Scrapbook: Feb's layout

Hands have been itching to do some scrapping.. hence I've come up with my 2nd layout for Feb.

Have mention in my previous blog post that I'm aiming to create at least 1 layout for each month. And keep to a theme of "Something Significant". Anything that seems significant to me during that particular month.

You're my greatest blessing

On the side note...

Hub and I have been discussing who is gonna look after Danielle when I'm going to resume work in June. Knowing that there is no way our current helper is able to handle Danielle when there isn't any other family member around. And all other family members have to work...

So we decided against our heart pain to send Danielle to infant care. Luckily there is a branch of My First Skool near our place. So when Danielle is just 6 days old, I immediately register her name on the wait list.. We were informed that if there is a seat available, they will only contact us 1 month before our intended date.

So I waited and finally they called me last week to inform me that there is 1 seat available for their infant care centre. So we made arrangement to view the centre, understand how is their operation for infant care and the teacher - infant ratio. We are happy with what we see, the toddlers in the centre seems happy and the teachers there looks motherly and patience kind.

So we went with our gut feeling and register Danielle and she will start in May. So I have 1 month's time to get use to her being in infant care and would be so anxious / worry and miss her so much when I'm back at work.

Luckily there is subsidy for working mothers, the monthly fees is about $700++. Damn expensive.
But no choice, we don't have anyone at home to look after baby.

So next question, what about the helper? Well, knowing that she and my mother in law can't get along well. So we decided to send her back. Seriously when I heard those ppl who share their maid encounter stories with me.. I always thoughts that I won't encounter it.

Well, it sort of happened to us. Not that my helper steal anything or do anything gravely wrong. Just that we find her way too young and not on auto mode plus she is quite stubborn. Sometimes she insist in doing her own way when it's wrong. Haiz.. Feels like she has some sort of "Princess attitude".

Next time if we really need to hire a helper, I make sure I'm the one who select!

Enough of my ranting... it's almost time for Danielle's feeding..
Gotta express breastmilk! #mylifeasamother

Have a great weekend!

Xoxo,
Felicia

It's Baby Danielle's first month

Time files... it's already Baby Danielle's first month!!!

I'm also done with my 1 month long confinement... This means that I can go out but after being a mummy.. it isn't easy to just go out like before. There is like a 101 things that I need to prepare before stepping out of the house..

1. Pack diaper bag
2. Ensure that baby is fully fed
3. Express out bm
4. Make sure that baby is sound asleep. If baby isn't sleeping, she will be cranky and it's even more difficult for us to go! Imagine got to carry the diaper bag, pram and also to soothe her.
5. Got to make sure that majority of the household chores are done before I can bring my baby and helper out..

See... just all these preparation alone, takes me half a day to complete and by then you usually don't wan to go out..

But well, I managed to bring baby Danielle out during her actual full month and it wasn't that bad. Planning to bring her out again when she is on her PD check up and a chance for me to detour and do abit of shopping! ^_^v

Last weekend, we celebrate Danielle's full month. For me, it's quite happening cause I finally get to chat with my friends. Imagine for the whole month, I'm so bored at home. Luckily got my gf's mother and the massage lady to chat with me hence I'm sane.

The star of the event!
My cutie max, Danielle Lee En
Age: 4 weeks old
Weigh: Est 3.5 - 4kg

Dessert table from Maple & Market

I've always wanted to try out the cakes at Maple & Market but her cafe is way too far away for me. So I took this chance to order a dessert table setup for Baby's full month celebration!

Our celebration is a very small one so I didn't order alot of cakes. 

Order a 8" Victoria Sponge Cake, 6" Caramel Popcorn Cake, half a doz of red velvet, double chocolate and a coconut mini cupcakes.

I'm pretty happy with the decorations. Simple and nice.. and I super love the caramel popcorn cake!! Yummy!! Hehehe ^_^v

Now I wish I'm still residing in the East side.. at least it would be easy for me to go there and have cakes and coffee in their cosy cafe.

 I didn't manage to snap alot of pictures cause I was walking around, chatting with my friends. Didn't even remember to take a pictures!! Haiz!
Managed to snap a picture of Mr Lee's friend's son.. this big eye cutie has recently promoted to Big Brother!! Both brothers are such a little cutie!

And my brother is now a uncle... finally dare to carry his niece!!

We cater this mini buffet food from Neo Gardens. So far, their reviews are quite alright and food taste not too bad. I didn't get to eat much cause I still have my confinement food.. hence can't give much feedback thought.

But most of the food were finished. So I think either my guests were hungry or their food were good! Hehe.

We are thankful for our friends who took time to came by our place for this mini get together! And thank you sooo much for all the ang baos and gifts for Baby Danielle. 

Signing off with a pic of my cheeky little girl...

Xoxo,
Felicia

Scrapbook 2014 - First Layout

It's been awhile since I last scraped... ever since I'm pregnant, I hardly have the energy and with the heavy belly, it's quite difficult for me to carry out those boxes (where I hold all my scrapping stuffs) out to scrap.

Now that Danielle has a fixed sleeping schedule in the afternoon which means that I have some ME time at home, I keep scrapped a layout...

Hmm.. I was aiming to have at least 1 layout in a month... at least to keep those creative juices going and to exhaust some of my scrapbook materials. If not I keep on buying but dun get to use it.

January 2014 - Our first wedding anniversary

I tried to keep it to theme for my monthly layout. Eg, in the month of January, the most significant 

event for me is our Wedding Anniversary.

So here is my layout... 

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 

Marriage has taught me that life no longer revolves around me alone. Now my life includes my husband. So things that I say or do, I will always try to spare a thought for him. Listen and always give support. Cause I always believe that in this relationship.. I give 100%, my husband gives me back 100% or even more too...

I've started my first layout.. currently I'm behind time with 2 more layouts... Lets hope that these few days, I have the creative juice to scrapped.

Have a great week!

Xoxoxo,

Felicia 

Solo Maternity shoot {Confetti Peektures}

Yes, you didn't read my title incorrectly. I did another maternity photoshoot just for myself.
Cause I wasn't 100% satisfy with the previous shoot... guess mainly because my hub hates to take photo and half of the time, he is giving grumpy face. And when I schedule the first photoshoot, my baby bump wasn't very prominent.

So I decided to take another one when I'm at week 35. During this time, I'm at my heaviest!!!!

In case you wanna know, this set of photos are taken by Confetti Peektures! They even provide props too! So cute!

Check out their works on their FB page: ConfettiPeektures

Haven't received all the images yet but these are the few images that Angie (the photographer) edited and sent to me..

Honestly I prefer this set of photos than the previous one. But I guess both sets have it's charm.

With this set, showing my baby bump and pregnancy glow.  The previous set, showing us a newly wed couple going to be new mum and dad... the love we gonna have for our newborn.. =)

Too bad my hub refuse to take a outdoor family portrait... cause I would love to book a session with my pre wedding photography, Oh! Dear photography for one session.. =(

Guess I will have to attempt to do one family portrait by myself.

Pss... did i mention that I am itching to upgrade my DSLR?? Hehe.. let see how long I'm able to content this itch..

Xoxo,
Felicia

What happened to my CONFINEMENT?

Well, here's my story of my very sad confinement..

After giving birth, every lady will have to stay confine at home for 1 month. We, Chinese called this period of time, 做月. Basically during this period of time, mummies who just gave birth are consider very weak and they aren't supposed to go out have to be "confine" at home for their postnatal recovery.

Many preggie will start to look for a good confinement nanny when they have past their 1st trimester. The very clever me, didn't bothered to look for one, simply because my mother in law has agreed to help me with my confinement. Which means that I've to look after baby at night, which I'm pretty fine with that arrangement cause I have to learn to look after anyway.

Along the way, we employed a Myanmar maid to help with the household chores as my mother in law got pretty occupied with her own newly setup business. Things are fine when we received our maid and both of them got along pretty well.

But somehow, one fine day, things changed. My mother in law got so pissed off with the maid that she started to tell us that she isn't very good, eg, lazy, crafty, instructions given to her and things are not done and such. My hub and I didn't really believe caused when we instruct our maid, things get done.

Than we thought maybe they have communication problems. (My mil english isn't that good... the maid is just half past 6). So we just let it be....

Came the day I went into labour and after 3 days staycation in the hospital, I'm back home.

Hello Danielle.. You're just 3 days old

She decided to open her eyes and say Hello to me.
Just looking at her, makes me forget how terrible my confinement is. 

To my horror, my mil only cooked the confinement style breakfast and prepared the ginger red date tea and that's all. The rest, my maid has to ask me what I wanna eat and she cooked accordingly. As for my baby, she only help me to shower her twice. Can you imagine the 4th day I tried to bath my daughter all by myself??!!! And where did my mil go??! Well, she left for work in the early morning like 7am.

So I got really depressed cause during the 1st week, both hubs and I were super tiring, Having disrupted sleep, not sure how to soothe a crying baby and etc..  and we received no support from my mil. My mil slept thru the night, not even helping me during those late night feedings. Same goes to my maid. Well, who to blame the maid??! My mil choose one that is so young and inexperience in looking after infant.

I told my hub no matter how expensive it is to hire a nanny during CNY, I'm going to get one. I cannot stand having to handle baby without any guidance. But sadly, it's too last min so I couldn't hire any confinement nanny.. thanks to my gf who suggested me to sign up for food caterers that does confinement dishes.

Google and search for some reviews, managed to find one and immediately book my lunch and dinner for 28 days. So 1 item on our list is done.

Next, we need to find someone who is willing to help us to teach the maid to look after baby and to cook those tonic soups. And I'm soooo lucky that my best friend called and check up on me and I causally asked if her mum is willing to help. And she agreed!! So for the next 3 weeks of my confinement, I have good soup and food to eat. Plus a motherly figure to help me look after baby (during the day) and to teach the maid how to boil those tonic soup.

Thankful for auntie to come over and help me!!! 

On one of those afternoon where baby slept like a baby.

One of the power packed confinement food that auntie prepared for me...

After this episode, I learn my lesson. If wan to employ maid to look after baby. Get one that is married, has kids and know how to handle infant and has working experience in domestic work.

And if I'm ever pregnant with #2, I'm going to hire a confinement nanny. Be in stay in or not.

Have a great weekend!

Xoxo,
Felicia

My life as a mother.. Part 2

Being a mother isn't easy.. but I'm thankful that there are people out there who are willing to help me!!

Ask me what is the toughest I encounter being a mother?! It's not the labour nor the sleep depravation during wee morning hours due to Danielle's feeding..

It's the BREASTFEEDING!

Benefits of breast milk

Source: Pinterest

I know that everyone and anyone would know that breast milk is the best for your baby. I agree cause there are certain stuffs in the bm than formula milk don't have. I was very depressed during my short stay in the hospital because all the nurses and the lactation nurses claims that I've short nipple and baby couldn't latch on properly.

Which leds me to having sore nipples by the 2nd - 3rd day and I try so hard to let baby latch on correctly. Trust me, it isn't easy. Cause baby is so fragile and she is crying so hard (because she is hungry) that being able to latch on properly isn't on my mind. I just want to feed her asap.

At that time, I don't even know if I'm producing enough milk for my daughter or not...

When it's time for us to discharge and go home, I felt so helpless without the nurses around to guide me. Especially when baby keeps crying and crying. Cause she is hungry and my milk production hasn't kick it yet. And the nurses didn't even teach me anything like we can supplement formula milk first.

So out of desperation, hubby went to NTUC to purchase S26 for baby and since that she has been on formula milk. (I've later switched her to Nan HA 1).

As for my breast milk.. it come 3 days after I discharged. And that night when my breast is engorged, it hurt like hell!!!!! Worst than labour! But I'm thankful that I'm able to produce decent amount of milk for my daughter.

My first best record of milk pump.

Occasionally I still let Danielle direct latch on but she is used to the steady flow of the milk bottle, after sucking for awhile she will cry for her milk bottle.

Now my daily routine during maternity leave? Is to pump milk. I tried to express milk every 2 - 3 hours but i felt that the volume isn't alot. I can't express at least 90ml of milk (from both breast) if I tried to express every 2 - 3 hours.

So now I express every 4 hours and I tried to hit at least 100 ml. I'm not sure that without baby's direct latch on, will my milk production be sufficient for me to feed her till she is 6 months old? But I am damn sure I will try. Cause the breast pump isn't cheap!! And I kinda of regret not getting the twin pump.

Here is some common tips on pumping milk:

1. To prompt milk let-down, have a picture of the baby or a blanket that smells like him nearby, especially if she isn't around when you pump. 
2. Invest in a high-quality pump. 
3. Hold baby close, stroke him and maintain eye contact when feeding to help maintain an emotional connection.

* I am not too sure about point no 3. But point no 2 is very right. Invest in a good pump!

It's about time for me to rest and start my expressing..

Have a great week!

Xoxo,
Felicia

My life as a Mother....

Being a mother isn't easy!! I'm super sleep deprived but I'm thankful that help is always rendered whenever I ask for. Thankfully I have a helper and my gf's mother who is willing to come over to my place everyday to boil those tonic soup and to help teach my helper to care for baby.

Just damn disappointed that such help was not received from my mother in law... Tsk tsk...

As I said, being a mother isn't easy and nothing has prepared me for this journey. (I regretted not attending those antenatal classes.. if i have attended, I would be so helpless in caring for my baby.)

But still it a amazing journey..

Soon it will be Danielle's full month celebration... we've planned a small gathering with family and friends.

Let's hope with so many ppl coming, Danielle won't be overwhelm and get cranky at night...

Oh, did i mention that now Danielle is my photography subject. When the moods strikes, I will try to snap lot of pictures of her..

I even thought of taking our first family portrait with OhDear! Photography when Danielle is about 4 - 5 months old... hopefully my hubby is agreeable with this...
Hehehehe

Have a great weekend!

Xoxo,
Felicia