I'm a full-time mummy

I started my breastfeeding journey since March 2009, when our 1st child was born and I never stopped breastfeeding since then. I breastfed our 1st child past 1, 2, 3 years old, throughout my 2nd pregnancy, then went on to tandem nursed our first 2 kiddos for 1.5 years until our 1st child self-weaned at 45 months old. As for 2nd child, she is still nursing right now at 2 years old, I nursed through my 3rd pregnancy and currently tandem nursing our 2nd and 3rd child since 1st October 2013.

With all these experiences gained in my breastfeeding journey, I decided to pen down the critical phases which I think contributed to a successful breastfeeding journey.

To read my 1st post, you can click the link on this post: Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : 1st Hour.

For my 2nd post, I will start off with: the 1st day after giving birth to your baby.

This post is pretty much similar to the critical first hour after giving birth to your baby. I am just going to repeat the advice given which is to keep on latching and inform the hospital staff that you want your baby to be on breastmilk only.

What differs in this post with the previous post is, in the critical 1st day, you get to experience a day and night spent with your baby.

For my case, my birth hospital is pro-breastfeeding and baby has to be room-in with mum at all times (unless baby is premature or require constant monitoring under neonatal ICU unit due to some health complications) So with baby rooming-in with you, you get to experience for yourself how to handle your newborn, to get used to bay's cues for hunger, stress, etc.

On my first night with baby and being in a pro-breastfeeding hospital, there is no other options to comfort and soothe baby other than breastfeed (after you have checked diaper, swaddled and ensure environment is comfortable) You just gotta latch, latch, latch. With frequent latching, your brain will get signals you really need breastmilk fast!

Picture below showing Carolyn breastfeeding at 3.51am in the morning (I did not have any sleep at all until about 5am on the first day)

I also believe the first day is critical as you'll finally realised this is important and there is no other person but you and baby who can make this work.

Some new mums will be discharged from hospital on day 2 onwards and once you leave the hospital, there will be other factors affecting and influencing you. Husband, in-laws, older children, and in our culture confinement ladies (if you did not hire the breastfeeding friendly ones, they will affect your breastfeeding plan!)

So, yes, the 1st day after giving birth is a critical phase in ensuring a smooth path to your successful breastfeeding journey.

To sum this post up:

Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : the 1st day after giving birth to your baby.

• Latching early will also help baby to practise his latching technique
  

• Latching early will help YOU in your breastfeeding techniques too

• Please make sure you inform the hospital staff beforehand that you want your baby to be breastfeed and no formula feeding whatsoever

• If possible, room-in with baby after birth.

• Only YOU and BABY can make breastfeeding works. Do not let other factors influence your plan!
  

That's all for my 2nd post in the critical phase for a successful breastfeeding journey!

Feel free to ask and share if you have questions or feedback!

A couple of months ago, I reviewed TwinkleTup, Tupperware's latest range of innovative products for children and toddlers and recently, I had the opportunity to review a new product from Tupperware again, and since I'm into reviewing educational products for my kiddos, of course I say yes!

Description from the product page:
"Here's a toy that grows with a child, from infants to pre-schoolers. Not only is it fun and colorful, the Shape-O-Toy is a classic shape-sorter, rattle and counting toy which helps toddlers to identify shapes, develop coordination and dexterity, as well as counting and number recognition."

The moment I took the Shape-O-Toy out of its box, I was reminded of a similar childhood toy I used to play with. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to take out the shapes inside the Shape-O-Toy as I didn't see any instructions on this. Of course, not wanting to appear like a klutz to our kiddos, I examine it all over and finally figured out that I need to pull apart the two handles on both opposites sides and it will open up in the middle and the shapes inside will drop out. Ahhhh.... easy peasy! What a creative idea!

Next, I tried getting our kiddos to play with the Shape-O-Toy WITHOUT even telling them what to do! Heh, evil mummy right? Just testing our kiddos to see whether they are smart enough or not hahaha...

Our 4.5 years old boy did not show much interest in the toy initially and went off to continue playing his Legos. Only after seeing his sister playing happily with the Shape-O-Toy that he jumped in and played with it too!

Our 2 years old girl showed interests and soon began to take one of the shape block and tried to stuff it into the Shape-O-Toy. Remember, I did not even tell her what to do! You can click at this link to view a video clip of our 2 years old Alyson playing with Tupperware's Shape-O-Toy game.

It doesn't take long for Benjamin to match all the shapes correctly though I will test him again in future to see whether he can solve it again faster and faster hehehe... as for Alyson, it is fun seeing her happy face as she matches the shapes correctly and though she takes time to match the shapes, I definitely think the Shape O Toy has great potential as a teaching tool and also as a play toy for her.

What I like with the Shape-O-Toy is it allows our kiddos to sharpen their problem solving skills. I like that our kiddos have to use their own mind to determine how to slot the puzzle blocks according to its matching shapes.

I especially like the vibrant colors used and upon closer inspection on the shape blocks, you can notice one side of the shape has a number of dots and if you see the opposite sides of the shapes, you can see the number representing the dots. Nice! I can use this to teach our kiddos counting and number recognition on top of teaching them about the different shapes.

Last but not least, I feel at ease knowing our kiddos are playing with toys made from safe, non-toxic, Tupperware food grade materials.

In summary, the Shape-O-Toy is a fun and yet educational toy.

For more information, visit tupperwarebrands.com.my or http://www.facebook.com/Tupperware.Brands.Malaysia.Singapore

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products by Tupperware 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.

As an individual, I would say I am pretty gullible and easy to trust others - especially when they are older and seems wise. I would say this pretty much applies to most topics except those that I'm passionate in, like matters relating to breastfeeding and perhaps blogging and doing product reviews.

Anyway, the other day, my hubby was telling me to be careful and be wise to discern the advice dispensed by other people especially when it comes to parenting and children topics. He said learn to identify whether these people truly care and wants to help and share their tips or they just want to boast and brag about their accomplishments.

To be honest, when hubby told me some of the things to look out for in order to identify 'well-meaning' people like this, I was gobsmacked. It kinda hit me because some time back, I was nodding and agreeing while looking at my kiddos as I listened to some of these 'well-meaning' people telling me that my kiddo is displaying rude manners and etc.

Yes, we should not give excuses for our children for their rude behaviour. But hubby's point was there are people who easily dispenses their thoughts and judgment based on a few minutes observation alone, and did not see the clear picture of why our boy acted that way.

Hubby said that people who truly care and really wants to help will try to understand the situation at home, how was our kiddos like at home, and then monitor and analyse from there onwards. Rather than just seeing what is going on in less than 5 minutes and immediately concluded that our kiddos are rude and misbehaved. He also said there are other 'well-meaning' people who instead of helping, they just want to brag about their kiddos' or their accomplishments.

In summary, again hubby said, we must not just listen totally and believed others opinions are right. We as parents should learn to identify these people and see for ourselves whether it is really as what other people observe.

What about you?

Do you know how to identify 'well-meaning' people and how do you handle people like this?