April 30, 2009

Infant Formula & Refrigerator's Malfunction

Baby Chloe's milk consumption has increased to 6oz. per feed every 3 - 4 hours, and it is definitely making the supply of breast milk insufficient. Fortunately, I stored a number of packets in my freezer, and we managed accommodate Baby Chloe's appetite for now. Anyway, Mama's plan to breastfeed Baby until her 6 months old which means I must cope with the supply for another 30 days.
I think it will gets easier since I have already introduced Baby Chloe with the Semi-Solid Meal. Furthermore, we have replaced her night feed to a Infant Formula, so I guessed it is not so difficult for me to complete my mission at the end of May.
Hahaha, I realised that I have the tendency to go out of topic all the times. What I have just written is totally unrelated to my title. Hahaha..Confused confused. Why Infant Formula? Why Refrigerator's Malfunction? Actually, IT IS RELATED.
As per what I had just mentioned of Baby Chloe's increased appetite, She managed to finished the whole tin of Infant Formula without wasting. For the past two months, we have thrown 2 tins of unfinished powder because we needed 3-4 scoops only per nights.
In April, Baby Chloe finished the full tin of powder without any waste. Hooray! She's been consuming the expensive Special Formula - Enfalac HA - as per recommended by Dr. Ong due to her allergy problem. However, I did not really see any major allergic issue, so I told Hubby to buy the Enfalac Normal for Baby Chloe. *Sigh* I am not sure how the taste differs from the Special and the normal, after she drank 2oz, she had a reflux. I think it is almost 2oz of milk that had been thrown out.
Ok, I know, I know, My fault. It is not the Infant Formula's error. *SIGH* I have a special Baby! But tonight, I will try to feed her again. I believe it is a matter of adapting, I don't want her to get used to the "special" thing. I want her to be able to adapt to normal things like us. That's why most of the time when my PIL told me to let Baby Chloe us special soup, special meal, special cloths etc, I always reject him. I know he wants the best for Baby Chloe but sometimes, they just have to adapt to NORMAL things like all of us do. Once she is so used to SPECIAL things, it will eventually makes her life difficult.
Alright, return to the topic of the day. Hahaha...Refrigerator's Malfunction. I have to say sorry to Baby Chloe this time. Poor Baby! Baby Chloe was fed with the sour breastmilk. This is Papa's fault!!!!! Baby Chloe couldn't take in the Normal I/Formula, so we had to feed her breastmilk before putting her to sleep. I didn't breastfeed her directly because I was expressing in the room. Papa warmed up the breastmilk from the fridge, and Grandma fed Baby Chloe. If I knew this is happening, I would choose to stop the expressing and breastfeed her directly. In the middle of feed, Baby Chloe vomited again. Now, this worried me a lot. Twice in a row. I quickly stopped expressing and went out and checked out what was going on. At that time, Baby Chloe was still happily kicking and playing, no complains shown from her face or voice. So, I take it as She was still quite full from her previous feed.
Amazingly, Baby Chloe managed to sleep through the night without any additional feed. Well, I take it as a GOOD thing lor. So, I woke up early in the morning (not so early actually 7.30am), quickly took out a bottle of breastmilk from the refrigerator and heat up. Then, I realised that the bottle is not cold at all and finally found out the refrigerator is not working properly. The first thing that came in my mind was "quickly check all the milk".
*SIGH SIGH SIGH* All milk turned sour because they were not stored at the desired temperature. I was so angry!!!!!!! I was forced to throw away total of full 4 bottles of milk!!!!! What to do? ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY! 4 Full bottles means total of 3 pumps!!!! Means ONE DAY pump!!!! I am pumping 6-8oz. each time, 3 times a day. So I threw away total of 20oz. of breastmilk! I had no other way to release my anger, so I put it as Papa's fault. Because he made Baby Chloe drank SOUR milk last night. Because he redeemed the stupid refrigerator from HSBC. It might not happened if this refrigerator is purchased by CASH!!!! All his FAULT. I felt so bad this morning! Wasted one day effort!!!! And then PAPA MADE MY BABY DRANK SOUR MILK!!!!!!!
Stupid I/Formula & Stupid Refrigerator!!!!!!!!!!

April 24, 2009

Fun Playtime with Baby Chloe







Introduction to Semi Solid Meal - Porridge


Plain Porridge - Recipe
Ingredient :
- One small pinch of white rice
- One small pinch of short grain brown rice
- 8oz. of water

Steps :
1. Wash the white rice and brown rice together.
2. Put the mixed rice into the crockpot with 8oz. of water
3. Slow cook it for 3 hours
4. Blend the porridge using a electric blender until it is super fine.


I tried making rice cereal with the recipe found online. So I did as per advised. First, I grind the rice to powder form, then cook it for 10 mins. But I didn't feed Baby Chloe with this recipe given. After I finished cooking, I realise that I did not wash the rice. But think about it, if I wash the rice, I won't be able to grind the rice into powder form. Also, cook for 10 mins is not enough as I can still taste the uncooked rice which I didn't managed to powdered it totally. Perhaps this is the "guai lo" style. I still prefer the "cina" style. Slow cook the rice is better than cooking it the normal way. Slow cook will make the porridge smooth and minimize water loss during the cooking process.

I didn't mix any milk this time because I still not able to judge how much Baby Chloe can take in. The first time, I added in two tablespoon of breastmilk into the porridge but she didn't finish and became wasted. Since, this is considered as trial feeding, so I fed her about 5 - 6 teaspoon only. Like the last time, she cried before we managed to feed her all the remaining. Mama ended up rushing up to the nursery room to breastfeed baby. Notti Girl!!!!!



Baby Chloe is learning to eat porridge. She did a very good job even though she still doesn't really how to swallow it. Considering it as her second attempt, good job!

Can't Wait To Hold Her Own Bottle



Baby Chloe starts to recognise her milk bottle at her 4th month. She would be kicking hard whenever she sees Mama warming up her milk bottle or Papa preparing the infant formula for her. As I mentioned before, Baby Chloe is showing her personality more and more. She is quite impatient like Mama, which I admit that this is not a good thing to inherit from me. :P Because of her impatience, she would always reach her hand out to grab the bottle whenever we prepare ourself to feed her. That's how she learned to hold her own bottle. At her 5th month , which is now, she can actually hold her own bottle without our hand supporting it.

Wow, Baby Chloe can't wait to tell the world that she has grown up fast and that she is learning new things everyday.

Bom Bom (Bathing) Time

Baby Chloe loves it when Grandma bombom (bathe) her.
Baby Chloe's Bath Time Friend - The Yellow Duckling

The Tub is too small for Baby Chloe's size now.

We never have any problem bathing Baby Chloe. She loves it so much that she would kicked her legs and moves her hands to show her excitement. We bathe her two times a day since the weathere is here is always so hot & humid. After every bath, she would feel refreshed and happy. Mama does not get to bathe her every day, but I make sure I bathe Baby Chloe myself every sunday. :)

April 20, 2009

Introduction to Semi-Solid Food : Porridge

It is recommended for babies to start their first solid meal at the age of 6 months old, but most of them is capable to accept semi-solid meal at the age of 4 months old. Baby Chloe is 5 months old today and I have decided to introduce the first semi-solid meal to her today.

Ingredients :-
one small pinch of Jasmine Rice
2 1/2 cup of water
2 tbsp breastmilk
*** Wanted to use brown rice instead, but my mum said brown rice is unprocessed rice so it is courser than the processed rice and it is not so easy to digest. Does anyone know whether is it true? No time to google it yet as I always thought unprocessed food is better than processed?

Steps :-
1. Rinse half hands full of Jasmine Rice with the Crockpot.
2. Add in 2 1/2 cup of plain water.
3. Slow cook for 3 hours
4. Once the porridge is ready, scoop one full tablespoon into a bowl.
5. Mix 2 tbsp of breastmilk into the bowl of porridge.

Baby Chloe was curious at her very first spoon of porridge. First, Mama fed her with a spoon instead of a bottle. Second, the porridge texture is definitely thicker than the milk that she normally consumed. However, she didn't reject the porridge. Her curiosity makes her thrilled and she started to move her hands and legs to indicate to Mama that she wanted another spoon.

The second spoon of porridge to her; she was trying to figure out how to take in the porridge. The method of drinking milk with a bottle or breastfeeding is absolutely different from taking in semi-solid food. She uses lots of tongues action in order to maintain the milk flow from the bottle thus she doesn't know how to consume the porridge. ** Well, most of porridge was wasted!

She started to get very impatient after a few small spoons feed. Haha...First, she was not getting the food into her stomach since she doesn't know how to swallow it. Second, I was feeding her very slowly to make sure I scooped most of the liquid instead of the rice and also to make sure it is at the right temperature to consume.

Her impatience led to WU NGA WU NGA WU NGA. I used to think her WU NGA WU NGA was cute. *sigh* This is not the case anymore. Her WU NGA WU NGA WU NGA turned into YELLING more than a cry. She fiercefully cried to show her unhappiness to Mama. To be honest, the continuous of Baby crying non-stop and not knowing how to stop them from crying can make one crazy and frustrated! Mama ended up breastfeeding her to calm her down while I left my mum cleaned up the mess of porridge at the living room.

"Baby Chloe, I know you are getting more and more impatient. Let Mama tell you this, Mama is also not a patient Mama, so you better behave well. Don't make Mama angry, Otherwise I will be scarier than Uncle Hulk!!"

April 17, 2009

Mama's dream...

I had a weird dream last night. Papa married another woman in China in my dream. Weird! I could remember every single moment when I woke up this morning but after a long hour of work, I can barely remember anything. What I know is that, Papa married another woman in China. When I found out that he married another woman, I demanded for divorce. He immediately agreed! I was very very sad packing my clothes slowly hoping that Papa will come to stop me and tell me to stay. However, Papa didn't say a single to make me stay, he went to play basket ball with his friends. Then, my MIL & PIL were both in the scene. My MIL was trying to persuade me to stay but I rejected. My PIL was also very sad in the scene ... haha...he hugged me and apologised to me.

The decision of divorce also made me decide to have baby Chloe with me from Monday to Friday when Papa can have Baby Chloe for Saturday & Sunday. Hahaha...

I told Papa about decision in my dream. He asked : "How come you get to see Baby for 5 days a week and I only get to see her 2 days a week."

"If this really happened, I don't mind exchanging with you. You can have Baby Chloe from Monday to Friday and I am more than happy to Baby Chloe for Saturday and Sunday only." I replied

"Why?" Papa pondered.

"Because I will be working from Monday to Friday, I won't be able to have quality time with Baby. If I can have both Saturday & Sunday means I can FULL TWO DAYS of quality with her." I explained.

April 15, 2009

Lack of Sleep Topic again?!

Yeah, when it comes to Baby Chloe and Mama, the topic of "sleep" will appear and appear again. It is a never ending story! What to do?

Mama put Baby Chloe to sleep at 11.00pm after her last feed. But Baby Chloe refused to go to sleep, and she started talking & giggling a lot with her Baby language which I don't understand at all. To entertain her, I responded to her giggles. After a while, I felt it was not right to actually respond to her as it will prompt her to even talk more and stay awakes being entertained by Mama. So, I decided to ignore her. Guess what? She knew that she is not getting any response from me, and she started to make noise by crying really really loud. I raised my voice and warned her if she continued to cry, I will not love her anymore. She seemed to understand what i was saying, immediately she stopped crying. I thought to give her a pat and put her to sleep as a reward. The quietness didn't last longer than one breath, and there she went WU NGA WU NGA WU NGA. Maybe due to tiredness, I was getting a little angry and shouted :" Baby Chloe, stop crying, otherwise you go sleep with Kakak Novi" She immediately stopped crying and turned her head left side and stared at the Sleepy Papa, hoping that she would get a rescue from her Papa. Hahaha....

Anyway, Mama struggled until 3am then finally Baby Chloe is deep aslept, and then I moved Baby Chloe from her sarong to my bed. I know it is an irony. I was so against sarong, putting baby next to me ...eventually it is all happening. Hahaha...No choice. But anyhow, luckily I put baby next to me as the angry thunder storm woke both of us up at 5.30am this morning. Baby Chloe was frightened, but she didn't cry. Maybe she felt protected with Papa and Mama next to her.

With all that's happening so far, I finally understand that there is no right or wrong way to deal with baby. Every baby is very individual, and everyone has different tactic to deal with baby. I was like the mum who thought : SARONG is no good for baby, BOTTLE FEED is no good for baby, ROCKING is no good for baby, HOLDING BABY TOO MUCH is no good for baby etc etc. Sigh, eventually I myself broke all these so called rules. Then, I realise that there is no set of rules. I shouldn't set any rules or schedules for babies, I should just let her to be freed of what she is comfortable with. As long as she's healthy and happy. What's more important than that. Of course, along all this accommodating her needs, I must remind myself to educate baby and make her understand all that she is getting is because we love her. I want to try my best to love her but not spoilt! Talk to her more, educate her more.

Sigh, it is definitely not an easy job as a mother. It makes it even more difficult to be a mother with not enough sleep!

April 14, 2009

As a BUSY working mum..

I guess nobody understands why am I so busy at work lately, because I don't even understand why. My boss must be thinking what the h*ll am I busy at when the sales turnover has dropped simultaneously with the downfall of the economic. Don't ask me how and why. I just know that I have tonnes of works to do and my work load is like a bottomless well. Even if I managed to get todays' work done, there is always tomorrow's new task waiting for me. That's what my colleagues always say: "DAY DAY NEW!!" (Means every day there is definitely something new for you to do). What to do? I have to handle from KITCHI-MIAO job to management job while learning on the products specification. What's KITCHi-MIAO job? Let me name some examples like reply a simple email to overseas Principal which can be easily done by my boss's secretary, like making a hotel booking for guess which anyone else in the office can do, like making calls to telekom to complain the inactive of streamyx line, ALAMAK!

I have to do all this KITCHI-MIAO job while my boss is pressing me to read all the quotation thoroughly and act adequately in order to achieve sales turnover. My boss is also pressing to do product catalogues and website to improve company's image. The problem is my boss doesn't understand to really be involved into marketing job, I need a 100% concentration to plan & implement. Also, I need a team to work with me and not simply find "Ah Chu Ah Mao Ah Gao" who do not have a single knowledge about designing to create a catalogue! *sigh* My Boss always say to me : " I ask you to do, you can ask your girls to do for you. When I ask you to do, you don't have to do it yourself." It is so easy for him to make this statement. He doesn't understand that I have to spend more time teaching than doing it myself. Of course, I don't mind spending a longer time teaching and checking but my boss is always rushing me for the end products. He never allows me have enough time to even TEACH! I usually ended up doing it myself because to "debug" is more complicated than to re-write a new complete program.

Well, I must be fair to my boss also. He's paying me, and I have to deliver the job! He's the boss anyway! Besides, as a boss-cum-father, he's been very lenient to me lately. He never complain that I arrive work late. Haha... what to do, I stay up really late for Baby's erratic sleeping hours. Well, I still have to thank my boss for being understanding at this particular matter.

As a Mama of Baby Chloe, sometimes I just feel I am not doing enough or I am not spending enough time with my Baby Chloe. Sis Elena saw me online last Saturday at about 2pm, she thought I was at home while msning me. I told her that I was still at work, and she reminded me that I can never finish work, and I can never get back the time lost with Baby Chloe. It was like a CLICK! D*mn it! She's right! For 5 seconds! Then, after I got back to work again. What to do???!!!! Hahaha....She makes me feel guilty la! That's why I dedicate my Sunday for Baby Chloe only and noone else can take away my sunday happy time with my Baby Chloe.

April 12, 2009

Baby Hayden's Fullmoon Party

Last night, Mama brought Baby Chloe to attend Baby Hayden's Fullmoon Party. It was raining heavily, Papa suggested not to bring Baby Chloe out but Mama insisted since it is so closed. Luckily, Mama insisted to bring Baby Chloe along! *Happy* Baby Chloe met with Baby Hayden, She's a beautiful girl like me. Mama and Auntie Nicole both agreed that Baby Chloe & Baby Hayden are equally beautiful. Baby Chloe is so glad to meet with my first Baby Friend, and I will ask Mama to bring me to visit Baby Hayden more often. Therefore, I told myself that I have to behave really good in order to impress Mama.

Other than Baby Hayden, I met up with Mama's friends too. There is Auntie Mic, Hilde, Cheryll, Anjoe, Weili and Uncle Boonyeow, Stephen. It was so exciting!! Everyone starts with play with Baby Chloe and I enjoyed it so much. In order to make Mama feel comfortable to bring Baby Chloe out the next time, I had decided to behave really good. Baby Chloe didn't cry or throw tantrum. When I feel sleepy, I just slept quietly in Mama's arm. When I feel like socializing with Aunties & Uncles, I just got up quietly and gave friendly smile.

Overall, I could feel Mama & Papa were both very satisfied with Baby Chloe's behaviour of the night. A big Applause for ME! Yeah!

April 10, 2009

No updates means good news?

Haven't been updating my blog recently, I guess many thought that Baby Chloe must have been a very good girl and Mama has no complains! WRONG WRONG WRONG!

Baby Chloe is still my notti little princess. She is still having her erratic sleeping hours and continuously disturbing Papa & Mama's dreamland. I have been very very busy with work. How busy? Like I always tell Papa, busy till there is no time for me to drink water! Hey, this is true! This is how busy i am at work! I have to do quotations, I have to train new staffs, I have to check my staffs' work, I have to report to my boss, I have to handle Overseas Principals, I have to make sure all enquires are sent, I have to do catalogue, I have to update website, I have to check invoices, .......so many things to do. Well, of course I am not saying I am the only in the world. Everyone is also busy with their own things, be it work or family!

Well, this explain why Mama never blog to complain about Baby Chloe and Papa. Hahaha..... No Time!

Baby Chloe is sleeping very late every nights, about 12.30 - 1.30pm. Sleeping late is not an issue, I can still take it. What is bothering me is that I need to wait for her to go into deep sleep then only I am able to get myself to my bed! For instance, if I put her to sleep at 11.30pm, I need about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hour to wait for her to totally deep asleep, otherwise I have to start all over again. FINE! Sleeping late, long waiting time. I can still take it. Baby Chloe is so notti that she would wake up in the middle of the night , about 4 - 5pm, and start to cry to seek for attention. I tried feeding her, but it does not interest her at all. All she wanted is someone to listen to her YAK YAK YAK! OMG..... tiring!

Baby Chloe, How come you are so notti la! Angry !

April 8, 2009

Baby Chloe Strong Legs - 4 Month 2 Weeks old

Baby Chloe is growing every day. I am considering to put her on a walker. I heard from my friend that Doctors do not recommend Walker for Babies. Not sure what is the reason behind it. Anyway, I have a Baby Walker at home which was a gift from my colleagues for Baby Chloe's Fullmoon, why waste it? My mum put me on the walker when I was little, so I see no harm using the Walker.

Baby Chloe is now 4 Month & 2 Weeks old. I could feel her strong legs when I put her in her standing position (of course I have to hold/carry her tightly). I am guessing with the strength of her legs kicking now, she might be able to move around herself using the Walker.

But, is it a good idea to put her on the walker now? She doesn't even know to crawl yet. hmm... let me reconsider again.

April 1, 2009

A little change for Mama's Blogging Zone

I was impressed by Sis Elena's Blog New Look, so I went to the net and search some free template to download. I ended up messing up my blog. Haha...eventually I decided to keep it simple by using what is provided and played around with its features.

I played with the fonts and colours, well Papa said the change is not noticeable at all. Well, still there is a CHANGE. Hahaha...I changed my profile picture but I thought it is too small to be profile picture. I will try to find something nice with a closeup shot for the profile pic tomorrow IF I am free.

The most obvious change is that I added one of my favourite picture as the background of my header. Hahaha..... That's ALL!