Rainbow Baby

Wow, today is baby's 11th month.  She finally can walk, though still not 100% stable and 2 tiny teeth are erupting on her lower jaw.  Yay!!! Last year's review  was nothing much to shout about.  The whole year was on pregnancy. This year has been a very exciting year.  I am so excited that I am gonna do a monthly review.  As if.  Haha! It's all about baby I gave birth January.  From then on, our lives just revolves around baby.  Early in the year, there was a lot of challenge.  I guess it's because it's not easy to handle a tiny living being who is so dependent on us.  At first I thought I could handle it since I have dogs as pets from young.  But I was wrong.  Dead set wrong.  A baby is so different. Breastfeeding was a challenge as I was struggling with low supply and it was difficult to keep up with baby's demand.  So we have to supplement with formula at times.  There were so many things that I was stubborn about before baby was born and insisted t

Well, today my girl turned 10 months old and it's time to plan for her 1st birthday party.  My criteria for the party is very simple.  I am not inviting a lot of people.  Maybe about 25 adults and 15 kids.  I am not interested in any add-ons, i.e clown, photo booth, cotton candy, what not.  At first, was thinking to just do a simple celebration at home, with a few closed friends.  But after attended gatherings where children are involved, I can't imagine the mess and havoc they will create in our home.  Moreover, the party will be a week before CNY.   So, I was thinking the best venue will be a place where children can play while the adults chit chat and the kids do no need close supervision.  So, am thinking of one of those play place at malls.  Am not going to share the prices here to respect them.  My budget is around RM1,500.  Here's a few that I have asked around. 1.   Jungle Gym - Atria Shopping Gallery (2 hours) This is the top on my list.  Mainly because

When I was pregnant, I started watching Running Man, right from the very first episode.  And throughout pregnancy, I was watching Korean variety shows and Korean dramas.  After birth, I watched them while I am breastfeeding.  I watched so much Korean dramas that I think my girl would speak Korean before any other languages. Korean variety shows and dramas are occupying most of my breastfeeding / pumping times at home.  In a way, this makes pumping more enjoyable.  Pumping can be such a dread sometimes. Running Man - This I have been watching right from the very first episode to the current one.  I managed to finish all the backlogs when I was pregnant and took a break for few months before delivery because I couldn't stand the cheating and backstabbing that much.  Then right after birth, jumped straight in again.  It's so sad that Gary is going to be leaving and today is supposedly his last shooting with Running Man team.  Although I am not a fan of his, but I think

Ever since I deleted the TTC posts, this blog is no longer attractive.  I guess people want to know the TTC journey that ended up in BFP.  And I listened to someone whom I don't know and decided to delete all the TTC posts. My last post has only 1 reader and that's me who click on it.  I also think that it's because of the lack of photos that is making it even more unattractive. I am now at a cross road again.  I always do this after few years.  Do I continue or delete for good?  Do I revamp or just leave?   This blog has started out to share my TTC journey but then it got depressing.  And now who cares about my motherhood and breastfeeding journey?  Who?  Except me?  Who care about my birth story?  No one does. Oh well.  We shall see.

Baby is 8 months old today.  And today I am submitting my overdue report card.  Supposed to do a report card at 6 months.  But never too late! So what's happening now?  Baby knows who is who.  She still can't call me or her father yet.  But she will make sounds like 'Ay', 'Haro', 'Ada', which is so cute.  She is very good with eating solid food and at the same time very good at drinking milk, direct latch.  She hasn't started teething.  She knows how to crawl.  She knows how to stand and cruising along furniture.  She think she can stand on her own without anyone supporting her.  She can climb up the stairs without help. Speaking about breastfeeding, I just want to share my experience again.  I might have written about this preciously. After 40 weeks of an uneventful pregnancy, I gave birth after being induced.  I gave birth vaginally with the help of epidural and vacuum.  I managed to latch baby after almost 2 hours post delivery.  I tr

I have not thought about having a second child.  Financially and resources doesn't permit for the time being.   However, I do not want Baby to be the only child.  Yes, she has her cousin to play with and to grow up with.  But it is different. I also don't want the responsibility to look after both of us all fall on herself, alone.  If she has a sibling, they can share the responsibility.  But of course, I don't want to be the burden to her. When the time comes for us to try again, I will do the following:: 1. Hopefully TTC will not be such a pain and will be quick. 2. Since my pregnancy with Baby was uneventful, I would like to keep it that way.  Only thing different is I will probably go to KKIA for my checkups instead of private hospital.  I might deliver in a public hospital too.  I would prefer caesarian this time because I have history of unripened cervix.  I do not want to be induce.   3. Start to pump early but not too much so that the milk s

I am sure everyone know by now the power of breast milk.  If you don't, the advocates are not working hard enough.  The simple thing as Google will lead you to more info. I fell sick for the second time since giving birth.  The first time was when baby was a month old.  I have already warned my husband to be super careful and any sign of falling sick, should immediate remedy with drinking more water and taking Himalaya Septilin as it has proven to prevent the onset of the sickness evolving further. But you can't prevent the bacteria or virus from coming to us, no matter how careful we are.  So, he fell sick and I was in confinement and eventually, I fell sick. It was a miserable time as I was still struggling with breastfeeding and trying to get my life back in order.  And the biggest worry was that baby was so young and I was scared she will fall sick. But miraculously, no matter how bad my flu was, the bacteria and viruses avoided her and she was fine.  I was

It's Mid-Autumn Festival today and I shouldn't be writing a sad post.  This year is baby's first Mid-Autumn Festival and though she is not able to hold her lantern and walk (she would rather sit with her lantern and chew on it), I feel we are moving too fast and she is growing up at a high speed. Yesterday, baby is able to climb up the stairs.  Scary.  Not to mention she is repeating her name after us.  Talking.  Babbling.   What's more scary is how some parents can be so absent-minded till they can cause the death of their children.  Yesterday's news was about a 1 year old girl who was left in the car by her father for 5 hours.  By the time he found her, she was already weak and pronounced dead in the hospital. Accidents happened, I agree.  But this is to me is carelessness and attention is not where it's suppose to be.  It irks me more that I can imagine this happening to my family.  Because it's so real. Just as I am shopping for a baby c

This long weekend, I have been doing some introspecting, especially after my last post.  I was indeed saddened that I have made anyone depressed by my posts.  I reacted to that. Then I realised, my past posts on TTC were indeed depressing.  My struggles, my agonies, my frustrations were all out there in those posts.  Month after month of disappointment and when I re-read those posts, I also felt a little down. I can understand if people get depressed and unhappy when reading those posts.  I get where you are coming from. So from now onwards, I have decided to write happy posts.  I feel there are too many unhappy things out there, events, incidents, news, you name it.  We need to change it by spreading some possitivity. I am not here to please anyone and I am not changing my writing style because of what people commented.  I do realised that I need to keep things in perspective and this is after all my blog. Long ago, I created a blog to voice out all the frustratio

My itchy hands decided to type this blog's name on Google and found things that made me react,  so much so that I have to blog with my mobile to write this. Someone commented somewhere that my blog made those still TTC-ing depressed.   Because I wrote so technical about the challenges on TTC.  It scare them. For this,  I apologise.   I didn't mean to make anyone depress.   Never my intention to create this blog in the first place. I understand that my blog is public and the whole wide world can see it if they happen to chance upon some keywords in my blog.   Which is why I prefer to write anonymously because I prefer my private life to be protected. TTC was a difficult journey for me and I am sure it is the same for many women who are still waiting for that BFP.  But the good news is,  I made it.   And I am sure many will also make it if you just have faith. I know sometimes faith alone cannot change the course of your life,  especially if the challenges are dead ends.  F

Haven't been blogging for a bit.  Been busy and lazy at the same time.  My latest obsession in kdrama didn't help much with the blogging too.  I am just going to cramp everything into one post. Separation Anxiety Been taking baby out on my own to let her get to know new people.  She has been having separation anxiety and always sticking to me.  But it's good to know there's progress.  She screamed for 5 minutes and then would sleep off.  Still very wary of new people, even though they are mommy's friends. Development Progress She is good in crawling, though she is not one of those commando style ones that goes really fast.  She is taking her own sweet time to crawl to things that interest her.  Otherwise, she is happy to just sit and grab whatever is near.  Lately, she is learning to stand with no hands.  And she loves it when she manages to stand without holding anything or anyone holding her and she can stay standing for few seconds before plopping on

I got the food chart from wholesomebabyfood.com .  Since baby falls in between the 4-6 months and 6-8 months category, I am gonna list those that is applicable to her, for now. Fruits Apples - I avoided this as it falls under BRAT, which causes constipation.  But I might try soon. Avocados - Get the Australian ones.  It's better quality. Apricots - It's difficult to get fresh ones in Malaysia.  I don't prefer the dried ones. Bananas - Also same as apples.  Haven't tested yet. Mango - I am not too sure why this falls under here.  My nephew is allergic to mangoes, so I am avoiding this one. Nectarines - Not easy to find. Peaches - The canned ones are easier to get, so go no for me. Pears - Baby absolutely love this as it is sweet. Plums - Not easy to find too and plums can be very sour. Prunes - Only the ones in the tub, but haven't tried that yet. Pumpkin - Yes, another food that is good together with porridge. Vegetables Beans (green) - I read that b

I got the recipe from this blog .  I like baby to be adventurous in her food and not limit to western style purees or chinese style porridge.  And indian food and spices are very delicious and healthy too. I was torn between buying an indian pressure cooker or a chinese porridge cooker.  In the end, I bought the chinese porridge cooker, and now thinking of getting an indian pressure cooker as well. I have been thinking of how to cook khicddhi for baby.  It's a mixture of rice and dhal and cook together to eat.  I cooked it for myself last time and it was so delicious and healthy.  It's also one of the ayurvedic recommended food. In the absence of an indian pressure cooker, making cooking khiccdhi difficult, this blog suggest I made it into powder form and easier for cooking, which I have to agree immensely. Do click on the blog to find out more. To make it into powder form is quite tedious and lots of work.  But the results and end product makes cooking so

This is not baby's first puree and I read that we better not mix 2 fruits together when we first start solid food.   So far, baby has tried single food, avocado, pear, sweet potato, pumpkin and potato puree.  I don't dare to try banana and apple because it falls under the BRAT category that may cause constipation.  Though I just started homemade rice cereal with her.   I noticed that most of the websites that provide solid food recipes for babies are western, from US mostly.  So the fruits and vegetables that are easily found in their country may not be applicable for us here in Malaysia.  Besides, since these vegetables and fruits are export quality, it's usually more expensive.  What more if we get organic ones. For this puree, it's very easy to make and it's very delicious.  When it comes to 2 food mix, I would rather mix one not sweet and one sweet so that it's not overly sweet.  And preferably not to give baby too much sweet food, otherwise

We have been using the Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix infant car seat since birth.  This was a preloved seat and I am so glad I got it for free. But as baby grows bigger, it's about time we start to invest for a convertible car seat.  I am looking at various brands, both local and international and comparing.  But so far, I haven't been window shopping long enough to see what's out there.  Only online window shopping. My requirements are as follows: 1. Breathable material - Since baby is a heavy sweater, I mean she sweats a lot, it's only thinkable to keep her on breathable material, so that she can sit comfortably.  In her current car seat, she sweats so much, even when we put the air-cond on high and a portable battery operated small fan. 2. Doesn't exceed RM1,500 - That's the budget that I have allocated. 3. Soft and comfortable - Yes, comfort is the key.  I don't want her to scream throughout in her seat. 4. Light-weight - This is an important feat

From the beginning, I have decided to use glass milk bottle, instead of the BPA-free plastic milk bottles.  Reasons was because I am not very fond of plastic and I don't 100% fully believe in BPA-free products. On hearing that many girls nowadays reached puberty as young as 7 years old, it just makes me cringe that there are too many artificial hormones in our food and products.   So, glass bottles it is for my baby.  I do however keep my milk in plastic BPA-free storage bottles simply because I couldn't find any glass bottles at that time.  But now I have found a supplier, but not keen on buying one as hubby who is my sterilizer person is against it saying that glass makes the bottle hotter and difficult to hold. Another reason why he is against it, I feel, is because he broke baby's milk glass bottle twice.  YES, both times also him.  Sigh. Anyway, having search many glass milk bottles, here's my review on those that I have been using. 1. Philips

I always like to make toys for children.  Two years ago, I made alphabet blocks using felt and given as gift to my friends.   Then I got more adventurous and did these set: I told myself that when I have my own kid, I would make a set for him/her as well.  But now I no longer have interest to do this.  Maybe I feel so tired all the time and seek to do something that is easier.  Or just plain lazy.  Or I feel baby is not interested in this as I have already bought her a set of cloth flash card and she only wants to munch on it. But recently, I have bump into quiet / busy books and I have started to create the first page. And then yesterday, I found about amigurumi toys, which is crochet soft toys.  I have been wanting to buy her an elephant soft toy.  So have been looking around for organic cotton elephant soft toy or plush toy.  Yes, that specific.  And found none on any online shop in Malaysia. Found it on Ama

I wanted to post about making solid food for baby.  But so far, our solid food adventure has been quite boring.  Just avocado and pear.  I have blended organic rice and going to start making rice cereal for her, but I am so worried about constipation.  Besides, she just had her Hep B vaccination yesterday and going to have the pneumococcal this Thursday.  So, I don't want to aggravate her system too much. Talking about aggravate her system, yesterday the visit to Klinik Kesihatan (KK) was a nightware.  Ok, I exaggerated.  We reached KK a little later than usual because we overslept.  At 8.30am, I got the number.  If follow the norm for the past 4 months, upon getting the number, we will be called in half hour.  But this time, it took them 1 hour.   First call is to measure baby.  Then we have to wait for the second call to see the nurse.  Then only get the vaccination.  Usually, by 10.30am to 11.30am, we would be done.  Usually. But yesterday, it was taking longer than