My Breastfeeding Journey

Eunice is 7 months 1 week and 1 day old now. It also means that I have been her moo moo cow for 7 months 1 week and 1 day. *phew*

I pride myself in my determination has helped me go this far, and that Eunice has been on breastmilk exclusively. And she has been growing well~! Many are amazed by her michelin legs and round tummy. Well, at least I prove my mum and my mother in law and many aunties wrong - they always think breastmilk is less nutritious and it's impossible to provide enough for a young baby.

I wouldn't say the journey has been easy but I thank God that my breastfeeding journey is rather smooth. I don't produce A LOT bu I just produce enough for Eunice. I guess that's good enough. She has been drinking 20oz a day before she started solid and my supply is always between 18oz to 24ozs. During good days, it'll go up to 26oz. :). Now that she starts solid and skipped a milk feed, her daily consumption at babysitter's place has reduced to 14 - 15ozs but my production remains at +/-20ozs.

To date, my fridge has 49 bottles of breastmilk with avg of 4-5 ozs, some at babysitter's place. I have 68 bumblebee storage bottles and almost all of them are filled up. To make sure I fully utilise the bottles, I try to make sure I have minimum 4ozs per bottle (mix after pump). And for the stock that I have now, it can only last Eunice for 10-15 days for day time only. If for full day, I guess it will be all gone in less than 10 days.

I actually budget to buy an Ameda double breastpump after I confirm that I can go on with breastfeeding after my confinement, but when I went over to the shop, the sales person actually recommended me UniMOM Forte (never heard before leh...!) :P.. It's 50% cheaper than Ameda, except that it's a bit bulky and slightly heavy. Well, since I don't carry laptop to office, I just put this breastpump in a bag pack and carry to office everyday! In order to convince me to buy this cheaper breastpump, EG also volunteer to carry my bag for me if we ever need to bring it around. :P ... So far, I have no complain and it has been serving me well. :)

Of course I do crave for new branded breastpump. Well, I told EG this is what girls normally want to do - having >1 bags, >1 purses, >1 shoes and what more for this breastpump that's on daily usage. However, he's right that if a cheaper breastpump has already been doing its job well, why do I need to spend more for a branded one? Ahhh... So I'm still not getting any till now. Probably for my next baby I'll buy a Medela or Ameda then. :)

Many asked me how long I plan to breastfeed. I haven't really thought about it yet as I really enjoy breastfeeding now (though I don't like the pumping). But I do plan to do it as long as I have enough supply for my little one. For now, the target is when she reaches 1 year old.

I really thank God that it has been a great journey so far. :)

Eunice's first crawl

As a working mum, I often worry that I'll miss my baby's growth, esp. Eunice is spending almost the whole day @ babysitter's and only spend 1-2 hours with us before she goes to sleep. So, I try to spend all my time with her whenever I can, esp. during weekends. And I try to record / take as many pictures that I can to keep as our memories.

This time, I took a pic of my little cutie pie first few crawling when she's 6.5 mths old. She wasn't very stable as you can see but I think she did a great job in crawling! *proud mummy*...

Told you, I'm just amazed by baby's development. She learns soooooo fast! 1 month ago she was just "rocking" herself on her four, and then she started moving her hands and legs forward. Now @ her 7th month, she is crawling around my house! :)

The next thing that you'd expect from me is her walking around the house! :)

Parklon Playmat

Since Eunice hit her 6 mths old, she has been trying to lift herself up to crawl. We have a small piece of comforter where we let her lie down in the living room to have her tummy time or play time when she's not sleeping, but now the comforter is too thin for her. Several times she tried to crawl forward but she fell forward, and hit her face to the hard tiles. Of course she cries everytime.

The daddy was especially heartache to see his gerger who's learning to crawl, but always hit herself onto the floor. So, when my friend shared with me about the LG playmat, EG said we must get that for gerger.

After some searching in internet / forums, we got Parklon playmat (couldn't afford LG prime where the price is 2x of Parklon). I'm quite lucky to find a website to give me a good price and with free postage from KL to Penang!

As usual, the father is more excited than gerger.
We both like the packaging.

One side of the mat. We just took out from the packaging so it's slightly wrinkly.

My timid gerger was scared when we first put her on the mat. She dare not move and started crying. Haiyooo... I had to carry her and "introduce" her new mat to her by introducing the Pooh bear, Pigglet, Donkey and etc slowly. After a while, she's happily playing there! Phew!! Imagine if she doesn't like it - I'm going to cry as $$ wasted! That's always the risk to buy toys / stuff for babies as they won't be able to tell u if they like it!

The timid girl dare not move on her net mat

After warming up, now this is her playing area!

EG likes the mat very very much. Not only it's now safe for gerger to play on the mat, it's also very nice to lie on it. He sometimes will just take a short nap on the mat while gerger is playing. :)... He even suggested to buy another one to put in our bedroom.. =.="

Even though the mat is slightly expensive, but I think for daily use and safety purpose, it's worth all the money. And the material is very good. I believe we can keep it for the next baby in the future. :)

Eunice's nicknames

It's a funny feeling when I first became a mummy. When I first "met" Eunice, I didn't know how I should call her. Suddenly I have a daughter. Suddenly I'm a mother. I don't know how to describe the mixed feeling. And at the very first time, I called her "baby...". When my mum called me while I was still in hospital, she asked: "How's Eunice?". I found it funny as it took me a second to process who Eunice is. :)

Later on, I still referred her as baby. And trying to get used to it by calling her Eunice.

When I took care of her at home all by myself, EG will buy lunch back for me and check on both of us. He'll ask me how's his precious. I'll tell him how his 小瓜 (xiao gua) treated her mummy (me) as that's how some people call the young children. As usual, EG found it funny and asked me why it is called 小瓜 (xiao gua). And later on we translated it to english and it became Melon. :)

When we started to send Eunice to bbsitter and when I started working, EG and I only see her after work everyday. And normally we'll miss her terribly after work. And EG started to call her "girl girl" - sound sweet right? And one day, while chatting to EG about Eunice, he suddenly typed "gerger" - referring to our little precious. And since then, we have been calling her gerger - since it sounds really cute and no one has this name too. :)

Recently while chatting to some friends, I noticed they also call Eunice gerger. It makes me laugh everytime. A friend actually asked me why gerger? :D... I wonder how they would pronounce it actually. But my answer to my friend is - you know how we pronounce burger? The "ger" there... is the same "ger"...

Wakakakakaka. :)

Our dearest Gerger

Timid Girl

Both EG and I think that Eunice is a timid girl.

Why? There are a few incidents proves that.

1. Eunice was looking at Daddy playing guitar, suddenly, Daddy sneezed - OK la quite loud. Next thing we know - Eunice was crying loudly!

2. Eunice was playing herself on the floor on the thin mattress. Mummy was watching tv beside her. A repairman was outside fixing the gate and he started drilling. It wasn't very loud. Eunice stopped playing, looked at Mummy. I know she's shocked as she never hear this sound before. I asked her, "Yes girl?". And she started to show me the N shape mouth and started crying!!

3. We bought Parklon playmat for her as she has hit herself few times on the floor while trying to crawl. It has a HUGE Winnie the Pooh and her friends printing on the mat. The first time we put her down the mat, she didn't dare to move! And started crying again! I had to carry her on my lap and told her many times that "See, it's pooh bear! No scared scared!" And hit the pooh a few times before she could start playing happily on the mat. =.=

4. We bought Fisher Price stacker for Eunice. It has a small duckling on top and it has rattling sound when you move the stacker. OK, it's louder than her usual toy. This girl... when we showed her the toy and make that sound, she started crying! I don't know if it's because of the duckling (the duckling is quite cute ma... =.=) or the rattling sound. I had to hide it behind the sofa. Before I brought her to sleep, EG tried again by showing her the toy. And once she saw it, she started crying again... Gosh...! We had to slowly "introduce" the new toy to her the next day. Now she can play with it well. =.=

5. We brought her to almost everywhere we go. People always comment that she's very obedient, cooperative with parents as she normally will just sit down on our lap - not moving much - and just observe her surroundings. Actually, EG and I know that she's actually scared as she doesn't recognize the place. As long as we're holding her, she'll be OK. But if we pass to someone else, she'll start crying. Once, we were @ Pr Sam's house and Pr's wife - Suzie tried to talk to her softly. After 1 minute, Eunice showed her N lips and started crying again. It's very obvious that that cry is due to fear.

There are many other times where she would jump while we cough / sneeze / someone else talked slightly louder.

I seriously wonder where she got this timid gene from. I don't think so it's from me. Must be from the Daddy then. :P

Because of this, Daddy pampers his daughter like crazy and very protective over her. That's why I always say sometimes I can see smoke from Eunice's head - because she hangus already!

Trying to crawl

I almost forgot about this. :).

I was very surprise to see Eunice @ 23wks old lifted her tummy off the ground and went on her four on one Saturday morning when I let her play with us on our bed. Later, my sister who was in Penang visiting actually took a video of her trying to crawl in her playpen while I was taking my bath.



My little one is trying to crawl. And now @ 25 wks, she is more stable on her four and she's trying to move forward. She is also trying to sit down while getting on her four.

It is such a joy to see her grow. :)

Starting on Solids

Since the day Eunice was born, I pray so hard that she'll grow up faster. I pray that she'll reach 6 months old soon so that I can take a break from breastfeeding / expressing and she'll start to eat like what we eat.

And now, Eunice is going to be 6 months old in a week time. How time flies! Now I hope the time can go slower so that I can enjoy her as a baby now.

Anyway, Dr Dan been asking me if I want to start solid on Eunice when she reached 4 months. After reading up the internet, I have decided to hold back the solid feeding till she's 6 months old to prevent any allergy. And furthermore, Eunice is on breastmilk exclusively - it should be nutritious enough for her till she reach her 6 months.

So I waited. And a week before she turned 6 months old, I have decided to start feeding her some cereal. Even so, I have read up about cereal feeding - whether to buy the instant one, or make my own homemade one. Well, in the end I went for the instant one for our conveniences in the future. There are so many brands out there - and after surveying a few rounds with EG, we have decided to get Why Not? Organic First Flavor Cereal for Eunice.


My first attempt of feeding was quite successful. To my surprise, Eunice took the feeding very well. She will lean forward eagerly to "eat" her cereal, and I followed the tips online to leave the spoon in her mouth for her to chew & swallow the cereal. To remember this special day, I took her pic after fed - so cute right? :)

And I'm glad that I got this Tommee Tippee bib. I tried feeding her in the normal cloth bib and end up the cereal is falling everywhere. And this bib is really cute, it has a pocket in front too - to "takung" all the cereal that the little one spit out. :). And it's very easy to clean it. Just wipe it and leave it there to dry. And use it again during next feed. :)



My naughty girl actually tried to grab the spoon while I'm feeding her. After I'm done feeding her, I gave her the spoon but she didn't know how to control it and she smacked it on her face. Hahaha! So I took it back.

Anyway it's a special experience feeding my little one. I'm going to try with more food on her so that she can taste the different types of food. And I'm going to get busy preparing her food then! :)

And ooohhhh, her poo got smellier after the cereal... Gosh... :).. But as long as she poo, I'm happy. Let's hope that she'll be able to take the other food well!

Happy Eunice @ 5 mths

I always pray that Eunice will stay healthy and happy all the time. For me, there's nothing more important than these. :)