Back to work soon

Though we are battling with bottle feeding now, I have decided to not think about it that much. Thought it will be interesting to plan my daily routine as a FTWM.

5am: Feed and Pump(1)

6am: Bathe and get ready

6.30am: Breakfast (Oats+Milo+Chicken essence) + Pack wholemeal bread

7am: Wake T up and get her ready for school

7.20am: Leave house, drop T in school and leave for work

(If my mum is able to cope with 2, I will be able to reach my workplace at 7am to prepare for the day)

8am: Pump(2) + Wash +Sterilise

8.30am: Eat wholemeal bread while preparing for the day

8.50am-11.40am: Lessons

11.40am: Pump(3) + Wash +Sterilise

12.10pm: Lunch

12.20pm-2pm: Lessons

3pm: Go home to feed Didi or Pump(4) if lessons/meetings are scheduled (Snack on something healthy)

5pm: Fetch T

6pm: Feed didi

6pm-7pm: Dinner

7.30pm-8pm: Didi sleeps

8pm-10pm: Time with T

10pm-11.30pm: Work/Me-Time

1.30am-2am: Feed Didi + Pump(5)

Oh dear, I just realised I only have 4 hours of sleep. But then, things don't always go accordingly to plan.

Didi just rejected my boobs and I am fearing it is nipple confusion. Argh, why is it so difficult with Didi?

God, please help us...

Mother of 2

Has been 3 months since I last blogged.

Gave birth on 31st January and time flies. Another 5 more weeks to the end of my maternity leave.

Labour was much faster and easier than Teresa's. Breastfeeding was difficult as milk only kicked in on Day 7 probably because of baby's tongue tie issue and my stress level. Mastitis and horrible abscesses were next. But things settled down after the first month and now I am enjoying every minute of my time with my 2 kids. Well, maybe not every minute.

I am beginning to write down a to-do list before I go back to work. Top of the list is actually to lose weight. However, I can't stop munching (blame it on breastfeeding!). And now, I found a good excuse to eat cookies. I need to eat lactation cookies to boost my milk supply since fernugreek and mother's milk tea caused discomfort in Asher. Wanted to jog everyday but I get lazy on alternate days. Planning to sign up for Amore for May and June but worried that I will be wasting money again.

Discipline, I really need loads of it.

Bedtime Reading Books (Jan 2015)

Books for January 2015. I will be confined at home for at least a month soon, perhaps I should buy books online for the month of Feb.

Was lucky to find these 3 chinese books which is not too time consuming and level of difficulty is quite appropriate for T.

About this boy adopting a rabbit but letting her go back to her family after finding out she misses her family a lot.

About two brothers who took different approaches in finding the  magic potion for their sick father. Teaching the importance of manners. But it is kind of sad that the elder brother cannot find his way home after being rude to the dwarf.

Xiao Zheng vent his frustrations on his 'alarm clock' (a rooster) one morning but regrets it after realizing his importance. Encourages kids to sleep and wake up early. Didn't really work for T though.

Borrowed this book because T had a show n tell on "My Family". Simple book to kickstart preparation for her show n tell.

  

Borrowed 2 books from the Biscuit series. One on finding a friend and another on being thankful. Too simple and there's a lot of animal sounds (eg Woof/Quack) which make reading to T a bit awkward. 

One of T's favourite books this time round. About saving a blue morpho butterfly from a cave and bringing her back to the warm rainforest. 

T's favorite. It's about bringing a lost black cat back to the candy castle .  They had to go through a haunted house, spooky forest on the way. 

Every night, we bargain about the number of books to read. If it is late, we will keep it to 3 books, sometimes maybe 2. If it is still early, we read about 5 to 6 books. She will often try to bargain for 1 or 2 more books. I hope I can keep this up after having a 2nd child.

I am trying to encourage her to recognize certain English words but not rushing into it yet. But I hope she can read some simple books soon. Now she is still reading out of memory...

Hypnobirthing

Been feeling absolutely lazy as I wait for the lil boy to grace our world.

Although there is this nagging thought that he might come early and I am not really prepared, I am still constantly procrastinating.

Hynobirthing revision is one of the most important items on my to-do list before labour...so some recap here.

I am not a guru in it. I am not even sure whether I used it correctly during my first birthing experience. But I remembered vividly the visualizations of the blue ribbon tightening on my belly during contractions, baby's head gently pushing my cervix open etc. It kind of helped in persuading myself that the pain is more beautiful and meaningful than horrible.

So this time, I am going to be more prepared and try out some of the techniques. Hopefully.

1. Upward Breathing
Slowly breathe in through the nose and to release the breath slowly through the mouth allowing any tension, fear and discomfort to leave the body with each outward breath. At the same time, visualize 'up' images such as sunrise or tall trees.

2. J Breathing
Inhale through nose and breathe out slowly towards the bottom and out through yoni like a J.
Visualize a rose bud slowly opening up the birth canal.

3. Rainbow Relaxation
Picture objects of different colours eg. water for blue, cornfield for yellow.

4. Disappearing Letters
Close your eyes and picture the letter A slowly moving across your eyes (from left to right)out of sight then B and so on.

That's about all so far. One of the most important prep to do is to assure myself that giving birth is not scary at all.

OK, start to psycho myself...not scary at all...

Alive Museum @ Suntec 221214

Bought the tickets at a discounted rate of 15 dollars each (Thanks to my SIL). We were requested to take a photo with the 'wings' at the entrance because it is quite crowded inside. True enough, the museum is really crowded! Why is it so crowded on a Monday??

T went in and cried for a while. Maybe because of the intimidating pictures on the wall, or maybe frightened by the crowd. The place is quite small and narrow. Due to the many people taking photos and walking around, we had to rush, squeeze, scream at T come back....

We had some fun taking photos but not all are really interesting. Not really worth the money. And if you are bringing a toddler, it is hard to read the instructions and depending on the toddler's character+mood, to include him/her in the photos.

However, there were some photos which turned out pretty well...

Zoo on a beautiful Saturday

We went to the Zoo...but saw a grand total of 5 kinds of animals - monkeys, sea lion, elephants, polar bear, penguins. I think there were a few others but where's my giraffe, lion, tiger, hippo, rhino, zebra, kangaroo etc etc.

What happened was we went in at 10am, saw some monkeys on the way and rushed for the Splash show (sea lion was the only animal) at 10.30am which lasted for less than half an hour. Then we went to the elephant show area and waited half an hour for the 11.30am show. Show was quite entertaining but thought we could have spent more time visiting the other animals. The other family suggested going to the water park before it rains, so off we go...to the highlight of the day for T.

Luckily we got corporate passes which allowed us free entry to the zoo, otherwise there's seriously no point going to the zoo mainly for water play. But anyway, don't think the kids mind and we'll be back!

Looks so big here...

Grandparents are the best!

Elephant show

Elephant at the back is poo-ing...

Fav pic. She was dashing around the whole time.

Pure Joy!

Yoga with her cousin.

Super hungry after so much fun! Look at the empty bowl...

@34 Weeks

6 more weeks to my EDD. Frankly speaking, I am quite scared. The contractions, the pain, the pushing, the sewing, the blood, the discomfort. T tortured me for 20 hours. Not sure how I survived without epidural. Hoping to steer clear of epidural again which means PAIN. Well, I asked for it so can't complain much. 

Waddling like a fat duck/penguin nowadays. Baby's stretching my belly like mad. Especially during this hour when I am sitting in front of my PC. But I am thankful that my feet are not swollen, cramps and heartburns are minimum which is probably attributed by:

1) Swimming 10 laps (half hour) twice weekly from second trimester onwards. The pool is the only place where I feel less bulky. Don't think it really helped a lot in controlling my weight gain, but I think it helped in relieving a bit of the backaches and kept the cramps at bay. Read online that the chlorine might not be good for the baby so I kept to just one hour a week. Just in case.

2) Going for weekly 1.5 hr pre-natal massages. I go to Amore for my massages and facials. Helps a lot in relaxation. Good for relieving backaches and preventing cramps as well as swollen feet. 

As for the eating part, I am quit guilty of not abstaining from certain food/drink, for instance bubble tea. It's weird that I can quit coffee, but I just can not resist bubble tea. I take a lot of carbo (always craving for Ramen) and sweet stuff (esp cakes).  But I tried to eat everything in moderate. Hope #2 will not turn out as big as T (3.8kg) and will give me an easier labour. Praying hard...