Mothering Mothers 2009 (2)

Attention to all contributors

Please drop your gifts at the listed drop-off points by Friday (8th May) noon and please let us know if you have any problem regarding this.

For those who interested to contribute in cash, you can make your number of pledges in numerical order in the comment box in Christene's post and pay the money to the account the a.c. number as follows:

RHB Bank a.c. number : 2140-71000-98939

(and please leave a comment on how much each of you have banked in on which day and an email will be mailed to you with an email address for the printscreen, if any). Please take note each gift will be RM20, so it is up to you how many gifts you want to contribute.

Number of pledges:

1. Mama23beas: 5
2. Moo Mommy: 10
3. Lavender: 3
4. Geok Hong: 2
5. sofhib: 5
6. Eydd: 10
7. Charine: 5
8. Christene : 5
9. Chanel :5
10. Lyza: 5 (at least)
11. Eida: 5
12. hui-wearn: 5
13. michelle soo: 3
14. Misha Paris's Mum - 5
15. Jacss - 5
16. Amy - 5
17. Jessytai - 2
18. Eve - 2
19. Anggie - 3
20. Elaine - 5
21. Hijackqueen - 2
22. Pek Imm - 3
23. WCP - 2
24. NST - 2.5
25. Sqkiki - 2
26. Javapot - 6
27. Lilian - 5
28. Annieq - 3
29. Adrine -5
30. Wai Han - 1
31. Redbabe - 2
32. Eva Razali, Delliah, Liza Masrina and Ninuk - 13
33. Sheryl Hen – 3
34. JO-N : 5
35. Vedis – 2
36. Pohling – 2
37. Shamira - 5
38. Zainab - 4
39. Inbha - 3
40. Salmiah - 1
41. Suzana - 1
42. Nalini - 1
43. Alina Grace - 3

Total 174

Drop-off points

1. Lily - AlimKids Bookstore,

6-1 USJ 9/5Q,

Subang Business Centre,

47600 UEP Subang Jaya.

2. Vivian - Fabulous Mom Sdn Bhd
2A, Jalan TK2/1C
Taman Kinrara, Seksyen 2
47100 Puchong

3. Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam - email Elaine at dragonmummy@gmail.com for instructions

Volunteers at UMMC (limited to 12)

1. Mama23beas
2. Sofhib
3. Geok Hong
4. Shamira
5. Christene
6. Elaine
7. Wai Han
8. Redbabe
9. Yan nie
10. Alina Grace
11. Feiru

Please confirm your participation with Ros. Due to the hospital regulation, there is a limit of 12 participants in the visit. Those who are coming can bring their gifts on D-Day, but we need the number of pledges so that we can plan better. For example which wards to go if we have extra or what to do if we have less, number of trolleys that we need etc.

Full Details on the Mothering Mothers 2009

Mothering Mothers 2009

(Adapted from Ros’s blog)
The idea was first initiated by Lil. On Mother's Day in 2004, 2005 and 2007, a group of moms from MMB celebrated Mother's Day in the most wonderful way: distributing gifts the other moms who were in a hospital taking care of their sick children. The gift might be small but being there, maybe only a few minutes listening to the mothers really affected us in special ways.

According to Ros

To me, running around taking care of 4 (soon 5) kids while having a full-time job, and without a live-in helper is nothing compared to what some of the mothers have gone through, especially those with critically or terminally ill children. (Ros, I personally had to agree with this too….and no wonder you didn’t need to take diet pills to keep her slim body even though after giving birth to 4 kids and another one on the way.)

I still remember vividly, the expression on some of the mothers' faces upon learning that the presents were for them on that Mother's Days. For most it was truly a surprise as normally people visiting wards to distribute to the patients. It was truly meaningful to me and a lot of us who were there. We were truly humbled by that experience. All a mom wants is to have her child or children to be healthy, loved, happy and well.

Here's some recap from the previous events in Ros’s Blog.

How you can contribute?

1. Gifts

As much as we love to have each contributor to put their own personal choice/touch to the gifts, we are aware of certain matters regarding sensitivities related to religion, belief or taboos. Breakable items and perishable food are also not suitable. So we have come up with the following list of gifts:

• Non-perishable food/beverage
• Toiletries
• Journal / Diary (better the one without rigid dates daily)
• Photo album
• Framed painting /pictures of landscapes, beautiful moments, etc
• Mini cushions (for hugs)
• Mini fancy containers / boxes
• Small elec. appliances
• Comfy slippers or socks
• As for others: mini card + dry fragrant flower, scarves, aromatherapy candles, magnetic decorative item and sarong can be put as side gifts if contributors like.

Packaging

Normal shoe-box size, but not so rigid - size should not be too big or small as we don't want people to think we do double standard. Not necessarily in shoe boxes, some mothers came with nice paper bags etc depends on their creativity. Make sure they are properly wrapped or tied for easy transportation. We agreed that the price per gift should be under RM20.

2. Be in the hospital

Due to some reasons, the event will be held on Saturday a day before Mother's Day 2009. More info as follows:

Venue: Menara Timur, UMMC

Date: May 9th, 2009

Time: 9.30 am to 12 pm

3. Picking up or dropping off

Volunteer to do picking up or offer a place for dropping off. Keep the pledges coming in and pass the words. Feel free to ask any question.

Part 2c: Solution to reduce frozen breastmilks in the Freezer

Since Mummy cut pumping session from 3Xs to 2Xs, the freezers was still full but not overfull. Our apartment freezer was still 2/3 full and Sam Yee’s freezer was ½ full. After the throwing session, a week later, Mummy threw another about 15-20oz breastmilk.

Mummy had been thinking and thinking … (how to rest when Mummy’s mind kept thinking of all sorts of things...breatmilk storage lar, freezer lar…Ariel’s solid lar etc….).

Last weekend, Mummy came out with an idea and tried for this week and looks promising to reduce freezer space.

How?
Mummy found that freshly pumped breastmilk and chilled, taste ok. Mummy tried to mix 2-3oz into Jeriel’s milk without Jeriel knowing. Jeriel finished up his milk like normal. Hmmm….Since Jeriel accepted the freshly chilled breastmilk (he hated the thawed frozen breastmilk), why not Mummy gives both Jeriel and Ariel freshly chilled breastmilk and for Ariel, Mummy would mix with some thawed frozen ones.

So since last Monday 20April09, Mummy actually kept the freshly pumped breastmilk in the fridge for the next day feeding (Ariel). Mummy gave some of the freshly pumped to Jeriel at night and the next day morning breakfast. As for Ariel, Mummy would top up the balance with thawed frozen milk.

For example
Monday 20April09
Mummy pumped about 16oz (from 2 pumping sessions). Then Mummy chilled the milk in fridge. Mix about 2-3oz chilled breastmilk with Jeriel’s normal milk powder for Jeriel at night. Mummy then thawed from freezer about 5-6oz frozen milk.

Tuesday 21April09
Morning, Jeriel drank 2-3oz chilled breastmilk with his normal milk powder. For the whole day, Ariel drank a mix of the chilled breastmilk + thawed frozen breastmilk. Mummy told PohPoh to let Ariel drink the chilled ones first and the thawed frozen last. Usually by evening, if any extra milk which Ariel didn’t finish will be thrown away and Mummy would direct feed her to keep the supply/production. Very ‘saying’ yar but like one of the super mummy whom Mummy met from last weekend, Farrah said, “Think positive that we are throwing away because we have too much breastmilk for our babies...”

How was it?
So for till now, the freezer didn’t have any extra milk being added for this whole week. Mummy wished to make space in the freezer to make more fresh frozen food for Ariel since her solid intake had improved.

For time being, Jeriel and Ariel would be enjoying freshly chilled breastmilk without Jeriel knowing…shhhhh please don’t let him know. Ariel would have a mixture of freshly chilled and thawed frozen. Once the level drop a reasonable level, then maybe Mummy would only freeze any extra from the daily pumped. Mummy got to see how it goes. Ariel used to take 20 oz per daytime and now about 16oz. Mummy would think she would reduce once we increased her solid intake from 1x to 2x a day.

Keeping Mummy’s finger cross and would update more in future if any… Mummy hoped that this would reduce Mummy’s stress before Mummy started to have more pimples and required acne treatments.

Other related posts on Breastfeeding Experiences.

Dying?

Have you ever think of what is life after death? It is quite scary to some people but to some, it is God’s will. Nowadays, lifespan age is getting shorter and everyday a lot of people of dying. Majority of people is not dying due to old age or due to natural disaster. Most of the cases are due to sickness especially cancer. Cancer also come in several type such as Mesothelioma cancer, Lung cancer, Breast cancer and almost any part of body, the cancers cells will just attack with no mercy.

Jeriel’s 5th Birthday

Yes, Mummy knew this is a long overdue post more than one month from Jeriel’s actual birthday…sorry…

It was a simple with no big party for Jeriel but lots of cakes. After all the cakes, maybe Mummy should consider to cleanse and detoxify Mummy’s digestive system especially after reading about Colonix reviews.

13Mar09 Friday – Kindy
Jeriel’s birthday fell on Kindy Term holidays. So we decided to celebrate on 13Mar09 (Friday) which was the last day before the holidays started. At first we thought of just make it simple by getting one cake. However, the price was almost the same as getting cupcakes. Getting cupcakes would be a better option because Jeriel loved distributing cupcakes to his classmates and less messy as no cutting cake was required. This year Jeriel wanted all the characters in Winnie the Pooh and the gang (Last year was Mickey Mouse and the gang). He got 11 characters with each character on 6 cupcakes. So PaPa designed for Jeriel by arranging 11 different characters in a row. There were 6 rows and 1 row in the middle was Jeriel’s name.

19Mar09 Thursday – Actual Birthday
PaPa was busy. Mummy took off from 19-20 March 2009 to spend time with Jeriel and Ariel. 19Mar09, Mummy took Jeriel to eat at TGIF, Sunway Pyramid (a place we didn’t always go for our meal) with Ariel, KongKong and PohPoh. Jeriel had free meal and also free cake. Then we walked around.

PaPa had class that nite but fortunately, his class over quite early that PaPa rushed to a few bakery shops hunting for small cupcakes to celebrate on his actual birthday. PaPa managed to get two and we had our mini celebration at home just four of us.

20Mar09 Friday – Family Outing
PaPa tried to come back a bit early than his normal time (yes PaPa’s normal time was usually about 730pm or later). Jeriel loved Japanese food. PaPa wanted to bring Jeriel to Midvalley to play in the play area in Jusco. Jeriel would usually get to play during special occasions which included his birthdays. Since it was late and we wanted less crowded place, we ended up in a Japanese Restaurant in TheGardens. Jeriel loved every moment. Don’t forget Ariel enjoying seeing the menu too… It was our family rare moment to eat in this type of place which we considered luxury to us.

After dinner, we rushed over to Jusco to let Jeriel play a few games before the shopping mall closed. Jeriel had fun time playing with PaPa and Ariel also had fun riding on one of the ride with Jeriel.

21Mar09 Saturday– Extended Family Celebration
KongKong, PohPoh, MahMah, Tai Pak, Pak Leong, Yi Yee, Sam Yee, Sam Yee Cheong, Aunty PohPoh Pat, Topaz and Orion all came and squeezed in our small apartment to see Jeriel cut his Ben-10 cake (Jeriel wanted Strawberry Yogurt Cake from Secret Recipe – quite pricey but since there was no any big party, we decided it would be ok to get one for him). KongKong bought some Satay. We ate cake and Satay while chit chatting. Jeriel got lots of gifts and mostly mini Lego as requested by Jeriel because it would be too expensive to get the big set Lego. Jeriel actually wanted the big set Lego which costs a few hundred but we negotiated with him that it would be too costly, so he was ok with the mini Lego.

22Mar09 Sunday – Church
We bought a mini cake for Jeriel to celebrate with his church friends. The teachers prayed for him and he ate the cake happily with his friends.

Blessed Birthday Jeriel boy,

We hope you were happy with the simple celebration..
We love you a lot..
Love,

PaPa, Mummy & Ariel girl

Ariel is 9 months old

Ariel's weight had dropped from 10kg to about 9.5kg but she looked taller. Well, maybe because she is more mobile now and a bit taller that there is no increase in her weight. Hopefully Mummy didn't have to hunt for the best weight loss products for her when she grew up.

Ariel is a very jovial person and also fierce. She would grasp her KorKor’s shirt if her KorKor irritated her and refused to let go. If she was angry with someone, she would turn her head away and refused to see eye to eye with that person.

Her breastmilk intake has dropped from 20 oz to about 16oz. How come? Her solid is improving a lot now.

Solid intake
Two weeks ago, Mummy bought broccoli, sweet potato and pumpkin. On Sunday night, Mummy steamed the food and PaPa helped to semi-blend the food because we didn’t want to make soo mushy food for Ariel (wanted her to learn to chew). Then PaPa placed the food into the covered ice cube container. Mummy was busy with Ariel who was quite ‘manja’ due to teething. Mummy learnt that it would be better to freeze all the fresh food since her intake was small portion to avoid all the fresh vegetable got spoilt/rotten. The nutrients would be well preserved when freeze as compare to keep in the fridge.

We introduce one cube of sweet potato, the increase to one cube of sweet potato and one cube of broccoli. She was adjusting well. Then we added millet cereal with sweet potato and broccoli. Last weekend, Ariel’s intake had increase a bit and even though she was slow in eating her food, Mummy got to be very very patient, but deep in Mummy’s heart, Mummy was pleased with her progress. PaPa and KorKor had been praising Ariel when she finished up her food.

Last night, Mummy introduced a bit of banana after feeding her millet+sweet potato. She loved it even though initially she was using her tongue to lick (did some testing first). Last nite also, Mummy steamed sweet potato and spinach to freeze. This time no blender because Mummy wanted her to learn to chew, so Mummy just cut smaller chunks for her to chew. This week, Ariel’s new taste would be spinach. Mummy also bought papaya and banana for Jeriel and Ariel. Papaya would be ripening much later. This week, new taste for Ariel would be banana, papaya and spinach. Mummy hoped Ariel would be able to adapt the new taste by this week, hopefully...

Mobility
She was moving non stop and everywhere. How she moved? Like an army crawling on the belly with 2 arms. Ariel would be on fours (legs and hands) but when moving time, back to belly and arms like worm. Last Sat, while KorKor was busy doing his work, Ariel crawled and was under the table disturbing KorKor. PaPa took out the gate and fixed at the kitchen entrance. Besides that, PaPa was busy vacuuming the floor for his Princess.

Outing
Outing with Ariel was and is always fun. We all enjoyed going out as family (four of us). Ariel would sleep in the carseat or the pram while we just going wherever we would want to go.

MPH Distributor Warehouse 28 April - 03 May 2009

28 April – 03 May 2009
9am to 7pm
Ground Floor Warehouse
Bangunan TH
MPH Warehouse
NO 5 Jalan Bersatu 13/4
Petaling Jaya
[Opposite Dataran Hamodal]
603-7958 1688

Special Offers
i) The first 200 customers daily who spend RM 200 and above will receive a special goodie bag free PLUS if you are a DiGi subscriber or MPH Readers’ Circle member, you will also receive a pair of exclusive shotglass free.
ii) Star Two readers will enjoy further marked down prices on 28 selected titles. Lookout for the highlights on 24 & 28 April in The Star.
iii) FREE books up for grabs for the readers of theSun and Malay Mail. Lookout for the write ups on 27 April.

T&C applies

Fabulousmom – Breastfeeding Support Meeting for Working Mothers

Everyone knows Vivian from Fabulousmom. Mummy got to know her since Jeriel was a baby. She was one of the wonderful mummies who supported Mummy that Mummy managed to breastpump for Jeriel for 1 year. Mummy also kept disturbing her while breastfeeding Ariel. With all her tips and help, Mummy managed to breastfeed Ariel even though initially Mummy had inverted nipples.

Mummy knows this discussion will benefit many working mummies. Don't miss it...

So, try to make it for this short discussion on 18 April09, at 10.30am, at The Breastfeeding cafe. Working and breastfeeding mummies will be there to exchange views, experiences and knowledge on working and breastfeeding (pumping).

How to register?

Fee is RM5 per person inclusive of a cup of Sacred Tea for breastfeeding mothers and other drinks will be served for pregnant mothers and fathers! Babies are welcome. Prior registration is required.

Please email orders@fabulousmom.com to register. Walk-ins will be entertained (subject to seats availability).

Payment can be made into our Maybank account as below:

Account Name: FM ONLINE

Account Number: 514271256321

Fee paid is not refundable if the cancellation is made within the last 48 hours of the event's date. Fee will be refundable in the form of store credit. Address and location map here.

Vivian’s profile

Vivian Foo, is a certified lactation counsellor attached to University Malaya Medical Centre and Jabatan Kesihatan Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur. She has completed her professional breastfeeding counselling course in UMMC in year 2004. She has dedicated herself to providing breastfeeding counselling to mothers on a voluntary basis since then.

She is a proud mother of 2, Eugene (5) and Eu Anne (3). Both her kids are breastfed. Eugene was breastfed until the age of 4 and Eu Anne is currently still nursing. She was working full time for 15 months after she delivered Eugene and was selected as Today’s Parent’s Working and Breastfeeding Mom of the year 2003. She is also the founder and one of the directors of Fabulous Mom Sdn Bhd.

Pureen Warehouse 18 & 19 Apr 2009

18 – 19 April 2009
10am - 6pm
Summit Company (M) SDN BHD

Lot 6, Jalan 19/1,

46300 Petaling Jaya

+603 7628 8888
http://pureen.com.my/ (to get a clearer Map)

Pureen, Dr Mist, Pureen Pride n Joy, Tracia Toiletries, Baby Care Products, Body Care, Baby Diapers, Apparels, Toiletries, Accesories, INCO Adult Diapers, Adult Toiletries, Sanitary & Maternity Pads

Poney Warehouse 13 - 22 Apr 09

13-22 April 2009
10am - 10pm
Ground FloorAtrium

Shah Alam City Centre (SACC) Mall

+6016 332 0579

http://www.poney.com.my/home.asp (to get a clearer Map)

from RM9 and above, Poney and Renew brand

Fence up the kitchen?

Mummy must be joking to fence up the kitchen?

Staying in landed property used to require fence installation. However, nowadays people are moving towards fenceless home in gated community. Some people just wonder will their home be save without fence with current situation where break-ins are so common?

Back to Mummy’s issue on the kitchen – soon Mummy will need to get PaPa to fix back the gate to block Ariel from accessing the kitchen when she starts to crawl actively. Now, she is actively rolling on the floor.

Which is the most secured job?

Now with the economy getting worst, what is the most secured job? It looks like nothing is secure whether IT jobs, finance jobs, marketing jobs and much other type of jobs. However, some people mention that most probably the education jobs will be more stable and secure because during economy downturn, many jobless people go back to ‘school’.

What do you think?

Mummy hopes all Mummy’s friends will not be retrenched because life will not be easy especially most of us have high commitment to manage.

Lift in a double storey home?

We may have heard of all type of lifts besides the common lifts used in office and shopping mall, there are also cargo lifts, automotive lifts and many others just to name a few.

Sam Yee Cheong is into fabric business and he visits lots of houses. One of the houses which he visits is a double storey house. Well, it is just a normal usual double storey houses but the extra thing is the owner installs a lift in the house even though none of them is on wheelchair. This owner must be a long term planner who plan and design this home for long term purpose – in case when age is catching up and climbing up the staircase will be a challenge.

Our aging desktop…

Our home faithful Dell Desktop which we purchased a few years ago is starting to age. PaPa was trying to check because sometimes the desktop just refuse to on and sometimes it would work fine. It was so unpredictable. Maybe is it due to insufficient computer memory or time to get a new one? PaPa would try to diagnose and see what the source of the problem was. Hopefully we would not need to spend money to get a new one.

We got our photos printed from EOE

Remember Mummy posted on EOE online? Mummy decided to try out their online e-print order. Mummy took quite a long time to get 50 shots of Ariel. We decided to enlarge 8R for Jeriel and Ariel each instead of the family photos.

Mummy just needed to load the photos online and three days later, this parcel arrived. Mummy would have to compliment their fast service. It was much easier than having to save in thumb drive or CD, then taking time to drive to the

Here are the photos…

Now, Mummy would have to find time to arrange Ariel’s photos into the album. PaPa had already framed up Jeriel and Ariel’s 8R photo in the hall.

Our family weekly grocery/marketing shopping…

We used to go for marketing as family on Saturday mornings. However since PaPa started to work on Saturdays, we had to change our routine. We would go to hypermarket on Friday nights to get our grocery and marketing. If some of the things which were expensive and not fresh, we would get it from market on Sunday after church service.

Friday nights would usually be an outing for all four of us. Jeriel would help us to sort the things in the shopping trolley and load the things at the cashier counter while either PaPa or Mummy would check to make sure the items were correctly scanned by the barcode scanner to avoid wrongly scanned or double scanned price. One of us would pack all the things into recycle bags. Yes, we used recycle bags for our shopping.

Ariel? She would be happily sitting in her pram and looking around while PaPa and Mummy running around the whole place. She would sleep in the pram if she was sleepy.

We had a great time together as family…

Jeriel’s birthday update??

Sorry.sorry...it would be almost one month from Jeriel’s birthday and what happen to the updates?

Mummy was and is still caught up with work. Even the camera’s compact flash card was and is still in the card reader following Mummy daily but Mummy had yet to download the photos of Jeriel’s birthday. Mummy would try to update before mid of April before the post became a long overdue posts.

A hint, Jeriel got more than one cake but no big party.