Poo fountain

Just now I almost screamed out loud for help, but I realized I'm inside the room behind closed door at one end of the apartment and my hubby's sitting in the other end watching TV in the living room... I doubt he could hear me with that TV blasting in front of him.

Anyway what happened was my baby's fussing badly while latching and I thought I heard her pooped, so I decided to change her diaper. There was only a tiny little amount of soft baby poo. I wiped her and she started passing gas with similarly tiny amount of poo flowing out at the same time. I guessed she's having tummy upset as gas and poo were stuck inside so I did some exercise for her that's supposed to aid in her bowel movement. She passed out more gas with another small amount of poo coming out. I saw that my manoeuvre worked and helped her work out some more. Suddenly, poo started spurting out. I covered her bottom with the diaper and poo just kept flowing out nonstop like a fountain! I saw that the poo's almost overflowing from the sides of her small diaper while her back's holding the rest back. I panicked and wanted to lift her butt to wipe her and quickly transfer her onto a fresh diaper, but her body weight would ensure that the changing mat sloped towards her and the poo's threatening to flow towards her back, which would definitely cause a disaster if overflow onto the mat... poo will be all over on her back and even her romper. I wanted to scream for help but I realized I was really helpless. Luckily I still managed some quick thinking (haha self-praise!) and slapped a couple of wet wipes by the side, quickly lift her up with both hands and rest her dirty butt onto the wet wipes. Phew! Swiftly, I lift up all the sides of the diaper with liquid yellow poo just millimetres away from spilling out of the edges, and rolled the diaper up to end the poo's threat of making an unthinkable mess. Success! Wiped my baby girl and changed her diaper, anf triumphantly went out to tell hubby my success story with baby in my arms.

Yup, I just mentioned I have no time to blog, yet now I'm here telling you about poo. *too proud* Hahaha!!

Oh, and despite all the daily madness that I had from my elder girl's frequent tantrums, just now she was good and I felt so proud of her. She's been super obsessed with baby, always wanting to cuddle her and showering her with nonstop kisses, but she's having running nose now and I'm trying super hard to stop her from spreading her flu to baby. Just now she walked into my room while I was latching baby, after the poo fountain episode, and I told her she's not well so she shouldn't come in, and suggested she stay in her grandparents' bedroom. She actually hesitated and then left the room quietly. Some days she's more than a handful to deal with and drives me mad, but there will always be moments like this when she's such a sensible girl. I must always remind myself that despite all the madness I face, she's gonna be the one that makes me proud. She's my daughter and no matter what she does, even if for a split second I get so mad that I whack her so hard it leaves scarlet finger prints on her fair tiny limb (yes, I'm ashamed to admit that it happens), I'll always forgive her and never stop loving her. Now I'm gonna have a bigger heart to love two girls. And my heart's growing every day.

I realized...

... when you have two kids, you can't seem to find time to blog anymore. At least that's true for me.

There's so much that I wanted to post here everyday... but I just can't get to blog immediately and after a while, it all slips my mind. My short-term memory's at its peak and these days soooooooooo many things that I need to do actually slipped my mind, it's horrid!

By the way, I'm still instagramming. =P I guess I only have time for one of two, so should I give up blogging?

Why like that?

My big girl woke up from her nap screaming... perhaps from a bad dream. I was cuddling her and MIL came in said "我抱你..." and my girl didn't go to her, so she said, "你不要嫲嫲，嫲嫲去抱妹妹了。你要不要嫲嫲? 不要嫲嫲，嫲嫲抱妹妹不抱你了!"

Sigh, I'm trying so hard to promote sibling harmony n she's there sowing discord. My biggest worry will be when I go back to work and she keeps saying such nonsense to my girl... =(

Random pics of confinement food

MIL's attempts to pamper me with her cooking...

Milk Ejection

What causes let-down? Often, I could feel the milk supply starts moving when I hear or see a baby cry. Another instance will be after a hot bathe... I'll be rushing against time to get dressed with milk dripping down my tummy and thighs!!

A mummy friend just shared this in our Facebook group -

http://www.lowmilksupply.org/milkejection.shtml

"The role of the milk ejection reflex (let-down) in milk production is indirect yet very important. Milk must be removed from the breast in order to stimulate more milk to be made, but it is not removed easily without the assistance of the milk ejection reflex, where oxytocin causes the muscle-like cells around the milk-making cells (alveoli) to contract and push milk out. The process of milk ejection is both amazing and complex in that it can be triggered both by physical stimulation and mental thoughts or emotions.

Another possible component that is often overlooked is the influence of the fullness of the ducts and alveoli. The principle is similar to the concept of a water balloon. When the balloon is very full and then let go, the water gushes out quickly; when it only has a little bit of water, it comes out more slowly when released. Your milk ejection is like a hand lightly squeezing that water balloon; when your breast is very full, milk tends to come out fast, but if it is only partially full, milk comes out more slowly."

Do check out the link to read more.

Breastmilk jaundice

After today's PD review...

[11:36AM, 10/06/2015] Just now went her jaundice check... I'm having headache all the way zzz

[11:37AM, 10/06/2015] Jaundice went up.. did blood test for testing liver etc other organs.. draw a lot of blood so heart pain sigh

[11:38AM, 10/06/2015] Luckily all good, so Dr Ang concluded it's just breastmilk jaundice.. I asked anything that I eat may affect? Like ginger etc? She said no, is due to hormones, but no alcohol as bad for liver, and cut down on herbs..

Copied and pasted from a Whatsapp conversation.

Breastfeeding nazis

A friend shared this.

I wonder who are the "breastfeeding nazis" she's referring to. I believe all mummies only have the best interest for other mummies when they give advice. Please do not take it personally and definitely not negatively!!

She probably feels that breastfeeding mummies don't understand non-breastfeeding mummies at all, but vice versa, they also don't understand that many many breastfeeding mummies went thru a lot of stress, effort, endurance and hardship to get milk. And all these are on top of the usual post-partum stress and other depressing things that every mother may face during confinement or as a new mother... So when they managed to conquer the difficult period, they just want to share from their own experiences... "try harder will have milk..." I'll say the same too because I tried very very hard to have milk... but of course I will only say this to mummies who want to breastfeed, as a form of encouragement, and not to those who doesn't breastfeed.

I triumphed in breastfeeding simply because I have pro-breastfeeding friends who never stop giving me well-meaning advice and they are ever so encouraging, thus I also want to be as encouraging to the breastfeeding new mummies I know, and help them with as much advice from our experiences as possible. Mothers all only want to help one another cope through the difficult post-partum period, whether breastfeeding or not. But let's do it nicely... no one should be calling another mother weak! Every woman, every pregnancy, every baby, every breast, every mother's circumstance is different and who are we to call another mother weak when we did not go through what she had to go through?

We all have our difficult times as mothers, so please, do not do or say things to upset another mother who's going through difficult times too. I also went through times I cried every time I latched my first born during confinement. I cuddled her to my chest as she wailed in the middle of the night, I cried and apologize to my baby, "sorry baby, mummy has no milk for you... mummy is a lousy mummy..." I cried so much my mother's worried that I would go blind. You won't know how much it hurts unless you've been through it.

Please don't judge. No one has the right to condemn you, whether you are breastfeeding mother or not. There are no nazis in motherhood, only mothers!! I don't know why people want to segregate breastfeeding mummies from non-breastfeeding mummies. What about babywearing mummies from non-babywearing mummies? What about mummies that follow traditional confinement customs and mummies who don't?  What about mummies with confinement ladies and mummies without? "Oh you brought it upon yourself crying in the middle of the night while trying to latch during your confinement because you didn't get a confinement lady to take care of your baby for you. Serves you right that you didn't get to rest like us mummies with confinement ladies."

You get my point? We are all mummies, stop dissing at one another!

Later:

Apparently it's due to this article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2532940/The-breast-best-obsession-mother-driven-life-This-new-mum-taken-hospital-TWICE-feed-baby-pleas-help-went-unheeded.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2532940/The-breast-best-obsession-mother-driven-life-This-new-mum-taken-hospital-TWICE-feed-baby-pleas-help-went-unheeded.html

How can we call the mother weak? She's such a poor thing and now she would never get to witness her daughter's milestones and achievements, and her poor daughter will have to grow up without a mother, and her poor husband have to live with the grief of losing the wife and bringing up the girl alone. And it could all be prevented if people gave a hand and not simply brush her condition off or call her weak. =(