The Gift of Mother's Milk: Tips for Successful Breastfeeding

Recently I read with interest the news of thousands of mothers in China desperately trying to buy formula milk from overseas because they do not trust the local brands of formula. To me the solution was simple: breast milk! The supply is endless and best of all, it's free!

And then I read the last part of the article, which stated that only a small percentage of them actually breastfeed as a result of poor support for working mothers going back to work and intensive advertisements on formula.

Recently I was packing some of my girl's old baby stuff in preparation for the arrival of Number 2 when I stumbled onto my breast pump I packed away safely 1.5 years ago when I stopped breastfeeding.

My Philips Avent Breast Pump

It was like meeting a dear old friend! A friend that stood by me through thick and thin; in nursing rooms and toilets (yes toilets, because nursing rooms are not available everywhere!), on airplanes and buses (yes buses, because it was a long journey and I needed to express.. under a nursing cover of course.. requires some level of skill!), in hotel rooms and at home... my friend was there for me.

So I felt a tinge of sadness when I no longer have a use for it. Breastfeeding, difficult and inconvenient as it was, is also one of the most fulfilling aspects of my journey as a mother! Everyone else can help you with the care-giving of your child but only you and YOU alone can breastfeed him/her! It is a very unique experience only you have the privilege to have! =)

Having breastfed for 18 months, here are some tips I found useful. Hope that it will be of use to you too =)

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BREASTFEEDING:

1) Kick-Ass Preparation

Part of my success stemmed from reading and reading and reading! Positions, latch on, let down reflex, typical length of feedings & amount of milk, how do you know if your baby gets enough milk, breast engorgement and its problems, mastitis, what not to eat, what to eat... there's so much to know!

Read books/blogs, talk to people, ask your doctor. Feel free to email me if you need some help. I don't have all the answers but hey, if you need someone to sympathize with you on how hard it is, I'm here for you! =)

From experience, you are most likely doomed to fail if you lack the necessary knowledge!

2) Hard Core Determination

In the beginning, it really felt like everyone was questioning me!

"Are you sure your girl is receiving enough milk? She looks so small!"
"So difficult just give up lah, you guys grew up on formula and survived what!"
"Are you sure the breast milk can keep? Won't spoil meh?"

This is when you need to dive deep into your encyclopedia of information (see point #1) and educate them that you KNOW what you are doing. And yes it's hard. So is studying for 'O' or 'A' levels, but we are not telling our kids not to study are we? We're not telling them not to learn swimming even though they swallowed large amounts of water are we? It takes practice and we will get there eventually.

And when you yourself have doubts on your own capability, you need to dive deep into the part of you that will never give up no matter what! Trust your body! If your baby needs it, your boobs will produce it!

Have faith, press on, it will get easier!

3) Pom-Pom-Cheering Supporters

Surround yourself with people who support your decision to breastfeed. People who can cheer you on, encourage you not to give up, praise you for your sacrifice!

Honestly, 2 weeks into my breastfeeding journey and I nearly wanted to give up my plan of total breastfeeding because I thought I didn't have enough milk for my girl. But my fellow mummy friend who was also breastfeeding encouraged me that this was normal as it happened to her too but now she is producing more than enough for her girl. It really encouraged me and true enough, not long after I was also producing so much milk I had to store leftovers in the fridge for emergencies! =)

4) Superpower Tools

Good breast pumps are sent from God! When my baby is not with me, I pump. When I'm tired and need to sleep, I pump extra and tell my mum-in-law to feed that for the next feeding while I sleep. When my nipples are too sore, I pump. Awesome! =)

Nipple creams and protectors have super powers too.

Nipple Protectors

They allow you to protect your nipples while your baby goes all pacman on them. Especially if yours is a ravenous piranha like mine (hello, I just fed you 1.5 hours ago!).

And if you need help finding a place to breastfeed or pump while on the go, check out my painfully-put-together-but-super-awesome review of more than 100 nursing rooms in Singapore. I do the hard work so that you don't have to ^_^

With this in mind, go forth and I wish you all the best in your efforts to give your child the gift of mother's milk!

Philips AVENT strongly advocates breastfeeding and provides parents with the tools to give their babies the best start in life. Look out for more to come at Philips AVENT.


Disclosure: This is Part 2 of a series of sponsored stories on behalf of Phillips AVENT Singapore. All opinions and text are my own.

Family Photoshoot at Botanical Gardens

I've been wanting to have an outdoor photo shoot for a long time and we finally had the chance to get our family photos shot by Hart from Tomato Photography.

I chose the Singapore Botanical Gardens because it was near to our house and I've always wanted to get some photos taken there. Unfortunately, there wasn't any wind so the girl and her daddy ended up sweating buckets and were both in a foul mood (you can't tell from the pictures because my girl has been well-trained by her mummy to smile no matter what #perilsofhavingabloggingmum).

Nevertheless, Hart tried his best to interact with my girl and still managed to get some really good shots of her despite her resistance. As a father himself, Hart had no trouble connecting with my girl and making her feel at ease. He told me later that she was one of the best clients he had ever worked with as she took instructions so well despite the fact that she didn't feel like it. A real professional model indeed =)

I have so few shots of both of us as I'm usually the photographer of the family so most of the pictures do not have me in it. It was great to be able to get so many nice shots of me and my girl having fun together =)

Somehow or other, Hart managed to capture her reluctance to leave, which was one of the photos that both her grandmothers absolutely loved. I don't know how he did it because she was absolutely whining to go! Towards the end of the shoot she kept complaining, "It's hot mummy, I wanna go NOW!"

Two weeks later, Hart couriered to us our 6x6'' photo album with my selected photos.

Overall, I had no complaints working with Hart. He was very responsive to my emails and messages and was very accommodating to our schedule. Other than probably choosing the wrong outdoor location (the air-conditioned domes at the Gardens by the Bay would have probably been a better choice), I thought everything turned out really really well =)


Disclosure: A complimentary outdoor photography session and a 20-page photo book were received from Tomato Photography for the purposes of this review. No monetary compensation was received; all opinions are my own.

The Colourful 60s

3 Reasons Why I Love the 60s:

1) The Fashion

Photo credit: lobstar28 via photopin cc

Love the mod fashion that featured bold colours (which is soo me) and geometric shapes and patterns =)

2) Walt Disney's Pinocchio

Photo credit: Jacob Whittaker via photopin cc

Definitely one of my favourite Walt Disney classics. Need I say more?

3) The Bright Psychedelic Colours!

Photo credit: Pink Ponk via photopin cc

I'm not afraid of colour so the crazy colours of the 60s are so my cup of tea =)

What do you love about the 60s?


P.S: Remember to vote for us for the Best Family Blog of the Singapore Blog Awards 2013! You can vote once everyday! Thanks for the support! =)

Our Big Announcement!

Finally..

I've been keeping this secret for a while now as I wanted to confirm it at the doctor's before making the announcement.. although the hubby went ahead and stole my thunder on Facebook anyway (-_-").

As you know we have been trying for baby #2 since November last year and haven't had much luck in the beginning. During our trip to Seoul last April, the hubby gave an offering to the World Largest Church with full faith that his request for a baby boy would be granted.

And what do you know? Faith moved the hand of God! =)

I realised that I had missed my period about 4 days after our trip so I waited for a few more days before I finally took a pregnancy test.

I peed on a stick and it was positive!

I couldn't believe it! We were finally expecting! ^_^

But then the excitement wore off as I soon found out that being a pregnant working mum is TOUGH!! T_T

My previous pregnancy was when I was studying my masters so I had no idea how bad getting up to go to work everyday while battling nausea and giddiness was! To make matters worse, I couldn't tell most people except my close colleagues how I felt so I had to pretend everything was alright when in actual fact, it was not! Not at all!

I felt nauseous like ALL. THE. TIME. I had no relieve from it, except for when I was eating something appetising or drinking lemon grass tea (really helped). Although I did not vomit, there were days when I nearly couldn't go on working anymore as I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing. Needless to say, bus rides were HORRENDOUS for me!

The only thing that got me through the day was this:
Ironically, the worse the nausea is, the stronger the signal to you that your baby is in there, alive and well. So I'll endure any nausea, if that meant that my baby was well.

And by the grace of God, he (or she) is! =)

Girlee holding up our 1st ultrasound scan of Baby #2

Girlee was really excited seeing her little brother/sister for the first time on the ultrasound! I'm also excited to find out that our good friends JK will be expecting their bundle of joy around the same time as us so I'll have someone to moan to and our kids will have each other to play with! I'm sooo looking forward to it! ^_^

In the meantime however, I'll have to learn long suffering while I patiently wait for this stage to pass! Please pray for me! T_T


P.S: Pardon the ranting. My body is making a living human being and I'm soaked in all sort of weird hormones. I'm totally allowed to rant :P

The Ultimate Overnight Drypers DryPantz Test

Drypers sent us a whole box of Drypers DryPantz to try out since for nearly 3 years of diapering, we have not tried Drypers before (shocking, I know).

Carton-load of Drypers DryPantz

As the new and improved Drypers DryPantz (for 6 months and up) has been touted as being able to provide long-lasting dryness, I wanted to try them on my girl for the nights. The mum-in-law was skeptical; she was of the opinion that no diaper-pant can last as long as regular diapers for nights as it will definitely leak.

And bearing in mind that my girl has soaked through every diaper-pant she has had on throughout the night, Drypers DryPantz has its work cut out for it. Besides, there was no way that I would get up and change my girl's diapers mid-way through my precious sleep so they had better pass Our Overnight Test!

First up, getting the Pantz on! =)

Back (left) and Front (right)

It's really intuitive to put on too. Backside of the elephant is the back, face of the elephant is the front. Easy.

Wearing her XXL Drypers DryPantz

Next, getting my girl to wear her Drypers DryPantz overnight for 3 nights in a row. When we checked her diapers the morning after, surprise, surprise.. her diapers had not leaked at all! This was due mainly to Activ-Core that helps to quickly absorb urine and prevent flow-back and the interlocking fibres that help to drive urine into the core in order to keep the butt dry and comfortable.

Greater comfort was also provided by a snug and soft waist elastic, Flexi-Fit, which helps to give greater mobility for my active toddler who enjoys tossing and turning in her sleep. I had previously never used Drypers as I had heard that it was not very comfortable but it turned out that they were even more comfortable than the brand of diapers that we were currently using.

Taking into consideration that my girl only drinks a bottle of milk before she sleeps (it might be different if your child drinks more before bedtime), overall, I'm still pretty impressed =)

Test it out for yourself and see if it works for you too! You can get FREE samples from Drypers here! =)


Disclosure: This is Part 1 of a series of sponsored stories on behalf of Drypers Singapore. All opinions are my own.

Bali Day 5-6: Bali Reflections

The single biggest thing my girl remembered from our trip to Bali was all the swimming that we did! We swam so much that our swim suits never had a chance to dry before we used it again. The girl was thrilled!

Catch me daddy!!

Family photo taken with self-timer

Overall, we enjoyed the hospitality of the Balinese although the weather was just too hot and there were simply too many mosquitoes!

Thank you for everything! =)

Until next time.. =)


<< Back to Bali Day 4: Bali Safari Park

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Bali, Indonesia 
as well as other travel itineraries!

You can also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels! =)

Bali Day 4: Bali Safari Park

We are going to visit the Bali Safari & Marine Park today and were told that we could take the free shuttle bus from The Breezes.

Free Shuttle Bus to Bali Safari & Marine Park

Playing a fool and entertaining herself on the bus

It was a pretty long journey but we were all smiles when we finally arrived! After getting our tickets, we had to take the internal tram to the Safari park, located deeper within the forest.

Tram within the park

Once there, we started our journey with the Animal Educational Show at Hanuman Stage.

Getting ready for the show

Animal Educational Show @ Hanuman Stage

The host of the show introducing the different animals

The show was really ordinary to us, even my girl wasn't really impressed. As we were moving on to the next attraction, we passed by some elephants, who were waiting for guests to buy bananas to feed them. I was going to buy some bananas for the girl but they were so pricey I decided against it. Besides, my girl looked terrified when I asked her if she would like to feed the elephants! *laughs*

Feed the elephants!

We proceeded to hop on a special land-and-sea Safari Tram for the Safari Journey that brought us up, close and personal with the Safari animals.

Safari Tram with our own tour guide

Tigers lazing in the sun

Clockwise from top left: Hippopotamus peeking out from his bath;
Two zebras that came so close to our window we could almost touch them.. my girl was thrilled!
Lions in their den; Rhinoceros grazing on the field.

My favourite animal, the giraffe!

My girl could identify almost all the animals, with her favourite being.. "ZEBRAS!!!!" she shouted excitedly, "MUMMMEEEE, SEEEEE, Zebras!!!!"

After the ride, we stopped by one of the food courts for lunch before going on to have fun at the Waterpark, a nice water playground with many slides.

Slides at the Waterpark, suitable for both children..

..and adults!

The hubby loved the almost 4-storey-high slide, which was definitely meant for adults or older children. Being 2 months pregnant, of course I could not take on the high-impact slides (*boo*) but that did not stop me from joining my girl on the baby slides!

At the top of the slide before going down

Having fun sliding down the slides again and again!

I was so proud of my girl for bravely going down the slides on her own after much encouragement from us. We had a blast! =)

When it got late, we washed up and moved on to the Funzone, where there were rides for the whole family!

Climbing Cars for little kids

She was so tired after swimming but couldn't pass this up

Jungle Cruise

Where we were supposed to see interesting animals but we only saw one. Perhaps they were all asleep..

Flume Ride

I could only watch with envy while the hubby and his brother got on the Flume Ride and had a splashing good time! There was almost no one in the queues for any of the rides perhaps because it was an off-peak period.

Our last stop was the Fresh Water Aquarium.

Beautiful fish in their tanks

Pirahna

We were there to see the Pirahna feeding, which was really disappointing because the fish didn't attack the food like we had hoped. Perhaps it was because the prey wasn't alive and struggling.. definitely not worth waiting for it.

Overall, the Bali Safari Park has everything you would want in a zoo: animals, shows, water playgrounds, aquariums and even roller coaster rides! While I had a great time, incorporating everything and anything probably caused the Park to lose its focus, which really should be about the animals (which in my opinion weren't many). Nevertheless, if you are looking for a place that will keep your child entertained all day, this is definitely a place to go! =)


Continue to >> Bali Day 5-6: Bali Reflections
<< Back to Bali Day 3: Bali Day Tour

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Bali, Indonesia 
as well as other travel itineraries!

You can also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels! =)

Bali Day 3: Bali Day Tour

We booked our hotel's car and driver for a day (approximately S$60-70) to tour the other parts of Bali. As we had a young child with us, the hubby ensured that our route was not too far away from Semiyak otherwise all of us could not have endured it.

So for our first stop, we went to Ubud and stopped by a batik factory, a jewellery factory and an art gallery, three things that Bali is famous for.

Batik Factory

Art Gallery

The art here are created by the locals, which were really vivid and beautiful! We couldn't afford the bigger ones, so we bought 2 small but really cool paintings as a souvenir of our trip =)

Bali is also famous for their Kopi Luwak (coffee from Civets and also the most expensive coffee in the world) so how can we not visit a coffee & tea farm?

Balinese coffee beans on the plant

Different beans dried and fried over the fire

Cocoa bean split into half

After being introduced to all the plants and seeing them in person, we were brought to a little hut facing a beautiful field where we got to try all their coffee and tea for free! All except for Kopi Luwak that is.. *laughs*

Nice sunny day for a cup of coffee/tea

Left: Our line of beverages to try;
Right: Hubby excited to try Kopi Luwak for the 1st time!

We decided which type of coffee or tea we liked and bought them from their store. Of course we had to buy some Kopi Luwak too =)

Next, we headed off to the famous Dirty Duck Diner for their most popular dish.. wait for it.. duck! Duh =)

Dirty Duck Diner

Clockwise from left: Rice in a basket; Marinated dirty duck; Grilled seafood platter

Clockwise from top left: Indonesian satay; Carbonara spaghetti; Assorted vegetables; Original crispy dirty duck

The food tasted as good as we heard! Although we did prefer the marinated dirty duck better than the crispy dirty duck as it was softer and more flavourful. Yum!

After a fulfilling lunch, we all slept in the car as it was another 1-1.5 hours as we headed to Tanah Lot.

Tanah Lot

Surprisingly, the shopping here was fabulous! You could bargain to dirt cheap prices and people would sell you their wares. We bought a bunch of clothes, souvenirs and other little knick knacks here! =)

After shopping for a bit, we followed the crowd to the coast where we took some pictures of the beautiful scenery.

Standing literally at the edge (of a cliff), with the temple at the background
(You can only access the temple in low tide after the waters recede)

We were here!

We wanted to stay till dusk to see the sunset but we figured that we didn't want to return to our villa too late so we ended up spending more time shopping around at the stalls instead!

I guess it is really different when you're travelling with 一老一小 (literal translation: one old & one young) as we were all exhausted by dinner time. We were supposed to travel a distance to a famous restaurant where you can dine and watch the sunset by the beach but we decided against it as we were simply too tired to travel. We ended up eating at a restaurant near our villa but we didn't mind really because we could rest and enjoy each other's company.

Looking forward to another fun day tomorrow! =)


Continue to >> Bali Day 4: Bali Safari Park
<< Back to Bali Day 1-2: Our Private Villa at Seminyak

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Bali, Indonesia 
as well as other travel itineraries!

You can also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels! =)