I'm a full-time mummy

Last week, hubby received the free passes to the 2013 Big Bad Wolf Books Preview Sale and so this post is to document down our 1st experience in attending the preview sales. I have attended the BBW sales in 2012 but that was like in the middle of the sale period and I was there for 2 hours with my SIL who babysat Benjamin (they went to the indoor playground there) while her pre-teen daughter went to the sale with me babywearing Alyson then.

This round, hubby accompanied me to the preview sale. We left Benjamin and Alyson at our SIL's house and only brought Carolyn along (she's in her stroller the whole time) I told hubby to take charge of the luggage bag while I just took the Toysr'us bag with me while I pushed Carolyn in her stroller. Here are some pictures taken that I can share with you:

Basically for this round, I am going for children books (mostly Scholastic ones) as well, price ranging from RM3 to RM15 for the ones I got. I think this year selections are not as interesting as last year's though I am VERY happy I get to buy a couple of Scholastic books which definitely are expensive (as I googled on Amazon before hesitating to buy due to the price)

There are quite a lot of encyclopedia/picture dictionaries for childrens as well though I was not interested in them at all. I was more interested in getting activities and learning books for our 4.5 years old boy who is going to start his pre-school in Jan 2014. I would like to get him something to nurture on what he learned in his pre-K later - something he can do when he got home from his pre-K classes (half day). I also managed to grab a couple of toddler books for our 2 years old Alyson (learning ABC, 123)

Pictures of some of the children books I managed to snap to show my buddy over WhatsApp:

Pictures of the view inside the building:

I gotta stop to breastfeed our 2 months old girl somewhere facing zone E, which is very nice and cosy though I had to sit on the floor. I don't mind really... :)

Pictures taken as we went to one of the aisle to pay for our books. The staff are courteous, helpful and quick to act. Good job! Too bad the credit cards machines jammed up and took VERY long to respond, we ended up paying with cash as we couldn't wait any longer.

We were there from 5pm to 8pm and total damage RM412. Pictures of our loot (kiddos, mine and hubby's - some of the books are for our friends and clients):

From what I can remember on the floor plan,the moment you enter the entrance door, all the way straight in is the children section, right side has young adults section, the toilets are located on the right side as well, cashier lanes on the furthest left side. Books on the left section are religions, self-help, travel (lots of them), cookery (lots of them too!)

That's all I can think of to share for now! Feel free to ask and share on my Facebook page if you have questions or feedback!

(** Apologies for making you hopping to my FB page as I have disabled the commenting features on my blog due to the excessive annoying spams that keeps attacking my blog the moment I enabled the commenting feature.)

How often do you get to review a story app with sing along song from Bob Marley's son, Ziggy Marley?! At first I was a bit skeptical but I was attracted to the beautiful illustration and the title as well. I'm glad I reviewed this app after we have gone through it!

* Title: I Love You Too
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Nov 20, 2013
* Version: 2.5
* Size: 49.9 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description from the product page:

"Sing and play with Ziggy Marley as you explore his first children's book based off the song from his Grammy Award winning album "Family Time!" Explore pictures, learn new vocabulary, and personalize the story with your own narration. Complete with a sing-a-long and narration by Ziggy himself, your whole family will be singing "I Love You Too" when you dive into this interactive book app!" 

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* The illustrations are very very good! I love drawings like this! 

* To be honest, the first time we went through the story app, I was kinda annoyed that the words 'I love you' were repeated WAY loads of time, but the moment I listened to the song, I realised why is it so. The story app is from the song itself (duh' to me!) And, yes, after listening to the song, I love it. I mean, our kiddos and I love it! The song is very mesmerising and catchy! It has a tinge of Bob Marley touch in it :)

* I used the opportunity to teach our kiddos that we love them and that we should love each other.

You can purchase the "I Love You Too" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code 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 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!