I'm a full-time mummy

Welcome to the I Love Me! Carnival!

This post was written for inclusion in the I Love Me! Carnival hosted by Amy at Anktangle. This carnival is all about love of self, challenging you to lift yourself up, just for being you. Please read to the bottom to find a list of submissions from the other carnival participants.

For those of you who hopped over from the carnival, welcome and greetings from Malaysia, I hope you enjoy reading me bragging about myself (oh please bear with me... it's really rare that I self-complimented myself in public!!).

For my regular readers and visitors, hope you enjoy this post and do check out other participants' posts in this carnival if you're free!

Now what I love about me?

1. I quit my job to be a full-time mummy

Yeah! I kissed my beloved job goodbye back in June 2009 and became a SAHM since then. No regrets now that I look back at it. And I thank God for providing us with what we need since then.

2. I am a low maintenance kinda girl

Yeap again... no make-ups, no perfumes, no branded clothing, shoes, handbags, etc etc. Back when I was still working, I would spend money on books and magazines and the occasional clothing which I can wear both to work and for casual, but that's about it. No unnecessary spending. And now that I'm a SAHM, I get my books for FREE (since I get to review them hehehe...) and if I have to buy them, I use the money I earned from my blog.

3. I exclusively breastfed Benjamin for the first 6 months of his life

And by exclusive breastfed I meant totally on breastmilk and nothing else. No formula at all. With the rare couple of occasions where I was nagged by MIL to give Ben a few sips of water (during one of our very hot season). I am proud to be able to nourish my boy solely on my breastmilk alone!

4. I prepared Ben's solids myself

Other than the first small tin of rice cereal we bought to try out on Ben when he started solids, I prepared his solids myself. Steamed, mashed, minced, sliced all sorts of vegetables and fruits and prepared it for my boy. I wrote a post about Ben's solids and why I DIY his solids and you can read it at my old blog here.

5. I nursed my boy through my pregnancy!

Even though my breastmilk dried up during my 5th month of pregnancy, that doesn't seem to stop Ben from continue suckling from me. And now that my baby Alyson is born, Ben continues on breastfeeding (only prior to his afternoon naptime and bedtime) which makes up my next point which is...

6. I tandem nurse my 2.5 year old boy and baby

It is now almost 2 months that I tandem nursed my boy and my baby. Of course, during the initial few days, I was having emotional battles whenever I nursed Ben but slowly, I worked through this obstacle and am hoping it will completely go away soon.

7. I love my big eyes

Yeap, I admit it. I love them. I love that Ben inherits my big eyes. I hope Alyson does too. It's still too early to tell now. But yeah, my big eyes are one of my body parts which I'm proud of.

So there you go... the above lists are some of the things I can think of now that I love about myself!

Before I have kids, my waistline was the same, all the way since I was 17 years old...

And then I had Ben, and I gotta get a pregnancy jeans... which was fine cos it was extra small...

And then my waistline started expanding...

And few days back, when I had to go to the hospital for my postnatal check-up, I found myself with no pants to wear. The jeans I had in my closet stay stuck around my thighs, refusing to go up any higher... my hips apparently expanded thanks to these 2 fella...

So, during the recent weekend, hubby forced me to go shop for new jeans as I stood there holding my jeans, mourning over not being able to wear them anymore... After checking in and out a few stores, I finally bought 2 pair of jeans, 1 full length the other knee length.

And guess what are my jeans sizes now?

Sigh... what have my kids done to me?!

Sorry but I'm not trying to make you say a tongue twister or anything. Just writing this post to remind myself in case I feel down or depressed in the future.

You see, I was chatting with my fellow SAHM friend (it's you Miki! :P) during our recent MSN chat and I told Miki that I was recently emailing a blog follower of mine (am not sure whether she wants to be known so I'm just gonna nicknamed her as 'E')

So anyway, E was asking me how I managed to get the contacts for the product reviews I do on my blog and one email lead to another and next thing I know, E was telling me that she got inspired after reading my blog and she was determined to fully breastfeed her 2nd child.

Oh my... never did I realised that I can be a source of inspiration to others!

Really?

Me?

Me?!

So anyway, I was telling Miki that in the midst of me suffering through my initial tandem nursing aversion, never would I thought that there are other people out there reading and following my blog and looking up to me and wanting to follow my footsteps.

So this post is to remind myself not to give up easily as there are others who are looking up to me.

To E, thank you for telling me that I've inspired you, I wish you all the best and pray that you will achieve your goals.

I feel so inspired (really!) and proud of myself (after the initial shock died down..) and I promise myself, I will soldier on and not give up easily should I fall back and feel down in the future.