I'm a full-time mummy

Sorry for being so quiet on my blog lately, have been busy rushing to compile and submit my hubby's business taxes (in Malaysia, individual with business income need to submit their taxes by 30th June), and hubby's aunt came down from Sydney for 1 week holiday (she's going back later tonight) and you know, SAHM life with 2 hyper active kids...

Oh well, just want to share a recent event where I was gobsmacked at what my 3 year old boy did during his Sunday school classes. As usual, the routines in the class would be, singing songs, storytime, offerings and prayers, wash hands, snacks and crafts time and free play after everything is done (most of the kids will be gone after crafts time actually).

So anyway, last Sunday, we did everything and Ben wanted to play with some of the dinosaur toys in the class. So I thought, OK, it's not often Ben behave so well and I should not stop him from playing these toys when he asked so politely. I told him to pick just a couple of the dinosaurs and play for a while.

Out of curiosity, I asked him whether he could draw one of the dinosaur (T-rex actually) for mummy so we can show it to daddy later (daddy is in the main church hall listening to the sermon).

To my surprise, Ben took one of the color pencils and started drawing. Okay, doodling more like it, but while he was drawing it, he told me 'This is the head, the eyes, the 2 hands, and the body, and the long long tail and the 2 legs'.

Oh my... and when I looked at his drawings, I was really surprised and yep...

Gobsmacked at what my 3 year old boy did!

It may not look like a dinosaur but to me, it is the most beautiful thing ever!

It's just amazing that I almost cried with joy!

I think I can understand why parents put up their childrens drawings on the fridge and wall!

I saw this question posted by one mummy in a breastfeeding group I joined in Facebook "After BF for 7 months, my LO started to bite my nipples. Not sure if it is the caused of teething but it is very painful for me to continue BF. How to stop that? I've tried telling her (not sure if she understands ^^) and putting my last finger at the side of her mouth to open when she bites but that only lasts a while. Any mommies encounter this before? Its supper painful that I'm afraid to let her latch on now."

My immediate reply was:

"Lightly smacks her mouth with 2-3 of your fingers, must look serious and tell her immediately 'Ouch! That hurts mummy!' Give her a few seconds to think what happen (withdraw your breasts at this point), little children are very smart! After a while they will make the connection that if they bite = mummy pain = no nen-nen (aka breastmilk)"

Another idea you may try is lightly insert your pinky finger into their mouth in order to open up their mouth, do your gentlest to pull out your nipple. I normally do this when our kiddos fell asleep while nursing.

**** NOTE: For those who thinks my tip of smacking = abuse, please note that I said 'Lightly smacks'. In this sense, you use 2-3 of your fingers and pat your child's mouth. Just annoys me when people read the word 'smack' and immediately screams abuse! Weirdos...

With Ben (he's 39 months old now), I only have to do the above twice, the second time was because I was slow and he was really really hungry and accidentally bit me. Since then, no more biting episodes, even now that he is still nursing from me once a day before bedtime, he remembers and knows the rules!

As for Alyson (she's 9 months old now), I had to do this so far about 3 times and as of today, she has never bit me anymore and she's growing her 4th tooth (upper) at the moment. The last time I smacked Alyson's mouth after she bit me REALLY hard (I can actually see her tooth marks - bottom 2 teeth), I was and actually looked at her angrily and I can immediately see her face turning from playful into shock, then remorse and then she started crying. I had to calm her down after that but since then and so far, no more biting episodes.

So yes, new mums, you have to be firm and serious in disciplining your breastfeeding child if you want to spare your nipples from anymore biting incident. You CANNOT scold and smile at your child at the same time. They will not be able to know that you are serious and meant that it hurts if you are smiling at them. Or immediately offered your breast back at them.

I hope the above tips help!

How about you? Any tips to add on that you can share?

I saw this question posted by one mummy in a breastfeeding group I joined in Facebook "Hi mummies, I will back to work 2nd week in July. By the time my baby will be 2 months old. Any suggestion how much of expressed breastmilk I should store and provide to nanny in a day?"

My immediate reply was:

"I'm a SAHM now but I did worked for 1 month before I quit my job, so what I did 2 weeks before my maternity leave ended:

1. Start storing by direct latching one side and pumping on the other side

2. Also pump at regular hours which will be the same hours when I go back to work (meaning I pump 8am, 12.30pm and 4.30pm)

3. Get baby used to bottle by giving other people (such as husband, MIL, etc) to feed instead of me feeding baby as he will not want mummy to feed because they can smell our breastmilk and who wants bottle when the real thing is right next to them?

4. To gauge on how much baby should take, I try out by giving 1 oz, finish, I add 1 oz more, continue until baby stops. By the end of 2nd month, my baby takes about 3-4 oz per feed.

5. Please make sure you have backup to store your expressed breastmilk if you are staying in an area prone of electricity blackout. You really don't want to cry over the breastmilk melting and spoiling.

6. To maintain your breastmilk production, direct latch baby before you leave work and try to get nanny to hold off giving your expressed breastmilk if she can or if baby can still wait so baby can direct latch when you finish work. (direct latch more frequently will keep up the breastmilk production)"

How about you? Any tips to add on that you can share?