Breastfeeding tips from experienced mother of three

This is my first blog post on getting one of my best buddies, Sophia to share her experiences on breastfeeding. She is a very experienced mother of three and she breastfeeds her children for many years ever since her first child. Often, I will ask her about tips about motherhood, what kind of food is good for baby since she's a wife of a TCM doctor. :P

Question 1: How old are your children?

Answer: "My three girls are 5 years old, 3 years old and 9 months old."

Question 2: Why did you decide to breastfeed your daughter?

Answer: "When I delivered my first girl, i attended the hospital's breastfeeding class and learnt that bf is really benefical for both mother and baby so i decided to give it a go. I bf my first child till 2yrs plus and stop because expecting 2nd child and likewise bf her till 2yrs plus cos expecting 3rd child."

Question 3: What are some challenges you faced, especially when you first started? How did you overcome them?

Answer: "For the first week of bfing my first newborn i was very stressed up as my milk supply was very little and I was very worried that my baby would go hungry...I cried everyday together with my baby."

"My husband played an important role to help me overcome these challenges. He consoled me to relax my mind and most imptly 'stop crying' as my mood will in turn affect my milk supply. Soon, with my mind at ease and drinking a lot of hot soups, I was able to express 60ml each side on my 2nd week of confinement."

Question 4: Any recipe for success to breastfeed so many kids?

Answer: "No secret recipe to success. Just relax and be patient."

Question 5: Where or how did you get help on breastfeeding?

Answer: "To get help on breastfeeding, i first attended the bf class provided by hospital, then read the related brochures and magazines given and also join some online mummy's forums to read about their experiences on bf."

Question 6: Why do you like breastfeeding?

Answer: "I simply adore bf because of these reasons:

a)It helps us save up a lot of money. I dun have to buy formula, bottles, sterilizer..etc

b) Bf gives me an excuse to treat myself to better food..ie splurge on more expensive cod fish etc.. because if i eat well, so will the baby.

c) It is convenient and hassle-free as i can latch on anytime, anywhere i go and my diaper bag is so much lighter.

d) It gives me a time to relax and regain my sanity. Taking care of 3 young kids alone with no helper can be quite insane. Bf is the time i can stop doing my chores for a short break to check FB, emails and do some online shopping!

e) Lastly i feel that bf benefits my children as it did boost their immunity."

Question 7: Do you ever nurse your daughter in public? If so, do you mind sharing your experience?

Answer: "I do nurse my babies in public with a nursing shawl. However I would prefer to go to places with nursing room facilities as my babies dun like to be covered by a cloth when feeding, they would struggle and cry and the situation might get quite embarrassing in public. I would choose to nurse in the car if I cant find a nursing room."

Question 8. What are some tips you’d like to share with other moms who are thinking about breastfeeding?

Answer: "Some tips which work for me: Relax your mind, eat more(ditch that diet plan!), drink lots of hot soups and enjoy that personal bonding session with your baby."

Question 9: Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience breastfeeding?

Answer: "If all doesn't work out and you can't breastfeed, do not blame yourself...Formula is fine too. Me, myself and I am pretty sure most mummies here also grew up well drinking formula right? Hence relax, take a step back and embrace the joy of motherhood ya! :)"

Hope the above tips from our Mommie Sophia will come in handy for new mothers :)

Thank you once again, Mommie Sophie.

Cheers,
Deariebear Mommie

Homemade Mushroom Sauce for Baby

I love sauces and today I am going to share with you how to make mushroom sauce. The great thing is that you can make a big batch and freeze it up into portions and use them whenever is needed. By the way, I am not an expert in cooking like a lot of mommies in the community. But I can guarantee this is really easy to do!

Prepare your ingredients first.

Ingredient list (You can adjust the amount accordingly if you have more mushrooms)

• 1 yellow onion
• 20g butter
• 225g mushrooms
• 2 tbls lemon juice (Household tip: If you are using raw lemon, you can place the remains of the lemon and put it in your fridge to remove any odour in the fridge)
• 2 tbls fresh parsley
• 2 tbls plain flour
• 300ml milk (I used my baby's formula milk. Prepare the milk like how you will prepare milk for your baby to drink)

Cooking Steps

Step 1: Fry the onion in butter till transparent.

Fry the onion in butter. I love the sweet fragrance. Smell so good!

Step 2: Add mushrooms, lemon juice and parsley and cook for 2 mins. Add flour and cook for 2 mins, stirring continuously. 

The mushroom will be soften, and that is how you know they are cooked:)

Step 3: Add the milk gradually and cook, stirring continuous in the same direction until thick and smooth.

Step 4: Blend everything using your blender. Depending whether how young your baby is, you can blend longer to create the very fine, smooth texture until taste almost like mushroom soup. If not, you need to only blend like less than 1 min to get more chunky textures.



Blend until the consistency you like. Fine or chunky.

 

Step 5 (Optional): If you would like to save time and money, you can freeze the sauce in batches. To freeze, I use the ice cube trays to freeze them up. After they are frozen, I will take out those cubes and put them in zip lock bags to save space in my fridge. As and when I wish to cook spaghetti with mushroom sauce, I will just take down from the fridge. So convenient!

 

 

Happy Cooking! Hope you like the sauce :)

 

Cheers!

Deariebear Mommie

Baby Claire's personality at 1.5 years old. Holding hand is her fav!

Hello Baby Claire,

This is how Papa and Mama will describe you when you are 1.5 year old.

Every child is different and has his/her own unique personality. So does our little Claire.

At a young age, Claire has a pretty fun and jestful personality. Her personality often brings us lots of laughters but yet at the same time annoyance.

I'm wonder whether it's due to us "over-playing" with her when she was younger, forming her extroverted character? We have a lot of videos that captured her in action.


Recently, she loves holding hands with other young children. Ever since she started holding hands with her cousin, Chriselle and her neighbour, Xinyi, she went around touching hands of little strangers, eager to hold their hands. But she sometimes will run off at the verge of success because of shyness. :P I got a feeling that she is going to be a really sociable girl

So happy holding hand in hand with her cousin, Chriselle

She loves to kiss her toys, books and of course people she love. Every night, she will peck gently on the cheeks of her grandparents and us. I started her on the night kisses which I think it is a good habit to thank especially her grandparents for taking such good care of her during the day. Must be tiring as she is a really active girl, always on the move. And talking about her kissing books? she loves to kiss pictures of little children and babies especially boys found in her books! I think Justin Papa will frown at this sentence :P

Big eater! She is a very good eater. For her age, she can easily eat half a bowl of rice and dishes during lunch and dinner. Cereal, bread and fruits during breakfast, Drinking milk 3 times a day which amounts to around 570ml. And she will request for bread by saying "包! 包!" To be honest, I am not a fan of bread. So this must be influenced by the grandfather after she saw him eating it every day :)

美美! She wants to look pretty. Now that she has her own little cupboard, she will want to choose her dresses. According to grandpa, she specifically wanted to wear a red gown to the polyclinic.

Another way to describe baby Claire is a turning round machine. She loves to turn round and round whenever there is music played. She can turn round for 20 to 25 times without stopping. I believe we will become giddy after doing this. She will laugh it off because she find it funny. Weird and funny child is it? I dunno where did she learn this from???

So the above says the fun, sweet, a bit eccentric Baby Claire. Now came the not-so funny traits.

Top of my list is throwing things! She loves to throw, and I mean out-right throw things in front of you when you ask her to hand them over. Even if she is playing or eating, she will throw away her bowl, her spoon, her book, her heavy musical Mozart box. This definitely annoyed me especially when we are outside. The latest incident was at Choa Chu Kang market where we order dishes from a stall. I had to constantly hold her plate where her peas and corns was placed. In a spilt second when I accidentally released it, she threw the plate behind her, and then "Plank?!". The aunties of the stalls are staring at us, shocked. Sigh...can anyone tell us what to do with this?

Next would be stubbornness which I believe all of us have it too. She will insists on things she wanted, be it bread, be it book, my handphone, etc. Her latest trick in the bag is to lie down on the floor with her entire body relaxed when she doesn't want to follow out instruction. We will then have to bend down to pull her up. Believe that's how I got my backache.

Lastly, would be she is a very active little girl. Sometimes we will ask "Are you a boy or a girl" and often in Chinese "你是男孩， 还是女孩呢？" She will answer "boy!" Oh gosh!!

The above is a little glimpse of my baby characters and traits at her 18 months. What about ur baby?

Love,
Deariebear Mommie