I'm a full-time mummy

Just found out you are expecting? Happy? Elated? Worried? Concerned? Might be the later reasons if you are still breastfeeding. At least that's what I felt when I found out I was expecting our 2nd child (Alyson) and I was still breastfeeding our first, Benjamin (he was at 20months+ then)

I was so concerned with the following:

- What if my breastmilk stops producing (trust me, it will due to hormones in pregnancy!) and my boy is still not weaned yet? How to substitute my breastmilk then?

- What if the breastfeeding causes contractions and early labors or increases the risks of miscarriages?

- What if the breastmilk is poisonous? (old wives tales)

- How to cope with breastfeeding and tummy getting bigger and me getting more and more tired?

Before you read on, do note that I am not able to advise you on how to substitute breastfeeding with formula milk as until today we are still at zero specks of formula powder at home. So, I apologise first as I really am not able to comment on anything with regards to formula milk.

Now back to whether you should continue breastfeeding during your pregnancy...

If there are no risks or complications in your previous pregnancy, I personally think there are no reasons why you should wean. I nursed through my boy until I delivered my girl in Sept 2011 and continued tandem nursing them until I weaned my boy at 45 months old. From early April 2016, I have gently weaned off our 2nd kiddo (who is 4.5 years old now) but I am still breastfeeding our 3rd kiddo who is 2.5 years old now.

I have no complications or risks history when I was pregnant with our 3 kiddos so that makes it a plus factor in my decision making to continue breastfeeding during my pregnancies. I also believed that I should not wean just because the baby is coming especially when my previous pregnancies are fine.

If you are worried about the risks of miscarriages caused by breastfeeding as some people believe nursing will trigger contractions... well, if you read up on Google, you will find out that even having sex during pregnancy will also cause contractions.

The questions you must ask yourself are:

1. Do you have risks/complications during previous pregnancy? Such as problems with your uterus or anything that can cause early labors

2. Is your baby ready to wean?

3. Are you ready to wean?

4. If either answers for question 2 or 3 is a 'yes', you need to think of supplementing your baby NOW or switching her to alternative milks and/or solids (depending on your child's age okay?) You better express and store now and/or try out formula milk before your breastmilk runs out at your 4th - 5th month of pregnancy

Now, do note that if you decide to continue nursing:

- your breastmilk will change taste during pregnancy (mine tasted sour and bitter when I tasted it at 4th mth into pregnancy)

- your breastmilk will stop midway through pregnancy (mine stopped at 5th month but our first 2 kiddos continued nursing until I delivered)

- there are some nurslings who self-wean because of the above 2 reasons, so do have a backup plan (or backup expressed breastmilk) if your nurslings are still very much into your breastmilk

- you will be very tired during pregnancy, for me, I normally lie down on my bed to rest and let our kiddos nursed (well they get to nurse and bond and comfort and I get to rest too)

- some mums will have nursing aversion (I only have mine when I started tandem nursing) so do research more and read up on what to do if this happens

- some will also worried that nursing the older child during pregnancy that they will take away the colostrum intended for coming baby. Answer is no, your body is not robot. Nature's way, your body will know if something is taken, it will be replenished. Just the same logic that when you breastfeed, your body will send signals to produce more milk. So don't worry that there is no colostrum when new baby comes along.

If you feel you should wean, I would suggest that you do it gently as you don't want your child to feel that she/he is being rejected or pushed aside to make way for the coming baby. Try to slowly replace nursing times with other bonding activities (reading books, doodling, drawing, play dough, anything to keep their mind off from nursing). The key is to keep them distracted from asking for their feed.

I did reduced my 4-5 times daily nursing Benjamin to nursing prior to afternoon nap and bedtime (total twice a day and maybe 1-2 times during sleep when he's fussy or sick) I also practised the 'Don't offer, don't refuse' method of weaning (will write a post on this later)

I am very happy I get to nurse our kiddos throughout my pregnancies as I personally believed in letting my child decides when they should stop nursing (which our 1st kiddo did at 45 months old) and I believed that it really helps to kick in the breastmilk production as my milk came in right after I delivered our girls and they have no time to experience any weight loss (due to meconium) thanks to the immediate supply of breastmilk.

** Updates 18 May 2015 - As of today, I have tandem nursed our 1st and 2nd child for almost 4 years (45 mths to be exact)

** Updates 4 April 2016 - As of today, I have tandem nursed our 2nd and 3rd kiddos for 2.5 years. I've gently weaned our 2nd kiddo (she's 4.5 years old now) and is still directly nursing on demand our 3rd kiddo who is 2.5 years old now (I'm also pregnant with our 4th kiddo now!) so I do know what I'm talking about ;)

Feel free to comment or email me if you need to, I can share with you my experiences and what I needed during my pregnancy while still breastfeeding.

We have a couple of Dr. Seuss apps on my iPad and the latest one that we reviewed is the "Oh, the Pets You Can Get!" app. So when I received an email pitch on this app, I immediately requested to review it. Without further ado, here goes my feedback...

* Title: Hunches in Bunches
* Price: $3.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Feb 13, 2013
* Version: 2.1
* Size: 35.0 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"After much arguing and "barg-uing" and shoving and yelling, a decision is made and our hero follows a Munch Hunch to lunch. The nonsense and cleverly crafted message in Hunches in Bunches is right up to par with Dr. Seuss's many other classic picture books. It's easy to become overwhelmed by advice when you have a mind--but can't make it up. Sometimes the best plan is to trust your own hunches, and disregard the vocal bunch of Hunches clamoring for attention. This makes a great gift for well-meaning flakes and ditherers of all ages."

* 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!

* I like the storyline where it tells how we can sometimes be too overwhelmed with making a decision and to best trust our own instincts (hunch) instead.

* There is a particular page which I feel is important to stress to my almost 4 years old boy - that the only person who can decide in the end is himself. Of course, being at a young age now it is better if us parents do the decision making but we try to give 2 options to our boy which he can choose for himself so he can ultimately still makes the decision and yet abiding to our requirements hehehehe...

* This is just my personal opinion, I'm somewhat not comfortable at the sight of the hunches with hands on their heads.... looks creepy to me :P

You can purchase the "Hunches in Bunches" 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"

It's been over a month since I last blogged about my 2 kiddos' potty training progress!

Just a brief history for all of you who are new to my blog, I blogged about starting Ben back on his potty training in February 2012 after months of delaying it (Alyson came along in September 2011 and I had to pause Ben's potty training since then) and even listed down some short, medium and long terms goals that I looked forward to accomplishing with Ben. Then I also blogged about the precious sight I get to see - Ben finally pooping in his potty! (instead of diapers which he always insisted on), and revisiting those goals I set in February 2012 against the progress in early May 2012 and checking off the ones we achieved 3 weeks later, and now...

My major achievement for my boy's potty training is getting him to poo in the toilet seat. I felt so proud and it's like a big burden lifted the first time he sat on the toilet seat and poop. He was scared (said he scared to fall into the toilet seat) but the moment he sat on the toilet seat, he told me 'Mummy, I'm not scared. God protect me like how He protects David when he fights with Goliath!'.

As for bedtime, if I sleep late or I woke up halfway or I woke up early, I will get my boy (still asleep) to pee in his potty. There are 2 occasions where he wet the bed and we don't make a big fuss out of it because my boy had quite a lot of water before his sleep during the 2 occasions and I forgot to wake up halfway to get him to pee.

As for my 17 months old girl, oh wow, having your older child reaching his milestones and the younger one quietly observing everything helps make potty training so much easier and faster! My girl sat on the toilet seat to poop few days back for the first time and does not look scared at all, following the footsteps of her brother I guess!

So there you go, looks like we are getting almost all of the goals soon for Benjamin and Alyson is progressing well (at her own pace too)! Thank God for this and for my dear boy to be so good in following through his potty training!

We are all so proud of you both, Benjamin & Alyson!