Last Day

Today marked the last day Phoebe going to her sitter's. My aunt, Ngik Ee, had taken care of Phoebe since she was 2 months old. She had showered her with love and care that we couldn't ask for more. Ngik Ee, we love you and Phoebe loves you too.

(Phoebe, in her 1st real walking shoe, with her sitter this morning)

On another note on her transition, she had gradually started to accept our maid although she still prefers anyone of us over her. I guess this will take time.

Transition

Phoebe is going through a transition. My aunt will not be taking care of Phoebe anymore starting mid of this month. My maid arrived just in time to have 2 weeks of transition with my aunt. These 2 weeks, we will send her to the sitter for 3 days and stay home with my mom and maid for 2.

Today is the 1st day where I've got my mom and the maid to take care of her. She refused to have her milk in the morning, and lunch was pretty hard to feed (that's usual). I went home over lunch to make sure everything's good, she refused to let me go. She was very clingy. She hung on to me like never before.

I asked her this question and confirmed several times. The answer was the same.
Me: Kakak bao-bao (Maid carry)
Phoebe: shook her head (don't want)
She obviously knew what I was referring to and knew what she want.

It's not an easy process for her to accept someone new. We will just have to go through this hard phase. Let's pray for an easier and shorter transition.

Where did the voice come from?

I am on a business trip to Singapore. I called home last night and H used the speaker phone so that Phoebe can hear me as well.

She, as expected, wanted to hold the phone set. The first called I made, after talking like 3 sentences, it was disconnected. I made another call and asked why was it disconnected, Phoebe pressed the disconnect button. LOL.

Out of a sudden, she started crying and won't stop. H told me she was looking around where did this familiar voice come from but she didn't see the person. She was looking for me. When she can't find, she cried.

Darling Phoebe, mummy misses you too. Mummy can't wait to get back tonight to see you and tug you to bed.

We received a parcel today

This is what we received today from my God MIL in London. The parcel was about 3ft high. We were shocked to see such a big parcel. She told us she sent the parcel off in July and some weeks back we suddenly felt that it was so long ago and why didn't the parcel arrive. We kept on checking on the arrival and finally we received a call today that it will be delivered.

The parcel contains multiple big boxes and smaller boxes. Not all the things were for us. We initially couldn't figure out who (as in which relative) has what. Some were labeled, some were not. After unpacking all, we found an A4 paper itemized each and every item and the recipient. Eemah, you were doing an amazing job in shopping and itemizing them. So, I went through the list, get things sorted out. I flipped over, and found this..

For Bebe: (books, clothings, & others) ----- the list goes on for the whole A4 size paper. 32 items!!!!

I thought I needed to take a photo of those things that Phoebe received from her Ah Mah (grandmother). She's spoilt!!

What we can say is "Thank you Ah Mah & Ah Mo Kong". Hugs and kisses from Phoebe.

(She joined us by playing while we sort things out)

At last I can be a blessing to others......

With my milk!

I have low supply and every drop is liquid gold. When Phoebe doesn't finish my milk and it has to go to the dog, my heart breaks.

I just got back from Bali last week. Originally I plan to freeze my milk and bring back I actually made preparations to bring back, e.g. Bottles, ice pack, cooler bag etc. However, that changed when I arrived.

I saw street babies. They are not kids yet. They are infant still being held by their moms. Filthy, too hungry and lethargic to be active, sleeping on sand by the roadside. My heart sank when looking at them. I can't help but to compare how blessed our children are. At least Phoebe. Phoebe is a picky eater, does not want to drink frozen breastmilk or milk that had been heated up. She's spoilt.

So, every night before we go out for dinner, I'll heat the milk and put them in mineral water bottle for the babies. No BPA free bottles, no sterialization, just simple bottle. To them, the bottle is already too clean. We too accumulate the toiletries, and tea bags from our room for them too. Too bad I'm not a mom who can produce 1.5 litres a day. Or else I would feed even more babies. Anyway, at least I fed a few.

This is something you might want to consider if you are traveling to 3rd world country while you are still nursing or pumping. Be a blessing.

(Heat up milk and put it into a mineral water bottle)

And the last bit of milk --- Add it into my coffee at breakfast :)

Mutual Attraction

Ebony, our dog, had become Phoebe's pet too. Every time Phoebe sees Ebony, she has to use her hands to pat her. Her eyes will follow Ebony. And when Ebony sees Phoebe, she will want to be near her too.

Ebony might have some ulterior motive behind being happy seeing Phoebe. She had been drinking Phoebe's unfinished milk. Last Saturday, Phoebe drank 4oz of milk all day and Ebony drank 8oz of milk. Ebony will also leap for joy when she sees us holding an Avent bottle. That means she has milk to drink. I felt the pain because of my hard work expressing milk and Ebony is drinking it. :(

Ebony's breed is a Pincher, she should be very thin. However, you can see from this photo that she is 'that' fat now. She should go on a diet.

She's Accumulating Fast

I had my collection of soft & stuffed toys. She on the other hand had started her collection. She had accumulated 6 items over the last 2 weeks alone. 4 were gifts and we bought 2. That brings the total to 13 items. With this rate, she will beat my collection very soon.

[Part of Mummy's unsorted collection]

[Phoebe's collection]

Learning to Walk and Climb

It will be increasingly challenging in the days to come. Phoebe had learnt how to stand up holding on something. She had also started to climb the stairs.

We do not plan to put a barrier on the staircase. We were told that they will be even more curious to climb if they are not allowed to explore.

We will just have to be cautious not to leave her unattended.

Here's a video on her climbing the stairs to reach out to my Blackberry. Her favorite toy now.

My New Acquisition

I've recently purchased a sewing machine. I bought it second hand from an ex-colleague who wanted to upgrade her machine.

I actually do not know how to sew but I love sewing. I had learn how to sew straight lines from my mom years back. I had sewn multiple bags, some skirts with my little 'straight line' skill.

My skill had not advanced any tiny bit. I still know how to sew straight line. Since I've got the machine, I had completed 3 baby slings. Sold 2 away and one for my own use.

My ultimate aim is to be able to sew a dress for Phoebe. Let's see when I will realize that dream.

[From left: Sling for Winnie, Sling for Claris, Sling for myself]

RIP - My Blackberry

I hope it is not Phoebe's saliva that caused my Blackberry not to work. It had decided to stop working prior to my busiest week at work. :(

Sending it in for repair or warranty claim..

My Geeky Girl

She just love techy stuff. Mobile phones, remote controls, cameras are all her favorite 'toys'.

She will go all out in order to get those into her mouth. She will crawl on her belly, on her fours, attempting to stand, climb over pillow and bodies, cry, whine, etc. We sometimes use that as a teaser to get her to crawl more. We put her legitimate toys there, she won't go. If she sees one of these, you can be sure, she'll be there.

Are all kids that techy now?
Left: Holding my Blackberry, she knows where to find the scroll ball; Right: Putting my mobile phone into her mouth

Like & Dislike Food

Phoebe does not hate food but she chooses what she likes to eat. I think I'm going to have a picky eater.

If she likes a certain food, she will swallow it quickly and opens her mouth again so that you can continue to feed her. If she dislikes it, she will close her mouth very tightly, look down or either shake her head very quickly, uses her hand to push the spoon away. You have no way of getting your spoon into her mouth or near to her mouth.

So, we now know what she loves to eat and we now use that as a bait for her to open up. So far it had been a success. We will also mix ingredients that she loves into porridge so that she still get the nutrients from the ingredients she dislikes

She loves...
Heinz bottled food
Banana
Apples
Teething Rusks
Papaya
Kiwi Fruit
Oranges
Basically all fruits...
Fish

Neutral
Carrot
Potatoe

She Dislikes...
Porridge if without the ingredients she likes
Pumpkin in itself
Milk from the milk bottle

Left: she did not want her porridge one day. By protesting, she used her hand to wipe all the porridge residuals around her mouth unto all of her face. Right: When she loves something, she will make sure she holds on tight to you and you don't take the thing away.

Newly customized mug with Phoebe's Photo

Finally... finally I have got a nice picture for my DIY Starbucks mug. I had this mug for at least 5 years. Wanted to do some scrapbooking with pictures, wordings etc but with my lazy bug, it never got done. It was with a very plain sheet of wrapping paper for so long.

I had moved to a new team and I had a co-worker, Sharon, who is very good in her photo editing and scrapbooking skills offered to do this for me.. I love it. Thank you Sharon...

Phoebe is 8 months

8 months flew by without us realizing. Things are still not getting easier but harder instead. She had learn more skills and that had put more challenges to us.

Roll over - we can't put her on the bed without supervision anymore. We need to block everywhere with bolsters and pillows.
Crawling - she's still not very good at it but she can manage to crawl away when I change her clothes or diapers. Need to pull her back several times before I can accomplish a task.
4 teeth had grown, 2 top and 2 bottom - Need to supervise anything she eats because she could bite off apples/bananas/other fruit but don't know how to chew yet. Could be choking hazard.

I baked some simple cupcakes with fondant for her 8 months celebration.

Why that many posts lately?

I had updated before that I actually don’t have extra time to write blog unless I am on my Blackberry and type it during free pockets of time, while letting Phoebe latch on, while watching over her sleep. I was out of Blackberry for 2 months and I am very late in some of the posts. There were so many things we do that I want to blog about.

Now, I have a total of 7 hours flight time from Tokyo to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Penang. I thought I will take out my laptop and start typing away. And when I am home, I can then upload everything into Blogspot.

Here you see all my back dated posts. I had just got my Blackberry back, so I shouldn't be that outdated moving forward. :)

Phoebe's First Outstation Trip

H & I was supposed to be in Bali for the long week just passed. However, with the recent outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) and the quarantine requirements after visiting Indonesia, we had decided to postpone out trip since we didn’t want any risks to Phoebe.

We ended up bringing Phoebe to KL. This was her 1st long journey trip since her visit to my god parents at Nibong Tebal when she was 1 month old. She was all agitated that trip because it was hot (during CNY) and it was too long a journey for a 1-month old.

Haven’t had an outstation trip with an infant before, we wanted to be as prepared as possible. We didn’t want to miss out anything critical and we needed to fumble to buy when we were on our way or at our destination. We started packing and putting things aside 2 days prior to our departure. H reserved a hotel which is next to the shopping places we want to visit. Our packing list was from clothes to diapers, baby food to milk bottles, mattress, sheets, pillows, strollers etc.

The day came, H loaded everything in our car.. and the boot was nearly full. That was before the shopping. We can’t really buy a lot not having the space to bring back, can we? We dropped off the dog at my in-laws’ place, we started our journey. Stopped at Ipoh for food, both us and Phoebe, and diaper changing. Phoebe behaved very well. Slept in her car seat for quite a long stretch.

We arrived, checked in to Royale Bintang at Mutiara Damansara and we went straight to shop. Since Phoebe had her nap during the journey, we figured she doesn’t need more at the hotel. Brought her out in a cloth sling and she was busy looking around. Didn’t hear a squeak from her at all. She eventually slept in the sling too.

We went to Ikea the 2nd day we were there. We thought that would be more convenient to have Phoebe in her stroller. We haven’t use the stroller at all for 1 month since she was very comfortable in the sling. Even outings in Penang, we would bring the sling because it was more convenient. Don’t need to lug the stroller. So, here we are wanting to shop at Ikea and put her in the stroller, she protested. We calmed her down a bit, she was ok. 15 minutes later, she protested again. At the end, we gave up, put her back to the sling and she was happy and slept. We folded up the stroller and carried it in the Ikea trolley. :S We need to be more diligent in using the stroller when we are shopping in Penang.

Overall, this had been a good trip and experience. Hope to bring Phoebe to more places and I am sure it will be even a better experience when she’s older.

(Taking her nap in her car seat on the way to KL)

(Taking her bath in the sink :))

(Exploring the bed)

(Occupying herself while we are chilling out at Baskin Robin)

(Her make-shift bed, travel mattress covered with Sarong)

My First Home-made Ring Sling

I had been wanting to post my experience in using a ring sling but haven't had a time to do so until now.

I bought a ring sling from Baby Loft since Phoebe was 2 weeks old since a friend told me that her baby can sleep in the sling and the baby will not fuss. We had a challenging time with Phoebe the 1st month and so I went ahead to buy the sling without thinking of it so much.

I didn’t have such a good experience then. She didn’t want to be put in it. She would scream and cry whenever I attempt to put her in cradle position. Unfortunately, that was the only position recommended for a newborn. It was placed away for some months until 2 months ago. I thought I wouldn't have a chance to use it anymore.

Now (since 2 months ago), she will chuckle when I put her in. She will extend her hands when I wear my sling. She loves it. I can carry her on my hip, front facing, tummy to tummy, cradle position. The only position I haven’t tried is at the back. Will try that one day.

I had seen many nice designed slings and always wanted to make my own. I had purchased cloth from many months ago, downloaded instructions and design from the internet to refer to, and purchased the rings from the internet. So, the natural next step will be the sew it. I had waited for months and still no opportunity to sew it. I needed to go to my mom’s house to sew because the sewing machine is there.

At last I found an opportunity to stay there while H is away. I packed Phoebe’s stuff and we went to my mom’s place to overnight on a Friday. It wasn’t easy to put Phoebe to bed because she had stranger anxiety and ‘location’ anxiety. She cried when we dimmed the light at my previous room. Only after quite a while only she can sleep. Then only I can start my measurement and cutting of the cloth.

It took me an hour to finish sewing most part of it. I needed my aunt to help me sew the rings in because of the thickness of the cloth. Our sewing machine is not able to sew that many layers of the pleat.

Here’s my new sling. Hoping to make a few more.

Japan Trip & Disappointment

I just returned from a business trip to Tokyo. This was a last minute arrangement and I had 1.5 weeks notice prior to the trip. I got to plan it in such a way that it is back to back to H’s US trip so that we don’t have to seek for childcare for Phoebe. However, 1 week prior to the trip, I received an email from my director that the trip had to pull in by one week in order to meet the financial and budgetary requirements. So, now it turned out for me to be away together with H. Everything was so last minute, have to get childcare sorted out, passport renewed, Japan visa processed, packing for both Phoebe and myself, etc etc.

This was unlike previous business trips where I only had to figure out just my clothes and necessity. Now, since I am still breastfeeding, I need to continue to pump in order to maintain the supply. So, that’s the pump, the cooler bag, the ice pack, the bottles, the cleanser, the location to pump – checked out the location of nursing room in both HKIA and Narita, how to store milk.. etc.. I’ve got all that figured out and pack before I leave. My hand luggage was my laptop and my pump.

For the 5 days I was in Tokyo and on the way there, I pumped in the toilet of the airplane, and the toilet in the office. Our Tokyo office didn’t have a Mother’s Room. I had to use batteries to operate my pump. I continue to pump 4 times a day and get the hotel to store it in the freezer for me. Whenever I need to store milk, I call them, they will send someone to my room to collect it. I am pretty happy with the service they provide. The first day I called them to say that I had something to freeze, they asked what it was. I said milk, breast milk. They said, OK, we will send someone right away. When I opened the door to greet the person at my room door, I saw him holding a huge paper bag in his hand. I handed him a 4oz bottle and he asked, is that all? Yes, just a bottle of milk. Hahaha. LOL. He must be thinking what I am going to store in the freezer and got himself prepared with a large paper bag. I continued calling several times a day to get them to store milk in the freezer for me throughout the trip.

So, now I am about to leave and needed to pack my milk into the cooler bag to check in. I called them 10 minutes before I checked out for them to bring my milk so that I can stuff them into the cooler bag the last minute before I close my big luggage. So, they came with all the bottles I stored with them… however, to my horror, the milk was in liquid form, the ice pack was still soft. How could that be? It was a freezer and I mentioned it everytime when they collect milk, I needed it to be stored in the “Freezer” and not the Fridge. There was only 1 bottle with some ice in it. It looked as it was thawed an hour ago.

I was rushing for time to catch the bus to the airport; I rushed down to the lobby to check out. I needed to find out what happened to my milk. If it is not stored well, I will need to throw them away.

Me: How long before did you take the milk out from the freezer before I called you to do so?

Hotel staff: <gave me a blank look>

Me: How long before did you take the milk out from the freezer before I called you to do so? I called you at 6AM, and I saw that the milk was already in liquid form.

Hotel staff:

Me: Did you take out the milk at like 4AM or when I called you

Hotel staff: when you call

Me: How come it was in liquid form as if it was out since 2 hours ago?

Hotel staff:

Me: Do you know the difference between a Freezer and a Fridge? If it is in a freezer, it had to look like ice and not look like water. (Needed to explain that because I was really not sure if the Japanese could understand me well)

Hotel staff: . Hi hi.. we know that.

Me: Then how come when you put in freezer it can be in liquid form? Is your freezer working well?

Hotel staff: . Ya Ya… maybe our freezer wasn’t working well. (Duh!!!! Don’t observe that when you need to open it several times a day?)

Ok. End of story. It wasn’t stored well all these days. I needed to discard most of it. I can only keep the milk from the day before.. Still cannot believe this happened to me. This is not a 3-star hotel or some motel. It is a 5-star hotel in the heart of Tokyo.

I was really disappointed and sad. I haven’t been that disappointed for a very long time. Although that’s not many bottles, some over supply mothers can produce that in a day or two, to me, the effort of pumping, and every drop of breastmilk is precious to me. I really can’t see it go down the drain.

So, this encounter taught me one thing when I needed to store things in the freezer of any hotels. Audit the freezer the next day. If it doesn’t freeze well, at least you can salvage the later part of it.

2 Little Teeth

Phoebe had her 2 little bottom front teeth 3 weeks ago. They are very sharp. She can bite apple wedges and last night she tore the rambutan flesh from it's core. Dangerous 2 little teeth.

She bites during nursing sessions too. :(

Weekend Attire

If some of you meet me over the weekends, you would be wondering why I kept wearing a few dress tops over and over again.

So, the reason is, they are nursing tops that I am wearing. It is so much more convenient to breastfeed Phoebe when I am with her. I will feed her whenever she wants it, wherever we are. Nursing rooms/Breastfeeding rooms are not easily available in Penang. Since I had nursing tops, I never bother to research where are the nursing rooms in every mall I go to.

Thanks to a good friend who introduced me to these when Phoebe was born. I can't live without these anymore.