random

yesterday sbd sent LX to school but it was closed! Hmm..we didn’t check the comms book. anyway, he dropped her off at my mum’s place instead. he then sent me this photo and upon seeing it I was so upset too!! she wanted to go to school badly and didn’t want to stay at por por house. I then call and ask if she wants to come home. she totally ignored me because she going out with my mum to do some exercise! so apparently she was ok la, cause get to go to the playground 😂

i video called her again and she just woke up from her nap, she was like telling me she wants to go home. I told her to take a shower and wait for me!! I must have been feeling adventurous yesterday, so off mei mei and I went to pick her up. she was all on smiles! so happy! *ignore the flower clip, is part of her concert costume. lol and my hands are really full hence the shaky photo.

I told her that we are going to take a train home, she has to hold my hands and I can’t carry her because I’m tula-ing mei mei. She kinda understood. I even managed to get her to go to the shopping mall’s toilet before we board the train but she told me “no wee wee”. so off we go to take the MRT followed by LRT back home. 

LX was holding tight to the hand rails and apparently throughout the journey no one gave up their seats! What has the world become? People just kept looking at their phones and even if they did look up, they just pretend they didn’t see us. I mean is ok that I didn’t have a seat but across us was an elderly who didn’t get a seat too. How could they just ignore his presence!

everything went pretty smoothly and she wanted to hold my elmo EZ-Link card. I kept nagging at her to hold tight and do not lost it. There we are at the last leg of reaching home on the LRT and guess what! this fellow slotted my EZ-Link card into the slit in between the seat that she was sitting. I was looking else where and didn’t exactly see her doing it. She then bend down and look for it under the seat but it was boxed up! The underneath is not empty like the usual train.

We alighted and she kept looking at the train, was on the verge of crying because I told her we are stranded! Can’t exit without the Elmo card and she told me she will tell the uncle where she drop the Elmo card. lol 

After all the Hoo-ha, we managed to exit and they will inform us if they find the card. It didn’t help when it was pouring so heavily outside.

the first dish that I cooked using my new toy aka pressure cooker. it really help save a lot of hassle because you can literally have a meal just by clicking on a button! cooking skills is not required at least for simple dish, just throw everything, cover it and press button. tried cooking char siew by following the online recipe and the meat is quite tender. but I probably use the wrong part of the meat to do it? it doesn’t looks those store bought chunky char siew. #dayrecooks #dayrehomes

last night dinner for the fam. love the charred pork belly! all done within 20 minutes and pressure cooker really helps save a lot of time. i have been cooking simple/boring food for myself everyday because I’m on a no carb diet. so it feels good that finally cooking something difficult from the norm. 🙊

we had our hair cut together and this little one finally sat throughout the washing, cutting and styling of her hair. she normally will be fidgeting here and there or kept telling us that no she doesn’t want to cut her hair. I decided to get the dresser to trim her fringe shorter than usual and everyone commented that she look so much like me. I guess must be the chubby cheeks lol

mother of two

it’s quite intimidating to be taking care of two kids alone. a lot of “what if” run through my mind while I’m in the room latching LE.

sbd went out for a wedding dinner and supposedly he wanted to bring LX along but she didn’t nap at my mum’s place the whole of today! expectedly she slept in her car seat while he was driving. usually we will carry her from car seat to her bed, put on a diaper for her and she will sleep through all the way till the next morning.

BUT this time round I heard her coughing in her sleep, quite a bad one with lots of phlegm. Sigh. So one of my “what if” came true, she woke up crying for daddy and kept coughing while I’m still in the room latching mei mei, somehow I hesitated for a moment to go over immediately.

Waited for five minutes, I saw her sitting on her bed coughing till as if she is going to vomit anytime. Quickly grabbed her and off we go to the toilet bowl! Really thank god! she didn’t vomit on her bed but in the toilet bowl. I had to change her, feed her medicine and put her to bed.

mei mei on the other hand was whining quite a fair bit. Probably didn’t have a full feed and hence refuses to sleep. LX told me “mei mei is crying”, so I told her I go pat pat her and will be back.

 at that moment i wish i can split myself into two! 

so this marks my first #soloparenting moments. not too bad since both sleeping right now, hopefully LX will sleep well tonight despite all the coughing.

this is what she does every morning when she wakes up, looking intensely at the hanging pom pom that I made. at least my effort is not wasted and this is the probably the only decorative item that’s being approved by sbd. 😅

happy 3 months!

when will your double eyelids appear?!

blurry shot but she is smiling! damn hard to capture her smiling photos. 

was on a conversation with the cousin on bottle feeding and apparently she is trying very hard to get her baby to get use to bottle feeding rather than latching because she is going back to work very soon. Sigh, then it hit me that I will be facing the same very soon! Should I intro bottle to her now or just let her adjust when she start going over to my mum place. Dilemma.

I’m sure she will cry and refuses for the first few days? So maybe I should just let my mum deal with it so that I can enjoy my time with her now rather than trying to force her and listens to her cries?!

nom nom nom. how yummy is it! she is so fun to play with now and she sure is a chatter box next time!! making lots of noises as if she is responding to you when talking to her. how to go back to work like this?! I’m sure I will miss her a lot and so this time round of being a second time mum, i give her lots more hugs and cuddling. I’m enjoying her babyhood more than the first, not as daunting as it seemed to be!

as the saying goes “it will just get better as the time goes” and this is quite true! we are quicker in getting ready to head out than the initial phase and I think it is harder to settle the first than the baby these days. #dayremummies

LX is at this phase where she knows how to argue and talk back when we asked her to do certain things?! and when I forget to bring her stuff like hanky or milk she will says “naughty you mama”! Don’t know to laugh or to discipline her. It is actually quite funny when she says that and I guess this is what makes parenting quite tough? is like don’t know when/where to draw the line? we are too learning everyday on how to be a parent alongside as they grow.

last night she made me sing a kiddy song just so that she can shake her butt to show me in front of the mirror. she has been practicing her dance moves this few days as her school concert is coming this Saturday. Quite looking forward to her first performance but I was told that she only dance when she is given biscuits! Super tum jiak! So not sure how it will turn out.

as usual every weekends, LX will tell me “拍照” in her ang mo slang. It took me a while to figure out what she was trying to say. So when I put on hairband for mei mei, she then run into her room to pick out a matching one for herself which she usually don’t because she don’t like anything to be on her head till mei mei come along. she just want to twinning with her!

and she really loves her mei mei a lot a lot! she will tell me she wants to hug, carry, kiss and read to her. she remembers that mei mei cannot eat ice cream, pizza! I think is because we used to read “I’m a big sister” book gifted by @janenyx while preparing her to be a big sister and it kinda helps!

sbd and I sneak out for a short one hour date to the philips fair on sunday with no intention to buy anything but just to have a look at what they offers! who knows we spend quite a bit and I finally bought a pressure cooker after contemplating for a long time ever since I saw the instant pot. always amazed by how fast it can cook the food!

I have been looking at recipes and videos on how to use it. I’m thinking of making char siew today or tomorrow because LX loves to eat 😂 hope this new gadget won’t become a white elephant!

 Yay! mei mei flips! 

she usually sleeps on her tummy but these few days I notice that she is facing upwards when we go in and check on her. We didn’t catch her flipping in action thou and do hope it’s not the reason why she wakes up in the middle of the night and unable to fall back to sleep yesterday. *fingers crossed. #12weeks

has it been 12 weeks? where did all the time goes. couldn’t have imagine how we have survived through the period of every three hourly feed. these days I’m slightly more rested and I have decided to return to work during last two weeks of December before the year end! 

hopefully i can wfh while adjusting back to working life and wanted to save some leave so that I can bring LE for jabs etc and come next year LX is attending a full day programme instead of half. hope she will adjust well!

I have done pretty much “nothing” these days?! been doing reading and exploring my “new” camera that we bought in June. It was a birthday present from sbd since the one that I had was already five year old and was in a pretty bad shape! I didn’t bother to take care and neither do I have a dry box for it. 

This time round, BIL gifted a dry cabinet for my birthday. So my camera and lens now has a home to stay to prevent fungus and whatnots. 😂

oh yes. I did a lot of purging for the storeroom, kitchen and wardrobe. trying so hard to be minimalist. just have to close one eye to either throw it away or donate them else it will just be there forever! a lot of clothes but yet nothing to wear? #firstworldproblem

it’s so hard to get a smiley pic of her! she always have all sort of weird funny antics or facial expressions. 🙈

actually in this photo I’m airing her lower part because she kept having diaper rash, tried destine and some other natural cream but it just come and go. doesn’t heal completely. She’s still having flu too! Pass down from her jiejie and there isn’t any med that she can take. It’s been two weeks alr!

I bought her out alone two days ago to town for a walk and It’s so nice to go shopping on weekdays because there’s no crowd at all. my fav shop is having sales too! couldn’t resist and bought clothes for the kids, so so worth it after discount. there are a lot of cute newborn/baby clothes that are on sale too! #dayremummies #dayrepregnancy

I miss tula-ing the girls but I totally forgotten that I can’t go to the toilet if is just her and me!! I didn’t bring along the stroller and luckily sbd came to my rescue. I’m having stomachache, what a bad timing 😂

The Buds

this little one just loves to pick up fallen leaves! and play truly is the occupation of a kiddo.

we were lost while trying to find the buds at Shangri La during our staycation and she just sat and entertain herself.

please don’t stop exploring and just be this little. didn’t felt like is been three years, just gone in a wink! i love talking to her these days. 

👩🏻 can we give mei mei to small small yiyi? 
👧🏻 no! mama! 
👩🏻 why not? 
👧🏻 because small small yiyi have to take care of turtles and mei mei will cry. 

I find it amusing! why did she relate turtle with mei mei? and her memory is not too bad. she has only been to my sis place once years ago and she still can rem!

so happy to see a fish pond but can’t feed them. have to show her the “no feeding” signboard and redirect her attention to something else.

 The Buds at Shangri La 

this place looks promising from the outside! but is quite small in my opinion and they are charging $58 for non hotel guests for three hours of play which is quite expensive. We are not staying in the family deluxe room hence we paid $28 for unlimited playtime both outdoor and indoor. Apparently they already updated their chart just in August which states that we are only entitled to three hours of play.

luckily we book in July before the change and so they allow us to follow the old chart else is not very worth it. best to avoid during weekends as it’s very crowded with like three birthdays party on both sat and sun. also check the pricing chart for the buds before booking the room and see which has the best deal after all these miscellaneous costs.

this is her favourite play area out of the five. she just kept running back to this after exploring the rest of it.

the painting room.

my little lonely painter as the whole room was empty! you can choose to either paint on papers or on the walls. ermm..she left shortly after ten minutes.

the unlimited 木马 rides! no need to put in coins, just need to push the start button.

there’s a corner for kids under one year old. It comes with mini slides with two or three very cute jumping bouncer which I think is quite fun for six months old baby.

there is another room which is the music room with a piano where you get to choose your song lists to be played, else nothing much to do in there. as for bakery room, it is an additional of $58 if you want to attend the class. I was told that they throw in complimentary cupcakes decoration class if you are staying on weekdays. I concluded it is better to stay during weekdays, lots of additional perks given.

my niece and nephews came over for a swim in the evening which is quite a good thing! managed to smuggle them in to play without paying extra 🙊 and we get to have free baby sitter aka my sister to go in with them while we take a short break with mei mei in the room. 

so tiring to handle two of them and not to mention there are just so much to pack for one night staycation. I pack as if I am bringing my whole house over!

it also comes with a free photographer (my sis) who kept sending me nice photos of LX. I don’t have the energy to run after her when I’m there with her and she doesn’t stay till 😂

the nursing room there is so so comfy! so spacious and it comes with a rocking chair. spot the little one, I think she enjoyed her stay there too despite just drinking and sleeping. 😅

sleep training | massage

good morning! my mama made me do tummy time again. this time round I can lift my head much higher than before, I practice them all day because I am used to sleeping on my tummy.

I self sooth to sleep by noming on my delicious hand and is always full of my saliva. 🙊

I can’t wait for the weekends to come again so that I can sleep in the tula rather than my own crib because my routine is mess up as I get to go out to grandma place and church. so much fun than staying at home with my mama.

mama are you done snapping my photos? I think I’m tired, is time for me to go for my morning nap. 

so off she is settling herself to sleep. there’s hit and miss, on good days she will just sleep without whining. on bad days, she will cry for a little while before she decides to sleep.

do you think this is me too? do we look alike? 😅

 Sleeping Training 

DID YOU SLEEP TRAIN HER?

Yes, we started sleep training LE since day one with the help of our confinement lady. 

Disclaimer: We know that it doesn’t work for all babies and their parents but for our family, it helped so much. It’s really up to your decision as you know what’s the best for your child and the family. #dayremummies #dayrepregnancy

We started a routine with LE, we kept to the 2.5 hours to 3 hourly feed like how we do it in the hospital stay even till today. We put her down to sleep at night around 8pm and prior to that I will latch her about 30 minutes or so, changed her into PJ, pray for her and tell her goodnight before putting her to her crib.

Sometimes if she’s really awake, we read her a bedtime story then we turn off the lights. Next, we put her down in the crib while she’s awake and walk out of the room. When we first trained LX/LE, both can cries for 30 minutes or so (which broke our hearts!) but consistency is the key.

We didn’t let them cry it out but instead when it hit 5 minutes, we checked in with her, then at 10 minutes then at 15 minutes. Each time we checked in with her, we pat her and told her is time to sleep and then we would walk out. We repeated this like for a lot of times! After a few days of doing this, she learned to self-soothe herself to sleep quicker.

We know just how difficult it is because of all of the crying. I wanted to quit the first night during the time with LX. I couldn’t bear to hear her cries for more than 30 seconds, I vividly remember that I cried alongside with her not knowing what to do but yet I’m determined to do so because all I wanted is to have a well rested baby who has enough sleep that she needs and of course to keep my sanity! I just can’t carry the baby 24/7, I think I will just go crazy. #lousymum

this is the feed wake sleep chart that was given to us by the growing families international “parenting young infant” classes that we attended back then during LX’s time.

So her night time would be consider from 8pm till 8am (depending on what time I wake up). In between every 3 - 4 hours we would dream feed her, change her diaper and put her back to her crib, the longest stretch we had is 5 hours. I was so tired that i slept through without waking up. No grunting and noisy sound made neither. Her cot is just next to our bed because we don’t have any spare room else I would have let her sleep in a room by herself just like her jie jie.

Our daily routine: 

we will feed, bath and play with her before she is down for her first nap at around 9.30am to 10am. usually she doesn’t cry very loudly? we will draw up the curtain and tell her is time to take a nap, put her into her crib. she usually do her tummy time and I notice she kept turning her head left to right, right to left before she fall asleep or suckle her hand to sleep. this is on good days. on bad days, she will normally cry for a good 10 mins before she decides to sleep.

and sometimes I don’t quite understand why babies need to cry before they are willing to go to sleep when they are already very tired! and I have ensure that she is already had full feed, diaper changed etc. so basically tried my very best to satisfies her! why still cry! 

anyway as for the next two naps , I will latch her play with her and put her down to bed once it hits 1-1.5 hours which includes the time to latch her.

during the evening 5 plus or 6, I will wash her up and changed her into her PJ to prepare for her night sleep. so far I would say her nap times are pretty consistent. the most difficult ones would be putting her to bed for the night, she usually cries for a while but it’s getting better. I think patient and perseverance is the key! 

Of course there would be exceptions when it comes to weekends.

she is down for her afternoon nap with no crying after wake time of an hour including feeding. yay!

the initial days of sleep training was tough, you have to endure the crying and be consistent. This is CL at 10pm trying to pat pat her to sleep after night feed back in August, came a long way to get her settled into her sleep routine. she is predictable, less cranky and fussy as compared to earlier days. 

most importantly is to have supportive husband who is also there to hear their cries and get through it together. i couldn’t have done it alone!

even till date, LX at three years old is still sticking to her nap during weekends and her bedtime is at 9pm daily. she slept through the night without feed when she turns 5-6 months if I recalled correctly. rested kids = happy parents!

so ideally after 9pm, we could have some us time! the initial month is crazy, we don’t even have time for each other but it’s slowly getting better.

just did a breast massage because the milk blister ain’t going away after weeks! I have tried pricking it myself, soak before latching but nothing helps! It’s so so painful that I have got no choice but to get help from Aunty Lynn! as usual she is so accommodating to come at my requested timing and her skills is superb! is been a while since it is so soft and the massage is not as painful as I thought it will be.