I'm a full-time mummy

It's been 1 and a half month since I started tandem nursing my 31 months old boy and 1.5 months old girl. Life with 2 kids is keeping me pretty busy, though I did an update on day 14 on my tandem nursing on how I was slowly getting used to tandem nursing, I'd like to blog down in more details on how I survive my aversion to tandem nursing.

During the first week itself, I was already feeling very depressed that I'm having this negative reactions whenever Ben comes asking for his nen-nen (that's what we call for our breastmilk).

I searched for more info on how other tandem nursing mothers cope with this (and even wondered am I the only one having this emotional battles?!). I even ordered the "Mothering Your Nursing Toddler" book in hope to find out more (by the time the book arrived, I'm on my way to feeling much much better already!). I read through blogs and websites of experienced tandem nursers and tried their approaches and add in some of my own.

Thank God, I'd like to report that I'm feeling much much better now.

If I could put in a percentage on my recovery to tandem nursing aversion right now, I'd like to say it's about 90% OK, the other 10% being those times when Ben had nightmare and I tried to nurse him back to sleep and Alyson suddenly woke and cried and wanted her share and I had to manoeuvre both of them to nurse which is pretty hard when they are both in sleeping state.

Bear in mind that the following are what works for me. Here it goes:

# 1: Think the worse!

As a Chinese, we like to have a party when our newborn turns 1 month old - we called it the full moon celebration. It is during then that we invite families and friends over to celebrate with us as our newborn turned 1 month old. For me, I make use of this celebration to survive through my negative feelings.

I think the worse! I imagined being drilled by friends and relatives on how stupid I am to try tandem nursing, I imagined people coming up to me and said 'I told you so! You're not capable to do this! Serves you right!'. I imagined myself crying and begging these people to stop the teasing and the mockery and to leave me alone.

After all those imaginary situations I cooked up in my head, I told myself, I will not let this come true. I need to get over this negativity in less than 1 month time. And I'm going to stand up tall during the full moon party and show to people I did it. I survived it and I'm capable of doing anything if I put my mind to it.

# 2 : Reminisce my past challenges

I also think back what challenges I encountered before and how I got past it. I breastfed Ben exclusively for the first 6 months despite people saying I should supplement with formula, and even when he started solids, he still continues breastfeeding, past 1 year, 1.5 year, 2 years, and then I got pregnant and Ben continues suckling even though I stopped producing breastmilk at my 5th month of pregnancy, all throughout the pregnancy.

So I told myself, I want to add tandem nursing to my list of challenges that I have overcome too!

# 3 : Distraction!

I got this tip from Dionna of Code Name: Mama via personal messages with her through Twitter. What I do is when I tandem nurse my kids, I distract myself by thinking other things. Or I'll just close my eyes and rest. But nowadays, I don't quite feel irritated when I nursed my kids at the same time and I'll try to use that opportunity to teach Ben to touch his baby sister gently (he's still getting used to having a baby sister)

If you are here to look for ideas and tips to overcome your tandem nursing aversion, I hope my approaches help, if not, I hope you will know that you are not alone in this situation and it happens to a lot of tandem nursing mothers as well.

So there you go, the above are the few things I do to survive through my tandem nursing aversion.

I always thought being a SAHM means I'm going to have a hard time going out to watch movies... what more with 2 kids now... and what do you know, few days ago, I received a pitch to participate in a special online “sneak peek” screening of this upcoming film, Snowmen, which opens in selected theaters nationwide October 21 (in US I think) and so below is my review for the movie:

Title:  Snowmen 
Director: Robert Kirbyson
Executive Producers:  Bill O’Kane, Ray Liotta, Diane Hendricks, Tina Segel
Producers:  Stephen McEveety, David Segel, John Shepherd
Screenwriters:  Robert Kirbyson
Cast: Bobby Coleman, Josh Flitter, Ray Liotta, Christopher Lloyd, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Christian Martyn, Doug E. Doug,
Beverly Mitchell
Release Date: 10/21/11 (Theatrical), 11/29/11 (VOD)
Running Time: 86 Minutes
Rated: PG

Synopsis of the movie:
"SNOWMEN is a humorous and heartfelt coming-of-age story about three unlikely heroes and the winter that changed their lives forever. After a surprising discovery in the snow catapults three small-town boys into the spotlight, the best friends hatch a plan to be remembered forever by setting a Guinness World Records® title. Along the way, the trio battles schoolyard bullies, unites their community and discovers that - while fame may be fleeting - true friendship lasts forever.

The film stars Bobby Coleman (Last Song), Ray Liotta (Wild Hogs), Bobb’e J. Thompson (Role Models), Josh Flitter (Ace Ventura Jr) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future)."

Awards & Accolades:

* Audience Award at the 2011 Dallas International Film Festival and at the Tribeca Film Festival
* Best Feature Film at the 2011 SPROCKETS Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth
* Heartland Film Festival's Truly Moving Picture Award
* The Dove Foundation and the Parents Television Council also gave the film their seals of approval

I was initially confused when I googled for more info on this movie as imdb website showed that this movie was released in 2010. My hubby was like 'Why ask you to review when it's already released?' and then I read the website link on the pitch email and found out this movie is a new one scheduled for release on Oct 21 this year. I still don't know what went wrong with the details on imdb website though...

How I rate this movie?

Storyline: Unique and it got my toddler's attention since we live in a country where there is NO snow at all and the fact that most of time, the movie features the 3 kids... Hubby told me that this movie has Disney written all over it (as it family-friendly and with meaningful lessons to be learned from the movie) and for me, I like some of the lines in the movie, for example when Bobby Coleman (one of the 3 main characters in the movie) said that he wants his life to be meaningful unlike the snowman - kinda like you just build it and after it melts away, there's nothing left to be remembered of.

Casts: I can only recognise Ray Liotta (from Wild Hogs) and was a bit surprised when hubby asked 'Isn't that guy from Back to Future?' and I was like 'Huh? Which one?' and then realised which one he talked about. Anyway, that aside, I think the casts in the movies are good.

Memorable Scene: I particularly like the scene where Bobby Coleman fell and got trapped under the ice and his friends all risked and tried to save him. I get teary eyed at that scene actually!

Overall Impact: A feel good movie with inspiring lessons to learn, perfect for family viewing especially!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the link and authorised password to view the movie online 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.

This is the first book I requested under the Blogging for Books program with WalterBrook Multnomah Publishing and below is my review for the "Enemies of the Heart" book by Andy Stanley:

Title: Enemies of the Heart: Breaking Free from the Four Emotions That Control You
Author: Andy Stanley
Publisher:  Multnomah Books; Reprint edition (June 21, 2011)
ISBN-13/-10: 978-1601421456 / 1601421451
Paperback: 224 pages
Dimension: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches

Description from the product page:
"Are you afraid to look inside? Break free from the destructive power of guilt, anger, greed, and jealousy.

Divorce. Job loss. Estrangement from family members. Broken friendships. The difficult circumstances you are dealing with today are likely being fed by one of four emotional forces that compels you to act in undesirable ways, sometimes even against your will.

Andy Stanley explores each of these destructive forces-guilt, anger, greed, and jealousy-and how they infiltrate your life and damage your relationships. He says that, left unchallenged they have the power to destroy your home, your career, and your friendships.

In Enemies of the Heart, Andy offers practical, biblical direction to help you fight back, to take charge of those feelings that mysteriously control you, and to restore your broken relationships. Includes a six-week discussion guide-a valuable resource for small groups!

* Previously released as "It Came from Within""

I was immediately attracted to this book when I read the following:

Wow.... that just strikes it! I mean, just pause for a moment and think through each of the negative habits above and reflect on it.

I also enjoyed reading the chapters related to forgiveness. The author asked us to confront what makes us angry and to forgive the person and restate the decision that he or she does not owe us anything anymore. He further reminded us that you don't forgive because the other person deserves it, you forgive because you've been forgiven by our Father above. As I read through this chapter, I was reminded of a few personal experiences (which honestly, I have really really forgiven the person and move on) I like the sentence from page 104 where it says "Blaming won't make us better. Holding out for an apology won't either. The cure is forgiveness."

I also enjoyed reading the habits listed to change the enemies of the heart which is to: confess, forgive, give and celebrate.

I would highly recommend you to get this book, heck, buy more as a gift to your loved ones and friends!

You can get this book from WalterBrook Multnomah website, Amazon and many more.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the softcopy of the book by WalterBrook Multnomah 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"