育婴室屠妖记

我是老大，别惹我！

家里的老爷和我分享一件令人喷饭的事。

昨天到教堂崇拜时，爸爸兴致勃勃地拿了一个玩具给宝贝儿子玩。没想到育婴室里危机重重，一个小男孩突然杀出，欲与小王子抢玩具。

知道老爸怎么做吗？

他紧紧捉着玩具不放（“这玩具是哲哲的。”）。不但如此，他还很得意地告诉我他踩了那男孩一脚（“轻轻的。。轻轻的。。谁叫他也不看看哲哲的靠山是谁。”）。

我听了呱呱大叫，他连忙安慰，“没人看到我踩他一脚啦。”

==” Aiseh…

Green is the new black

Daddy, Mommy and Zhe Zhe in our green uniforms.

做好呢份工

我想关心时事的大家应该很熟悉这句话吧。它是我现在的座右铭。

很多人问我，“你没有做工吗？”

对此我想回答，“我有做工。我在家里做工。”

我在家里(aka 我的办公室)付出的时间和精力不会比任何一个打工一族少。

或许改变一个问法吧？

“Do you work outside the house?”

Yes, I work. I just don’t work outside the house. And I intend to give my work my best and my all.

——

延伸阅读：家庭主妇的工作不是工作咩？

Help is here!

Maybe breastfeeding and EP’ing are not commonly practised in our country, many healthcare professionals are not aware of the treatment to various associated problems. Believe it or not, we do not have a lactation consultant in the hospital I gave birth in. Correct me if I am wrong, I don’t think we have one in Kuching.

After bouts of long and painful plugged ducts, I almost gave up on EP’ing. My doctor did not have anything to lighten my pain or to prevent future clogs. I did my own research online and talked to a few doctors and pharmacists. Surprisingly none of them ever heard of the methods widely adopted in other countries. Tired of frequent clogs and unwilling to give up, I followed the online advice .. and it worked! My infection cleared up and I did not have another clog!

For those interested.. or in pain, you might want to check these info out:

1. Treatment for sore nipples and sore breasts

Click here.

2. Treatment for plugged ducts

Click here and here.

3. More useful info is available on kellymom.com and iVillage.

Hope this info will spare you unnecessary pain! Keep up the good work, mommy!

(Disclaimer: Please consult with your health care provider regarding the advisability of any recommendations to your individual situation. )

血光之灾

几个月前，我天真无邪的小姑看到我挤出来的奶，非常惊奇地说，“我还以为人奶是红色的，原来也是白色的啊！”把我弄得哭笑不得。

而昨天呢，她所说的话成真了。我严重阻塞的“工厂”竟然生产红奶了！

先不要叫记者来采访我，事关那不是奶，是血啊！

还是第一次看到接近1 oz 的血在挤奶时流出来。都怪自己啦，前几天的阻塞都靠庸医（就是我啦）用土方治疗 – 用针刺。先声明哦，针可是有用火烧过消毒的（电视里的受伤英雄不都是这样做的吗？）。而“治疗”后奶就流得很顺畅了，没想到后来就。。。

所以我昨天超级霹雳宇宙无敌消沉，真想就此放弃。涨痛就罢了，还流血！

但我亲切又尽责的妇产科医生不断鼓励我要坚持下去。而我也不想冲动行事，以后懊悔，所以还是忍痛尝试挤奶。差不多24小时后，终于得到释放！

这血光之灾，多隆多隆不要再临到我。

现在vs以后

孩子的爹今天放工回来和我分享了一个他见的档案。两岁的小孩，只会呜呜哦哦，不会说话。为人父母者自招没什么和孩子说话。平时就把他放在电视机前， 由电视机当保姆。孩子自出母胎就有另一个保姆 – 印尼女佣，至今他只肯和那女佣睡。父母竟然和孩子说马来语，因孩子听不懂华语！

为什么要有小孩？只是为了传宗接代？或是老一辈的压力？或是到了某个生活阶段就必须有小孩？

心里挺悲哀的。很为那孩子难过。

可能父母有苦衷或是忙于生计？

不晓得。

只愿为人父母的好好珍惜从天上来的礼物，在他们年幼还是一张白纸的时候，影响孩子的生命。

你知道吗？父母亲将要在孩子长大后加倍偿还孩子幼小时所没付出的时光。年幼时的不被爱，不被关心将导致孩子长大后更易步入歧途。到时候岂不是要花费更多精力时间？而且效果不彰！

是现在付出或是后来偿还，我们总是要做个抉择的。

我听得懂哦！

家里的小王子学会的东西越来越多。有时不经意提起某些东西，他竟然会望向那物件。哇噻，令我们不得不小心自己的言行，真不知道他还听懂多少！下面是我们所知道，他所明白的字：

A）100% 听得明白的字：

-他的名字

- Ti-ti (滴滴)：bottle warmer 加温好后所发出的讯号

- Ladybird: 不知道那位朋友所送的弥月礼物。是他的最爱哦！

- 碰头：他会用头碰碰我们伸出去的头

-握手：谈生意似的。先礼后兵？：）

- 拍拍手：拍我们的手，不是拍他的手！

-Oi-oi / 睡觉：一提这个字就大叫，接着就哭！

- Silky, Lele: 家里两只狗狗的名字

-抱抱: 他会马上扑过来，高兴得不得了！

-来

-Good boy: 哇噻，马上笑得。。。！！

B）应该懂的字：

-冲凉

-抹脸

-换尿布

-开嘴：要抹牙龈和舌头。第二最不喜欢的字！

-米糊

-奶奶

-傻羊（sayang）

-摸

-小心，跌倒，痛痛：他会在床沿停下来，转头看向我。连说几次后，他会在床沿坐下来，不再向前爬。应该有听懂hor?

-站站

-坐坐

C）竟然不懂的字：

-爸爸

-妈咪 >.<”

—–

现在所能够想到就这些。曾经看过一本书这么说，婴孩的语言理解能力比父母猜测的至少多一倍。Sorry, 我表达能力不好。我意思是说，如果你觉得宝贝明白10个词汇，那么他至少掌握了20个。现在明白了hor？真是不敢小看这些小小化古龙！

Journal of gratitude 8/9/09

I am very fortunate to have part-time cleaners who, well, clean my house for me. They are often Indonesian ladies who dedicated their lives to making a difference for their loved ones at home by taking up lowly jobs here that few Malaysians would do. Many have young children in the care of others. My heart aches for them.

I am thankful that I can spend all the time I want with my son. I am grateful that I see my husband and my baby everyday.. well, almost everyday for my husband. I am very thankful that I can afford to stay home and raise my son.

Milk vent*

* Steer clear if you’re tired of my EP story.

—————————

Again.

I have clog again. Sigh.

I can’t take it anymore. I just want to give up pumping now and rid myself of another painful episode. No more agonising over swollen and tender lump(s), bending over the pumps, compressing those tender bb’s while screaming! And lately, my supply is just enough for baby’s daily consumption. Some days I have to do catch up just like I first pumped, which is quite stressful. With this clog, I am lagging at least 6 oz today. Yikes!

Call me insane or perfectionist (my husband called me the latter, how kind of him) or whatever you want but deep in my heart, I can not bring myself to wean my son of breast milk. Or stop feeding him breast milk exclusively, for that matter. For me, breast milk is the superior food for babies, considering all its nutritional values. My baby has not been sick one day of his life! He is bright and happy. Wait a minute, he could be bright because of our genes, not due to breast milk, so…

Ok, enough goofing.

My husband gave me another “stop-being-a-perfectionist” talk this morning.

“It is good enough to feed our son breast milk exclusively for 7.5 months”.

“It’s ok to supplement with formula from now on.”

“I’m not asking you to stop pumping completely. Just add a little bit of formula la.”

But I’ll regret if I do not try my best now. It’s not like we’ll have a dozen of kids. Just this once or maybe a second time later. I’ll really like him to have breast milk as long as he can. Maybe a year?

“I assure you, you’ll still have regrets even if you do pump for one whole year. Because you are such a perfectionist. That’s what perfectionist does.”

Sigh. I don’t know what I should do now. Should I try fenugreek, alfafa and blessed thistle to try boosting my supply? Should I take Lecithin to prevent clogs (but surprisingly, none of my doctor or pharmacist friends ever learnt of Lecithin for this purpose)? Should I start supplementing?

I don’t know. I just know one thing. The clogged milk has to come out now. Right at this instance. My brain can not function when all the blood is down there.

Wish me luck!