Milkmaid Tea

I suppose not many people heard of EarthMama & AngelBaby. I first heard about the products from my sis-in-law. She specifically recommended milkmaid tea to me on our visit to her when Matthew was borned. She has heard about the product from those mummies' forum and decided to buy some from Babyloft to try out. She only uses it for the inital period when the supply is low and after that the milk just come so she doesnt have to rely on it anymore. According to her, she used 2 bottles of the milkmaid tea. It seems to work very well for her and I am really tempted to try on Kaden especially when my first attempt with Trenyce didnt work out.

I havent checked with Dr Goh on the ingredients of the tea yet so I am waiting for the coming appointment to clarify with him before purchasing it. Though my sis-in-law did check with her gynae back in Malaysia and was assured everything was fine, which it was indeed the case judging by how well both Matthew and her is doing now. I am still a little concerned because I found shops in Singapore selling EarthMama & AngelBaby products in KK hospital and United Square shopping ctr but they just dont carry this specific product which really leave me wondering why....so for curiousity reason, I will check with Dr Goh first before purchasing the product...

This is the milkmaid tea.

My Wedding Anniversary Celebration

Last Friday was my 4th wedding anniversary.

Took leave on the day. Not to celebrate my anniversary but to attend my cousin sister’s lunch wedding. Coincidently, she had her ROM and traditional wedding on the same date as mine. So I brought Trenyce along for the lunch makan since she's on school holiday, idling at home. Everyone said Trenyce looked like me when I was young. I hope that’s a compliment :p

When we got home from the makan, it was about 2pm already. Both Trenyce and myself were so exhausted that we slept the moment our heads touched the bed. We had a long 3hrs nap! Haha….
When we woke up, it was 6pm….about time for dinner. Waited for hubby to return from work and went for a simple dinner. Not exactly a celebration, just dinner with hubby and my family - my inlaws and Trenyce. We went to one of the famous “chi zha” restaurant along AMK Ave 3 at St 22 (Blk 233) for their popular crab dish.
Ordered thai-style spicy fried chicken, yam ring, spinach with abalone mushroom, the famous soupy beehoon crab and a fried ngoh hiang dish. PILs only knew that it was our anniversary after the dinner. Wanted to catch a movie with hubby after the dinner but couldn’t find any interesting films so in the end we just went home and sleep! Haha.

That’s our anniversary celebration. Not bad. At least we went out for dinner. :p

1 million Bumbo Baby Chairs Recalled

1 million Bumbo baby chairs have been recalled. Omygod! So scary! I was still thinking of getting one for Kaden when my friend complimented about how good the chair is....

According to an article from Babycentre: "There have been 28 reports of young children falling out of the Bumbo chairs, including three reports of skull fractures. These injuries were due to children falling out of chairs that had been placed on tables."

This is the picture of the recalled baby seats.



When I saw the header of the article from babycentre, I really got a shock and was having second thoughts about getting one. When I read further, the problem is really how the parents handle the usage of the chair. If they have heeded the advice from the manufacturer, many accidents could have been avoided.

Hmmm...so do you think is the product problem or parents' problem?

Lonely Us

All of a sudden, all my family members are out of town, leaving only me, hubby and of course kaden, around in Spore. My PILs have brought Trenyce back to Labis for a week long holiday whereas my extended family have gone to China.

The house seems so quiet suddenly. I appreciate this tranquility I am enjoying. It has been a long time since I get some peace haha. But I missed my little girl. We called every night and I could sense she missed us too.

Both hubby and myself have been very busy with our work this week. We had late dinner almost everyday at about 8pm. I guess time passed faster when you are busy. This week was amazingly fast. Before we even knew it, its already Friday.

Hubby decided to set off tonight to Labis to see his little princess. He said he missed her smell. We will set off after work.

Hopefully the causeway wont be as jammed.

Hopefully we will be able to reach before Trenyce turns in.

So here we are coming, Labis. Wait for us!

Visit to the Animal Resort

Brought Trenyce to The Animal Resort at Seletar West Farmway 5 the day after her school concert. It was a Sunday and the carpark is already quite packed when we reached. The carpark is rather small but luckily we managed to get the last lot available.

As usual, I was the photographer again. That's why most of the time you wont see me in the pictures :p



Trenyce had lots of fun feeding the goats, geese and rabbits. There werent many animals in the animal resort but its enough to entertain a 3yo hehe….



See, she's busy feeding the animals...

Baby at 26 weeks+

10th visit to gynae, Dr Goh. This was a routine checkup. As usual, Dr Goh went thru the detailed scan to show me where’s the baby’s head, eyes, nose, mouth and also his penis (haha). I duno why he had to show me the birdie every time I visit him perhaps to assure me that baby’s genital is growing well. The scan also shows that the baby’s head is now at the top of the abdomen, not down yet. Hopefully his head will turn down when the time comes. Baby is now 26 weeks+ and weighed about 900g. Its another 3 months to go before he is dued. Will baby reach 3kg by then? Hmm….Anyway, mother now weighed at 68.2kg, gained 1.5kg as compared to the previous visit. In total, I have gained 9.2 kg till date.

My wedding anniversary

Its going to be my 4th wedding anniversary in 2days' time. Our marriage is so young but I feel like I have gone thru a lot with my hubby. The first 2 years were roller-coaster years…….I wouldn’t want to go into details of what has happened as the past is already history...

Anyway, I have already applied leave for that day as it coincides with my cousin sister's wedding (yeah, our wedding date is the same! haha) and we are invited to her wedding lunch. So in a way, its like she is celebrating my anniversary for me haha….The only thing is that my groom (hubby) is not around with me for the wedding otherwise, it really looks like my wedding anniversary makan…hahaha..

We havent decided how to spend our anniversary yet. I was just asking hubby in the car this morning how he planned to celebrate and he just gave me a smile, meaning he hasnt planned anything yet. Sigh! I grumbled to him in th car, for the fact that we are only married for 4 years and he's already this borchap….not romantic at all.... I am not even asking for diamonds or anything from him, just probably a nice dinner. Sigh! In fact, we have never celebrated our anniversaries. Sad huh. Usually, couples will celebrate their 1st 2 or 3 anniversaries..but me none! :'(

On our first anniversary, Trenyce was only 2 mths old and as a first-time mother I wouldn’t bear to leave her at home and go out to celebrate. Moreover I was the full-time caretaker then and I didn’t have anyone else to babysit for me……..

On our 2nd anniversary, my PILs were already staying with us and we were still trying to get used to them staying with us, felt a little awkward to get them to look after Trenyce while we go out and enjoy…and this awkwardness continue for the 3rd anniversary as well.

For our 4th anniversary, I don’t think I want to let it past just like that. I don’t mind even if we have to bring Trenyce along for our celebration, anyway she's part of our "marriage". Just that we will have to find some kiddy friendly restaurant. Then next year, we will have Kaden to join in the wagon hehe…. I think for all the efforts we have put into this marriage, we both deserve a pat on our shoulder and should celebrate the day!

Breastfeeding

I didn’t succeed in BF Trenyce previously. Though I managed to do partial BF for the first 3 mths but by the 2nd mth, the supply was getting pathetic. I didn’t nurse her directly as I chose to pump the milk most of the time, thinking it will be the same. But it wasn’t. The lesser she was nursed, the lower the milk supply will be as the milk ducts are not stimulated as often as it should be.

I was actually quite upset initially because I have been reading so much on BF before Trenyce arrived and I knew the many benefits that BF can give my kids. My main aim is not to save money on formulas or slimming programs but more so on providing the best for my kids. I was veryvery sad, and getting worried, when Trenyce refused to latch on so hubby told me to pump the milk instead. That’s when I began my BF journey, pumping faithfully every 2 hrs…but as the day passes, the milk supply gets lesser and lesser. At the peak, I only managed to get 4 ounces of BM per day and at its low, just 1 ounce. So you can imagine how discouraged I am.

I really envy those who manage to do it successfully. For example, my sis-in-law and Shoppingmum.. My sis-in-law managed to nurse her two sons for at least 6 mths whereas Shoppingmum did it much longer. Yes I can turn to my sis-in-law for help on BF but she is not in Spore so its really difficult for me to get help from her. If only she's in S'pore huh……….

I guess there are a lot of reasons on the failure. Perhaps I didn’t know the techniques of latching her properly and so she got frustrated and fussed a lot whenever I tried to nurse her. Perhaps because I didn’t get help early. Perhaps because I am lack of support from people who actually nurse their kids as most people surrounded me didn’t nurse their kids and in a way, they didn’t "pressurize" themselves to do so. Perhaps and perhaps….there's just too many perhaps.

I am determine to succeed in BF this time as this is also probably the last time I am able to do so for my kid. For the moment, hubby and myself are quite contented with our 2 kids thuogh we would very much like to have 4 kids, so unless "accident" occurs otherwise this will jolly well be my last pregnancy. One colleague told me that one of the ways to make BF possible is to invest in good breastpumps (as everyone knows its not cheap!) so you will heartpain the money and die die make BF possible! Hahaha…..But I guess by not buying things that are "formula-friendly" i.e. milk bottle, formula milk…etc will also help to "push" myself harder to make BF succeed cos you wouldn’t want your baby to starve right?

So, perhaps I should do some shopping to get prepared for BF:
- Breastpumps (Shoppingmum pointed this web in her blog, click here)
- Nursing pillow
- Nursing Bras
- Nursing clothes
- Cooler bags
- Cool pads or ice bricks for milk storage
- Cups/bottles to store the breast milk
- Nipple cream

Of course, not forgetting that we must get the latch on technique correct. Thanks to Shoppingmum, she pointed breastfeeding.com in her blog. It gives very detailed latch-on steps.

Decorating the Kids' Room

Hubby has finally decided to do something about the baby room. We bought some paint last weekend to repaint our study room (originally is our master bedroom), which will be the future baby's room....actually the kids' room because eventually Trenyce and Kaden will be sleeping in that room until we decide to move out of this house.

We got the paint from ICI (aka Dulux). The paint we chose was specially meant for use in baby or children's room. Perhaps it uses less chemical? Anyway, hubby decided to use apple green as he felt that green is soothing for the children's eyes and not too loud for the kids....though father-in-law thinks otherwise. He felt the colour was a little bland and we should use more vibrant colours but didnt exactly spelt out the colours :p

Hubby took one whole afternoon to paint half the room so the other half of the room is still in the "old" colour. We also went to Ikea the same weekend to get some ideas to decorate the kids' room. We chose a few furniture and decided to go back home to do the measurements before we confirmed on the items. In fact, to 'overhaul' the study room means we have to shift the furniture in our bedroom too otherwise there is no way we can put in the baby cot. We are likely to get a chest of drawers (6 drawers) and a bookshelf, perhaps a CD tower too. The chest of drawers to put the kids' clothing and the bookshelf is to shift all the books from the study room to our bedroom. We are still heistating whether to get a kid's wardrobe......hmmm....

Anyway, shall wait till hubby completes the painting this weekend then the real decor can begin......

Uncle Heng's 60th Birthday Celebration

We had a dinner invitation the same day Trenyce had her concert. It was Uncle Heng's 60th birthday. It was a causal dinner (2 tables) with just my cousins at a Teochew Restaurant at North Canal Road and we were seated at the VIP room leh....

This is the birthday cake me and sis got for Uncle Heng.

The children simply enjoyed standing in front of the cake. Its as though its their birthday...hehe

The children enjoying themselves.

All of us at the dinner. ...

Trenyce Very 1st School Concert

We attended Trenyce's school concert on 3rd Nov. It was her first "public performance" and we can see that she's very excited about it, kept asking me to make-up for her..haha...yah, because the school has asked the parents to do makeup for the children before bringing them to school.



There were altogether 13 performances put by the children, from playgroup to K2. Trenyce's class, being the youngest of all the classes, gave the 1st performance of the day. I suppose the teachers must have worried that the young kids, already all dressed up, may get impatient and so they get to perform 1st. The 1st performance was "Small Hand" (a mandarin song titled "Xiao Shou"). It was a very cute because the few kids that came out all stood there staring at the crowd. None of them moved a single bit at all except Trenyce. She seemed to be the only one who remembered that she's supposed to be up the stage performing. She moved her hands and danced, I supposed as what she had rehearsed, not bothered that her friends are not moving....then slowly another girl besides her started to move along and so the entire performance only Trenyce and the other girl "moving". Bravo Trenyce! Well done!



All together, Trenyce was involved in 3 performances. The 2nd performance she did was called "Row Your Boat". This song required 4 groups of kids in 2 to hold their hands and pretend that they are rowing the boat.





The final performance she did was the grand finale where all the children will come out and sing 3 songs together (2 english and 1 mandarin songs). The english sings were "Kid's Prayer" and "Never Give Up". The mandarin song was "Met the God" (mandarin translated "yu zhu xiang yu"). Initially, we were not able to take pictures of Trenyce on stage as she was arranged to stand at the back row, I supposed its because of her height. Hubby was standing, along with the rest of the people, busy snaping pictures of his little sweetheart. I was sitting down, allowing the people sitting in front of me, standing up blocking my visual. The only way for me to see what's happening on the stage is thru the big screen on the stage. Anyway, Trenyce was standing at the back, I thought to myself. Then suddenly I heard hubby said, "look at the little girl, she came to the front by herself...". Upon hearing that, I quickly stood up trying to catch a glimpse of what hubby had told me. Yes, indeed this little girl appeared in the front row now! hehe... Smart girl, she knew thats the only way daddy and mummy could see her and take pictures of her!

Overall, it was a very entertaining performance. The children put up a good show and really makes us laugh. Hmm...I know laughing at them is a bit mean but they are really hilarious. Some of them performed very well while some of them went up the stage not knowing exactly what they should do and stood there looking at the crowd. Most K1 and K2 can perform very well except the junior ones like N1 (Playgroup) and N2 (Nusery).

This is the first time both hubby and I attended such concerts and we are very impressed because the little girl managed to remember all her steps and coordinate well with her friends. She seems to have a flair for music. Maybe we should start grooming her, our future star...hehe