I'm a full-time mummy

"Community Support: The theme for this year's WBW highlights the importance of helping each mother throughout her breastfeeding journey. Today we are featuring posts that discuss the need for and benefits of a community of breastfeeding supporters. Share your thoughts on and stories about your own breastfeeding journey - was there someone who made your nursing relationship a success? What is access to Lactation Counselors like in your area - did you know where to find them? Were they accessible to you? Did you ever attend a La Leche League meeting or other breastfeeding support group?"

It has been a while since I participated in a blog carnival and since this is for World Breastfeeding Week, I definitely gotta join in the fun! Now, as to whether there are anyone who made my nursing relationship success, of course there is! I have been breastfeeding NON-STOP since 4th March 2009, the day my first child Benjamin was born. Breastfed him past 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, then throughout my 2nd pregnancy, then went on to tandem Benjamin and his baby sister Alyson for 1.5 year before he finally self-weaned at 45 months old.

So who do I give the credit for my nursing success to? Here goes the list - not in any particular order btw...

* My sister-in-laws: My 3 sister-in laws (hubby's side) all breastfed their children though average between 3 months to the most, less than a year. They do inspired me into going to this journey as well.

* My hubby: He stuck by me when I was having my nursing aversion, followed me to the antenatal class where we learned how to care for and breastfeed a baby and how beneficial it is to breastfeed.

* My antenatal class trainer: For telling us the benefits of breastfeeding, what to expect, how to handle and so on.

* God: Without Him, I won't be here today. My children and family will not be able to reap the benefits of breastfeeding.

* My MIL: She helped boiled this black beans and red dates drinks throughout my breastfeeding journey to keep my breastmilk production up.

* Myself

I don't have any LLL support here so during the initial stage, I Googled and read up as many breastfeeding websites I could searched and remembered the tips and tricks and what to expect and hope for the best.

How about you? Do you get any support when it comes to breastfeeding?

Sigh, ever since we found out we are expecting our third child in October this year, we have cut down a lot of family trips to our current health club. We used to go there few times a month, to swim with our kiddos and just let them enjoy the children pool and let our kiddos float and practise their swimming in the adult pool with hubby guiding them. Me? Mostly I just stepped into the pool to enjoy the cool water as I do not know how to swim, but that does not stop me at all from entering the water despite my fear and not knowing how to swim.

But I can't squeeze into my swimwear anymore. So the few times that we do go to a swimming pool, I ended up sitting, resting with a book or my iPad mini and look after our belongings at the table and just let my hubby enjoy with our kiddos in the pool. But there are times I wished I could join my family in the swimming pool. Enjoy the cool water and just float around.

I have been searching for a comfortable and flexible swimwear that caters for maternity purposes but not able to find the right ones. Most of the retail shops here sell normal swimwear which caters for non-pregnant woman. Sigh, sigh, sigh... I wished the retail shops here could stock up more choices of maternity swimwear! Something that looks like this:

I am pretty conservative hence bikinis are a no-no for me at this pregnant stage, so a swimsuit with design like the above suits me well! I like the V-neck design as that allows me to still comfort nurse our 22 months old girl (yes, I am pregnant and yes, I still breastfeed our child). I like the ruched sides pattern on this swimwear as well and it also grows as your belly grows! Love this design!

What about you? What do you look for in a maternity swimwear?

** Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All thoughts, opinions and words are 100 % my own.

Just sharing some snapshots of a brochure on taking medicines while fasting I got from the hospital during my recent pregnancy check-up. Well, I'm a Christian and I have never fasted so am not able to comment anything on this other than just sharing for information and knowledge purposes since July is a fasting month.

Please note that the brochures are in Malay language, so I will try my best to translate it to my best understanding... hope I got it right and did not leave out any vital information...

Below snapshot showing the type of medicines which will not void your fasting: Medicines such as eye drops, nose or ear drops (provided not extending to ear drums), tablets to be placed under tongue and as long as you don't swallow them, all forms on injections, ointments and plaster, gargle medicine, nasal sprays, and local or half body anesthesia forms of medicines.

Below snapshot showing the type of medicines which will void your fasting: Pills (as you need to swallow them), liquid medicines that you will need to drink/swallow, inhaler, medicines which you will need to insert vaginally, suppositories, enema, whole body anesthesia form of medicines.

Hope the above helps! Happy fasting to my fellow Muslim followers!