I'm a full-time mummy

I'm recycling my tips on how do I make my breastfeeding works from my old blog as I've been getting some messages and emails from mums-to-be asking me questions about breastfeeding.

Now before you brush me off thinking who am I to be giving you tips, oh well, up to you whether you want to read and follow/try my tips. All I can tell you is as of this date (29th March 2012), I have:

• breastfed both my children exclusively for first 6 months (1st child had some sips of water thanks to nagging and concerned MIL) but other that, both my children are 100% on my breastmilk with no formula or water to supplement

• breastfed THROUGHOUT my second pregnancy
  

• is still tandem nursing both my children - my 1st child is 3 years old now, my 2nd child is almost 7 months old

• still 0 formula in the house
  

Now back to how do I make my breastfeeding works:

#1 - Start with the thought of breastfeeding from day 1

You know, it's the same as having your goals and ambitions. You dream and fix your aim towards it from day 1. Then you only have 1 goal to achieve for and focus all your concentration to it. If you are yoyo-ing from bottle to breast to bottle to breast, then when the baby comes, you'd be lost and ppl around you could easily influence your decision making.

Real Life Example: From day 1, hubby and I decided we must go for breastfeeding. Nothing and no one (except God of course!) can come between our decisions. Unless I really cannot produce even a single drop of milk, then I can't say anything about it. But as long as I can produce even a droplet of milk, we will stand still and be firm on this decision and try, try, try! We even go to the extend by not buying any formula milk, no pacifier, no milk bottles, nothing. The 3 bottles we have later on are baby gift hampers we received from Ben's full moon party.When MIL mentioned Ben seems hungry, we said no. We'll make the breastfeeding works. And with child number 2 now, it is still working!

#2 - Remember the 3 Rs!

This come out of the blue, but I decided to call it the 3 Rs! (I wonder whether I can copyright this just in case this appears at other ppl's blog one fine day hahahah!) So the 3 Rs are: Research, Read up and Rehearse!

Research all you can find about breastfeeding (why do it, benefits, myths, techniques, how to avoid any problems, what to do if there's any problems etc)

Read up all you can, be it from books, hospital/clinic leaflets on breastfeeding etc. The reason why I don't lump this into Research is because you can research all you want but if you don't read it, then no use right? And thank God I love to read!!!

Rehearse - go for antenatal class where they actually teach you how to breastfeed and different methods to do it. If you don't attend the classes (please please do!), then look it up in the Net, Youtube or anything that shows you pictures or videos on how to breastfeed correctly. 

#3 - Choose your birth hospital correctly!

Now, you may wonder what the heck the place I'm going to give birth at gotta do with breastfeeding? Well, it has everything to do with breastfeeding! You can research, read, rehearse all you want but if you deliver at a place where they immediately introduce your baby to bottle-feeding then it is still no use right?

Sadly, most of the private hospitals and some government hospitals are all for bottle-feeding. I'm thankful one of our close friends were 2 months pregnant ahead of me, so we pestered her to let us know her feedback and she recommended Putrajaya hospital to us (I was 7 mths pregnant then and switched my gynae to Putrajaya hospital).

Now, what is great about Putrajaya hospital is that they are a semi-private hospital. Service, staff, environment, equipment are excellent (partly cos they are located near the govt HQ). I registered at the hospital for both my pregnancies and signed up under the Full Paying Patient (FPP) scheme - meaning, we still have to pay instead of getting FOC treatment but it is still way cheaper than private hospital. This hospital is pro-natural delivery and pro-breastfeeding. You see brochures and posters on breastfeeding everywhere and they banned formulas, bottles and pacifiers.

Also, the nurse actually pass your baby back to you right after they clean him up (and after I was ready) and stand next to you and check your techniques in breastfeeding. The nurse and doctor make sure you try to breastfeeding when you settled down back in your room after delivery by checking every few hours and they fill up your medical book after they are satisfied with your 'performance'. So choosing the right birth hospital helps in making my breastfeeding works!

# 4 - Get encouragement and support from other ppl

OK, we don't have a confinement lady. We did our own DIY confinement. So, there may be things we did wrongly. So, what we did was asked around from other in-laws and friends who have kids already to check whether we are doing the right thing and compared our methods with theirs.

For our 1st child, hubby and I got the postnatal home visits from Jenlia Maternal Services - which also conducts the antenatal classes we attended 2 mths before I delivered. They came in 3 times (depends on your schedule and their availability) each visit lasting for 1 hour and they will check your baby and your progress and conditions. They will also observe and advice on your baby care methods, breastfeeding, and everything you wanted to find out on.

For us, we know we are doing the right thing, just that we need some other ppl to acknowledge and confirm our thoughts. And when you hear from the mouth of experts like them telling you that you are doing a great job and your baby is progressing very well, that sure does a lot of help with your motivation level! With child number 2, we did not get the home visits anymore as we know we are doing things right!

# 5 - Quitting my job

With child number 1, one of the reason I quit my job is so that I am able to continue breastfeeding my baby since I am not able to extend my 2 months maternity leave and I was not allowed to take unpaid leave. On the 1 month I'm serving my notice (and paid off the other 2 months), I had to force myself to express my breastmilk at office every 3 hours - reason why I said force is because, if I didn't do that, I could be sitting at my cubicle and doing work non-stop, not even going to toilet (until lunch time). And there are times when I only remembered I had to go express when I felt my breasts swollen hard and painful.

On my last week at the office, my supply dwindled down to 2 oz per day... from the beginnng when I returned back to work and start expressing at office I could express about 12 oz per day... down to 2 oz per day... the pressure and busy-ness of the work took its toll on me of course (I could even remember one time I didn't express from 12pm-8pm... total 8 hours...the reason? I was stuck in meetings after meetings and after office hour ended at 6pm, I was again stuck in conference call with vendors and bosses until 8pm) So the decision to quit my job really helps alot with making my breastfeeding works.

# 6 - Pray!

Pray for God's will on whatever you have put your mind to. If it is His will, He will settle the bill :) Meaning, if its meant for you to breastfeed, no matter how hard it is, you must persevere and hang in there.

The first few days when the breastmilk has not come in - those times are critical. It will make or break a new mummy. Old folks and ppl who do not know better will tell you that your baby needs to feed, he cries because he is hungry, you don't have enough breast milk so must give formula already... Pray for strength and patience and comfort in times of pain and stress like this. The breast milk will come! Babies do not need to feed for the first few days of their life! (This is because they still have storage in their bodies)

And when the breast milk comes, still there will be ppl telling you its not enough. Do not give up! The more you breastfeed, the more milk your body will produce. During the first 2 weeks after delivery, I will keep on breastfeeding Ben every 2 hours. Even the wee hours of the morning, I'd wake up and just latch him on. Suffer now, and reap the benefits later. With child number 2, my breastmilk came right after delivery as I was still breastfeeding my first child throughout my 2nd pregnancy.


Of course, some of you may disagree with what I said above as different mums have different reasons on why their breastfeeding couldn't work and so on. Hence, like I mentioned earlier, this post is on how I make mine works.

I do understand and know that every mother would've wanted the best for their babies.

For those of you who are in the midst of your pregnancy stage now, please, please, consider breastfeeding. Even if you can just breastfeed for the 2 months during maternity leave, it is better than none at all. At least give it a try rather than not doing anything at all.

The benefits of breastfeeding is so much more greater and advantageous both for you and your baby (not to mention your hubby's wallet too! Think of how much you saved by not needing to buy formula milk, bottles, steriliser, etc etc

Happy breastfeeding!

** P.S: Feel free to leave your comment if you have any questions to ask me! 

I am so happy to see this!

My 2 kids playing in the same water pool!

(OK, not together with each other yet, but playing in the same water pool!)

I am happy because:

• This was my girl's 1st time in the water pool.
• Ben is less hostile and territorial towards his 'property'!
• Ben is learning and applying the concept of sharing!
• Ben was OK with his baby sister wearing his old Batman swimsuit!
  
• Ben was OK with his baby sister playing with his toys in the water pool!
• Ben actually taught and showed his baby sister how to play with his toys!
• I get to practise how to handle 2 wet kids - bathing them and drying them up after that!

Too cute! Precious, precious moments to be cherished!

You know, the moment I received a pitch asking whether I would be interested in reviewing this software, I hesitated.

Sure, I used to be a programmer, I code stuff but that does not mean I know all the programming languages out there. And for that, I really know nuts about other software and web stuff and whatever IT stuff... (See, I am rambling already! I ramble when I don't know what to talk about!)

I mean, what is this software about? Does it really help? How am I going to test it out? I even need help from hubby to install software and stuff on my laptop and I'm kinda protective with my laptop and do not simply install things on it anyway!

So I  waited... for the right moment to subtly ask my hubby (he has his own IT business by the way) whether he has heard of this software called TuneUp Utilities. And then he said 'Yeah, I used it on my clients' computers'.

Ding ding ding! Oh yes! But still, I acted cool and asked again 'So, it's good huh? What does it do actually?' and then my hubby looks at me one kind... because I don't ask him about software stuff. No, I don't ask him about IT stuff unless I needed his help or opinion on something. Like NOW. Whoooppsss...

So before he begins interrogating me, I spilled the beans and told him I got a pitch to review the software and asked him whether I should accept and review it because I don't want to waste my time and look stupid reviewing something that I can't ermm... do properly, you know?

So hubby explained what the software does and that it's good I get to review it! Oooo... I don't often get positive responses from hubby about the stuff I get to review on my blog so I think this is good!

And boy oh boy, it is GOOD! You can tell it, judging by the long intro I write even before I begin telling you about my feedback on this software! So here goes my review for the "TuneUp Utilities 2012":

About the product:
"Computers can feel sluggish after regular use, installed programs and decreasing memory. This often leads to longer, frustrating start, load and shut-down times. TuneUp is committed to making this an issue of the past.

TuneUp Utilities 2012 is easy-to-use PC maintenance software - revitalizing your computer to give it that "just like new" feel and performance that is often lost after regular use and program installation.

Some cool features: - The new TuneUp Economy Mode allows users to improve the battery life of their notebooks, netbooks and tablet PCs, as well as reduce desktop PC energy consumption ”with a single click. With this, battery life is extended by up to 30% and heat levels are reduced, increasing PC, and their hardware components' life spans. - The enhanced TuneUp Program Deactivator turns off programs that are not being used in order to conserve system resources and maximize PC performance. Users can ensure that all of the services, start-up entries, background processes and scheduled tasks of these disabled programs remain inactive until they are needed; the tool can then enable and disable on the fly. "

To put in easy to read summary, I categorised my review into the following aspects:

Download
~ Fast to download, file size about 32.8 MB

Installation

~ Easy to follow instructions which you just click, click, click and voila! Installed! (Yeah, I installed it myself!)

Navigation
~ Separated into different categories (on its own tab): Status & recommendations, Optimize system, Gain disk space, Fix problems and Customize windows.
~ Easy to understand instructions and there is explanations on the actions you wanted to choose
~ I love the 1-click maintenance screen, very suitable for busy people like me who just want things to get done with 1 click of the finger you know? So, yes, I like that things get done behind the process while I go on doing my stuff on my laptop.

~ User friendly interface which aids in navigating through the software

Functionalities / Performance

~  I performed some tasks such as scanning my C drive which ermmm... has never been scanned before, clearing a lot of unnecessary files on my laptop, registry cleaning and lots more!

Summary: TuneUp Optimization Report
~ From 29th Feb 2012 until 22nd March (which is the date I'm writing this review), I've got 1145 registry problems fixed, 188 broken shortcuts removed, over 8GB space freed up, 1 hard disk problem fixed and my laptop's performance being optimised! 

~ This is a really helpful software which really optimises my laptop's performance! I noticed my laptop is not as sluggish like before and I'm not sure whether this is because of the software but I have also encountered much much lesser application hang with my MS Outlook.

A helpful and functional software I say!

It is a must!

You can get this awesome software from: http://www.tune-up.com/order/

I'm so happy I get to host another giveaway on my blog! Woohooo! Not only I get to enjoy this helpful software, 3 of my lucky WORLDWIDE followers / visitors will get to enjoy this software too!

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account OR just key in your name and your valid email address. 
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by the sponsor in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.