Wednesday 18 September 2013

Last day of work

Today is my last day of work!

No, I have not quit my job, and I am not going to be a stay-at-home-mum forever. It is the beginning of my 5-month maternity leave.

5-month is the longest break I am going to have ever since I started work some seven years ago. Though I will be busy at home wiping backside and changing diapers, and it is probably a little messier and dirtier than my 9-6pm office job, I seriously don't mind at all.

I am going to spend a lot of time cuddling my new born baby. I finally can be there to say "Good morning" when Kah Yen wakes up in the morning. I look forward to husband and Kah Yen coming back home every evening with meals on the table. And I can't wait for our family of four spending quality time together in the evenings before I send the kids to bed one by one.

And there will surely be more me-time and couple time too comparing to when I work full time. I hope to do more reading and journalling during this period. I hope to pick up something new too, probably art & craft so that I can do more meaningful activities together with Kah Yen.

How exciting!

When mummy is not at home

My 3-year old girl is having mood swings pretty often nowadays. She can be happily playing and talking all by herself, but when she is tired, bored, or when she knows it is time to stop playing and go to bed, she will either become very quiet or start whining. I am still not sure how to handle her mood swings. Honestly sometimes I get really annoyed by it. Thanksfully it usually does not last for very long, it doesn't take much effort for us to get her back to her cheeky self again.

Daddy captured these series of photos of her when mummy was not at home one day. She is so used to me welcoming and hugging her at the doorstep every evening when she comes back with Daddy, she was clearly not very happy that day when she found the house was all empty and quiet.

Despite Daddy buying a new smurf for her and building a big castle for all her minions and smurfs, this was her expression when Daddy asked her to pose for a photo.


"OK, I will give you a victory pose. Please get it done quickly."



"I am really not in the mood for any photo. Just one more we are done."


"I said no more photos! If you want you can have my back."



"OK. Take whatever you want. I am too bored I am going to shake my backside a little."



And finally, this cheeky girl was amused by her own actions and started laughing, saving Daddy a tough evening.




Monday 16 September 2013

VBAC (2)

Finally, we have decided to change to a new gynae who is pro-natural and thinks I am a good candidate for VBAC - Vaginal birth after Cesarean.

So I am officially going for VBAC for my second child.

It feels so good after we have made up our mind.

I have been actively reading about natural childbirth, the signs of labor, the stages of labor, and the techniques to prepare for labor and ease labor pain. Though this is my second child I feel like a first-time mom when I am reading up all these, because my first child was in breech position and we have scheduled for Cesarean way in advance, hence all I did was getting myself rested for the operation day.

Reading about labor excites me. Everything about labor is so natural, no, actually is supernatural. God has designed the woman's body to be able to stretch and deliver a 6-8 pounds baby through the birth canal. It is amazing.

The more I read from internet and books, the more I realize I am a believer of natural way of birthing. I believe induction to start contraction early is not necessary unless there is complication threating the mother or baby's life. I think epidural is not perfectly OK to use and it is not a God-given gifts to mommies. I believe using breathing and relaxation techniques to ease the pain of labor instead of medications. If I have known earlier there is HypnoBirthing classes and Doula services available in Singapore, I would certainly have signed for one.

My new gynae, as I mentioned, is pro-natural and makes me feel very comfortable after each visit. He said he will not induce me even if I go past my due date, he doesn't believe a baby will be too big to be born. He will not hook me on bed with IV drips and monitors the minute my contraction starts, instead he asked me to labor at home through the early stage and only when contraction is strong and unbearable, I should check in hospital. He thinks if my cervix is able to dilate fast we can go without epidural. All these give me much assurance.

Of course, a VBAC is still different from a first time vaginal delivery. Fear does come back to me once in a while, but I choose to have faith in my own belief. I trust that God is going to help me deliver this baby beautifully.

My due date is 28 Sep 2013, so I am in the waiting game now.

I came upon this website which contains mommy's first hand sharing of birth stories, covering all different types of labor and of course VBAC. I was very encourage by the stories. The people behind the website provides childbirth class, labor supports and postnatal services. I will surely check out them when I have my next child. Enjoy reading!

http://www.parentlink.org/pregnant_singapore_birth_doula/06stories/categories/doula.htm


Tuesday 10 September 2013

The new cook in the house

Kah Yen is very much into pretend cooking these days, ever since I brought a hand-me-down kitchen set from a colleague home, making me mighty guity that I have left it in my office for nearly 2 months before finally brought it home. I thought, it is just one of those plastic toys that she will play for a while and dump in the corner of the house.

I was wrong. She liked it so much she has been cooking dinner for everybody almost every evening. Husband and I are then invited to her dinner after she finishes cooking.

I love to observe how she play. And through this cooking game I discovered a lot more about her.

(1) She is super organized

More than the husband, more than me! I was actually thinking maybe I could train her to run the whole household by the time she enters primary school. No kidding. The way she cookes her food, the way she lay her plates, fork and spoon, soup and tea. She meticulously puts everything in order before inviting us to her dinner.

(2) She is imaginative

All children are, aren't they? There aren't a lot of ingredients for her to play with, but she can come out with vegetable with egg soup, chilli soup, half-boiled egg soup... (I wonder how do they taste!)

When I take the vegetable soup, she will say "No, Mummy, you must wait, the soup is still hot." When I take the chilli soup, she will warn me "Mummy, the soup is very spicy, you must drink slowly OK?" When I eat the chicken with my fork and spoon, she will stop me "No Mummy, you must use the knife to cut, this chicken is a little bit hard." Sure, you are the chef, whatever you say.

(3) She is imitating good behaviors from us

Sometimes when she calls us for dinner, Daddy is still busy with something. I'd sit down and try to grab the food first, she'd say "No, Mummy, let's wait for Daddy to sit down, then we eat together." Good one. Then when we all sit down, she'd say "OK, everybody, let's pray first before we eat." She will go ahead to say prayer for us. When I ask for water, she replies "Mummy, you must say 'Can I have some water please?'" When I take the whole bowl of soup, she jumps in "No, Mummy, we only have one bowl of soup, you must share." Hmm... Looks like I am the one need to learn my table manners from her!

This is a snapshort of her dinner prepared for all her minions and smurfs. Impressive isn't it?


Tuesday 3 September 2013

A simple Teacher's Day gift with a little personalization



Being a parent means doing things you have never done before almost everyday, making a teacher's day gift for your 3-year old daughter to bring to school is one of them.

Both my husband and I are not a "gift" person, we don't know what to buy when it comes to buying gifts for others, even for each other. Hence, we have been procrastinating until last weekend. Then we decided we will just make something simple and personal at home.

My initial idea is to write the "Thank you teacher who and who" on the chalkboard, get Kah Yen to pose for a photo with it, print the photo and insert into a photo frame. That's it. We are done. But we don't have enough photo frames at home, so we decided to make cards instead, in this way we can also involve Kah Yen more in the making of the gift.

It turned out to be a 2-hour art & craft session. I love that all of us are involved. My husband helped to write the "Thank you" message on the board and take the photos. Getting an active 3-year old to pose for photo is not easy, so we decided to just get one nice photo and photoshop with the rest of the messages.

I pasted the photo on the cover of the card and also added the Wasi tape to brighten up a little bit.

Kah Yen pasted the 3D flower stickers and the shining beads. We also let her put some fingerprints on it, later Daddy drew eyes and wings and legs on them to turn them into buzzing bees. Don't ask me why bees. There is no logic. Just for the fun!

Inside the card, we wrote a simple message to each teacher. Then we let Kah Yen decorate it herself. She added more fingerprints and her favorate stamps on each card.  

We love how they turned out to be. And most importantly, we love that Kah Yen participated in it and she was mighty proud of herself.