Confessions of a Breastfeeding Mom

August is breastfeeding month so I would like to take this opportunity to post about breastfeeding before the month ends. I'm no breastfeeding guru. But I knew that I wanted to breastfeed my baby and I thought about this when I was still pregnant with Miya. Fortunately, unlike some moms, I had everyone's support - from colleagues, friends and families, even my OB-GYNE. The moment Miya was out into the world she was placed on my tummy and she immediately latched. She didn't have any difficulty suckling on my nipple (she did not spit out my nipples or anything like that). When I was in the recovery room, the nurse brought her to me to again make her try to latch, and again she was able to do it. I'm not sure if I had milk by that time but she perfectly suckled on my nipple. I gave birth to her at 12:40 in the morning and was out of the recovery room around 4am. By 7-ish am, I received a call from the nursery asking me if I can go there to nurse my baby. I think Joema was out then buying our breakfast and I haven't tried standing up yet, so I told them I will try later in the morning coz I haven't stood up yet or tried sitting up on my own. Maybe after an hour, they called again asking me to come. So I tried to stand up with Joema's help and went to the nursery (I was wheeled going there). Joema was not allowed to go inside so I had to go by myself - carefully taking each step at a time (I was still a bit woozy that time I think).  I remember I asked the nurse for a fresh gown because I had blood stains on what I was wearing (wasn't able to bring sanitary pads in the hospital and haven't worn any I think by then). So I waited for her to bring me a new one before entering the room where I can breastfeed Miya. I was standing the whole time and feeling a bit sick by then. After she brought me the new gown and I changed into (I dressed in front of the nurse hahaha!), I was led to a room with barcaloungers. And then the nurse left me to get Miya. When she was brought in I remember just putting her in my bosom and she instantly nursed. She didn't nurse for a long time so I thought I had to give her back to the nurse immediately. The nurse actually left us while I breastfed Miya. But the nurse told me to try again and just breastfeed my baby. So after trying again I just played with Miya and looked at her and smelled her. I was kicking myself for not bringing my cellphone to take pictures of her. I didn't want to leave but I thought of Joema waiting outside the nursery. Such a shame that dads are not allowed to go inside.

Back from Break

I haven't talked about F1 for a long time now, have I? But I'm still up to date with the sport. We still watch every race and I'm super happy that Vettel is leading the driver's championship. I hope he gets to win another race though. I don't want him to win the championship without ever winning again - because it is mathematically possible for him to win the season without having to win another race as long as he finishes to be in the top 5 for the rest of the season. He now has 234 points, 85 points ahead of his teammate who is in a not-so-close second place. The teams took a long break (3 weeks!!!) but their back in Spa this weekend. I'm so excited to finally watch a race again.

Start of Hungarian GP - that's Vettel in front!
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Photo Miya

Happy weekend, everyone!

This Is The Way I Brush My Teeth

I know I've said that up next will be Miya eating her first solid food but let me share this with you first. Since Miya's been purely breastfed, she doesn't get that white thingy on her tongue. But she started getting that when she started drinking orange juice. So I bought her a toothbrush but the one I got is the one where you put it in your finger and put it inside the baby's mouth. But since sometimes she doesn't like it when I'm poking inside her mouth I decided to buy this toothbrush I saw in ManilaMommy's blog. Confession: I've been reading Neva's blog since before when I started reading Anna's blog but I've been a lurker forever. I remember her blogging about this when her kid was just a few months old (and I didn't have Miya then). So I was bracing myself to read all her previous posts in Multiply when to my delightful surprise she re-posted her post about the toothbrush.

Wacha looking at? Don't disturb me I'm brushing my teeth..er gums and tongue.

Look at Miya, she looks like she was born to use the toothburshhahaha. This was the first time she used it and she already knows how to! Although now there are days when just plays with it and doesn't want to use it properly.

OJ

We were given by Miya's pedia the go-signal to have her drink orange juice (1 teaspoon freshly squeezed juice: 3 oz of water) even before her 6th month birthday. But I wanted her to be on pure breastmilk until her 6th month so we waited until 30 July. And here she is. She actually was enthusiastic in drinking the juice, but didn't really get to finish the bottle. She can finish the 3oz bottle in two sittings (half in the morning and the remaining half in the afternoon). Nowadays, she wins over her yaya and doesn't want to drink anymore. Her yaya says she tastes it first and then taps away the bottle when she knows it's orange juice. We've tried having her drink water and she can finish 2oz in one drinking. Her yaya also tried feeding her milk first and then alternating it with OJ but since Miya knows the tastes she will push away the bottle of OJ (smart kid naks!). Her yaya tried giving her pure orange extract only a teaspoon and per her report Miya was able to finish it. So I asked yaya to dilute it with a teaspoon of water before letting Miya drink it. I'm paranoid Miya's little stomach might not be that ready for citrus/acid. We buy Mandarin oranges for her which are surprisingly sweet compared to "orange oranges" - the one with the hard to peel skin. Forgive me, I haven't tried Mandarin oranges before this.

Next up: solid food!

Dress Me Up

Ever since I got back to work I haven’t bought any piece of clothing aside from the post-pregnancy pants I bought from St. Francis Square. I don’t want to spend too much on my clothing especially now that we don’t have budget for this. Miya’s needs first before ours, and if you have a family and baby you know most of your money goes to your home needs and domestic life. So what clothes have I been wearing these past few months? I don’t have my pre-pregnancy body yet so I have not been able to fit into my old clothes. My boobs are bigger and my tummy’s still a little bloated hehehe. I’ve asked my mom to lend me her office clothes but since her blouses are not really my size, I almost always look frumpy and/or lousy. Blech! The fit is just not right – they’re okay in the boobs area, but dropping in the shoulder area and the length of the blouse is usually too long for my short torso. I haven’t found the time (or money) to buy new post-pregnancy clothes. This is for office attire only, I have yet to buy new nursing clothes as well. Good thing our yearly bonus is soon coming up, I will have extra moolah to spend on myself. But instead of buying dresses or blouses from department stores, I’ll try to have them made to really fit my post-pregnancy body. I’m going back to my officemate's mother, who made my bridesmaids' dresses, to have some office attires made. I’ve picked some online and will ask her to use the styles. Here are my picks. I have to consider that I will be expressing milk here at the office so I need to have zipper or buttons in front to open up my bosom area.



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 I love that the first two dresses immediately give me two different looks each. The last one's just too cute although I'm not sure if I really want to wear that hemline to the office.

Miss Piggy Pooping on Kermit

She was wearing her clothe diaper when she started pooping and I was carrying her. So instead of getting poop myself, I decided to try to use her potty trainer. This was the second time we tried it but during the first time she was still too small then. This time around, she enjoyed it. I was surprised she can sit on her own - she was leaning on the back support of the potty and holding on the sides. So proud of my little girl. And yes, her poop's getting oh so smelly!

I Almost Won!

You know I join online contests before. But I've never wanted to win so badly like I've wanted to win in Daphne Osena Paez's giveaway for LASIK surgery! Yes, you read that right! She gave away in her blog a free LASIK surgery from American Eye Center. This was actually the second time she held such a contest, the first one was last year which I also joined. Last year, the winner had to be the nth commenter on her blog. Unfortunately, I did not win that (obviously). For this latest giveaway, the commenters just have to leave a comment saying why you deserve to win the LASIK and from all the entries she will choose 12 and from the 12 she will choose the final winner. She said it doesn't have to be over dramatic or anything, she will choose whatever stories touch her. I really did not think much about my entry nor I super prepared for it, I just said why I really wanted to have a LASIK surgery:

"HI Daphne!


I joined your first LASIK giveaway but unfortunately did not win.

I’m a new mom to a 6-month old baby. I really really want to have a LASIK surgery because of my daughter. I want to wake up and see her beautiful face everyday without having to put on my eyeglasses first. When she was a newborn and slept on her crib, I had to put on my glasses first before I can comfort her in the middle of the night as I am almost blind (my eye grade is 5.50 and 5.25). Thankfully, we now co-sleep and I’m still breastfeeding her so I don’t need to put on my eyeglasses anymore before I can nurse her. Hopefully I’ll be one of the 12 pre-selected candidates for this giveaway and be deemed worthy of this gift. Thanks for sharing this! "

I was really praying my story will catch her attention and be one of the 12 and then eventually win the contest. I actually entered the contest on the last day with only a few hours left. In her post about the contest she was supposed to announce the winner by 12noon of August 2. Unfortunately that did not happen, well she's a busy lady after all. So it was a bit of and disappointment when I saw in my FB feed that a winner was already announced - and it wasn't me. But get this, when I clicked the link announcing the winner, I saw this:

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There's my name! There's my name! I felt like a winner too even if I didn't really win. I was so happy my simple story caught her attention. And then when I read her posts, I saw that she actually first announced the 12 pre-selected candidates before announcing the winner. It was actually a bit overwhelming seeing my name there. I was so happy even if I didn't win hehehe. But that was a 1 in 12 shot! I ALMOST WON! Maybe next time, third time's a charm?

Thanks again to Daphne Osena Paez, for sharing this free LASIK surgery to her readers. More blessings to you and your family!

Houzz

I'm still not done with my nesting phase apparently. I was really scouring the net for other websitees where I can fill this emptiness inside (nyak drama queen!). Anyways, upon bloghopping I found this website Houzz which is AMAZING! It's basically like a photobucket of everything house related. You can view thousands and thousands of photos until your head and eyes hurt.



I love that "People who liked this photo also liked" feature on the right side

 The nice thing is you can add a particular photo to your Ideabook. This way you get to keep tab on the things that you like. For example, you found a photo of a living room where you especially love the wall color then you can add that photo and indicate that you love that wall color.


You can also categorize your Ideabook in however way you like it like - condo, beach house or by the colors blue, grey, white. I on the other hand categorize my Ideabook into the different parts of the house - living room, kitchen. In the future, when you're about to build your own home, you can look back in your Ideabook and look into the things you want incorporated in your home. Well, that's how I see the beauty and use of this site. Isn't that nice?

Now, I'm still looking for a good Filipino website about homedecor/style. This is because most of the designs I liked from other sites are really not applicable here in the Philippines. Like I saw this photo of all white kitchen and it was beautiful but I don't think that will work here - hello, alikabok - ina  few months, my white walls and cabinets will be really dirty white. So if you know of a blog, leave me a comment will you? I'm already reading the blogs of these Filipina ladies:

101 grams of (eye) candy
40 and beyond by irene
The Home and Happines blog - it's from her I found out about Houzz

And although they tackle home decors and anything about the home, my thirst for Filipino home decors is still not quenched.

Oh I want to add, my favorite home blog Young House Love which I featured before now has a Room Gallery section. You can browse through their featured homes by room or color much like Houzz but in a smaller scale.