I'm a full-time mummy

I just came across an old post of mine, written almost 2 years ago on how I was the subject of an essay written by my hubby's niece. To be exact, I was the person she admired! Oh wow!

You see what happened was, 2 years ago, we've been having our then 11 year old niece (her name is Bonnie) over at our place after school where she normally plays with my then 1 year old Ben or just relaxing until her father picks her up in the evening.

So about a week into that, she brought along her homework, which is to write a short essay about the person she admires and after deciding between hubby and I, she decided to settle on me! Since I'm practically at home and easy for her to refer and ask questions to, we went ahead with her idea and I helped her along by giving her  more details about myself, such as my age, why I'm a SAHM now and am taking care of Ben full-time.

She wrote the rest of the essay and when she's done, I asked her whether I could read it. I also couldn't resist taking pictures of her essays cos it's the only proof I'm going to have that I am the person she admires since she will need to hand in her homework!

The most gentle person she knows? Me?!! Awwwwwww...

And honestly though it may feel like it's one of those Best Custom Essay ever written (since I helped giving some input about my details to her), it's so nice reading something that other people wrote about you. And particularly since it came from a child as children don't lie and what comes out of their mouth is total innocence and has no ulterior motives or whatsoever.

What a nice little trip down the memory lane and a little something to perk me up!

** Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All thoughts, opinions and words are 100 % my own.

I just had this idea the other night and told myself I must write this down. In case you don't know, I am quite crazy with coining words and keywords (check out my 'BE AWESOME' approach in potty training my boy) so when I thought of these few words that started with the letter D and then I make the connections for these words to be applied and practiced by new mums (or mums-to-be) who wants to embark (or just step) into breastfeeding journey, I think this is a cool idea!

These are the few tips that I always shared with mums-to-be who asked me questions on breastfeeding previously. Anyway, here you go:

D = DETERMINATION

You must be determined to make it work! I wrote about my tips on how I make my breastfeeding works and I think this is the 1st important step to making your breastfeeding journey smooth!

If you are not determined to make it work, no matter how good your breast pump or how awesome your baby latches on successfully, it will not last! So remember to be determined and focus on the goal to make breastfeeding works for you and baby!

D = DIRECT LATCH

During the first month (at least), just focus on direct latching and nursing your baby.

DO NOT express or pump yet until you are about 2 weeks into finishing your maternity leave. (In Malaysia, most working mums get 2 months maternity leave) Some mums in a breastfeeding group I joined are too concerned with the amount of breastmilk they can pump out or the amount of breastmilk their baby is taking and I always feel that this are unnecessary worries that the new mums put onto themselves!

By direct feeding your baby, it will constantly send signals to your brain that "Baby still needs loads and loads of breastmilk! Continue producing!"

D = DEMAND FEED

Again, during the first month (at least), just feed your baby on demand. Whenever baby is hungry or is fussy or just need comfort, just feed! Don't be tied up or stressed out with following schedules or timetable.

I repeat again, by demand feeding your baby, it will constantly send signals to your brain that "Baby still needs loads and loads of breastmilk! Continue producing!"

D = DRINK LOTS OF WATER

OK, Chinese folks will frown at this tip as we have this superstitious beliefs that new mums in confinement period (usually 30 days) must not drink plain water. They have herb drinks to replace plain water during the 30 days. Now I am not into superstitions thinking so other than the occassional red dates drink during my confinement, I drink loads of plain water to hydrate myself.

I always tell new mums or mums-to-be who are concerned with superstitious thinking like this to think how our Western mums do? They will drink water of course!

D = DREAMFEED

I started dreamfeeding my 1st child in the 1st week. Too tired to get up every 1-2 hours, bending over and carried him from his crib which is right next to our bed, nursed him then put him back in his crib. It is simply too tiring. One time I was too tired to wake up and just continued nursing my baby even while he was asleep. I finally found out this is called dreamfeeding and it was this that started our co-sleeping method. This method works for us and we are still doing so with our 2nd child.

The benefits of breastfeeding is so much more greater and advantageous both for you and your baby, not to mention your hubby's wallet too! Think of how much you saved by not needing to buy formula milk, bottles, steriliser, etc etc. 

Happy breastfeeding!

** P.S: Feel free to leave your comment if you have any questions to ask me!

** Article first published as Book Review: The Wonders of Mother's Milk by Mishawn Purnell-O'Neal on Blogcritics.

I received an email pitch last month from the author of this book asking whether I am interested in reviewing her book which has recently been made available in digital formats (iBookstore and Kindle). I checked out her book in Amazon website for more info and decided I have to review it, simply because this book is about breastfeeding, the wonders of it!

In case you are new to my blog, I just want to let you know that I am very very passionate about anything related to breastfeeding. As a mother of 2 kids, I am still breastfeeding my 41 months old boy and 11 months old girl. So, yes, anything related to breastfeeding, I am in! So here goes my review for the "The Wonders of Mother's Milk" e-book:

Title: The Wonders of Mother's Milk
Author: Mishawn Purnell-O'Neal
Publisher: Mishawn Purnell-O'Neal (October 3, 2005)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0971219922 / 0971219923
Paperback:  16 pages
Dimension: 9.6 x 9.6 x 0.4 inches

Description from the product page:
"The Wonders of Mother's Milk is a multicultural children's book that will engage, educate and entertain its readers. With its rhythmic poetic text and colorfully diverse illustrations, early readers will be given the keys to unlock the doors of discovery into the many wonders of mother's milk."

I love this book! The illustrations are easy to the eye, this book is not too long winded nor too short to make a statement!

I love that the paragraphs rhymes and is easy to read while still being able to deliver the points in breastfeeding, how it benefits our little ones, how different mothers breastfeed and nourish their child and how children from different ages can still enjoys the benefits of breastfeeding.

I just love the last page on this book where it says

"So when you see a mother giving her baby her milk,
don’t stare, instead give her a smile. And know that
she’s is giving the best gift that she can give to her
growing child."

This book deserves more publicity and need to be made aware of its existence! As a person who is passionate about breastfeeding matters, I hope that one day, breastfeeding will be seen as a normal thing and I hope this book will be able to impact and affect the lives of whomever lucky enough to read it! Simply love love love this book!

You can get this book from Amazon, iBookstore, Amazon Kindle and many more.

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! ONE of you lucky people are going to win a copy of this awesome book! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

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

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• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

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I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF copy of the book by the author 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 book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"