Shane's 1st

Over the weekend, Larissa and I went to join Shane for his birthday party. We arrived at about 4.30pm but sadly, Larissa fell asleep at about 5pm. She only woke up at 7pm and we had to leave soon after. Shane is so well behaved in comparison to Larissa! How i wish Larissa is half as well behaved! Lol...Shane's mummy, Hazel was a very nice host. She took time to have a chat with me though she had many guests to attend to. It's our first meeting after chatting for over a year! Haha... Nice mummy she is and she is already so slim! Me jealous! Hahaha...anyway, I forgot to snap a photo of Shane with Larissa. She is so chor lor she actually grabbed Shane by his shirt collar! I had to keep my eyes on her to make sure she did not hurt him. Next time, I must get someone to watch Larissa while I snap photos of them together.

 Here's some of Larissa's photo at the party

See how chor lor she is? Cannot even sit properly...

The first time she is standing unassisted and its at Shane's party!

Here is Shane's 5kg cake

Pacifiers

Most breastfeeding mummies are hesitant when it comes to pacifiers for fear of nipple confusion. Nipple confusion is when babies are confused between our nipples and the pacifier or teat and it can cause baby to latch on wrongly and give mummies a lot of pain.

Personally, I do know of one mummy whose little one was given the pacifier a tad too early , baby was confused and latched on wongly and mummy ended with a bleeding nipple.

In my case, Larissa was introduced to her first pacifier when she was about 5 weeks old - it is recommended that pacifiers be introduced only after 6 weeks as baby will be less likely to be confused - but even before that, I was already presurized by my mum to give her the pacifier a lot earlier.



Larissa with her very first pacifier.

I delayed giving her the pacifier not only coz of nipple confusion but also because the pacifier can cause baby to:-

1. Have lesser intake of milk
2. Orthodontic problems in the future

Babies do not know that what they are sucking will not have milk! So they will only cry when they are extremely hungry. It is not good to feed a baby only when they are famished as it I difficult to latch a hungry baby on. AMany new mummies may not know this but pacifiers can cause babies to have orthodontic problems when they grow older. Yea, babies will lose their milk teeth but it does affect their adult teeth. So if you are introducing the pacifier, please choose an orthodontic pacifier.




Two fingers. No less.

I chose to give Larissa the pacifier a little early as she liked comfort suckling and would be latched on all the time. I remember having to hide in the room most of the time during her baby shower as she would start crying soon after we stepped out of the room. She also started sucking on her fingers but she would suck on 2 to 3 fingers at one go, thus making herself gag. It got so bad that once, she puked all over herself when we were out and I had to change her.



See how she sucks 2 fingers at one go?

I am lucky that Larissa was not nipple confused though I had introduced the pacifier earlier than I'd meant to. Now, she mostly take the pacifier only when she wants to go to sleep. As she is teething already, she prefers to chew on her pacifier and not suck on it.

Most older generation believes that by giving babies the pacifier, it will help baby to sleep better. Do bear in mind that quite a fair number of mummies during the "formula boom time" in the 70s and 80s did not breastfeed as they were made to believe that formula is best for babies and thus are unable to grasp the concept of nipple confusion.


As a new mum, do not be pressurized into giving your baby the pacifier if you are breastfeeding. If you think you need to give the pacifier, try to delay it as much as possible.

Larissa is awake and calling me. Shall end my post here. xoxo


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

10 Months & Still Counting...

2 more days and it will be the 10th month of my breastfeeding my precious Larissa.

I can clearly remember the very moment I started to breastfeed her. I did not take the spinal epidural when delivering Larissa and so, was awake and able to breastfeed her immediately. I told the nurse very clearly that I would like to feed her as soon as possible and the nurse passed her to me right after she was cleaned and had her measurements taken. I then tried to breastfeed her but she was so sleepy that she did not even bother trying to latch on. 

She was soon taken away from me to be put into the incubator and I was pushed into the ward to rest. I can still clearly remember feeling so excited with all the adrenaline pumping through me that I wouldn't get to sleep at all. All I wanted to do was see my baby!

The first couple of times Larissa was latched on

Throughout my 2 days stay at the hospital, I did not manage to have a good rest as I was woken up every couple of hours to feed my precious girl. The nurses did ask for my permission to feed Larissa some glucose as  my supply has not kicked in yet and its insufficient for her. If you are wondering, I stayed at Thomson Medical Centre and despite the many complaints I heard about the nurses not being pro-breastfeeding, they did bring my baby for me to latch her on every other hour so I am pretty satisfied with them. The only complain that I have is that the Lactation Consultants spent too little time with me and it felt like she was simply shoving my nipple into Larissa's mouth but I don't blame them as I understand that they have many other mothers to see to.

Breastfeeding did not come easy for me at all. I was in pain the very first time I tried to latch Larissa on. As we're both new to breastfeeding, the latch was totally wrong. Can you imagine seeing blood after latching your precious on for a few times? My guess is that she sucked very hard as she couldn't get any milk due to the wrong latch. I was in a lot of pain and the nurses kept telling me its just my nipple bring sore but I know my nipple very well and the truth was that my girl had sucked off a piece of me. Scary isn't it? That wasn't the end of the story....

As Larissa had to latch on every 2 hours, the wound never had a chance to heal and with nobody to correct the wrong latch, my one wounded nipple soon became two wounded nipple. I soon found one of my nipple to be lipstick shaped...My best guess is that one part was sucked off. The pain every single time I fed Larissa can be described as excruciating, it was worse then labour pain and I would be biting my teeth before latching her on and tearing after latching her on.

It took Larissa about one month before she managed to learn the perfect latch and the wounds slowly healed. Now, latching her is no longer painful. If you asked me, I am thankful for the pain as it made me more than reluctant to stop breastfeeding Larissa now. After all the pain that I went through, I am not gonna give up so easily and so soon!

If you are reading this right now and considering whether to breastfeed your child, I say go ahead. It may be tiring but you will bond with your baby a lot more than just feeding formula milk and you are giving  your precious little one the immunity he or she need during his or her first year. There is no formula milk that can replace what God gave us. Oh, and to add, my little one has only had slight flu once in the past nine months!

Life sucks.

Those of you who know me personally will know that I am going through a rough patch right now. Things seem to be heading nowhere and I'm stuck in a rut. 


I'm trying to get out of this but no one around me seem to understand what I am going through. Even the man who sleeps beside me is giving me problems instead of helping me through this rough patch. 


It really makes me think if I have married the wrong man. I need someone to be there for me, to put my hand and hold me along instead of bashing me and kicking me into deep shit. 


Honestly, I really have no idea why I married him. I really regret it and I have been begging him to let me go and we'll have a divorce. You think he'd agree? Fat chance. I'm only staying with him because of Larissa but I am pretty damn sure that once I get out of this shit, he'll be out of my life. 

How to increase traffic to my blog?

Now that I am joining Nuffnang, I need to increase traffic to my post to generate the moolah.


So how am I gonna do it? I came up with a few ideas...


1. Start showing cleavage.

But I don't have much of a cleavage to even begin with. Due to nursing my darling Larissa, all I can show is scary cleavage with stretch marks stretched all over my boobs. Will that increase traffic to my blog? Nah...I think that will turn everyone off. LOL


2. Upload chio photos of myself after Photoshop.

Seriously? You want me to lie to you? Ok, I'm fat and ugly but I accept the fact and no way am I gonna deceive anyone into thinking that I'm a chio bu. I'm a Full Time Working Mom by the way and to photoshop myself into a skinny chio bu will take up a lot of time and that, I don't have.


3. Start taking beautiful photos of my baby.

Well, men are attracted to pictures of naked beautiful women while women are attracted to those of cute babies. This I guess is the easiest of the lot. 


4. Start getting really bitchy and bitch about just everything I can.

Then I'll be a very very miserable person won't I? Looking for fault every where.


Conclusion? I think I'd stick to posting cute photos of Larissa. Makes me happy to see her photos too.

Sold my Lumix LX3!

Okay...I am one stupid tootz.


I've sold my Lumix 3! 3 days after buying it! Because I really have no freaking idea how to use it!


One thing good is that the buyer of my camera is a very into camera guy and he is very happy to introduce more cameras to me and to teach me how to take nice photos!


And this is the camera that he introduced to me! He says that he will be more than happy to teach me how to use this camera! OHH LALA!


I'm planning to buy this with my year end bonus!

As you can see, I've just joined Nuffnang! I don't think it will be able to help me generate $10k income a month like it did for Xiaxue but I do hope that it will help me generate a little bit of income. Do help me click on the ads. Pretty please?

I just bought a secondhand Panasonic Lumix LX3! I know...its not first hand so whats there to be excited about right? Well...I don't see why I have to buy a first hand one when a secondhand one will make do. Maybe in future when I am buying a even higher end camera, will I buy a first hand one. But for now, this will make do. I'm learning how to do use the camera. All the ISO, Aperture, Focus blah blah blah is making me dizzy. Got to have someone explain it to me but apparently, none of my friends really know what they are about. LOL.
This camera is very good for taking photos in very low light areas. I love that I do not need to on the flash at night and I can take photos without disturbing my sweetie! Anyway, let the photos do the talking!

Here is my Panasonic Lumix LX3

My very first photo taken with my new camera!

The red dot from the auto focus thingy is too bright for her.

She is fiddling with the items that came along with the camera while I am busy snapping away. 

See that serious look on her face!

My smiley baby

Sitting on her potty

Its been a while since I blogged. Larissa is already 9 months old! She is now 70.5cm and weighing 9.5kg. 

Its really amazing to see my little girl growing everyday. She now knows how to kiss me on the lips but she will only do it once! hahah.... She also knows how to show when she is full and wants to stop eating by crinkling her face and turning her head away from the food. Oh, not too long ago, I was complaining about her teeth not coming yet and now she has got two pearlie whites already!

She is now at a stage whereby she is trying to learn how to stand. How I regret placing her on the walker! She is now trying to stand on tiptoes and she will let her hands go after standing up! My oh my! All coz she is normally supported on the walker and she is so used to it, she thinks she will not fall without the walker. The nurse who accessed her at the polyclinic told us not to put her in the walker so often. 

Her hair is also growing out now. Her hair is so thick that it causes her to pespire all the time and my FIL is presurising me to give her a haircut. Sighs...men. lol. Anyway, here's some of her photos...

She's trying to get herself up by holding onto my grandma's wheelchair

She is still so boyish looking.

Playing with a belt.

I finally did it! I finally shaved my hair for Hair for Hope 2010!

 

This is my hair length before going for the big shave

During the shave...

 

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The End Product!!

Hair For Hope is an event which invites members of the public to shave their heads to show their support for children with cancer. Through this symbolic gesture, we aim to:

1. Create awareness of childhood cancer in Singapore.
2. Show to children with cancer and their families that they are not alone in their fight against cancer.
3. Boost the self-esteem of children undergoing chemotherapy by sending the message that that there is nothing wrong in losing their hair or being bald.
4. Raise funds to help children with cancer and their families
5. Build a community of support for children with cancer and their families.

HfH is the only head-shaving event in Singapore that serves to raise funds and awareness of childhood cancer. Every shaven head represents an understanding by an individual of the ordeals that a child with cancer is subjected to. HfH also provides opportunity to garner support from the public in the form of monetary pledging. HfH then brings a two-fold contribution: raising awareness and funds for CCF beneficiaries.

Why Shave?

Treatment of cancer, such as chemotherapy, causes hair loss. Through the symbolic gesture of shaving our heads, we hope to lend moral support to all children with cancer, and to let them know that there is nothing wrong with being bald.
With every head shaven, we hope to foster greater understanding and awareness, as well as to celebrate the courage of these children. At the same time, funds raised from the events are channeled to improve the quality of life our children and their families.

Larissa's First Tooth Is Out!

YAY!! Larissa's first tooth is out! I can feel it and I can see it!

Lol...It feels very sharp though. That means I will have to buy more pacifiers for her to chew on. She don't seem to like Sophie the giraffe that I bought for her and prefers to chew on her pacifier. I guess that's because she can both chew and suck on her pacifier but not with Sophie.

I'll try to take a photo of her very first tooth!

Larissa is already 7 months and 2 weeks old and there is still no sign of any teeth yet. Seems like she is taking a longer time to teeth. 

Yesterday, Larissa had a bad case of constipation. My mother in law kept trying to help her "nnnggg nnnggg" but it just can't seem to come out. She started in the morning even before I went to work. She had to help by "opening" Larissa and we could see that there is poo but its just not coming out. When I came back home from work, she is still trying get Larissa to poop but it just can't come out.

Later at night, at about 8.30pm, just before I changed Larissa's diaper for her before I settle her down for the night, I decided to give it one more try and so I starting "ngging". I had to lift up her legs and "spread open" her butt checks so that its easier for her. After "ngging" for about 5 minutes the poop started coming out! But its HUGE! It was as thick as my thumb and quite hard so it was quite painful for her. I had to help her pull it out with my fingers when she is pushing to help her. 

After a while, she started crying because of pain.Its was so bad the poop was actually blood stained. Coming to the end, her poop was softer, the normal consistency but you can see that there is more blood.

Sighs...my poor girl...

A random photo of Larissa eating bread.

Proof that Larissa is a l-o-n-g baby. 

Larissa the beer guzzler.

On 28th of June 2010, my beloved friend, Candy Kwek, passed away in a road traffic accident involving a lorry.

Dear Candy, I hope you are in God's arms now. You are greatly missed by all who know you. Your smile, your cheerfulness and everything about you.

God called you to His side because He loves you too. I pray that God has lifted all your pain and you are now in heaven with Him, surrounded by your favourite pink colour and Hello Kitties.

Only 21 years old, its a bit early but God has better plans for you as you are now living an eternal life. Please say hi to Lawrence up there. God must have called him back early so that he will be there to take care of you.

Please watch over your sister and your parents from above. They miss you badly. They never had the chance to see you for the last time but fret not, for we will meet again when the time comes. We will reunite in heaven, in God's arms.

Larissa has mastered the skill of clapping!

I feel like I have failed Larissa as her mother. She is already 6 months and 2 weeks only but she has only tried a few different kind of pureed food. Namely, pear, apple, sweet potato, white rice cereal and brown rice cereal. I want to pureed the foods and freeze them but there is really NO SPACE in the freezer. Morever, I get questioned by my mother in law when I even mention freezing the foods. Not to mention the fact that she will frown upon me putting a piping hot item into the freezer.

So, I can only make the foods for her on weekends when I am at home. Sighs....

I used to have two younger sisters, now I'm left with one and a half.

My youngest sister - 23 years old - just had her womb and breasts removed yesterday in a hospital in Thailand. Operation fully sponsored by my mother.

Somehow, this just shows how my mom dote on her so much that she has gone overboard.Which mom in her right mind will sponsor her daughter's womb and breasts removal operation?

Somehow, I feel sorry for my sister. She is now a transvestite.

In my opinion, I don't think such surgeries will make her any more "man" than she was previously since she was always asking mommy for money anyway and has never held down a job for more than 3 months.

Anyway, I will wait and see. I wanna see if she will support my mom when she is old and frail. Since my mom dotes on her so much, its only right that she take care of my mom till her old age, right?

I wanna see how a secondary school drop out, with no skills and being unable to hold down a job for long is going to support my mother - a chain smoker with gambling problems.

Maybe people may think that its not right, but given the way she treats my other sister like shit, I think my mom should have karma or retribution.

She is so biased it sucks to even see how she treats my sisters.

One has to wake up at 4am to work for her, the other one sleeps till 7 before getting up for work. One works till 2pm, the other finished at 1.30pm and they both receive the same amount of salary. Not to mention that one has to work everyday but the other can off as and when she wants.

Seriously? I hate my mom.

I absolutely HATE those girls who can eat, eat, eat and eat without getting fat!!!

I HATE reading blogs where they post pictures of food, food and more food and yet, they are soooo skinny!

God is so damn biased!!

I have a big frame, standing at 1.72m and at my lightest, I was 66kg, which is within the healthy BMI range but I was not skinny! I was still a UK size 12!

ARGH!!!! Now that I am 82kg, I'm a UK size 18! 

How the bleddy hell am I supposed to lose the weight?! When I was a size 12, I was taking only one tiny meal a day! Now that I'm breastfeeding, HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO SUSTAIN MY SUPPLY BY ONLY A TINY MEAL A DAY???!!!

I hate myself for having a big frame, for putting on so much weight during pregnancy!