Weaning Unsuccessful Yet

I have been planning to wean Tao when she is 1 year old. Nowadays, I express milk only once in the afternoon and plan to cut off her before sleep feeding and mid-night feeding these few weeks.

I dare not cut off BF completely yet because she has been rejecting formula milk. Tao does not like formula milk. Last few days when I tried to feed her more formula instead of expressed BM, she dranks only 2 oz each feeding. Then I tried Tian's Mamil Step 3, she also refused to drink. Since she is already one, I let her try Organic Phytomilk (consists of Organic Oats, Soy protein and millets with 10 types of other grains) that I usually add to Tian's milk and Tao finished 4 oz and cried for more. Since then, I will put mainly Organic Phytomilk plus only half a scoop of her Wyeth formula.

I think she prefers Phytomilk because she has got used to breastmilk which is light and sweet whereas formula milk tastes sweet but with a hint of oiliness and too creamy for her sensitive tastebuds.

The Organic Phyomilk that I bought before was at discounted price (2 cans for RM78). Normal price for 1 can is RM52. The lady boss mentioned that we can actually feed her only phytomilk and supplement with another DHA enriched soy powder. However, I do not want to feed Tao with too much soy due to some articles mentioning negative effects of too much isoflavones (plant hormones similar to female hormone 'estrogen') . So to be on the safe side, I supplement her DHA from formula milk. I also worry if there is any side effects from consuming only plant based milk powder as substitute to formula although most vegetarians and organic food lover would certainly disagree with me.

Tao is still not able to sleep through the night yet and most people would say this is due to breastfeeding that she is not full enough to sleep through the night. I think this is due to different temparament of babies.

Her feeding schedule is as below at the moment:
6:00-7:00am: Wakes up and drinks milk (either phytomilk with fomula or breastfeed)
8:30-9:00am: Organic oatmeal with fruits (choices between avocado, apple, pear, organic raisins, organic dried blackcurrants)
10:00am: Has milk before napping
12:00pm: Porridge*/ Organic noodles with a mix of vegatables with either fish or chicken
2:00-2:30pm: Has milk before napping
4:00-5:00pm: Has milk again
6:00-6:30pm: Same meal cooked for lunch
8:15-8:30pm: Has milk and gets ready to sleep
8:45-9:00pm: Breastfeeds before sleeping (I am trying to wean her off this)
She will wake up one time between 12:00-4:00am for breastfeed (I am trying to wean her off this as well)
Wish me luck!!

*Tao's porridge consists of 50% of normal rice, 30% of organic millet and 20% of organic quinoa

Tian's 3rd Birthday!!

Yesterday, we celebrated Tian's birthday a few days after Tao's first birthday so it was made simpler. We invited hubby's eldest brother who works in Singapore to stay overnight at our place. As we were planning a BBQ, we thought more people would make it merrier. Furthermore, Tian likes her uncles a lot.

We bought her a cake with cartoon and flavour of her choice

Presents from us: I bought her a book on animals and a recorder (which she refers as 'magic flute' as influenced by Dora the Explorer), my MIL bought her a bike, angpows from my mum and hubby's eldest brother.

Bike from her doting grandma

I feel that she grows up very fast especially after the birth of her sister. Sometimes we are more impatient in disciplining with her as we have a younger toddler to deal with (guilty!) but we love her all the same.....

Ler Tao's 1st Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Ler Tao's first birthday two days ago following Chinese Calendar date.

We did not do anything fancy. I bought a birthday cake, invited hubby's brother and my MIL came from hometown bringing traditional food that they had paid respect to ancestors like 'Ang Ku Kueh' (glutinous dessert containing either green bean paste, peanuts or coconut flakes), eggs (dyed red), roasted chicken, glutinous rice cooked with dried oyster, beancurd and shitake mushroom. I ordered curry fish head just to add some variety.

We let Tao stepped onto the 'Ang Ku Kueh' and it was believed to bring luck to her that she will have food to eat wherever she goes.
We let her choose a few items placed on the floor just for the fun of it. There were calculator, pencil, ruler, thread, book and chicken drumstick. That greedy little girl crawled to reach for chicken drumstick and started to munch away. I would prefer her to pick either pencil or book though :)
We bought 'nest and stack' cups for her (reason not to buy expensive toys was that it would end up to be her sister's toy). My MIL gave her a gold necklace with a pendant engraved with cow cartoon and my mum gave her a big ang pow (red packet), a set of dress, anklet and shoes.
Tao had just recovered from flu and she was on her suprisingly good behaviour that evening.

We will be celebrating Ler Tian's birthday this Saturday. She has been looking forward her birthday (she had even chosen the cartoon for her birthday cake) and we are planning to have BBQ.

Ler Tian's First Day at Kindergarten!!

Today is Ler Tian's first day at Kindergarten. I have been telling her about going to 'school' since two weeks ago so that she is mentally prepared.
Yesterday I have been telling her about going to kindy and she can watch her 'Dora the Explorer' cartoons when she comes back.
We woke her up this morning and slowly prepared her for kindy. When I brought her there and wanted to leave, she told me softly she wanted to go home. However, when I told her I need to go to office to work, she was willing to be led by the principal into the kindy without fuss.
I forgot to pass to Ler Tian her water bottle, so I went there and pass it to her teacher an hour later. She told me Ler Tian is in her classroom and did not cry.
My little girl is growing up........

Pre-school/ Kindergarten

I went around my housing area with Tian looking at 2 kindergartens. I am planning to enrol Tian for three year old class so that she gets used to discipline.

The first kindy 3Q is recommended by two of my ex-colleagues whom they have sent their kids for their pre-school. I went there to understand the syllabus and took a look at the environment. The syllabus is quite advanced but what I like about the pre-school is that the classes are conducted in small groups (maximum of 10 children). Fees are more expensive than those around my neigbourhood. Tian is quite comfortable with the kindy and talked a lot to the person-in-charge/ principal.

I went to another kindy in another neighbourhood, Nuri to take a look just to make comparisons. The exterior looks very well managed with nice paintings but when I stepped inside, it was like walking into a market. The kindy was very crowded with 3 groups/classes of children in the living room area. I went into the office and i could still hear children's voices from upstairs. I was thinking whether it was in that kind of chaos everyday or due to the children had completed their syllabus and it was the last week before their semester break so they were allowed to play. The classes were decorated with very bright hand paintings by teachers as I was told ( I acknowledge the effort put in) but I think it is too much to have paintings covering all the walls.

The principal showed me their fees breakdown before showing me the syllabus (which I dislike) and Tian was not comfortable there and kept on holding me hand. I knew which kindy I have to choose the moment I stepped into the second kindy.

Weaning in Progress

Tao is 8 months and 3 weeks old. I started to wean Tao today by feeding her 1 oz of formula milk using cup and spoon just for her to have a taste of another type of milk. I felt like cheating her by feeding her 'artificial milk' although it is almost the right time to do so.

I planned to wean her gradually when she is 9 to 10 months old by supplementing with formula milk once a day and continue to express milk during day time and nurse at night. However, I decided to start now because my milk supply was decreasing since last week after clogged milk duct leading to infection with flu-like symptom. Initially, the problem started because of sore nipple so I fed Tao less on the affected side due to excruciating pain. I think I did not empty that side properly during feeding/ pumping and caused milk to back up. When I read from my book regarding this problem, it advised to let baby nurse from affected side first. The clogged duct cleared after that but left me with almost 50% of usual supply so I had been using my stock from the freezer.

So I let Tao start to taste formula earlier so that she will not reject formula milk when needed. I supplemented her with formula during confinement when milk supply was not established but as supply increased, I began reducing formula until she completely rejected formula in second month and she had been feeding on breast milk ever since.

I express milk using pump during day time when I am working, going out or even at home. Tao gets use to nurse only at night (in dimmed light and air-conditioned room) so she refuses to feed directly even if I am with her during the day. Choosy little girl. I have done my pumping everywhere. In washrooms at my office, nursing rooms in shopping complex, fitting rooms (when nursing rooms at not available and washrooms are dirty), washrooms in airport, washrooms at Singapore customs and even in the car during traffic jam (using a huge scarf tied around my neck for cover up - I am so used to pumping that I do not even have to see what I am doing)

Hopefully by feeding Tao with breast milk until now will ensure her to grow up healthy and smart :)

I have resigned!

I have resigned from my post as a Program Administrator in my company in Nov last year. The reason I gave to my boss and others is that I have to take care of my 2 daughters. Somehow people find it hard to believe and kept on probing me to tell more. They even thought I have been going to interviews on the sly. Some colleagues thought that my husband must be so capable to be able to provide for all our expenses.

The truth is ............ resigning in order to take care of my daugthers is one of the reason.
Another reason is that I will be helping my husband and his business partner (his brother) to manage their company's account, HR, income tax, KWSP, Socso, banking etc. In other words, I will still be working but in the comfort of my own house where I can help my parents-in-law to take care of my girls after 5:30pm everyday.

However until now, I am still working part time in my company due to I am kind hearted. Gag!! I agreed to work on mornings to train the new PA until she is familiar with her job. So my actual resignation day will be on 7th May. (Checked on Chinese Almanac that day is an auspicious date. Hehe.) I don't think there are any other people who takes half a year to resign. Reason I agree to help out is that I can still cope with my workload at home and I do not want to lose touch with my 'outside world' so fast. Not because of the salary but it won't hurt. I do feel more relaxed to go to work everything morning knowing that I can be home in early afternoon.

When I was working full time, it was just horrible. When i saw the icon on the bottom right of my monitor showing 5:00pm, I will get panic and think 'How can I complete today's job? What task should I leave out so that I can go home at 7:00pm? Should I e-mail some of my files home so that I can continue to work at night/ on weekends? Will my parents in law feel tired having to take care of my kids for so long? Am I a bad Mum because I do not accompany my kids the minimum recommended 3 hours every day? Etc etc' It was a horrible experience to go through the cycle everyday. Let's just say I am very lucky indeed and I am very grateful to be able to escape from 9 to 5 job. (or should I say 8 to 8 job?)