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Monday, May 12, 2008

Multi-Tasker

Do you know how long I took to complete and submit a review to the advertiser today? I spent almost the whole afternoon trying to type the post and 1 hour to submit the post at night. There were interruptions, mostly from Baby C after almost every line that I had typed. Just when I thought that Baby C was fast asleep after I had nursed her at 11pm, I switched on the baby monitor and quietly crept downstairs to work. Before I could even warm my seat, I heard her 'eeeee eeeee aaaaar aaaaar' on the baby monitor. I rushed up and nursed her again for 15 minutes. Then came downstairs again. This went on 3 times - I went upstairs, nursed her, pat her bum (but she wouldn't want to sleep, only wanted my teats!) came downstairs and heard her cries. Finally, I realized that this will not stop, so I carried her downstairs and placed her on the bouncinet on the floor, next to my PC. With both my hands typing, I stretched out my left leg and moved the bouncinet with it. That naughty brat slept soundly without a sound!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Peace At Last

Today, hubby brought Alycia and Sherilyn to the biggest theme park in Malaysia at Times Square. There is finally peace at home.... for me. I've wanted some quietness and some me time for a long time and finally I have it today. For the past 1 month, there were so many people in the house - friends, relatives and my house was really noisy.... with people coming in and out of my house the whole day, people chatting from morning to midnight, screaming and wailing toddlers and the cries of a hungry newborn baby. I hardly had the time to rest my mind and body. I wanted to follow the gals to Times Square too but the thought of having to find a place to nurse Baby C and having to find a baby-friendly toilet to clean her poopie business every 1-2 hours turned me off. I still need some time to get used to my new routine before I have confidence to bring Baby C out for a shopping trip.

Though it is supposed to be a day for mothers today, I rather spend my quiet time at home..... get some peace of mind, rest my throat for at least half a day (I yell a lot when Aly and Sher are at home), complete my outstanding assignments (Streamyx will be cut for a max of 3 days from tomorrow for change of name in our fixed phone line) and to catch up on my sleep!

Guess what time I normally have my breakfast ever since my confinement lady left? Earliest is 10:30am and today, I only had the time to eat my breakfast at 11am. I woke up at 9am, nursed Baby C, cleaned up her bum after her poopie business, fed Sherilyn breakfast (she just won't chew and swallow her food) and got the 2 older gals ready to go out with daddy and mah mah. Just as I was about to sit down to eat my breakfast, Baby C pooped again and I have to clean her up again. My maid who is still single has no experience in handling babies and I can't ask her to help me with Baby C.

Despite such a crazy life as a mum to 3 kids, if you ask me if I had a chance to start all over again, would I still want to have Baby C, my answer is a resounding, YES. I wouldn't trade anything for my Cassandra. She has brought a lot of joy to my life, despite all the difficulties I have gone through and am going through now.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE MOTHERS READING THIS POST! BEING A MOTHER IS THE TOUGHEST JOB AVAILABLE, KUDOS TO YOU ALL!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Baby C's Fullmoon






Read the story here.

Poopie Fountain

For those of you with newborn babies, I am sure the term 'poopie fountain' is all too familiar to you eh? Yesterday, just as I was about to finish cleaning up Baby C's bum after her poopie business and left her without a diaper for just a few seconds, she spurted out her poop, exactly like a fountain across the crib. Her poop (which is a tad watery and gooey just like 'kaya') landed on the mattress, all over the crib railing (which was the hardest to clean), on the bouncinet, on the box of tissue, on the tube of Drapolene and on everything that was on the crib. As I was busy cleaning up the mess, I did not realize that the floor also had poop.... EVERYWHERE and I stepped on it with my bathroom slippers. Yikes, it was a real poopie mess.

and my maid and I spent more than half an hour cleaning up the mess.


I had to wipe the Safe n Sound latex mattress with pulls and pulls of wet wipes, then sprayed Febreze on it to get rid of the odour. Couldn't wash or sun the latex mattress though. Only left it on the floor with the table fan on to air it.


My maid had to bring the other Safe n Sound latex mattress from the crib upstairs to put it on the crib that was downstairs. As I had no where to place Baby C whilst my maid and I cleaned up the mess, I placed her on a cushion on the floor and surrounded her with pillows.

The moral of the lesson is : never leave your newborn baby without a diaper or a nappy on, not even for a few seconds for you never know if they will give you another big surprise and lots of mess! Newborn babies can take up to half an hour or longer to complete each session of poopie business.

Crazy Life

Life as a mother to 3 kids is crazy. My CL has just left today. Baby C is super cranky and whiny today. I only have time to blog now. The baby monitor is switched on and I can hear my dear Cassie 'eeee eeee aaaaaa aaaaaa' upstairs in my room.

I gotta go now to see what's with Cassie.

to be continued......

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Sherilyn's Antics

Sherilyn can really think of doing things that most 'regular toddlers' can't think of. Almost everyday, she comes up with new antics and stunts, many of which can cause me heart attacks.

Several days ago, this was what she did :




.... and she wanted to squeeze her body through the gap between the railing and the steps to get down. Can you beat it? Call her daring or tomboyish?




Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Cloth Diaper

After hearing all the positive reviews and comments on the cloth diaper, which is fast gaining popularity now, I finally bought a cloth diaper by BumWear from The Baby Loft shop at RM59.90 each on Sunday. I only bought 1 piece as I wanted to try out to see for myself if it's that effective and practical. I have also asked Montessorimum to reserve 2 second-hand cloth diapers for me. Hopefully it's really effective coz Baby C is now using between 8-10 diapers a day! Go calculate to see how much I spend on diapers for 3 kids a month.


The cloth diaper and inserts.

Baby C Wants My Teats The Whole Day!

Whenever Baby C is awake, she wants to be carried and to be talked to. When she wants to get back to sleep, she wants my teats, not only for milk but also to suckle herself to sleep. I am so very tempted to take the easy way out..... by giving her the pacifier. Alycia was a hard-core pacifier sucker and she was addicted to it for 2.5 years. I thought it would be difficult to wean her off her pacifier but it only took me less than a week. If I can't handle Baby C's demands after my confinement lady leaves on Friday, I may consider giving her the pacifier. I still have a bag full of new pacifiers that I bought 2 years ago, meant for Alycia

Baby C @ 28 Days Old

These are some pix of Cassandra taken today, at 28 days old. Can you see that she's got some rashes flare-up on her once smooth face? It really hurts my heart to see her face covered with pimple-like red dots.

The weather has been so terribly hot that we dressed Baby C up in singlet today.

See how happy Baby C is here? She's smiling at Sherilyn and my maid.

Baby C's Long Finger Nails



Are Baby C's finger nails long? They don't look that long here in the pix but are in fact even longer if you see them for yourself in person. Her nails are even shaped very nicely, as if they had been manicured LOL! I had a hard time snapping pix of her tiny fingers as she was moving. The longest nails are on both her thumb and pinkie. Even with mittens on, I can still feel her sharp long nails. I shall trim them after her full moon.

2 More Days To Go....

Yes, 2 more days to go before my confinement ends and I can finally bid farewell to my confinement lady. Let me tell you, the past 28 days were one of my worst. I hate going through confinement period, I did not enjoy my previous 2 confinements and this is my worst.... and I hope it will be my very last confinement too. I dislike the CL (except my 1st CL), I hated the pain on my wound, I hate the hot weather, I hate it that I have to bathe with ginger and murky color water, I hate it that I can't bathe with cold water, I hate it that I can't go out for 30 days (though I broke the confinement rule this time and went out once) and I just hate everything about the confinement. Now when the CL goes back, I know I will have lesser time to myself, I can't wake up at 9:30am everyday anymore and I will have to care for Baby C myself fulltime, on top of caring for Alycia and Sherilyn. But that's ok.... I love my 3 angels!

Social Spark

Ever since the big G has been smacking down blogs that write reviews for PPP, many bloggers whom I know have stopped writing for this advertising network and have removed all banners and codes related to this network from their blogs. That’s because the big G is able to track down these blogs from the do-follow links / tag from PPP. After removing the banners and codes from their blogs as well as cease writing reviews for PPP, some of these bloggers have resubmitted their blogs to the big G for reconsideration of a good PR. Some of these blogs have regained a good PR while others have not.

I am sure many bloggers who blog for money would have heard of SocialSpark by now. Social Spark is a branch of PPP and works almost the same as PPP. It is a marketing platform which connects advertisers with bloggers. Bloggers can even socialize among themselves at Social Spark. One thing I like about Social Spark is that all their opps are with no-follow links. I have signed up with Social Spark (you can see my profile here) but it’s funny that I have not heard from them yet on the status of my blog. Barb has asked me to send them a ticket to check the status of my blog but I haven’t got the time to do so. Many of the bloggers whom I know of have already had their blogs approved by Social Spark and they have been accepting opps from them since. I must find some time to write a ticket to Social Spark today to enquire about the status of my blog and to appeal for an approval if they have rejected my application.

If you haven’t signed up with Social Spark yet, quick register now. Don’t worry about your Page Rank being penalized by the Big G coz as I’ve mentioned earlier, all the opps contain no-follow links.

Long Finger Nails

When the nurse first brought Baby C to my room in the hospital, I admired her from head to toe. When I unwrapped her to check her to make sure that she's every bit perfect, my mum and I were really amazed to note that her finger nails were really very long. I mean really long and sharp. Baby C will turn 1 month in 3 days' time and her finger nails have grown even longer. My CL said I should not trim her finger nails wor.... pantang wor. So I wait lor until after her fullmoon. Tomorrow, I shall snap some pix of her really long finger nails. It really does look awkward for a newborn baby to have such long finger nails. I can't really recall if Alycia and Sherilyn had that long finger nails at birth too.

Did your child have long finger nails too at birth?

Live Traffic Feed

You notice the life traffic feed by FeedJit on my right side bar? I just installed this widget yesterday and it's really fun to see where my visitors come from. I am really impressed that many of my visitors come from overseas countries, especially USA. And it's really interesting to know that I have visitors coming to my blog every minute of the day. That explains the 300-400 visitors I get to each of my blog per day.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Organic Mother's Milk



That's the Mother's Milk Tea that I bought from Baby Loft on Sunday. The result is quite amazing as my milk supply has definitely increased and I managed to breastfeed Baby C exclusively yesterday and today.

The taste is errmm... well, not to say very tasty but still quite palatable. It is made from a concoction of organic stuff, namely fenugreek seeds, aniseed fruit, coriander, thistle herb, spearmint leaves, lemon verbena leaves, lemongrass leaves, among others. A box of 16 teabags costs RM38.90.

Hot Hot Weather.... And A Face Full Of Rashes

Since birth, Baby C has very good skin and complexion. She is fair and pinkish. I don't know if it's the incredibly hot weather or my unhygienic confinement lady, Baby C's face is now full of rashes..... and it really hurts me to see her once smooth, flawless face now covered with red dots.

You know how my CL bathes her? After washing Baby C's bottom with the hanky, she wipes Baby C's face! I was aghast when I saw her doing it and I told her not to do it again. Lately, I feel so upset with the way my CL handles Baby C that I don't even want to see how she bathes Baby C. I really have 'no eye see' and I don't want to stress myself up over the CL, which in turn will cause my milk supply to drop. I still have 3 more days to tolerate her and by Friday, I can have Baby C all to myself again.

A Very Constipated Sherilyn

Poor Sherilyn suffered from constipation today. This afternoon, she sat on her potty for half an hour and was wailing away while hugging me tightly in pain. Since infant, Sher has been very prone to constipation and she used to be able to poo poo only once in a week when she was a newborn baby. She finally managed to push her poop out after half an hour in agony, with cold sweat all over her body and goo all over her face. There was also blood when I wiped her. I better feed her with some prune juice and red dragon fruit later and boil some barley water for her tomorrow.

No Time To Blog

Today must have been my lucky day. Managed to grab 12 opps from my favorite advertising network. Now, I have to find the time to finish these posts in 2 days. It's quite difficult for me to blog during the day with 2 clingy toddlers and a newborn baby who wants my boops the entire day. I guess I will have to burn the midnight oil tonight.

It's time for my lunch now. My CL has cooked turmeric chicken, papaya soup with pork ribs and peanuts and a stir-fried vege. After lunch, it's back to work on my computer. That's why my weight just can't go down coz I've been so sedentary lately. Oooh, just can't wait for 2 months to pass coz that's when I can start exercising again.

Monday, May 5, 2008

What I Really Want To Do On Mother's Day

Elaine tagged me on this. I'll write a short one since I don't really have much time to blog lately. The only time I can really have peace to blog and to appreciate the quietness in the house is past 11pm, that's when my 2 rambunctious girls are asleep and I have satisfied my little one with mamee's milkie.

Ok, so what do I really want to do on Mother's Day? Like Elaine, mine are just fantasies. First, I'd really like hubby to care for my 2 older girls the entire day - bathe them, brush their teeth, wash their bum, feed them, coach them in their homework, put them to sleep, etc while I go shopping and get myself some new clothes for my new figure now, go to the nail saloon for a manicure and pedicure and to the spa for a good full-body massage. Then, I'd like to have a nice dinner in the hotel or in a classy restaurant with hubby and my 3 girls.

Well, I think the last wish of having a nice dinner may be granted but the rest will just be wishful thinking.

Not tagging anyone this time. I better go to sleep now as Baby C will wake up for her milkie again in an hour's time. Oh yes, forgot to mention, I wish I could sleep in till 10am on Mother's Day without anyone disturbing me.

Our Sunday

We had lunch at Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant @ Desa Park City yesterday. It was my first time out of my 'house prison' since the birth of Baby C 3 weeks ago and I had broken yet another confinement rule by going shopping before the end of my 1 month confinement period.

When I was choosing the baby sling at Baby Loft, the lady boss asked me when I was due!! Oh gosh, I tell you, my heart was crushed. Do I look like I am still pregnant? I am still rather skinny everywhere else but my belly looks really pathetic, like I am still 3-4 months pregnant. I just can't wait to start my daily running sessions and exercise on my fitball again. I hope no one would ask me if I am expecting again.



Sherilyn enjoying her udon (minus all the meat and vege) with chopsticks.





While Alycia enjoyed her rice, maki, cod fish and beef.

Read more about our Sunday here.