Check this out..

Mothers of all girls, babies to young children, this is a website you just have to take a look at..

You would adore the pretty crochet hats and hair accessories, which are all handmade.. unless you want your daughter to look like a boy, else I bet you would love to lay your hands on one (or even more!) of those lovelies!

http://www.heartsatmind.com/

This website happened to be ownership of the wife of a guy working in one of our agencies. He had said that discounts can be rendered to us, colleagues, if we are interested in any of the items. So, go on, see if you like anything, and contact me at reginalim29@yahoo.com.sg.

My personal favourites.. So hard to make a choice from these..

Hard work

It has been a week since I returned to work, and I am almost near to throwing the white flag out of the window..

No, it's not my colleagues; neither is it the work.. (not yet, I think) But it is the travelling to work that I dread, and my 'expression' sessions that is tiring me out. The direct bus that takes me to work is a freaking 1.5hrs journey!! There is of course, another faster way to get to my office; via the MRT. I have to alight at Lavender station, and walk a huge distance.. of approximately 15mins. All in all, I will reach office in an hour's time if I go on the train.

On a 'prompt' day, Rianne will wake at 5-ish; not later than 6am; and I will breastfeed her in my room (She now sleeps with my mum at night). I would then start my preparation for work, and leave home at 7.20 in order to catch the 7.30 bus. By 9am, I would reach my office in Beach Road; and my breasts would be so so full.. Yesterday, I was so engorged and I needed to express milk once I got to work. Never did I expect myself, or rather my breasts, to be leaking so much until my breast pads were completely drenched. The milk flow was so plentiful, and it actually dripped onto my dress as I express. Damn! I was in such a mess, but the amount of milk I got out of the expression made me less angry. I had 240ml of milk, WOW!

The damp breast pads made me uncomfortable as the day goes, and I was beginning to feel itchy around my boobies. Very soon, I was scratching and tucking at my bra. I had used the last pair of disposable breast pads I kept in my cooler bag, so I simply had to endure the discomfort til I get home. Bad news hit me, as I checked and found no more disaposable breast pads at home! I felt like I was going to die of itch, and my poor tits were already red from all that scratching..

I didn't want to put on the same washable breast pads again, so I had to take the day off and went to buy the disposable types which are thiner (but super absorbent!), and very contour-friendly. They follow the shape of our assets, and get nicely chucked underneath the bra. *Tip : Remove the breast pad from your bra when you breastfeed your baby. Let the breast that your baby feeds on, be free of the coverage and have some breathing time.

Sometimes you ponder, is breastfeeding really the smarter way to feed? From the financial point of view, yes, it is. 2 boxes of breast pads ($8.90 x 2) to a tin of formula milk ($39.50), and apparently, it may be 2 tins or more when each feed is on formula.

No doubt breastfeeding and expressing milk is tedious, but when you know that your baby is getting the best nutrition that no formula could match up; you'd tell yourself that all the hard work is definitely worthwhile!

Hairless Rianne!!

Ok, I admit I was being stubborn when I refused to let Rianne have all her hair shaved at her first month old.. BUT, you would agree with me that her tresses were of such a nice dark blonde colour, that it would be a shame if those were to be shaved off.

However, good times don't last, and so do beautiful things. Rianne started shedding hair by the time she was 3months old, and the amount of hair fall only got more and not lesser! It was so bad until a point whereby Rianne's pillow was full of her hair after every nap, and we have to keep changing the pillow case. With all that hair loss, Rianne's hair is most at the center of her head and sparse at the sides. I cannot risk letting Rianne lose more hair, thus I decided to relieve her off all her hair.

We brought Rianne to the hairdresser right below our house, and all hell broke loose when the shaving started.. Rianne was resisting, and wriggling out of my mum's arms because she was terrified of the vibration the shaver gave. Regardless how fast and skillful the hairdresser was, Rianne yelled and cried all the way until all her hair was removed.. Poor her!

Rianne looks even more like a boy now with no hair. But hopefully, finer hair will grow soon; and make Rianne prettier than how she already is!!

Before - Still looking girlie with the pink dress on

After - totally like a boy!!

Milk, milk, milk..

The least exciting thing is going to happen soon, in 3 more days.. I don't mean my cousin's birthday, on 17th June; but this day is the day I return to work after a long 4 months break.

I should feel thrilled about returning to a new, and supposedly very chic office space.. But I'm not. My office has moved from the ever-so-accessible Shenton Way to 'ulu-ulu' (local speak for 'out of the way') Beach Road, spawning a total of 4 floors. It is impossible, for me that is, to walk all the way from Lavender/Bugis MRT to my office building. No way am I going to make myself sweat like some domestic maids, whose employer insist they walk to every destination; in order to save up on transport fees from a person who takes care of the whole household!

Worries haunt me, even before I hit my workdesk.. Will Rianne get used to not having my boobies to suckle on whenever she's hungry? Will Annie Mummy be able to cope when Rianne throws a tantrum? Will Rianne be hard on her granny and refuse to give her some free time? And the most worrying of all.., will Rianne be ok drinking formula milk sometimes now, and even for good, if mummy's produce gets lesser and lesser?

After serious considerations, I had Rianne's timetable planned, and here is how it will go..

- One feed of formula milk - 130ml at night, just before she goes to bed (12am).
- As formula milk is more filling, Rianne would need just another formula feed around 3-4am.
- Then I would wake and breastfeed her at 5.45am/6am, and get ready for work after that.
- Subsequent feeds would all be expressed milk (ranging from 80-130ml) which have been frozen in advance, and need to be thawed and warmed for consuming.
- I would express my milk twice at work, once in the morning and the other just before I finish work.
- When I get home around 8-ish, I would breastfeed Rianne one time or twice, if she's very hungry.
- Then the whole cycle repeats again..

Sounds simple? Easy feat? Hmmmm, hopefully my little princess would be a good baby and the above routine will work for her! Crossing my fingers..

The day after tomorrow

What is wrong with the climate nowadays?! Whatever happened to "It isn't Singapore if it doesn't rain once in a few days!" And lately, there hasn't been even a drop of rain in the day or night.. Freaking hot, is all I could describe the weather!! The heat is not only making adults angry and irritable, but babies as well..

Annie Mummy used to say Rianne is a baby who fears the cold, and can hardly take the fan blowing at her.. But now, she's swallowing her own words with Rianne breaking out in perspiration after every nap in the day. My baby does feel hot too!! My room isn't any less stuffy when the windows and door are opened, so I tend to turn up the power of the fan to a No. 2 speed. Well, it feels slightly cooler but my mum wouldn't allow that to happen for too long. She feels that Rianne will swallow too much air with the fan blowing so strongly. So what, it beats having her so sweaty slumbering away isn't it?!

The ideal solution I can come up with is, to install air-conditioners for the bedrooms. In the past, air conditioning in our house was rather unnecessary because all the kids (me and my siblings) were never sleeping with aircon before, and even with the fan on; we actually feel cold. However, with my pregnancy and post-partum body changes (got fatter and easily annoyed); I no longer need the comforter when I sleep. My sister, since she got married, has also gotten use to sleeping in an airconditioned room. Her son, Jayden is too. That active boy barely has a head full of hair, but yet he can sweat so much! Hence, he's always sweaty whenever he is at our place and unable to stay over.

Ok, airconditioners may be a little expensive (ranging from $1800 - $2800) and troublesome to install in an already furnished house. How about air coolers then? Seen one that is the size of a paper shredder, selling at the supermarket for $89. Sounds good? Well, it seems undeniably the second best solution now until my mum says her friend who had an air cooler before, said it is a piece of useless junk! So what now?!

Just when the heat is almost melting everything, non and living; it rained. But this luxury didn't last long. The scorchy and unbearable weather made Rianne so unwell after her vaccination. It was her first dose of the 5-in-1 vaccination, and she took it quite well at first. She even giggled when the doctor was assessing her growth & development! Doctor said Rianne is doing well for a 3mth old, eventhough she's slightly on the 'tinier' (is there such a word? hmmm, maybe it is accepted medically. Hahaha!!) side. Rianne weighs a 4.9kg, and measured 56.5cm in length. This growth worries me.. Honestly it may seem perfectly normal for other babies, but not for my darling who has a risk of inheriting NF, the genetic disorder. One of the signs of NF is the affected children are smaller than the majority kids.

Please, God, don't let such a thing happen to my baby.. She's innocent, and shouldn't suffer because of her parents' insensibility.

Baby Joelle turns 1 month old!

Baby Joelle just turned 1 month old yesterday.. There were lots of food (my sister spent $900+ for the buffet, and $300+ for pastries buffet), and attention! Even Baby Rianne also got so many people adoring her, and fighting to carry her!

Here are the pictures of that day..

No Myths, Facts Please!!

Did you know some Chinese who are involved with Buddhist rituals, people who are like mediums of the West, who allow themselves to be possessed by the deities, actually 'keep' baby souls at home?!

Sounds scary, but accordingly to someone living with the 'babies'; there is nothing horrifying about them. They are in fact, just babies who love sweets, drinks milk, and enjoy the company of other babies. Well, when they have company of more than 1 baby, it's hard not to be more playful. My sister says her baby girl, apart from being talkative herself; she actually initates talk & play with the other 'babies'! Baby Joelle can wake up at 4am for milk, and end up sleeping at only 8am! You can see her mumuring to herself for that 4hrs.. and we know, she's also talking to her 'friends'..

My mum being the more supersitious type, hates Baby Rianne to be in the same house with the 'babies'. She thinks there might be a clash of characters, and she simply says Rianne is not 'suitable' to be there. Suitable? Sounds daft, and whenever I told my sister my mum's comment, she would be so pissed. Of course she would be as we are so very close, even after her marriage; we would still try to stay in touch often.

Every single time when we visited my sister at her house, my mum would return home with non-stop grumbling! Rianne would be a little cranky, and that gives ANNIE MUMMY a good reason to blame it on the 'babies'. Sigh, don't people in their 50s ever believe in facts?!