Regular Mum (Not up-sized)

I think... I will just be a Regular Mum in the future. Not up-sized.

Up-sized as in "Super Mum" - one who can juggle high-level of management work in office, and come home to juggle diapers, milk bottles, tantrums throwing kids (more than 1 kid), cooking, and household chores. And not someone who can drive her own kids to and fro (have been very out of touch in driving. Confidence level real low). Someone who has super duper abilities to cope with all sorts of stress in life, without crumbling down emotionally, mentally & physically.

I am just a regular 9-to-5 working woman, forsee myself not climbing up the corporate ladder, and not earning big bucks. Haiz. How to provide my kids with those good and expensive extra circular classes leh? Like piano, ballet, enrichment classes. Can't earn enuf to even treat my own family to holidays, or going for good meals..

I am just a regular and normal woman, who's not really strong & independent, mostly dependent on hubby.

I am just a regular person, who do not have good knowledge/IQ/EQ....whatever you can name.

So, I think, I guess... I might just be a Regular Mum(?)

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Caregiver: Which one to choose?

After managing to resolve the hiring of confinement nanny issue after compromising, we're now facing another important issue - Caregiver.

Initial scenario:
As my mother-in-law will still be working in the afternoons, she can't possibly help to take care of my baby full-time. My father-in-law is also working part-time in the morning, and will also be busy taking care of my niece, Dawn. My mother is both working and taking care of my ailing grandmother, so I can't leave my baby with her too.

So we've decided to look for a babysitter. As we do not have a recommended babysitter, we have to rely on nanny agencies. I can't say I will be 100% reassured to put my baby with a babysitter who is not recommended by own circle of friends/colleagues/relatives, but do we have a choice? I can't possibly stop working and be SAHM.

Recent Happenings:
My friend happens to have a friend whose mother is a babysitter, who's living at the block next to ours (surprise surprise) and she's currently taking care of a Jap boy who's learning-to- walk-age. I am very excited when I knew about this and asked my friend to help me ask if her friend's mother is keen to take up this assignment.

Was really hoping the babysitter will agree to take care another kid. It turned out that she was contemplating to take in another assignment, but have to check with the Jap mother to see if she's comfortable to allow her.

In the end, she finds it reluctant to speak with the Jap mother, so hoping that we put her as "last option". Anyway we got to know that the Jap mother paid her above the market rate, so it will be quite an expensive option to us as well.

Other than the babysitter option, there's another proposal of idea from my in-laws. They were suggesting that I can actually hire a maid at their place, so that the maid can take care of the baby while my in-laws can supervise her. My sis-in-law actually volunteered to co-share the costs of hiring the maid.

With the 2 above options placed in front of me, I had a lot of questions, doubts, advantages, and disadvantages flashing through my mind. I was really unsure which to choose due to the following reasons:

1. I never like to hire a maid as I like to have our own family's privacy and space. So I do not like to have another person staying with us. Even when we go out, I also like to handle our own kids ourselves, and not throw to the maid to handle.
   
2. I've heard many cases whereby the maid is so difficult to be taught (slow, unable to understand and remember instructions) and the maid mishandling the baby due to different cultural practices. (I'm not a very patient person if she keeps getting everything wrong all the time)
3. We've to teach the maid from scratch, despite her having experience or not, as we want to make sure she's able to meet our expectations of hygiene standard. In comparison, I do not need to teach the babysitter what to do as she would already know how. Except that I am not sure if her hygiene standards can meet ours too.
4. On the good side, hiring a maid is relatively cheaper, and she can help to do housework at my in-law's place, and my in-laws can foster closer grandparents-and-grandchild kinship when they spend more time together.

After discussion with hubby, he is more keen on hiring the maid because of the costs, and there are his parents also rotating to look after our baby with the help of the maid. I agree with him after discussing all my uncertainties with him.

Shall start going to apply for one when we are both more free next month.. Hope we will get a good and reliable maid in time. May Baby Yam be blessed

Antenatal Lesson 5 & 6: Feeding & Doctor's Talk

Lesson 5
Feeding	• Breastfeeding • Bottle Feeding • Sterilization of Feeding Equipment • Weaning (introducing solid food) • Learning to Enhance your Child’s Physical & Mental Development • Q & A

Lesson 6
(Doctor’s Talk)*	• Husband’s Role during Childbirth • Problems Associated with a Newborn • The Process of Labour • Living with the In-laws • How to Raise a Brighter Child • Post-natal Depression

Finally finally we've reached the last 2 lessons of the antenatal class. Has been both enriching & tiring to attend the classes every weekend. Most importantly we have to remember & apply what have been taught to us after 2-3 months down the road.

There is really so much to learn especially the cleanliness and sterilisation of the equipments for the baby's use. Other than both of us learning and doing it correctly, we hope our future caregiver will also adhere to the same standards as what we expected.

At the doctor's talk, the speaker who happens to by my gynae, talked to us about "Labour". I am more aware of how to detect when contractions set in, what to do before admission to hospital, and what to expect after the baby is born.

The 2nd speaker who is a psychiatrist, talked to us about how to cope from being "2" to "3", and how to look out for symptoms for Maternity Blues, and Depression (these 2 are actually different). So I have told my hubby (who can't attend the doctor's talk with me) about all these so he can observe and see if any of these symptoms appear after pregnancy (I hope not!)

A tai-tai Sunday

I spent a tai-tai Sunday today...

Was chauffeured to Tanglin Mall for my yoga class in the morning...

After a relaxing yoga class, I took a cab to Sheraton Towers to meet my sisters for weekend hi-tea buffet.


How tai-tai isn't it?

We spent a total of close to 4 hours (buffet starts from 12noon - 4pm) at the buffet!! Can you imagine how much I have ate? Well, in the end, I suffered.. Got a bad stomachache argh.

Review of the weekend hi-tea buffet: We went there because of the credit card '1 dine-free-for-every-4-diners' promotion. Each person pays $29 instead of usual price $32.80. I was a little disappointed cuz I was expecting to see an array of nice sandwiches but I din get to see much choices or anything nice at all. I also thought there will be some dim-sum as per their website, but there isn't any too. Hmm.. 2 disappointments liao. As I can't eat those cold meat, fresh seafood, and sashimi, so I am missing quite a bit from the buffet. I would think it would be a more worthy buffet IF I din have that 2 disappointments. Oh,some of the cooked food aren't really hot and steaming. So, it can be better if its hotter. Well, I quite like their thick mushroom soup, chichken wings, spicy drumsticks & some of their cake desserts thou. Overall their service is quite prompt and polite. We'd an enjoyable time chatting, and admiring the waterfall scenery, but had to suffer some pretty hot rays that shone through the glass window. In the end, we asked to change a table as it was getting too hot and glaring.

My verdict: 3/5 (Room for improvement)

Dunstan Baby Language

My boss lent me a DVD called the "Dunstan Baby Language" (Website: http://www.dunstanbaby.com). It teaches us - the adults - how to decipher the baby's cries and by knowing what each type of crying sounds means, what solution you should use to soothe the baby.

The main 5 crying sounds are:

1) Neh: Baby is hungry (Listen for the "n" sound)
2) Owh: Baby is tired (Note the oval-shaped mouth)
3) Eh: Baby is saying "Burp me!" (Listen for the "eh" sound)
4) Eairh: Baby is having some wind pain in lower tummy (Listen for the more urgent "r" sound)
5) Heh: Baby is uncomfortable (Listen for the breathy "h" sound)

I find it so cute and endearing when they show examples of how the babies make those sounds. As I watched, I was half-laughing-and-tearing cuz I was feelin' very emotional inside... I also duno why I reacted that way. Is this called "maternal instincts"? Hubby was shaking his head and muttering "xiao!" beneath his breath when he saw me reacting that way. Oh those ang moh babies are soooooooooo cute...

I hope I will be able to apply all the above techniques when my own baby arrives, and not be a flustered and lost-control mom!

Weight Conscious?

Hmm... I am wondering... Is my baby girl already "weight conscious" even when she's not out into this world yet? Since she has been considered "slim" every time we did the checkup at the gynae clinic...

Recently have been more and more bothered about MY weight and MY growth, cuz my tummy seems to be getting bigger (than ever) and some people commented that I look BIG for this stage. But hey, I am going to be in my 3rd tri next month liao leh... How small can I remain? But some others say my tummy not very big leh.. So confusing comments. It doesn't help the situation much when you have a tall and slim pregnant boss in office, so the comparison of the tummy growth is inevitable. Her tummy, at 5th month, is still barely visible while mine is already so protuding. (Despite that her tummy being not obvious, her baby boy's growth is very good - Already at 470g at 5th month, whereas my baby girl weighs 490g at her 6th month )

Actually I don't mind that I have a big tummy cuz it makes me look more maternal, and I quite like my new protuding tummy. Except that I am not sure if my baby is also growing well, together with my growing tummy...

I just hope my baby will grow well and healthy, and reach a healthy mark on the scale next time we go for the scan.