I'm a full-time mummy

Almost to the middle of October this year, I received an email from Miss Karen of Whimsical Articles asking whether I would be interested in reviewing the products in their online store. I was still in the midst of settling down with baby Carolyn (barely half month old then) and hence decided to keep in view for the time being.

A few weeks later, I emailed them again asking whether I can review two of their products which I think our 2 kiddos would be using and enjoying and here is the review for the 1st product.

Description about the sponsor:
"At Whimsical Articles, we also wanted our children to have fun too! And so we lovingly handpicked every item for the kid’s crafts - to help encourage our little ones to develop creatively and have endless hours of fun! From products that one child can do at home; to the products that can be done as a group and not forgetting crafts which can be made during parties. Your child will have loads of fun! These crafts will help your child to create masterpieces and keep as keepsakes for years to come!"

Firstly, my initial impression as I browsed through the products in Whimsical Articles website is their products seem interesting, in fact I have been searching for similar things – art/crafts supplies that we parents can get for our children, something that we can just buy over the Internet and get our kiddos started. No need to crack head to think what crafts to make etc etc. 

The reason why I requested to review the Melissa & Doug Wooden Bead Set - Sweet Hearts is so that I can let both my older 2 kiddos try it out. I have similar beads which I bought a year ago (China brand) for our boy but those beads are bigger, made up of alphabets, numbers, animals and shapes. I thought this brand we are reviewing should be very good since it is quite a popular brand and I like that the colors are not too overly girlish or too gender confined. I mean, I can picture myself using the beads to teach our kiddos about shapes, colors as well.

My feedback on the product's packaging: The beads are packed in a handy wooden tray and there is over 120 beads and 5 cords and they come in heart shape theme and lovely pastel colours such as purple, lilac, pink, baby blue, peach and so on. The beads are placed in its respective slots in a transparent plastic compartment layer which I promptly threw away as seriously, being a mother of 3 kiddos now, I really have neither time nor patience to arrange and keep back the beads into their own slots accordingly. I would really appreciate a proper container or cover for the beads but then, again, this is because I threw away the plastic compartment layer.

My feedback on the product: The quality of the beads is very good, unlike the China brand beads that I got for our boy a year ago. The colors are striking and eye catching and there are no jagged edges on the bead, all smooth to the touch which is good for little kiddos' fingers.

The cords are quite thin and both ends are covered with plastic, kinda like shoelace string you know? I was hoping the string would be bigger but then these beads are meant for children 4 years old and above.

My feedback on kiddos using the product: The moment I opened the packaging, I poured all the beads into the wooden tray and told our kiddos to go crazy and make mummy something! Our 4.5 years old boy immediately started hogging all the cute beads and taking them out by batches and put them nearer to him on the table. I took back all his beads and poured them back into the wooden tray and used this opportunity to teach him that he must only take the beads from the wooden tray and to string the beads one at a time and not be greedy.

As for our 2 years old girl, I gently guide her through the process to string the beads. Yes, I know this product is meant for children 4 years old and above, but trust me, I am sitting right next to her and monitoring her as well, so I know the risks associated if this product is being played by younger children. Anyway, I slowly guided our girl to hold one end of the cord, then I get the bigger heart shaped bead and teach her to look out for the holes in the bead, and to slowly string the bead through the cord. She took a few attempts to get it right but the beads she strings did not go through completely so I guessed we need more practises on that.

Summary: Of course at this point in time, it is still too early to expect our girl to be stringing up a bracelet or necklace for me to see and as for our 4.5 years old boy, oh well, being a boy, even when I asked him to make me a necklace, he ended up making me a rattle snake! On the other hand, we do enjoy the time we spent playing with this product!

I definitely see the potential of this product being played with over and over again in future as you can also use it as educational purposes, for example: stringing beads of the shape sizes, or colors or patterns and so on. This definitely could make a great gift option as well :)

You can get this at http://www.whimsicalarticles.com/kids-crafts/melissa-doug-wooden-bead-set-sweet-hearts.html

Whimsical Articles has also offered a special discount for my blog followers. Below are the details of the discount:

Purchase RM180.00 or more and get additional RM15 off on top of the already discounted products.
Customer can use this voucher as many time as possible. Valid from now until 31st December 2013.

Steps to get the discount:
1) Log in / Register as a member at www.whimsicalarticles.com
2) Add in the products to purchase into cart.
3) At Check-out, place in Coupon Code : IFM2013
4) Please check that products total is more than RM180 before code can be used.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by Whimsical Articles 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.

I have previously written about our kiddos' final playgroup session for 2013. Just want to share that when we first started attending the playgroup sessions in September 2013, there are quite a number of parents and caretakers of the children there asking me which kindergarten Benjamin goes to. When I said none, they will asked why I did not send him yet or whether I will be looking for any soon and some kind-hearted ones will even start recommending me which kindergarten to ask around.

Later on, a mummy friend told me that the playgroup session we are attending is run by a church and they also run kindergarten as well. According to her, the kindy classes come in highly recommended by a lot of those playgroup mummies and told me to try asking whether there are any slots available for 2014 batch.

Why the kindy classes is highly recommended? There are only about 18 children in a class, they do 5 days a week classes of 3 hours every class, homework given during the school holidays and they instill a lot of Christian values to the children and they still have the fun element plus a bit of academic structure in their classes.

Few days later I went to inquire from the person in-charge and was told that the 2014 batch is full already and if I'm still interested, she will put us on waiting list for 2015 batch or if we don't mind, she will slot Benjamin in for the K4 class (which is for 6 years old). I felt sad seeing the gloomy outcome of having only 2015 to hope for!

When I got home with our kiddos, I told hubby what happened and he was upset that I did not register our kiddos even though we will be put on the waiting list. Hubby said, "At least by that time there is available slot, Alyson will be old enough to go to the class! And as for Benjamin, just because the lady said no more slots available until 2015, that doesn't mean you should just listen and give up. Even if there is slot for 6 years old and Ben is too young for the class, just register! At least few hours away from the house and he gets to make friends is better than nothing. Just register and leave it to God to handle this!'

And so the very next day, I brought our boy along to see the person in-charge again, and this time, registered both our kiddos' names in the waiting list. I told the person in-charge even though Ben might be too young, if there is any slots available even for the 6 years old class, just let him join. And so we waited.

2 months later, I received a call and it was from the kindy's person in-charge. She asked whether we are still keen to enrol Benjamin in the kindy class. I said YESSSSSSS!!! She said there is a boy who pulled out from next year's batch and so there is a slot available. I said thank you, we will take it and asked what age group will Ben be placed in. She said it is for K3 class which is meant for 5 years old. Perfect! Benjamin will turned 5 years old in March next year.

Oh my... God is really awesome! Truly awesome! And so I am reminded with this bible verse, Luke 18:27 (NIV) ~ “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Just because I was told there is no more slots available until 2015 and I think there is no more possibilities for us and our boy, God turned it around and shoved it at my face that yes, everything is possible through Him! Amen to that!

Thank you God for You truly knows what is best for us: Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) ~ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

And when is the best time to reveal everything to us. Habakkuk 2:3 (NIV) ~ For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it[a] will certainly come and will not delay.

Now if you are wondering why we wanted our boy to go to classes when we have plans to teach him, well, like I mentioned above, hubby wanted our kiddos to mix around with other children, to make friends and to get away from the house for a few hours everyday so I can spend time to focus on our 2 younger kiddos. We also wanted Benjamin to be more sociable (unlike his super shy anti social mummy) and make more friends.

I plan to still teach Benjamin after he finishes his class (half day) and on the days when there are playgroup sessions, I can bring our girls along and be able to handle 2 kiddos instead of 3 which I have been worrying of earlier. So yes, God plans out everything for us nicely!!!

Looking forward for our Benjamin to start his classes in 2014! And what an awesome God we have!

**Personal notes: Apologies but due to my paranoia of privacy and security of myself, my family and my kiddos, I am not going to reveal what is the playgroup name, the kindergarten name, the area and so on. Apologies but like I said, I am really paranoid and with info like this being shown in public, I hope you can understand my reasons for doing so.

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.

For my 1st post, I will start off with: the 1st hour after giving birth to your baby.

Yes, a new mum will normally starts producing breastmilk around day 4-5 after labor but that does not mean you have to wait till day 4-5 to start breastfeeding! I will always advice new mums to start latching immediately after delivery! Even though your body has yet to start producing milk, starting on with the latching will send signals to your brain that, yes, your body need to make milk FASTER! And of course, latching early will also help baby to practise his latching technique and help YOU in your breastfeeding techniques too.

Here's a picture of me breastfeeding my half hour old baby Carolyn. If I have my camera or handphone with me I would've snapped an earlier photo but too bad, don't have them with me and can only rely on my hubby to take the picture (and he was busy answering calls and announcing to everyone on the arrival of our baby)

Now, the birth hospitals you are in also play a huge part in making sure you are off to a successful breastfeeding journey. If you are determined to breastfeed your child, please make sure you inform the hospital staff beforehand that you want your baby to be breastfeed and no formula feeding whatsoever. There are hospitals (private ones especially) which will feed formula milk to your baby so you need to make sure to inform the staff if you do not want this arrangement.

Also, do note that baby actually do not need feeding for the first 4-5 days. Think... our breastmilk comes on day 4-5, so Mother Nature intends for all things to be sync and work for each other in the right time. There is no need to panic that baby is hungry just because he/she is crying! Think, your baby has been comfortably coccooned in your womb for 9-10 months in total darkness, no sound, no smell etc and to be born suddenly into a world of bright lights, loud sounds, hot/cold environment etc of course baby will cry!

If you already caved into feeding formula to baby in the 1st hour itself, it is already jeopardising your breastfeeding journey! A newborn baby's stomach is VERY VERY small only and if you are not careful, you may overfeed the baby and too much feeding will expand baby's stomach and this is a vicious cycle. Stomach gets bigger with extra feeding, you need to feed more next round, so on and so forth.

There are new parents who, under pressure and influence from old folks will give in to supplementing with formula since mum is not 'able' to produce 'enough' breastmilk for baby. Do also take note that formula milk is made from cow's milk - milk meant for calf, not human baby. So it will take longer time for baby to digest the formula milk due to the higher protein content in the formula milk (which is easier to digest if it is drank by a calf) So we get the wrong perception that baby is sleeping well because he/she is taking formula milk compared to a baby who is taking breastmilk who wakes up more frequently - because human's milk is easily digested by baby and when a baby nurse, he/she will automatically stop when he/she is full (so no overfeeding here!)

To sum this post up:

Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : the 1st hour after giving birth to your baby.

• Starting on with the latching will send signals to your brain that, yes, your body need to make milk FASTER!
  

• 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

That's all for my 1st post in the critical phase for a successful breastfeeding journey!

Feel free to ask and share if you have questions or feedback!