has taken on a brand new definition.
Taking care of baby before work. Go to work. Take care of baby after work. Not to mention that people are rushing me for work.
Hubby is ill. So he can't go near baby. Sigh.
I'm so tired.
{ Wednesday, April 29 }
Breastfeeding.
We all know that breastfeeding is good for the baby as it boosts his immune system. It is also less likely to cause an allergic reaction in the baby's system. Not only that, mothers can lose weight faster. Not to mention that you also save on formula.
Saw this article on CNA. Now, studies are showing that breastfeeding can also reduce risks of heart attacks.
Check out the article here
So here's to all my friends who're gonna have babies. do try to breastfeed your baby. But I have to say, breastfeeding isn't as easy as the magazine interviews made it out to be. It's actually pretty tough, not to mention tiring. Daddies definitely can't take over when mummies are tired.
Don't be tempted to use formula for a feed coz the baby will have nipple confusion. I only introduced the bottle at the end of his 2nd month to let him get accustomed to it before I got back to work.
Some breastfeeding myths.
(1) If you're small, you have no milk.
Ahem. totally untrue. Many of my colleagues saw the amount of milk I expressed at work coz it's stored in the pantry fridge and they're amazed that I have milk. Hmmm. Duh. Many of them are bigger sized than me and they shared with me how they weren't able to breastfeed their babies. I would say they probably gave up too soon. It's tough initially and your milk would take days to come in. It's a demand and supply idea. The more the baby suckles, the more your body will produce milk.
(2) Drink more milk to produce more milk.
While drinking more milk is really good for you and baby because you'll need the calcium replenishment, it doesn't mean that more cow's milk will lead to the production of more human milk. It's like how the Chinese think that eating pig's brain will boost the mental power of the human brain. (Actually I've been wondering that if a pig's brain is that good, why do we keep scolding "you pig!") Please. If cow's milk can become human milk, then if you drink lots of water, your milk should become really watery. Now, does that make any sense to anyone of you?
These 2 are the most common things I hear from friends and colleagues.
Oh well. maybe I should also start writing about some of the confinement myths. I followed none of them.
In any case, it is important still to watch your diet while breastfeeding. If your diet is nutritious, the milk you produce will be too. So if you know that you're not getting enough of something, be sure to take it in the form of a supplement pill. Otherwise, your body will use your stores of nutrients for the milk for your baby, depleting your own supply. That's not very good for you and especially so if you're considering having more children.
{ Thursday, April 23 }
The deadly ALS. Defined, After Lunch Syndrome. Put in simpler terms. A goner after 2pm. Haha.
Ever since I came back to work, ALS has hit back in an ever strong force. This is probably also attributed to the 5 or 6 hrs max of sleep I get in a day. Not to mention that it is broken sleep. Although Ethan doesn't wake up in the middle of the night for feeds, he does cry from time to time maybe due to nightmares. Then again, at such a young age (4 months), what could the nightmares possibly be???? Since dreams are the brain's way of reorganising memories, it has to be something that happened to him before. I wonder.
Anyway, yes. now's 2.20pm and I'm struggling to stay awake. No good.
I do hope that I get more sleep soon. But that won't happen till maybe he's 7 months and have already started on solids, which would hopefully help me eliminate my 5am feed. By then, I also hope that I have stopped breastfeeding, which means that I don't have to stay up till 11pm to express milk.
Pardon me if I sound totally incoherent. My brain hasn't been functioning at its optimum for quite a few months now.
I need sleep.
ALS aside, here're some more pictures of my dear son.
Isn't he adorable?
{ Wednesday, April 22 }
Sigh. Hubby's away for reservist till 30th April. Hope he's able to make it back over the weekends.
Thankfully this round is short. The last few rounds all lasted 3 weeks so I was all by myself longer and thankfully those times I was without child yet.
Hope Ethan will be good the next few days.
Can't wait for 30th April to come.
{ Monday, April 20 }
Not mine but Ethan's.. here're some cute pictures of him doing stuff.
1 Month
2 Months
3 Months
"I'll be turning 4 months on 19th April!"
It's so fun to watch him grow. Parenthood is tough and tiring but nothing beats watching him learn new things and discover the world around him.
{ Thursday, April 16 }
It has been a really long while since I blogged. main reason being that I've given birth to my little boy on 19th Dec 2008. Yes, it was the day after I posted that I'd prefer Brands essence of chicken compared to New Moon.
It was such an episode and everything happened so quickly that I could hardly catch my breath. Here's a brief entry on the events that took place from then till now
18th Dec 2008
Routine gynae visit. Saw my gynae and he told me that my blood pressure has been rising every visit and protein levels in my urine was also rising. He diagnosed me with pre-eclampsia (layman-ly, pregnancy high blood pressure) and told me that I needed to be warded immediately for observation and if my blood pressure doesn't come down after a jab, my baby would have to be delivered by C-sect the next day.
So I was admitted immediately into the labour ward and my the service at Gleneagles that few days was terrible.
I was hooked up to a blood pressure machine to measure my blood pressure every half hour. I was also hooked up to a machine that records my baby's heart beat and my contractions. I guess the nurses got bored hooking me and unhooking me from the machines because I always had to go to the loo so eventually, I was hooked to neither machines. Bad bad. Before that, my gynae came to see me again and he said that I needed to be monitored every 15min. So this nurse made some adjustments to the BP machine and left. To my horror, the machine activated almost like every 15 seconds till my arm was numbed after a minute. My husband went to get the nurse and she still had the cheek to tell me that the machine is working fine until we made her stand there for a while and she saw for herself the machine going crazy. Sheesh!
And as some of you know, when you're admitted to hospital, nurses will ask you some questions and write them down in a log book. I was asked the same question 3 times by 3 different nurses who "wrote" down my answer in the same log book. Like right.. If you really wrote it down, why ask me so many times? Tsk tsk.
19th Dec 2008
Because it was a Thursday and I went to see my gynae from work, I didn't have the chance to shower the entire day. (Yucks, I know). The nurses told me I can shower at 6am, which I did. When I asked if there was any toiletries, she told me, "Yes, there is in the toilet". Guess what? There sure was soap. Hand soap. -.-"
Anyways, I took my shower and was then wheeled into the operating theatre at 8am. I guess everyone was busy in there. A nurse came to me to ask me to sign some documents. And one had the cheek to tell me to sign first and she'll fill in the procedure I'd be having later. Like WHAT?!?!?! Who in the right mind would do that? If I signed it, and she wrote something like hysterectomy, I'd be dead! Gosh! So I insisted that she write down the procedure first before I signed. I mean like the name of the procedure is not going to be a 1000-word essay right? So what so tough abt that?
That's not the end of mistakes that takes place in the waiting area of OTs. I heard this doctor/head nurse coming out, screaming, "Who is Shanti?. This patient in the OT has a drug allergy, how come you did not tag the patient?" WOH!!! Now that's a majorly serious mistake.
Thank God everything was in His hands and mother and baby were safe amid such incompetent staff at Gleneagles.
So today, Ethan was born
Isn't he cute?
Anyway, I was too tired to breastfeed that day because of the after-effects of GA. So the nurse rolled him away to be bottle fed first and I did express my desire to breastfeed my baby.
20th Dec 2008
No sign of baby for me to breastfeed. Hubby had to go to get the baby and to his horror, Ethan's feet were blue!! Because he's really cold. Ethan's grandparents came down with booties and mittens later on and when Hubby went back to the nursery, the nurse said, "Oh, I wanted to tell you earlier". No comment.
Apart from a few nurses that were good, the rest I think are probably used to rough handling, which caused me to be in pain some times. Gosh.
Lactation consultant was absolutely useless. I think I learnt more abt breastfeeding from books and the hospital's free TV channel than from her.
Though baby's cot had a tag saying "3-hourly feeding", we didn't get our baby every 3 hrs. We had to go and "collect" him. Didn't I say I wanted to breastfeed?
22nd Dec 2008
Ethan goes home.
Mummy checks out of hospital with a huge bill. Frankly speaking, I don't understand why GlenE is so expensive when their service is so rotten.
23rd Dec 2008 to 20th Jan 2009
First month with Ethan.
I think I nearly went crazy. Thank God Hubby took a month's leave to be my confinement nanny (actually, I wasn't really confined. I think most practices are myths. I showered and washed my hair anyways). We were so unprepared. So many things were not bought yet and I was suffering from a slight post-natal depression. Suddenly I can no longer get a full night's sleep because I was waking every 3 hrs to feed the baby. My, those days were crazy.
Ethan was very small which makes him a very sleepy baby so feeding him was very tedious. When we visited the pedi, he said that it's better for him not to feed directly from Mummy's breast because it's hard work to get milk. So I pumped and bottle fed. That worked well until we wanted to switch him back to latching directly. It was soooo difficult. He was so fussy. But eventually, he made the switch.
Then finally, he was one month old. We celebrated with family at the NSRCC function room, which Ethan slept through at. Haha.
20th Jan 2009 - 31st Mar 2009
Hubby went back to work and I'm on my own.
Life was busy busy busy. Taking care of baby, doing housework and necessary stuff like bathing and eating. Seldom went anywhere and stuck at home most times. Life was very routine.
Thank God, Ethan grew and grew. He has put on so much weight since birth.
1st Apr 2009
By 1st Apr, Ethan can already sleep through the night. Today is his first day at infant care. Because Mummy has to return to work on the 3rd.
2nd Apr 2009
Mummy and Daddy's day out. It was nice to be able to catch a movie again. And it had to be "Confessions of a Shopaholic". Very predictable plot.
3rd Apr 2009 - Present
Back to office, loaded with work.
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I totally enjoyed my maternity leave, though the first month was really tough and the remaining weeks were busy. It's so heartwarming to look after Ethan and watch him grow. I wish I can look after him full-time.
I think I've got a lot more to say abt what I've learnt during my maternity leave. But I think this post is long enough. I'll continue on in another post if I can find the time to do updates.
Now, I'm transitioning back to real life. with new, challenging but rewarding roles..
{ Wednesday, April 8 }