Baby J is 11 months old

In less than a month, my baby will be 12 months. That's a great milestone. His 7th and 8th lower premolars came up on Sunday. He can eat all my yummy food in short. Each day is precious in early development because he learns new thing every single day.  He raised up and stood by himself last week (7 Dec). Yesterday he made his first 3 steps before jumping over to daddy. Soon he will be running wild. I am going to miss all these special moments. Wait until he calls mommy! I am preparing for his birthday party. Stay tune!

BF: Remarkable 8oz day

Okay, this is something that I don't usually post here. But I am too happy not to tell the world. Today I feel happier than usual grumpy days. So I managed to express 8oz of milk in the morning session. For those who don't understand, I am still breastfeeding and I have to express milk for my baby during work so that he has milk to drink at care taker's place. Due to my grumpy mood everyday which I can't avoid due to the stress and misc, my supply drop to 4-5oz in the morning session which means I don't produce enough milk for my baby everyday. He drinks 6oz each time and 3 times at care taker's place. So I have to work extra hard to express milk for him during weekend and late nights (my OT) since I only pump twice at work and that's taking up a hell lot of my working hours. 

However I don't feel as happy anymore during the second pump session because my hubby actually don't remember our anniversary so it's back to low low supply milk. Added up I still get extra 2oz comparing to usual days so I only needed to fill up 3oz tonight. Yay! Hopefully it will. I will try to keep a happy mind but it's just not possible. People say I smile and laugh all the times and I am very happy. Okay, no comment. Anyway yes I am happy for the first half of day today. Thank you very much happiness. You made me need to work less harder tonight and coming weekend.

Baby J eats zuchinni and anchovies mee sua with baked salmon in virgin coconut oil



Since it's weekend and I plan not to cook for our adult's lunch, I think I will spend extra time to prepare baby J's food. On Saturday I made him this, mee sua. I simmer some washed anchovies in 2 bowls of water to make the stock. I cooked the mee sua in another pot of boiling water, then discard the water and put them into the anchovies stock after I sieved off any remaining anchovies. This is to ensure the mee sua is clean from any salt or dirt that stick to them during production. Take a pair of clean scissors and cut the mee sua into shorter length. At the same time I put a cube of salmon in aluminium foil, drop some VCO on the salmon to avoid it dries up in the oven. Heat the oven and baked for about 15 minutes at 200 celcius. Then took it out from oven and shred into smaller piece and mix into the mee sua :)

I admit it's little hard to feed baby J with this because it's so soupy. He opened his mouth just a little just to sip the soup and I had to made a lot effort to shove the noodle into his mouth. I think we didn't do this much as I used to feed him porridge and water with spoon during meal so he thinks this is the "water" and he just need to sip. We need more practice

Chilled Oreo cheesecake

Hey! I made cheesecake!

Okay, so it's my hubby's birthday and I asked what cake he wants to eat? He mentioned that he likes the Oreo cheesecake that my sister made before. So I asked for the recipe and she pointed me to chilled Oreo cheesecake recipe by Amy Beh from kuali.com. This recipe is perfect :)

Tada! Here it is!

It's not so hard to make but I divided the process into 2 days due to my full hands in the evening after work. I made the base on day 1 and let the base set in fridge. On day 2, I made the cheese topping with the help of my hubby and let it chilled to set in the fridge again. Day 3 with planning is his birthday so we just blow candle and cut the cake :p. You know, it's not really easy for me to do something like this because of time restriction. I can only start doing my own "stuff" after 10pm , after I put my baby to bed and completed the daily house chores. A lot people ask why do I have so much stuff to do? I said I need to clean house, do laundry, fold clothes, iron clothes, cut fruits, clean kitchen equipment, pack baby stuff, dry the cutlery and plates and pots and prepare next day dinner etc bla bla bla. Then they will have follow up question, YOU WASH CLOTHES EVERYDAY? I don't know how to explain this. I don't wash clothes everyday but every alternate day I will have different house chores to do. You will understand one day if you are in my shoe.

I am very proud of my chilled cheesecake although I haven't eat much of it. We just shared a piece last night because I was so tired and we have no mood cake after stuffing ourselves with fruits. I took a piece to my buddy Stephanie this morning because she said she wanted to try and yeah, encouraging feedback from her. Tonight I am going to savor a piece to reward myself of the hard work throughout the week.

Fabulous 30

I turned 30 and fabulous. When these two being added together, it means I am fabulous 30! I was really happy because this time hubby bought me a cake without me begging him to get me one and I got to blow candles! yay! It's chocolate velvet cake from Humble Beginning and it was so good.

After so many months, I finally got the chance to savour the sticky bone pork rib. We went to Morgan Field for my birthday lunch. This is my first time stepping feet to Paragon. Both of us ordered half rack but of different flavours. We also ordered sauteed mushroom for appetizer and I had a special drink ;) with no alcohol. We were so full after the meal.  This time I brought some finger food for baby J and whenever he screamed I just pop one into his mouth. For dinner , I cooked  "lau shu fen" soup because I need to eat something plain but tasty. 

Here's the latest picture of baby J. He's so naughty nowadays, always scream for no reason. He is also very cranky because his gum is very itchy. His 3rd and 4th teeth are coming, I guess.

 

So as this is my big 30, my dearest buddy Stephanie organized a birthday celebration for me during tea time with Lay Hoong. Lay Hoong's birthday is on the exact date last Thursday when we had the celebration. The cake was very yummy. It is creme brulee from Secret Recipe. I also received hand made card from buddies , Stephanie and Suet Yin. Suet Yin mailed the card to my house and I had already forgotten if I ever give her my home address before ;) It's a surprise then. 

Happy, happy ;) in the arms of my loving hubby and baby

Tips on making and storing baby food (1)

I was thinking to share on how I usually prepare porridge for baby J. I bought this useful ice cube maker from Daiso some time ago. It is a very good size for freezing puree and easily come off when I broke open the frozen puree. Important thing is it has a lid to cover the puree. Hygiene is a big thing in baby's food. You don't want to contaminate baby's food with other frozen  meat/fish/chicken in your freezer.

The green puree is zuchinni. 1 zuchinni yields 4 cubes. I just steamed zuchinni  (cut into smaller pieces) for about 10 minutes and process in blender. Then just pour the puree into the container to freeze.

Here is pumpkin puree. I only have 1 of the Daiso container so I transferred the pumpkin cube out into plastic container to keep. I remove the skin of 1/8 local pumpkin and cut into smaller pieces. Then just steam for about 15 minutes. Remove from steamer and mash the soft pumpkin with a fork. After that just transfer the pumpkin puree into ice cube maker to freeze. I usually will finish up these puree within 2 weeks.

Sometimes I cook the porridge in normal pot on stove. But it required constant stirring to avoid the "small" amount of rice from sticking to the base of pot. If I am busy or need to attend to other work in the house, I will throw everything into a slow cooker and add hot boiling water to shorten the cooking time. Even with hot boiling water, it requires about 2.5 hours to get a smooth consistency so sometimes I wish to just use the pot to cook it. Haha! Anyway, I will process the rice into smaller pieces in blender if I use the pot. I usually made and keep a batch of the processed rice to make the cooking express.

Mini express pizza

Facebook is such a powerful tool. I learnt a lot of new stuff , received quick information or news and connected with friends in Facebook. When there was the earthquake early this year, we logged onto Facebook and watched everyone else giving us live update on the situation. Here's one of the new stuff I have learnt. I called it mini express pizza. It's mini because of the size and express because it's so quick to prepare. It took about 20 minutes for the whole process.

I made a serving for 2 person. 

Ingredients:

4 pieces of sandwich bread

2 huge sausages of any flavor. I used black pepper sausage

Oregano/basil/parsley flakes -optional

ketchup

fresh parsley

1/2 onion

4 cheddar cheese

Instructions:

1. Heat the oven for about 5-10 minutes at  150 degree celcius. You can turn on the oven first then only start assembling the ingredients

2. Spread ketchup on only one side of  all the 4 breads

3. Slice onion and spread on the bread

4. Cut sausages and place on top of the onions evenly

5. Sprinkle some oregano/basil/parsley flakes if you wish

6. Put a cheddar cheese on top of each bread

7. Place the mini pizza on pan and shove into oven

8. Bake for about 10 minutes

9. When they are done, take out from oven and spread some fresh parsley on top.

See how easy to make a simple yet filling breakfast for weekend morning?

California handroll

We have 2 avocados left from the box because baby J now refuses to eat avocado. We introduced him to this super fruit earlier when he started solid however when he already tasted other sweet fruits like pear and apple plus my tasty porridge, now he knows avacado is not the best tasted food. I used up 1 avocado to make california handroll for lunch last weekend. However I made a mistake by assembling all the handrolls before eating because the nori sheets sort of damp off after being exposed to the air for too long. I should have make it one by one after finish eating each. It's fairly easy to make California roll but some of the ingredients are quite pricey like avocado and caviar. Even the short grain rice is also higher in cost than the normal grain rice.

I assembled roughly about 12 rolls. The ingredients:

6 nori sheets, cut half each.

1 avocado, sliced

6 imitation crab sticks

caviar

1 zuchinni

1 cup short grain rice

sushi vinegar

Japanese mayonese

Steps:
Cook rice in rice cooker according to your rice cooker manual. When the rice is done, pour 2 tablespoon of vinegar and mix with wooden/plastic laddle. Try to use a fan to chill down the rice when you mix. Then cover the rice to avoid the air from drying the surface

Place nori sheet on clean surface

Spread about 2-3 tablespoon of rice on the lower left of the sheet

Squeeze some mayonese on top of the rice , then 1/2 teaspoon of caviar

Place the sticks of zuchinni, crab stick, and avocado.

Roll into the shape of handroll

Use about 2 grain of cooked rice to stick the end of nori sheet to secure the shape

Put a little caviar on top (optional)


The steps here sound a bit hard to follow. Easy, just google. There's plenty of recipe out there. I am just merely putting down the steps to remind myself on how I did it this time.

Stew pork with braised nuts

I can't recall if I ever post this food before but I made it many times before. I have no time to go back and search my  blog if I ever did this post so anywhere, I added new ingredient to it.

This dish is remarkable simple to cook. Just throw all the ingredients into the claypot and let it simmer for 1 hour or more. 

Ingredients
Pork - soft bones, about 600g
Dried water chestnuts, about 20 pieces and break the bigger ones into half
5 shitake mushrooms, quartered
1 can of braised peanuts
10 tau hu pok, cut the bigger pieces into half
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
3 tablespoon soy sauce
water just enough to cover all ingredients
salt
pepper


.... So easy. nom nom

Baby J eats porridge + broccoli + pumpkin + fish

After introducing anchovies to baby J 2 weeks ago, today I gave him 2 new ingredients. They are fish and broccoli. He is used to pumpkin so I just keep the pumpkin in his meal for the familiar sweet taste. This time I added half a teaspoon of virgin coconut oil into his porridge for dinner. He finished up the porridge and dessert. His dessert is pear puree. I know pear can relieve constipation for babies however it works extra efficient for baby J. I worry the new ingredients will cause constipation problem to him so gave him pear today. I gave  him pear or apple puree at least twice a week.  He loved his dinner!

Chocolate ice cream

I still have half whipping cream left from making red bean ice cream. Cream is expensive so I am not going to let it go to waste. I went forquick groceries pick up for a few ingredients during lunch break, things like cocoa powder and semi sweetened chocolate. I planned to make chocolate ice cream. I use this recipe

The ice cream turns out very chocolaty, the real chocolate indulgence. The texture is perfect just like how I imagined it will be. I am stopping the ice cream marathon after this or else I am doing to gain extra fat in no time.

Red bean (azuki) ice cream

When my ice cream maker arrived at my mother's house, I was excited and at the same time feeling desperate to get hold of it. I waited until I go back to my mother's house and saw the gadget, I still try to withhold my excitement until I took it back home with me. I already got this recipe ready to use anytime. I made lemon ice cream before (manual way) and I wanted so much to try out the red bean ice cream. Recipe from here: http://userealbutter.com/2010/02/14/red-bean-ice-cream-recipe/

I didn't use exactly the recipe that's given . I made the ice cream paste myself by cooking red beans in very little water then processed half of it into paste and left over half-processed so I can get the small pieces of red bean in my ice cream. I am happy ;)

Thanks to the ice cream maker now I do not need to freeze the mixture and break the ice my hands and repeat this many times. :D I let the mixture churn in the maker for about 30 minutes and that's what I got like in the picture above. Fat, I am coming. Slim, please hold me back!

Lime sorbet

This is the second trial with my ice cream maker. I made the lime sorbet using this recipe. It is very easy and required only minimum ingredients. Mix the following.

Lime zest from 4 limes
Lime juice from 8 limes
Syrup (simply combine 2 cup of water with 2 cups of sugar and dissolve in a pan)
1 cup of water

Chill the mixture in fridge overnight and churn in ice cream maker as directed by the manual.
Overall the texture is soft and the taste is nice however the sorbet melts quicker than those I eat in shop. I need to check out how to keep the sorbet/ice cream last longer

Baby J eats porridge + carrot + potato + anchovies

This weekend I introduce baby J new ingredient: anchovies. I took some anchovies and washed them. Then I dried them in oven, followed by processing the tiny fishes into powdery form. I cooked porridge with potatoes chunked into small cubes, some shredded carrots and the anchovies. Due to the presence of potato which later I mashed using fork, this porridge is very soft and velvety. Baby J finished the portion I prepared for his dinner. Can't wait to introduce him something new next week!

Baby J eats rice + pumpkin + green

I upgraded baby J food's texture into higher level of acceptance. This time I blended the rice into smaller particles before cooking. For the green, I cut some leaves of vegetables into small tiny stripes and cubed the pumpkin. Baby J likes the taste of pumpkin as it is sweet. I guess the pumpkin adds some sweet flavoring into the bland and tasteless porridge. I let them boil and simmer in pot until soft with constant stirring to avoid the rice from sticking to the base of pot. I did not blend the mixture and just let baby J eats like that. He accepted the texture and loving it! He finished 2 meals today with a pear puree. I hope this gives my little one a balance meal. I am thinking of introducing him some anchovies in another 2 weeks time. He already got 2 teeth!!! grrrr....

Baby J eats pumpkin + potato + green

I have been preparing semi solid food for Baby J. I started to add some varieties of different ingredients into his food lately. For the past weekend, I made pumpkin, potato and green leafy vegetables for his main meals.

I cleaned and cut 1/6 small pumpkin into cubes. Then I put them into steamer. I also laid down 5 leaves of small "bak choy" on top of the pumpkin cubes. I let them steamed for about 15 minutes. At the same times, I peeled about 8 baby potatoes and boiled in some water for about the same time ~15minutes or until soft. When both sides were ready, I mixed them into blender and add the water from boiling potato. Blend until soft and parted into 3 servings. I served the one in bowl to baby J once it cooled down a little to warm temperature and kept the 2 other servings into clean and sterilized containers. 

Baby J loves the sweetness from pumpkin and he needs the iron from green leafy vegetables. Potato is for him to build energy for his "active lifestyle".

Socks monkey

I wanted to make something crafty because my life for the past few months had been related only to feeding, cooking, and baby sitting. I checked and found something called socks monkey. Excellent!  This is what i was looking for. Simple, easy and quick. I managed to completed it in few days time considering I only work on it for short period of time everyday. However because I am lazy to trace the pattern, I just simply cut and hand sewn , the size of the arms and ears are not really proportional to its body size. Arms too short and ears too big. Anyway, they still look cute because that's what a soft toy should be, CUTE. I plan to send it to my niece for her coming birthday. I hope she will love it as much as I do.

Baby J eats first porridge

My baby sitter is down with flu so I took a day off today to stay home with baby J. I made him his first porridge! I only cooked 1 tablespoon of rice which I processed into powdery form. I shredded a bit of carrot into the mixture of rice and water then let it cook for about 25 minutes. Stir it from time to time to avoid the tiny bits of rice from sticking to the base. I hope he will love his first porridge

Baby J eats stewed apple

I haven't been writing much about anything else except baby J's development. I am still cooking but I am not cooking anything new. I have been making the same old food again and again like salmon spaghetti and herbal soup on weekend especially for father's day. Although we went for seafood dinner, and Nando's lunch, I still want to make something special for the new daddy.  Last week, I cooked the usual daily food except for one of the day which I made lion head meatball because the new daddy has been asking about it.

The company gave 2 apples on one of the day last week. I saved them up and make stewed apple for baby J. It's easy to make and healthier. I did not opt for the ready made puree for baby because I can make it myself, so why not? Baby J slept a little earlier today at 9pm so I quickly rushed and finished up some house chores then prepared the stewed apple.

How? I cut, core and cube the 2 apples. Spread them in a pot and add a little water just enough to cover the  base. Cook it for few minutes or until soft. Transfer over to blender or food processor then blend them into soft, smooth texture. Keep in clean sterilized containers and write down the date before freezing up. Whenever I want to use, I will just thaw and warm up the apple in hot water. This is the second batch I made for baby J. We have 4 apples :)

Baby J at 5 months

I introduced baby J to semi solid food since 2 weeks ago. I started weaning with rice cereal that was commercially prepared to get him get used to the softer and smoother texture of his first semi solid food as I mixed the rice cereal with expressed breast milk. He didn't accept the food so well in the first where he kept pushing the food out with his tongue. He could not understand the concept of swallowing food but now he will open his mouth when he saw his tiny cute weaning spoon approaching and close his lips to capture the spoon. He can swallow although sometimes bigger chunks of food still being pushed out from his little mouth.

I made mashed pumpkin for him. Steamed and mashed with potato masher , then serve to him with mixture of breast milk to thin the texture. I kept the left over in clean container and freeze them for subsequent feeding. I also tried mixing carrot into the rice cereal. Another food that I prepared for him is stewed apple, where I cooked apple cubes until they are soft and blend the apples. We bought some avocados and fed him on weekend too. The avocado has creamy texture and there is no early preparation or cooking required. I just mashed the avocado and mixed with a little hot water to thin the texture because I took the avocado straight out from the fridge. Baby J doesn't like cold food or milk. There are some left over that will be used for the rest of the week. We only feed him once a day , during dinner hour because that's the only time I can do this motherly task.

He started to roll over from tummy to back a week ago and subsequently in the next few days he was rolling like mad. He can roll on both sides now. Baby J was very fussy yesterday. He kept waking up after we put him to bed at night, every freaking half/one hour and cried! It was very tiring as he also woke up twice through night (after 12 midnight) and very early this morning.


We love him.

Slap myself twice. *piak piak*

I feel like slapping myself. Since I am back to work, I am not efficient at all. I don't have much time to concentrate on my work. I know it's hard to explain to people what am I doing during the work hours that occupied much of my time. Anyway my heart isn't there. I don't have the energy to learn something new and venture into the adventurous journey of my new assignment although it's something that will boost my knowledge deeply on technical side. So, slap me twice.

Sometimes I feel I am too used in the comfort zone because I have been holding the same position and responsibilities for years. Now I am being assigned to very highly technical task, I just don't think I can handle it. At home, I am occupied with my little angel day and night. There is no room for work. I got to rush to run house chores whenever there is time.

Nowadays baby J is fussy with feeding. He doesn't like to drink milk anymore. I can only nurse him for 5 minutes and he will get very distracted with his environment. I cannot even smile or talk to him or else he will not drink anymore. I even tried weaning today. I got him rice cereal to mix with breast milk because a  friend told me not to wait until 6 months to introduce baby solid food. Her baby is diagnosed with lack of iron in his blood because he is exclusively breast fed. Mother's milk doesn't contain iron, based on his pediatrician's explanation. I bought a very cute and (expensive) weaning spoon for baby J. It costs me RM12 each because it is small and can fit baby J little cute mouth. However he only took like 3 LITTLE spoons and didn't want the rest. But I am glad that he knows how to swallow.

Baby J is also getting harder to fall asleep. He sleeps very little at day time due to this. He needs constant rocking and carrying for comfort. I really want my darling baby to sleep easily and no need any help to fall asleep. I tried letting him cry on bed but he just won't fall asleep. What I did is to make him tired with crying, carry him up and nurse him and he will sleep. I know this is not a good practice but I don't have choice, do I?

Good now, I have to go back to work because baby J will wake up very soon from his nap.

Baby J at almost 4 mo

Another few days to go and baby J will hit 4 months old. Time flies. At this time last year, baby J is still that little seed that just turned into small little zigot in my tummy. He is such a darling now. Baby J cannot roll over yet but he can lift up his head very firmly. He can hold his head for long and change his head to both sides with his legs and arms swinging. He is an active little baby and that makes us busy parents. Today is mother's day and this is my first time being a mother going though this memorable day. After making some fuss in the morning, my hubby gave in and took me out for lunch, or else I think I need to cook and go through this day like any other usual weekend. We had pork rib at Chicago Ribs!

Baby J is mumbling a lot and he started to make different kind of sounds. He is experimenting with different tones and seems fascinated with the ability to create the sounds. There is no change to his sleeping routine. He still require a lot of help to fall asleep, rocking, pacifying, suckling and all sorts of things. It took me averagely 2 hours to put him to sleep every might, which is quite exhausting if it's weekday. He smile to me when he sees me :)

Baby J is learning to grab things using both his hands. He is also drooling all the times. He put both his fists into his mouth and lately he started to only insert his thumb in. I am not sure if it's a good thing lol.

Baby J drinks 12 oz of milk at baby sitter place and sometimes up to 16 oz. I only can produce 12 oz or a little more than 12oz  everyday at work so it will concern me if my production cannot cope with his demand. I think probably baby sitter gives him too much as baby J is fussy and sometimes he just need soothing and not milk. I have to work hard to increase my supply like drinking a lot fluid, cook soup and take soy bean product. Surprisingly black bean and soy bean are two super ingredients that can increase my milk supply. They work like magic but the cons is that it only can last for a day or two so I need frequent boost.

Baby J at week 13

Sleep

I just mentioned that baby J can sleep with just waking up once through the night last week. However his sleep routine changed again after he had a slight fever during the past weekend. He now wakes twice through the night and becomes fussy before sleeping time. We need 2-3 hours in average to successfully putting him to bed and sleep without waking up within 15 minutes. He is just that too easy to get startled by any tiny noise like the sound of tick when we off the light or the sound of light pop when we sat on the bed. That's too sad to be true to say that he follows my gen on this big con, light sleeper.

Immunisation

Baby J has doubled his weigh compared to his 2nd month checkup. He had his 3 months immunisation today. So we have to monitor his temperature tonight because he might get fever from today's jab

Sleep deprive

That's me. Time is so precious. I don't have enough time to sleep and work. Especially work. Damn, I have problem to perform in my career this year. This is a "must" sacrifice, which I am willing to give to my baby. I am spending 1 hour in average on every day at work expressing milk and I don't have time to work at night. By the time I put baby J to bed and finished up the house chores, it's already 11pm and I am too tired to on the laptop. I have to sleep because I need to wake up for feeding hours later and wake up early to prepare to go to work. I need to wake up 1 hour earlier compared to 1/2 hour last time because I got to feed baby and sterilize all the feeding equipments like bottles, teat and pump and pack all the required things for baby sitter. Although I already did the packing the night before, some of the stuff can only be added in the morning itself.

Baby J at week 12

Sleeping

Baby J only wakes up once through the night starting from the first day mommy starts work. He understands and really hope mommy can rest more. But we still finding it hard to put him to sleep, which requires soothing/rocking.

Feeding

Baby J now take bottle at day time and only direct feed when I am off to work. I have been expressing milk at work diligently hoping to make enough milk for him at baby sitter's place. So far, the supply is sufficient but work hasn't pick up so well yet.

Baby sitter

Baby J has been staying there at day time for the 4th day today. He bathed twice a day and we will wipe his body at night before he goes to bed. I can't wait to go and pick him from baby sitter every single day. Miss him so much

This post is so short because I am really tired and sleepy. I only hope I have enough time to play with him every night.

Baby J at week 11

Immunisation

Other than the 2nd month immunisation in government clinic, we gave baby J rotavirus vaccination in private hospital. He had a little diarrhoea for 2 days (plus today) and stained all his clothes because of the watery bowel movement. His weight went up 0.3kg in one week time! He is whopping 6.6kg now.

Feeding

Baby J drinks different amount of milk each time. Some of the days, it is hard to get him to finish up 3 oz milk but today he drank almost 5 oz from bottle without even stop for a breath. Glad.

Baby sitter

We finally got him the playpen! It's 1/2 price piece from a mother in workplace. She selling it off after her baby used the playpen for 6 months. It's Graco and still in tip top condition.

Play time

We got him a playing gym!

Baby J at week 10

Social

Baby J can response to smile now. He return us a smile when he saw us smiling at him. However that only happen when he is in good mood. It was so fun to see his toothless grin. He also starts to "talk". I can talk to him about anything, just make everything exaggerate, your mouth and the voice. He will response back in his own voice and language. He also starts to put his fist into his mouth.

Sleep

Baby J is still very fussy. We have to put him in hammock to make him fall asleep easier. He cannot be left alone and sleep by himself. I introduced him latex pacifier and he seems to be enjoying it and some how helps in soothing him. There are times when he was drowsy, I could read him story book in very soft and soothing voice, and he can doze away but it still depends on his mood

Feeding

I am relieved that he is finally asking for milk every 2.5 - 3 hours now, no more 1.5-2hours like previous. It gives me a little more time to myself, to rest and run some errands in between feeding. All thanks to bottle feeding which helps to make him drink more. He can drink from both bottle and direct breast feed now. He drinks up to 4 oz from bottle so he is trained to drink more which means he can last longer in between feeding. This also reduces his wake ups through the night from 3 to 2 times. I feel better though till exhausted. I hope he can reduce to only waking up once through the night for feeding when I am back to work by trying to adjust his sleeping time in day time.

Baby sitter

We took him to baby sitter house last weekend. We talked to Mrs Cyril about a few items which I think I want her to understand and know like feeding baby J with breast milk that I will supply to her every morning, warming up the milk, changing diapers, bathing and etc. We still need to buy a baby playpen for baby J to use at her home.

That's the update I have on his week 10 progress

Baby J at week 9

Today is Baby J's 2nd month immunisation. We took him to "klinik desa" at our area for the jab. He behaved but gave a loud cry during the jab. Which baby does not? We gave him paracetamol because this jab might cause fever. Baby J has been growing horizontally!!! He is 6.3kg at his 9th week. Do not underestimate the power of breast feeding.

This morning we had a big poo incident. I fed him on bed early in the morning and gave a secure layering between him and me in case his poo leaks out again. However the extra layer did not prevent his explosive poo from leaking onto my pants and the bed. End up I had to cut short his feeding and drag him into the sink for cleaning. We had to change the whole set of bed sheet in room too including the mattress protector. Actually this is not the first time we experience this kind of disaster. After I gave him a clean wash, I placed him on the rubber mat on the bed and took a towel to cover his penis to avoid pee from shooting everywhere, in case. However over his excitement because both mommy and daddy were running every where in the room to clean up his mess, he pushed the towel aside and shot his pee towards his own cot. Now, we not only had to clean our bed, we have to clean his bed too. End up we took off everything , bedsheet, blanket, bolster sheet and pillow sheet for wash and sun dried his mattress. What a busy morning before we dragged the 3 of us to the clinic. How does that sound? A great and fun day! :D

Update: I have been direct feeding baby J for the past 8 weeks and now we have to introduce him to bottle as my maternity and extra annual leaves are going to end pretty soon. However he refused bottle from me and only willing to take from his dad. I guess I have the milk smell because he kept turning his head towards me when I am trying to bottle feed him. Another problem I have is he is still wake up every 2 hours for night feeding. This is exhausting even now and I can't imagine how it going to look like when I have to be awake in the day time to work. I am trying hard to make him drink more at each feeding.

Baby J at week 8

Post natal

I was searching for the time I can start swimming after childbirth. It is said in some articles or answers that people asked online that I need to wait 4-6 weeks before going back into the pool to avoid infection. I am desperate to lose weight. I gained 13kg throughout the whole pregnancy and now I am still 5kg above my pre-pregnancy weight. I have to lose the 5kg or more in order to be able to wear my skinny jeans and short pants again. Plus I do not want to show the extra flesh hanging at my belly when I am in my tight tops. I can't wait to go out show off my baby to everyone but it is impossible now. He is too difficult to handle out from the house.

Rocking

Baby J is a good boy but required cuddling most of the time. It is lesser now but still a lot to my opinion. He still want us to rock him so he can fall asleep unless we put him down when he dozed off after feeding. We try to avoid putting him in hammock so that he does not rely fully on hammock for comport. I only let him rock in there during our meal time which is around 12-2pm and 6-7pm.

Poo

For the past 1 week, I experienced a lot poo incidents. Baby J has already almost overgrown S size diaper. Normally he likes to poo during feeding time which means when I was holding him close to me. So what happen is that his poo always being squeezed from the back of diaper up towards his back. Mostly it will stain my pants, or shirt or both and my thighs. Luckily his poo is not smelly unlike adults. I just treat it as custard :p and wash off. I am getting used to poo, pee and milk spit around the house. I guess it is the usual things that happen if you have a baby. I know it's time to clean up everything around me, myself and the baby when I felt warm liquid on my hand or legs during feeding. Luckily I have 2 rubber mats so I can use the other when this one stain. Nothing is worse than splashing poo during night feeding.

Alert

Baby J is more alert starting last week. He can focus on things and not just blindly swing his head around. That's why we can use the musical mobile already. In earlier times, he did not even stop to look at the musical mobile although it is rotating and have music and just continue crying. We can play pee-ka-boo with him, tickle him, and use certain motion to attract him. He smiles more than previous week although he has not really return us any smile directly. I am satisfy. I know every baby grows in different rates and cannot compare with each other. Baby J has his own milestone. He also can swing his hand trying to catch things that we offer to him.

Raise his head

We give him tummy time everyday during evening nap for around 1 hour. I think this helps him to practise lifting up his head. He can now lift his head and turn his head when he is on tummy although not for long. He struggles to raise himself using both legs and arms. I only let him try to push himself up for about 2 minutes the most. I know his neck muscle is not very strong yet. I think he is going to roll his body over soon though I don't know how soon. Let's see.

Baby J at week 6

I am still on maternity leave and handling baby J alone during work hour when my hubby is off to work. Baby J's schedule now is predictable and I know what he wants and when. It's relief that I told my hubby to hold his parents from coming over again after their first 2 weeks here. When they were here, I barely had my hands on my newborn and I was pretty upset and slightly depressed everyday during that 2 weeks plus. I miss how he looks like at his first and second week. I seldom see him as I was in room resting where baby J was taken out to the living hall all the times just because they want to play with him. I only got to see him during feeding time just that little while and had no chance to hug him more or look at his face directly.

I managed to establish a daily schedule with him that suits my temporary home maker life at the moment except for the night feeding which is still at every 2 hourly. So that makes me a zombie in the day time due to the lack of sleep. I only have 1 hour nap the most in the afternoon during baby J's tummy time (nap). Reason? I got to catch up with house work when he is not awake.

Now, I feel a little relax with the help of hammock that my sister brought here during her visit 2 weeks back. It is a life saver because baby J likes to be rocked and soothed by being carried and walked to and fro in the house. Before this, I can't put him down even for 10 seconds and he will cry to be picked up again.

Here is how his and my schedule looks like at 6th week.

(* the time varies each day)

1:00 am: feed baby J and go back to sleep

3:00am: feed baby J and go back to sleep

5.00am : feed baby J and go back to sleep

7:00 am : feed and go back to sleep

8:00 am : I wake up and fix breakfast for myself and do a little chores in the kitchen and around the house

8.30am: Baby J wakes up and stare alone onto the ceiling and surrounding in his cot

9.00am: Feed and rest for 10 minutes

10.00am: Bath baby J

10.15am: Play and cuddling time with baby J until he starts squeaking. At this time, I have to soothe him, rock him, walk to and fro with him in my arms

11.00am: Feed baby J and put him to nap in hammock, auto-rock.

12.00am: Fix simple lunch and shower

1.30pm: Feed baby J

2.00pm: Put him on tummy for a nap and I can too get a quick nap but get up earlier from him to run some house chores and prepare dinner ingredients. Thaw meat/marinate meat/wash/etc.

4.00pm: Feed baby J and play with him a little while

5.00pm: Give baby J a wipe (to clean and freshen his body)

6.00pm: Feed baby J and yay! Daddy is home!

6.30pm: Fix dinner

7.00pm: Put baby J in hammock so we can eat dinner in peace

8.00pm: Feed baby J

8.30pm: Put baby J to sleep in his cot

11pm: Feed baby J

I think the schedule will be different when I started work :)

Quick update to my new life

Hi, it has been long since I posted an entry. Time is too scarce now and not being so generous to me anymore. I don't cook much and only did the simple steaming in rice cooker and baking/grilling/roasting in oven dishes. There are a lot updates with my newborn but let me summarize them as quick below

1. There is a lot spit up milk everywhere in the house. Eg, on the living room floor few patches, on the carpet in living room ( So we move him away to tiles area)
2. I smell like milk
3. I learn to eat even faster than previous so I can complete my meal before he starts crying
4. My baby drinks a lot these few days like every hour. It exhausts me a lot especially through the night I have to wake up every 1-1.5 hours to feed because he is in growing spurt. By the way, I direct breastfeeding. Never thought this will be so tiring. Anyway, I get to create bonding with my baby. However he still cry all the times
5. The same point, he cries all the times whenever he is not sleeping or feeding
6. My baby can't sleep by himself. We have to soothe, rock, carry, lullaby him to sleep every night for like 2 hours.
7. My husband is very understanding and helpful. I love him and him. Both
8. My baby is alreadyweek 4 now. He looks like a little monk after we shaved his head

He is here at last

I gave birth to a 3.5kg baby last Monday naturally without any instrument or epidural. My son's daddy said I am very tough because of the pain I endured for popping this 3.5 kg flesh and blood out. It was a 12 hours ordeal that I went through. I wanted to jot down a little memory here so later when I looked back, I still remember the moments I spent along the 12 hours on that very day.

On sunday morning, I had bloody show and I figured that the mucus plug had came off. I read that after the mucus plug came out, it can be within hours, days or weeks before baby its born. So I told my husband that we shall go and see my obstetrician the next morning. During the whole morning throughout the afternoon, I felt constipated every now and then. I phoned my sister and another friend to find out how contraction pain should feel like. Both of them told me it's almost like menstrual cramp but more severe one. For me, it's hard to judge because I don't normally has menstrual cramp. I just ignored it until about 6.30 in the evening when I started feeling the pain which is not so mild anymore. I had to stop everything I was doing whenever the pain came just standing there deep breathing until the pain is gone again. Something is wrong. I think this was a real contraction. I timed it was about 6-8 minutes apart. I already boiled a pot of soup since 3pm and I have to stir fry one more vege for dinner besides cooking rice. I didn't even marinate the pork that I was going to stir fry with the vege because I can't stand too long anymore. The pain was quite intense. Quickly after cleaning the kitchen and washed the wok, I woke my husband up for dinner (he was having evening nap) and told him I most probably going to give birth soon and we should eat quickly. I ate like thunder with in between I stood up and changed position trying to relieve from pain. I headed towards bathroom for shower and reminded him to wash and clean up after he finished eating while I shower first. I had to sit on the toilet seat to wash my hair because at that moment, I had trouble standing whenever the pain came. Around 8 pm, we drove to the hospital with packed bags and his beloved DSLR. One funny thing is that when we arrived at the parking arena, hubby pressed the parking ticket from the machine and shoved it to me. He told me to hold it. I was in such a pain that I had to ask him to simply just put it somewhere, don't give it to me. He wasn't aware I was already in real pain. We went directly to the birth unit upon reaching hospital. Nurses plugged me to the machine to monitor my contraction for 20 minutes. It showed my contraction lasted about 30 seconds and 6 minutes apart. Nurse said I should be staying here in the labour room for the night because my contraction is already quite close period. Nurse told my husband to go down to do the admission process while they continue monitor me because I have not even dilated for 1cm yet. At around 11pm, my pain became quite severe that they gave me pain killer jab. Since I had not dilated nurses estimated I will only give birth the next morning, I sent my husband back to sleep at home. He went home and spent some time cooking the red date, longan tea for me so that he could bring it with him later when he came. Around 3am, my membrane ruptured/water bag burst. I vomited the dinner I took the night before sure to the effect of pain killer. Nurses told me to sleep because I would need the energy to push in the morning but I could not fall asleep in this kind of pain. I texted my husband and he came again at 4am. From 3am until 6.30am, I was dilated until 8cm. Nurse said I can't give birth yet because my contraction doesn't last long enough to give the push. Doctor came at around 7am and I was still at 8cm. Doctor gave me a dip to fasten the contraction and making it last longer. I was in terrible pain and already feeling very weak. I had already been in intense pain for the last 10 hours. After he gave the dip,it was like in hell. My legs cramped whole times that my husband and the nurse had to massage my legs every time the contraction came. Both my hands were numb because I hold the railing of the bed too tight whenever it was so pain. I curled on bed like a caterpillar, shaking. My husband asked for the laughing gas (nitrous oxide) from doctor but he was reluctant to give because he worried I won't be able to push as the gas effect will make me drowsy. I told him I was already in pain for almost 12 hours now and if I can't relive from pain, I can't survive anymore. He gave in as I promised I would be able to push later. At around 8am, I can't wait anymore. They told me to wait until 10cm, but I can't. The baby was already almost out. They didn't believe me in the beginning because I had already told them the same thing that I had to push since 7.30am. One of the nurse asked me to try and she saw baby's head. They quickly called the doctor in and setup the bed for labour. At the 3rd time pushing, doctor performed a 2cm episiotomy which I could not even feel it anymore, baby came out at the 5th push at 8.08am. He was so adorable and I could not cry from happiness because I was still drowsy from the overdose off laughing gas. The gas effect made vomited until lunch time. I took too much of it but luckily I was still able to push and get baby out without the help of vacum or forcept.

The labour lasted 12 hours and he is finally out. Love him. My husband loves me more after baby is out, I can feel it, and I know why.

Fried crabsticks

I can't make pineapple cookies this year because it required too much effort. So I sent WL to get me 6 packets of crabsticks. I will just fry crabsticks this year. I need to have at least something to serve our families when they came over to visit us soon.

After the cutting and shredding for like an hour on 12X6 sticks, the frying needs another 3 hours. I am quite satisfied because it's one of his favourite snacks. He keep sneaking in and stole the freshly fried crabsticks to munch on when I was frying. So hot, sweat kept rolling down my tummy. Pity the baby because he was closer to stove than I was so I tried to stand facing the side when frying. The fried crabstick is a very delectable snack.

Chinese New Year in 2 weeks!

Roasted black pepper pork

I am not very sure if it's called roast or bake but I used the oven to do the job.

I marinated the lean pork which has slight fat with black pepper sauce, soy sauce and salt overnight. Be generous with the black pepper sauce and you will get very flavoured roast pork ;)

I just popped the 2 lean pork I have on aluminium foil, do not seal up so the dry heat can roast the pork just like char siew. There is a slight burnt on the skin outside which gave really aromatic taste after 30 minutes in oven at 240 degree celcius. The pork turned out very juicy too because of the little fat it contains. I am very happy with today's meal because it was really easy to make and tasty to the bud. Moreover, I don't need to stand there for hours to cook a perfect meal, and I don't want too at this rate of being pregnant.