iPad App Review - I Love You Too

~ Posted on Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 8:07 AM ~

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!

I'm a full-time mummy

* 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!" 

I'm a full-time mummy

* 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.

I'm a full-time mummy

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

I'm a full-time mummy

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"

Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : 1st Day...

~ Posted on Monday, December 2, 2013 at 8:02 AM ~

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!

How to Identify 'Well-Meaning' People?

~ Posted on Wednesday, November 27, 2013 at 8:38 AM ~

As an individual, I would say I am pretty gullible and easy to trust others - especially when they are older and seems wise. I would say this pretty much applies to most topics except those that I'm passionate in, like matters relating to breastfeeding and perhaps blogging and doing product reviews.

Anyway, the other day, my hubby was telling me to be careful and be wise to discern the advice dispensed by other people especially when it comes to parenting and children topics. He said learn to identify whether these people truly care and wants to help and share their tips or they just want to boast and brag about their accomplishments.

To be honest, when hubby told me some of the things to look out for in order to identify 'well-meaning' people like this, I was gobsmacked. It kinda hit me because some time back, I was nodding and agreeing while looking at my kiddos as I listened to some of these 'well-meaning' people telling me that my kiddo is displaying rude manners and etc.

Yes, we should not give excuses for our children for their rude behaviour. But hubby's point was there are people who easily dispenses their thoughts and judgment based on a few minutes observation alone, and did not see the clear picture of why our boy acted that way.

Hubby said that people who truly care and really wants to help will try to understand the situation at home, how was our kiddos like at home, and then monitor and analyse from there onwards. Rather than just seeing what is going on in less than 5 minutes and immediately concluded that our kiddos are rude and misbehaved. He also said there are other 'well-meaning' people who instead of helping, they just want to brag about their kiddos' or their accomplishments.

In summary, again hubby said, we must not just listen totally and believed others opinions are right. We as parents should learn to identify these people and see for ourselves whether it is really as what other people observe.

What about you?

Do you know how to identify 'well-meaning' people and how do you handle people like this?