What I Needed During My Pregnancy While Still Breastfeeding...

~ Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 at 7:00 PM ~

** Welcome to the Pregnancy Necessities Carnival! This post was written for inclusion in the Pregnancy Necessities Carnival hosted by Parenting God’s Children. Today, participants share what they simply cannot live without during their pregnancies or simply what to gather for their upcoming new addition. Please see the full list of links to the other carnival submissions at the end of this post. Enjoy! ***

We found out I was pregnant when Ben is about 2 years+ old. I was still breastfeeding him about 3-4 times daily then.

Honestly speaking, I don't know anyone around me who breastfeed more than a year, let alone, one who STILL breastfeed while she is pregnant. So it is crucial for me to find out as much information I can about breastfeeding during pregnancy.

So what I really needed during my 2nd pregnancy while I was still breastfeeding are:

Information! Lots and lots of it!

Image credit: Google search

Strong will

  • People who know me will know that I've always been saying that I will continue breastfeeding as long as Ben wants it and as long as I can still produce breastmilk for him, so being pregnant should hopefully not be an obstacle or an excuse to wean him off breastfeeding.
  • Despite hearing from our gynae and pead about weaning, I stood firm and breastfeed on!

Support

Image credit: Google search
  • On the family side, my hubby has been very helpful and has been spending more time with Ben even though he's so tired with his work and all so that I could have some 'me' time and rest for a while. So yes, I'm very very thankful and grateful for his help and support.

So the above are some of the necessities during my 2nd pregnancy.

To sum it, I breastfed throughout the pregnancy (though my BM stopped at 5th month, that doesn't stop my boy from continuing on!), delivered my 2nd baby at 39 weeks of pregnancy and is now tandem nursing my 2 kids at 6 months going on!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants!

Happy Birthday to ME!

~ Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 at 12:01 AM ~

Yes, people!

Finally the day has arrived!

It's my 32nd birthday today!

Don't know what to say except I am blessed with an understanding and supportive hubby and 2 cheeky kids, a helpful MIL, wonderful in-law siblings, bonding well with my one and only elder brother, made a new bestie (I have 2 now! Yay!) and meet with lots of you wonderful people!

Never would I imagine getting married,

getting pregnant,

giving birth naturally,

quitting my job to be a SAHM,

breastfeeding exclusively,

finding my passion in blogging,

getting pregnant again after almost 2 years,

breastfeeding throughout the 2nd pregnancy,

giving birth naturally again,

tandem nursing 2 kids,

being alive to write this post and thank God for everything I am blessed with,

and everyone for being a part of my life...

That's me at 6 months old!

Here's wishing you all a happy and blessed day!

(it's my birthday, I want you guys to be happy and have a memorable day!)

iPad App Review & Giveaway - Montessori Revolution

~ Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 10:26 AM ~

I've always been intrigued and very much curious with Montessori methods and am very happy I get to review an app for Montessori learning for my child. Anyway, my review as below for the "Montessori Revolution" app...

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* Title: Montessori Revolution
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Education
* Updated: Jan 25, 2012
* Version: 1.0.2
* Size: 27.6 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: MEDL Mobile, Inc
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"The Montessori Revolution iPad app carries the rich and world-renown heritage of the Montessori method into the 21st Century, allowing you to bring home the time-tested techniques and methods that your child experiences at school. Developed hand-in-hand with a team of trusted and experienced Montessorians, This powerful Montessori pro-tool amplifies your child’s learning by marrying cutting-edge technology with the hands-on, discovery-based education system of the Montessori method.

The app employs several multi-sensory exercises to improve your child’s cognitive abilities in a variety of areas, including arithmetic, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness and problem solving.

DISCOVERY OVER DIRECTION
Montessori Revolution taps into your child’s natural abilities in order to reshape their learning process. By promoting a learning process based on active discovery instead of passive instruction, Montessori Revolution gives your child the best head start on their journey through life.

CURB THE LEARNING CURVE
Six dynamic hands-on exercises highlight your child’s natural abilities, playing to their strengths while identifying and improving areas of challenge.
– “The Moveable Alphabet” grows your child’s basic phonemic skills using audio-visual cues, drag-and-drop screen gestures and several levels of difficulty.
– “The Pink Tower” teaches your child scale, direction perception skills, concentration and order by building a tower from several sizes of blocks.
– “The Pouring Exercise” develops your child’s hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness by transferring beans back and forth between two containers.
– “The Short Bead Stairs” builds your child’s arithmetic and direction-following skills through a drag-and-drop game
– “The Canvas” introduces your child to the world of art and color through a free-form drawing tablet.
– “The Globe” teaches your child geography through an interactive rotating globe with clickable continents.

TRACK YOUR CHILD'S GROWTH
Watch and monitor your child’s growth with the in-app progress tracker. You can keep track of everything, from time spent on each exercise to individual lesson scores.

TWO EXERCISES
As part of your purchase, you get two free hands-on exercises: the Canvas exercise to get you started, and a bonus exercise of your choice. Each additional exercise is only $0.99

PROFILES FOR MULTIPLE STUDENTS
Easily create and manage profiles for multiple students. You can add as many students as you would like, and each profile allows you to upload a photo."

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Montessori Revolution

There are 6 exercises on this app but this review is based on 2 of the exercises available which are: “The Moveable Alphabet” and "The Canvas".

(*Note: You get 2 exercises as part of the purchase, the other 4 are in-app purchases, each costs $0.99)

What's good?

* I like the varieties of exercises on this app.

Montessori Revolution

* Although Ben is not at the spelling stage yet, I did try out the 1st exercise which is “The Moveable Alphabet”. It is an interesting approach to teach spelling and I'd like to go over this again when Ben is at the spelling stage one day.

* I got Ben to try out the 2nd exercise which is "The Canvas" and we have some fun time just doodling and drawing!

Montessori Revolution

I drew the orange octopus on the top right.

Ben drew his version on the bottom left.

Montessori Revolution

To my surprise, Ben drew Spiderman's eyes!

(* In case you don't know, it's on the left)

Room for Improvement?

* I would prefer if all the 6 exercises are made available in this app, perhaps 2 of them are fully accessible (as per the current settings) and the other 4 allows us to try out a basic or simple activity so we can have a feel of each of the exercises in this app.

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You can purchase the " Montessori Revolution " app from the iTunes App Store.

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! FIVE of you lucky people are going to win a copy of this educational and useful app! You will absolutely love it! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

* Note: 2 of the exercises offered for the giveaway are: “The Moveable Alphabet” and "The Canvas"

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

  • You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
  • Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm a full-time mummy

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

I'm a full-time mummy