old. Looks like I'm going to achieve it very soon. (Hehe less than 3 more months to go. :P)


For Lynn, I breastfed her until she was 10 months old. I feel a bit regret after I have stopped breastfeeding her. Like no more bonding moments between us, even though she was still much attached to me even after no more breastfeeding (until now still the same). For Hao, I don't really mind to breastfeed him longer, after 1 year old. Even though I can't be lazy expressing the milk everyday (yes everyday!), no more dine out for lunch (lunch time being used to express milk), when I go out alone or without taking him along I have to think of what time I should be back to feed him (so that I don't have to pump) etc. However since breast milk is the best for the baby, moreover you CANT buy it, so I have NO complain at all! Just need to arrange the time accordingly. :)


I really don't mind and would like to breastfeed him, until 2 years old (following the WHO recommendation). I only have one concern - will he become like a mommy boy? I tried do some reading over the Internet. Some mention about the baby will be self-weaning after they are 1 year old. Is that mean I should wait for him to self-wean? Last time for Lynn, since I'm the one who want to stop the breastfeeding, I purposely replaced her milk time with semi-solid food. Within 2 weeks to 1 month, my supply dropped and eventually being fully replaced by formula milk the following month (hehe it took ages and much effort to increase the supply but very easy to reduce it). In fact, towards the end of the month, she started to reject drinking the breast milk from the bottle already. Alright back to Hao, should I continue and wait for him to self-wean? Is my concern of him becoming a mommy boy, valid?

Cinderella

Started reading fairy tales to Lynn every night before she goes to bed last week. Before this, I do not have a fixed routine to read to her. Why? It is because when she was younger, she will just want to grab the book from me, and refused to give me back. Or she wanted to turn the pages herself, before I could finish reading it even though there is just one line on one page. With all these distraction, I dislike reading to her. It's like a war for us, fighting to get hold of the book. So I only read she's in a mood to let me hold the book.

I used to buy lots of books for her. Since I cant read much in the past, I used to give her picture books. She will open the book, look at the picture and ask me what it is. And I will in turn read the word for her. But she's going to turn three next month. So I think maybe it's good to start reading stories to her. Guess what? She was very happy when I tell her to be quick, to settle down before I need to feed the boy, so that I can have some time read story for her. So she was happily behave good, looking forward for the story telling time. When I started reading, she let me hold the book and read for her (as I have clearly stated to her before hand, no story telling if not listening to mommy. ).

Cinderella is the first fairy tales, that I read to her. Guess what? After first story, the next day, she asked for more! Hehehe... yes I read 2 stories for the second night. So far, Cinderella is still her favourite. I let her choose the stories she would like me to read and Cinderella is always one of her choice. Sometimes Hao has not slept yet, so I put him on my lap while reading to Lynn. Hao will always want to grab the book and Lynn will always try to protect the book from him. And I will hold the book further so that it is out of reach of him. Hehehe not sure if the boy is listening to my story telling (he will try get something else to play) but at least Lynn is listening. She's very happy that I'm spending time with her. So after story telling, she will happily go to bed herself without making much fuss.

Technorati Tags: cinderella,story telling,parenting,reading,fairy tales

My Old Faithful Canon IXUS 500

I bought this Canon IXUS 500 about 5 years ago through a friend. He got 2 discount vouchers on buying this camera at slightly cheaper price with some freebies, and he was kind enough to share the vouchers with me (He bought one himself too). It is the very first camera that I bought for myself. I used to like this camera a lot. It is easy to use, give good shots and produce nice picture. I have been using it to capture all sorts of pictures that give good memories. Well, 5 years are too short and good enough for a camera to last? I don't know. Lend it to my parents few years back when they went to China. Maybe it's due to the cold weather there (they went there during spring season). The camera gave some problem after that. I sent for repair once after that. Since then, I becoming not so like the camera already. The quality of the picture has become not that good already. And also the battery is not lasting anymore. I have to charge the battery right before I need to use it. Else it will be depleted over time and when I want to use it, it can only last for few shots before I get the battery low warning. So I seldom use it anymore. As I do not have another camera, so indirectly I'm taking much less picture now.

At the beginning of the year, I planned to get a new camera. So I waited for the sales in March. I also search through the web for the new camera. However just before I manage to purchase the new camera, the Canon camera went death. :( Well, it's due to my careless too. I put in on my lap and it dropped to the ground when I was attending Hao. So I have been without camera for a month. I could not capture the picture of the kids until I get the new camera. The new camera that I'm looking for, according to the news will be brought into Malaysia by end of March. I hope it will be available in the Malaysia market very soon. I can't wait for a new camera!

Guiding Thoughts

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important
than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than
failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It
is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or
break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have
a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will
act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing
we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I
react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our
Attitudes." Charles R. Swindoll



This is so true. And I like the last line - life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. We choose to be happy, angry, or sad. We are the one responsible for our actions and reactions. We should not blame. We are in charge of our Attitudes. :)