The Princess and the Chick Pea (and the Grape and the Walnut)

Please click to read this… it’s short and worth reading.

Once upon a time (as recent as a moment ago), there was a Queen who gave birth to a Princess. What made her a Queen was that her partner called her one, and what made their daughter a Princess was because they thought her so. Aside from the nicknames, the Queen and the Princess were not unlike any other woman or baby girl. Click here to read the rest of the story.

Come across this from Tweeter and I just love it…… I would say this is the best story I have come across so far. :)

Breast milk vs Formula milk

Come across a forum few days ago, a mom started a topic talking about she had to give formula to her newborn, as the baby was not growing well. The baby is losing quite a bit of weight in the first week and not gaining much weight since then. The mother was breastfeeding the baby. The paed recommended to add formula to help the baby gained weight. The mom thinks she made the right choice of giving the baby formula and she should not feel bad about not able to fully breastfeed the baby.
From the reply, majority of the moms agreed with her and think that we should not too worry about not able to breastfeed. While there were few mothers think that most mothers gave up breastfeeding easily and formula milk should be given only when there is a real need. Therefore, these two groups of mother were debating there.

I think we just have to go with what we think is the best at that time. I’m sure if given a choice, most mothers would like to breastfeed their own babies if possible. However when they could not do so, we should not look down at them. Breastfeeding is not an easy journey, without proper guidance, encouragement and support from people around us. What I dislike most, is the people around the mother interfere with her choice. They will say things like breast milk is not good, too watery and baby get hungry too soon; not every mother can produce breast milk bla bla bla.

These people have very negative mindset about breastfeeding and they do not know any knowledge on breastfeeding. They don’t know that the beauty of the breast milk is its composition will change according to the baby’s need. Breast milk composition also varies by diet as well. Some women may produce more calorie-dense milk more than others. For those mommies who produce fewer calories on breast milk will need to nurse their babies more frequently. This is where the old people will always comment why the baby get hungry so soon, must be not getting enough milk from the mother that kind of talk. Well yes, baby on breast milk tends to get hungry fast. Why? This is because breast milk is easier to digest compared to formula milk. And what makes the breast milk easier to digest? It's the protein. There are two classes of proteins in milk — the caseins and the wheys. Caseins turn into clots or curds in the stomach. The wheys remain liquid and are easier to digest. And there are about 60% of the proteins in breast milk are whey, while most baby formula milk are high in casein.

If the mother is willing to try breastfeeding her baby, or wanted to breastfeed her baby, the people around her, especially the family members should feel happy and give encouragement to show support. I have witnessed how the negative statements and mindset, has made the mother feel so stressful and believe herself she does not have enough milk to breast feed, her milk is not good enough as the baby keep on crying for milk etc. When I was breastfeeding Hao for the first 2 months, he could cry for milk for every one hour. It is absolutely normal for a newborn to cry for milk more frequently. When Hao was 2 months old, slowly the interval become about 2 hours. Until now, his milk interval is still every 2 hours. Therefore, because of the discouragement from the family members, the mother was so stressful that she could hardly produce breast milk and given up breastfeeding the baby, just after about 1 week the baby was born. They do not understand, breast milk will not produce by itself, unless you are really gifted with lots of breast milk. We need stimulation, the baby needs to suck to send signal to the brain for the body to produce the breast milk. The more stimulation we get, the more breast milk we could produce for the baby. Despite lots of effort being done to create awareness to everyone that breast milk is the best for the baby but there are still some people especially the older generation think that formula milk is better. I think it’s difficult to change their mindset. Nevertheless, I’m glad that both my parents and my in-law are very supportive on my choice wanted to breastfeed both my children. They do believe that breast milk is the best for the baby. Of course not to mention hubby too. Support from family members is important on the success of breastfeeding.

One month

 

Hmm… this looks yummy!

It has been one month since we send Hao to the childcare (no playschool for his age). I would say Hao is adopting well there. He eats well and sleeps well. Feeling a little insecure, but he did not cry much. After few days, he feels easy and comfortable to move around the place.

One month is neither long nor short. One more month, Hao will turn one, no longer a baby. I’m going to miss him being a baby. Taking care of him and taking care of Lynn as a baby is different experience and different feeling. My bonding with Lynn has been there since she was born, right after coming out from my stomach. However my bonding with Hao, did not started since he was born. It was after he was born, days by days, months by months, slowly and naturally. I was sad that I could not get him a good nanny like Lynn’s. But I’m glad that he is growing up well in the childcare.

I noticed he is getting happier nowadays. He always shows his sweet smiling face. My dad will go pick up the kids when he is on the way back home from work. Hao loves my dad. Whenever he sees him, for sure he will craw towards him with his happiest face and biggest smile he can give. My parent’s house has many toys. Some are my parents bought for Lynn in the past. Some are my niece’s toy. Therefore, Hao will never get bored there. He is getting more and more curious nowadays and does not get his eyes off from the toys there. At one time, Hao was suspecting having HFMD and my mom helped to take care of him. He refused to sleep at all! Just want to play with the toys. Hahaha! In addition, my mom was so worry that he did not get enough sleep for that day.

He is getting more talkative too. He will mimic the word that we said to him. He loves music and songs. Whenever Lynn sings song, I sing to him, or we play the CD in the car, for sure, he will clap his hand and smile at you. When Lynn or I finish singing the song, you will hear him trying to sing the song to you. So sweet! He likes to play my hand phone. He knows where I put it. One day I saw him picked up the phone and say “Hello”. When he is hungry, or whenever he sees us eating, he will come over and say “mum mum” to ask for the food. His appetite has gone bigger and becoming easier for me to feed him. The duration taken to finish his meal is getting lesser. Sometimes after finish one bowl of cereal or porridge, he will still ask for more and complain if I’m not giving him more food. I love seeing him eating more. I want him to gain more weight. He has six teeth now. I started to feed him some soft meat to train his chewing skill.

Lynn was a sociable child since she was a baby but not for Hao. However, lately we noticed he is becoming more sociable. He no longer cries when seeing stranger. However, sometimes will still stick close to us, seeking for security. However, after a while, he will be fine willing to be carried by anyone. We went for my secondary friend’s wedding dinner last week and surprisingly, he opened his arm for my friend when my friend wanted to carry him. First time seeing him so easy. My friend carried him away from us, went to other tables to talk with other friends. He did not cry at all. I feel happy to see him out grow from the separation anxiety.
Hao started to show his character and his tantrum too. When he refused to do something, like refuse to lie down when I changed his diaper, he will protest by crying or making noise and kicking his leg. When his cousin sister (my niece) snatches away the toy from his hand, he will shout back at her and try to get back the toy too. He is not as stubborn as Lynn is, but my guess is maybe he has bad temper (like me, Lol).

We always ask Lynn to share and give way to Hao. When time is right, I have to start teaching Hao to share and learn to give respect to Lynn too. Now I am scratching my head to think of his one-year-old birthday celebration.

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.

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

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

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?

A Day with Grandma

Yesterday, Hao's babysitter had to go out settle some personal matter. So I seek mother-in-law (MIL) help to take care the boy for a day. Else I had to take a day off. MIL actually had to go for a body check-up in the morning. However she was kind enough to re-arrange the appointment.

I was a little worry. Knowing the boy has stranger anxiety, putting him with someone that he does not meet very often had made me feel a little uneasy. I was worry he will be giving lots of trouble to my MIL. From the morning, I kept on telling him today he will be going to grandma's house. He cried when I left MIL house to work. MIL assured us he will be alright as this is absolutely normal.

We went to pick him up after work. He was playing with MIL happily in the living room. MIL told us he just cried for a while in the morning then stopped. He was good boy the whole day, except a bit 'sticky'. Followed her wherever she go. He wanted accompaniment and attention. I felt relief after hearing this. Phew! Looks like I am worrying too much. Oh Zhe Hao o zhe hao.... you are awesome. Mommy love you!

Hao @ 8 months

Time flies. Hao is already 8 months old. Again, his weight has not been increasing much for the past 2 months. He is now weighted at 8kg . This is his progress so far: -

• Know how to wave bye bye. However only as when he likes it.
• Can sit still quite steady for quite some time. So now when we dine out, I can put him on the high chair.
• Can crawl quite well and for quite a long distance.
• Know how to kneel.
• Know how to change from a sitting position to crawling position.
• When he catch something, he will play with it using both hands instead of putting it directly into his mouth.
• Like to grab things. Whenever he saw something catch his eyes, he will think of ways to reach it.
• His latest favourite toy is no other than my mobile phone.
• Will make sounds of ba ba ba ba..., wa wa wa..., aaa... Will hear him saying mama... mama... ONLY when he cries looking for me for milk. Latest favourite word is da da da..., de de de...
• Having Nestle Honey wheat cereal with breast milk and brown rice powder in the late morning. And taking porridge in the evening. Prefer salty taste than sweet.
• Getting more distracted easily when being nursed and thus making the breastfeeding time becoming slightly longer.
• Would like to play for quite some time before going to bed at night pushing his bed time from 10pm to around 11pm. 
• No sign of teething yet.
• Like to get hold of things and pull himself up. Probably going to stand up very soon.

Poor Hao has got the Roseola

    

Hao: Aww... when the red rashes on my handsome face will go away?

Hao got fever last Saturday evening. We were in Port Dickson for a short CNY trip at that time. Since I did not bring any fever medicine with me, we came back to KL right after the dinner. I would not want to take any risk in case the fever shoot up in the middle of the night. And I think I made the right choice of cut short of trip.

Good thing I always have a bottle of fever medicine on standby at home. The fever come and goes until Monday. Then it came back again in the evening and finally no more fever on Tuesday.  So I thought he will be alright.

On Wednesday morning, when I was breastfeeding him, I noticed many red spots all over his face. Cannot be such many mosquito bites. Immediately I suspect he got the Roseola. Lynn was contacted with Roseola when she was about 9-10 months old too. It's the same symptoms - several days of high fever, followed by a distinctive rash just as the fever breaks.

We took him to the doctor and confirmed it's Roseola. Doctor gave some lotions to apply to his body and another medicine for the allergy and itchiness. The rash will last for few days. Due to this, I have to cancelled the CNY visiting to one of my primary schoolmate house this Saturday. More important is Hao get well soon.

Hao @ 7 months

Hao in his happy smiling face

Started Hao with baby cereal with he was 6 months old. So far after 2-3 weeks of feeding, Hao started not showing interest in taking the cereal anymore. Instead of open his mouth wide for the food, he started to use his tongue to push out the food, keeping his mouth closed etc. So I have to keep trying to figure out his taste and his preference.

Started feeding him with the porridge during the CNY. So far so good. He was able to finish up to half bowl of the porridge. I noticed that he preferred the more watery type of the porridge.

No change on his milk intake. Still the same amount every 2 hours. In fact the babysitter said nowadays Hao took longer time to finish the milk.

Other than able to crawl, Hao still not able to sit unaided by himself yet though he prefers to sit rather than lying down. During bathing, he no longer splashing the water with his hands and kicking with his legs. Instead both his hands will grab at both sides of the baby bath tub tightly, as if he will fall down at anytime. He still like jumping and dancing at your laps whenever we hold him in upright position. He can move around with the walker and like to reach out for things to grab. However he would not like to sit long time in the walker. After about 20 minutes, he will start to make noise requested to be picked up. His stranger anxiety level still unpredictable. Sometimes he is OK with new people around and sometimes he will not and show the crying face.

As for his weight, as expected not gaining much. However I think as long as he is healthy, eat well, sleep well and grow well, I think the weight gain should not be an issue.

Weight: 8kg

CNY gift - Crawl

Date: 27 January 2009

On the 2nd day of the CNY, we went back visiting my parents. During dinner time, I put Hao on the floor. If he's not hungry or looking for me, normally he is OK to play by himself. So we can enjoy our dinner. After the dinner, I was sitting down on the floor together with Hao. Suddenly something catch his eyes and I saw that he was attempting to crawl towards the object that caught his attention and grabbed it. Normally instead of moving forward, he will eventually push himself backwards and thus become further from his target. However this time, to my surprise I saw that he was really lifting his leg up,  placed it in front, and pushing his body to move forward instead of backward. I was so happy and glad that I witnessed his very first successful attempt of crawling. (Last time Lynn first crawl in the babysitter house while we were at work. So we did not manage to witness her first successful attempt to crawl.) It was just 2 more days away for Hao to turn 7 months old.

Those of you who has been reading my blog, will know that Hao had a fractured femur when he was 2 months old. No medical treatment was being given to him, as he was still a baby. The doctors believe babies have very strong self healing power. So eventually Hao will be alright. For the past 5 months, Hao had been going back to the hospital for the follow-up appointment, to check the progress of the fractured femur. From the last x-ray taken at early January, showing that fractured bone was fully recovered and Hao does not need to go back to the hospital anymore. With his first successful attempt to crawl, I feel relief to see his growth is normal despite the fractured femur about half year ago. Cheers!

Hao @ 6th months

Brought Hao for his monthly check-up on Thursday. Wow, the clinic was fully pack with crowd. I was at the queue number 70! Double the number that I normally take. The check-up for the babies is on every Thursday. So happen the past 2 Thursday was holiday (Christmas day and New Year day), so that's why it was so crowded.

No jap for 6th month check-up. Just normal routine of weight, height measure and checking on his growth. Well, out of my expectation, Hao did not put on much weight for the past 1 month. When I carry him, I can feel he's heavier now. So I thought he should have put on quite a bit of weight. Surprisingly he has only gained 200g last month. Other than that, he was more active nowadays during day time. Sleep less when he is with us (the babysitter said he's still sleeping quite a lot there), does not like to lie down that much, will ask to be picked up, not each time after poo-poo he will cry (we even found on few occasion, he poo-poo in the middle of the night and sleep through the night. So his buttock become red red the next morning). We try not to put on the booties/socks for him, but his foot is feeling cold. So we has no choice. He's trying to crawl, but not successfully moving forward, instead moving backwards most of the time. He will move around by rolling, flipping, turning left right to go to another place. When we put him standing on our lap, he will be jumping up and down happily with smiling face. Whenever he saw something put in front of him, he will grab it and put into his mouth. He is still having his milk 2 hourly, 4 1/2 oz per feed. His last feeding time is around 10pm and his first feed (for the past 1 month) is about 7am. Occasionally he will wake up in the middle of the night to ask for milk. He has developed a habit of want to have milk before he sleep when I'm around. In babysitter's house, he will ask for the sarong instead. Overall, he's getting more and more active, and making lots of noise nowadays. :)

• Weight: 7.7kg
• Height: 69cm

Hao @ 5.5 months

Time flies. Zhe Hao is 5.5 months now. I still can remember very clearly the moment he come out from my stomach in the hospital, the confinement months, how he asked for milk every half to 1 hour, it just seems like not too long ago. However now soon 2 more weeks he will turn 6 months old. Well, though I have been very much looking forward for him to turn 6 months old to start the semi solids (that means I can get to feel a bit relief as once he started the solids he will need less milk, so I don't need to feel so stress not being able to express enough for him during the workdays), but I do wish to have more breastfeed moments with him. He is a very special baby to me. He is different from his sister Lynn, very much different. Sometimes I do feel sorry that I don't spend enough time with him due to the hectic work schedule. I probably give more attention to Lynn when she was still a baby. However back then we don't have another toddler to take care of.

Hao does not gained much weight in the past 1 month. The babysitter always complain me giving too little milk for him. However I don't think so as Hao is on 2 hourly feeding schedule. She cant always compare him to a baby taking formula milk.

First time Hao has some fever after taking his last dose of the 6-in-1 jap. Combined with the flu that he got from his sister earlier on, Hao is rather fussy according to the babysitter. She complained about Lynn spread over the flu to him. To me, falling sick is rather normal and common if one person in the family get sick, the others will fall sick too. Hao took 2 days to recover from the fever. But still have some flu and I heard he started coughing too (sure I will get blamed again from the babysitter next Mon on this).

Weight: 7.5kg

Stranger anxiety - Part 2

It was a busy weekend last week. We have few outings during the weekend. First it was Lynn's first performance (will write a separate post on this) on Friday afternoon. Then Saturday we were attending my friend's wedding dinner reception. On Monday we went out for shopping with my Mother-in-law. For all these outings, we brought Hao and Lynn along, hoping Hao will improve on his stranger anxiety emotion after meeting more people.

My mother followed us to Lynn's school performance. Just few days before that, Hao refused to be carried by my mom. He was crying all the time. So on Friday, my mom become smarter. She talked to him, played with him while in the car to the Wisma Tun Sambanthan where the performance was held. We can hear Hao laughing all the time happily playing with my mom. So she has no problem carrying him on Friday. :)

On Saturday, we brought both Lynn and Hao to the wedding dinner reception. Hao took a short nap after having his milk, woke up 1 hour later by the noisy environment. My friends tried to carry him. Well, they are smart too. They talked to him before carrying him. Again, Hao did not cry while being carried by my friends. He smiled a lot that night too. :)

Similarly on Monday, Hao smiled and laughed a lot playing with my mother-in-law. We are very happy to see some improvement in Hao. At least, he wont be just only clingy to us. :)

As for Lynn, in fact after she has grown up, she become more shy in front of stranger, or people that she seldom meet.

Stranger anxiety

Zhe Hao is now 5 months old. And seems like he is started to show signs of stranger anxiety. Unlikes his sister, Zhe Hao is less outgoing. And also due to always need to work late, during weekend we tend to stay at home most of the time. Very seldom we will go out, the most is to buy food only. We do take Zhe Hao along if we are dining out. Other than that, Zhe Hao has been staying home most of the time.

Few weeks back we brought the kids along to meet up with my MIL, my bro-in-law and my sis-in-law. Zhe Hao cries when any of them trying to carry him. Last night I brought Hao back to my parents house. Just 2 weeks he did not see them, yet he cries when my parents trying to carry him, while me and hubby were having our dinner. *Sigh*

I wouldn't want Hao to become more clingy to us. We would prefer him to be more sociable. Whenever there is a chance, we will try to bring him along so that he will get used to see new faces. Coming weekend we will be attending my friend's wedding dinner. Hopefully everything will be going on well.

Is it really cheaper?

When someone ask me what brand of the formula milk that Hao is taking and I said he's solely on breast milk, most of the people will respond "Wah, can save a lot leh." Well, does it really can save a lot with breastfeeding? I doubt it. Actually there's quite a number of 'hidden cost' that probably only us who is fully breastfeeding the baby will know. :)

• Nursing pad - For those good brand like Medela, it costs about RM1 per piece. Even the cheaper brand like Tollyjoy will cost about RM0.50 per piece. We have to use this as long as we are still breastfeeding to prevent your shirt to get wet if the milk is leaking.
• Storage bottle or storage bag - I have about 20 milk bottles in my freezer. However it is not enough for me so I have to invest on storage bag that costs about RM0.50 per bag.
• Nursing bra - This is mostly for when I'm out with the baby, so that I can nurse him easily in the public.
• Breast care cream
• Breast pump - This is needed especially for a working mum like me. A good breast pump even just a simple manual one side pump will cost few hundreds.
  
• Food warmer - Some people may invest in food warmer to heat up the storage breast milk, but not me. We use the 'traditional' way - just place the milk bottle in a cup filled with hot water. It takes less than 5 minutes to heat up the milk. :)
• Supplements - Since all the nutrients from our body will go into the milk, we have to make sure our body have enough nutrients for ourselves too. I'm also taking domperidone to stimulate more milk (this is not cheap at all. It costs about RM0.50 per pill and I have to take 6 per day. )
  
• Nutrient food - We will search for all sort of foods that will boost up our milk supply, like fish, papaya, fenugreek etc.
  

And most important for all is the time and heart! It needs a lots of persistent and patient to go for fully breastfeeding. I have to sacrifice my lunch time to express the milk for Hao in the office. And need to ask someone to pack the lunch for me. And not to mention everywhere I go I need to take Hao with me. If not, I have to pump out the milk for him. All these are priceless! And for all the moms who are breastfeeding the child, the main purpose is not to save money, but want to give the best to the child!

Another milestone achieved

This is a backdated post.

Date: 24 November 2008

As usual, I went to pick up Zhe Hao after work. However this week will be exceptional early as we have to pick up Lynn from the child care center too. Usually it's my father to go pick up Lynn on his way back home from work. But this week my parents have gone for holiday, so we have to pick up Lynn ourselves.

Usually there is no parking space available at the babysitter's house, so we do not normally stop by for long. Just pick up the boy and then we will leave. But since I was early, I had to wait for the babysitter to change Hao into his pyjamas. The babysitter told me that Hao now can hold the milk bottle by himself. What? Did I hear it wrongly? Zhe Hao can hold milk bottle by himself approaching 5 months old?! Wuahahaha... though I have guessed that for quite a while (Hao used to put his hand on my chest while I feed him in lying down position, just like the position of holding milk bottle) but I never expect he really did it. Well done, Hao!

Extracting orange juice?

Everyday during lunch and after office hours, I will need to do my daily 'homework' - to express milk for the boy. Most of the colleague in the office know that I'm breastfeeding the baby. Few days back as usual, after finishing the 'homework' I was cleaning the breast pump in the office pantry. Before the office was relocated, I used to do it in the Ladies toilet. We used to have our own toilet just for the staffs here. There are cleaners come to wash the toilet every morning so it was well kept. However after we have relocated to new place, we no longer have our own 'private' toilet anymore. We have to share the public toilet with another company on the same floor.

So while I was still cleaning up the breast pump, a male colleague bumped into me. He saw me do the washing and asked me what is the thing.

He: Hey, what is that for? Making tea?
Me: Err... nope.
He: Extracting orange juice?
Me: Hehe... no lar. *laughing at him* (I actually can't help myself from not laughing after hearing this. Lol)
He: Oh.
Me: Err... this is actually for the milk for my boy. hehehe

Apparently he never see a breast pump before and he thought we should be using electrical one. Well, he's a married man but no kids yet. :)