I'm a full-time mummy

We had our last family holiday before 2013 ended where we spent 3 days 2 nights in Penang and in the middle of the holiday, we had runny nose and sore throat and it spread throughout the family (except hubby). On New Year's eve, all 3 of our kiddos got the coughs and runny nose and started coughing badly.

Our 4.5 years old Benjamin is able to blow his nose and cleared the runny nose and is coping well with the cough. Our 2 years old Alyson sneakily dug her nose when I'm not looking and she tasted the snot (arghhhhh!!!), struggled when we gave her the cough medicine but otherwise the cough doesn't bother her much.

The same can't be said to our 3 months old Carolyn. Being the youngest and defenseless, it is a torture seeing her coughing and not able to cough out the phlegm from her throat. I used the nasal aspirator device to suck out her snot so that wasn't a problem at all but we can't figure out what to do with her phlegmy cough.

We do not want to use Vicks on our kiddos especially after reading an article that it can cause babies and young children to have respiratory distress so I posed the question on my FB fan page asking for tips from my followers. Some of them suggested onions. I googled it and tried the approach. You can see the steps below:

Within 5 minutes of putting on the socks, Carolyn cried due to her having slight fever as well but I didn't noticed any sound of runny nose which she has been having since the day before. She cried for a few seconds then was OK. After that she was calm and quiet all the way until I took off her socks 4 hours later.

A very important thing to note is to make sure the onion slice is not too big as when we tried to put on fresh onion slices before bedtime, Carolyn cried followed by Alyson (whom we also put on onion socks as well) - we suspected the onion slices I cut is a tad too big for them and caused them irritations. Initial onion slice sizes was about 1cm n diameter while the ones I gave before bedtime was around 2cm in diameter.

We took off their socks then and we had quite a rough night with Carolyn throwing up the breastmilk right after I nursed her, most likely due to her throat being irritated with the phlegm and the coughing made her vomitted out the milk but I do noticed the phlegm is not that heavy anymore. The next day, I noticed our Carolyn can cough much better and she farted quite often too.

Have you tried similar remedies before? What are they and does it work?

Other sources:

• Simple Onion Remedies For Colds & Coughs

• The Healing Effects of Onion

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I have previously blogged about our yummy Christmas gifts to hubby's business clients which showcased gifts we DIY and baked and customised since 2008 to 2010. For 2011, we made some awesome Christmas ribbon trees and then for 2012, we made Christmas trees and houses made of snacks and treats for hubby's clients.

This year, 2013, it is really getting MORE and MORE challenging. With 3 kiddos in tow and time constraints as well, it is really a tough task to complete, though thank God, we made it!

We started cracking our heads on the theme for this year's gifts and hubby came up with the snowman idea. We then have to think what we can use to make the snowman. We have always tried our best to handmade if not all, the majority part of our gifts as we believe in putting in some form of uniqueness and personal touch in our gifts (instead of just buying ready-made hampers etc)

So I came up with my first draft of how our snowman should look like. We planned to get 2 plastic containers and stacked them up, filled them with snacks, candies and treats and put the snowman in a basket.

This was how we wanted the snowman to look like. I took this shot while hubby was in the car taking care of our 3 kiddos. Yes, the whole family have to go out and tag along as hubby and I have to decide together on what to get and how it should look like. Then hubby bought the ribbons and baskets while I get the buttons and other decoration items.

The next challenge is to decide how to make the snowman. Spray it? Paint it? And finally hubby said 'We do the Papier Mâché style.' And so begins the laborous tasks to shred newspapers, wet each pieces with glues and stick the first layer and then we need to add more newspapers near the container's base to puff up the snowman for it's belly and head. Picture below on left is the first result after pasting the newspaper on the containers.

Picture above on right is the first result after hubby add in the fillers to smoothen up the snowman, sand papering them and painting about 2 coats of white paint over the snowman. At this point to be honest, hubby was losing confidence in our snowman as some of them are cracking up and making holes when we hold them up and while I persevered on and kept on telling him it looks nice and not to compare our snowman with the commercial adverts showing those smooth rounded snowman image.

I did at one point lost my confidence too when I accidentally cracked one of the snowman just as I picked it up to investigate whether it has dried up completely. I felt so down that I began to make another prototype using ribbons and stuff. Hubby got home, saw my prototype and went 'No. We use our Papier Mâché snowman!'

The next day, he started making the snowman's nose, I gave him an orange colored marker pen and upon gluing the nose onto the snowman head, it really starts to look real nice. I immediately see hubby's face lighting up and as we drew the eyes and mouth (Ben even drew one of the snowman's mouth!) and started gluing them onto the snowman's head, followed by the buttons on the snowman's body, by then it really looks more and more awesome!

Then hubby had to rush out for an appointment and while our kiddos take their lunch, I continued onto touch up the snowman's hat with some tiny glitter stones on the hat's surface and also putting a ribbon all around the hat's base. I also started stuffing the snowman's body and head with snacks, treats and candies.

As for the snowman's hands, I used 2 toothpicks, 1 acted as the arm, while another 1 is broken into 2 as the fingers. Then I used a white paper plaster to plaster up the arms and the fingers. Final touch is to color up the hands with brown crayon. I couldn't find my brown marker pen, so crayon it is!

When hubby got home in the evening, we continued on to seal the snowman's head with a white crepe paper, secured with rubber bands and then we just put on the head onto the snowman's body. I then proceeded to cut out a long strand of red ribbon to tie up around each snowman's neck. Each of the snowman has different scarf style!

Next, we glued the hat to the snowman's head and hubby started adding snacks and treats into each basket where we put in the snowman. After all snacks and treats have been added into the basket, hubby started gluing and pasting the hands onto the snowman. After our kiddos went to bed, I quickly designed the greeting cards, printed them and pasted them onto postcard and cut out the cards accordingly. Punched a hole into each cards and string them with a nice green colored ribbon.

And so we present to you now, some pictures taken of the 2013 Christmas gifts for hubby's clients:

I personally like the one below, the snowman looks so cute with his tiny little O-shaped mouth, as if he is surprised with something!

Like I mentioned earlier, with 3 kiddos in tow and time constraints as well, it is really a tough task to complete this year! I think hubby did most of the tasks (the idea, the painting, etc etc), I only managed to papier mâché a few of the snowman's heads and bodies as everytime I tried to sit down to paste the newspaper shreds, either baby Carolyn will cry or Alyson will be disturbing Benjamin or vice versa.

Anyway, that is history now. The important thing is our job is finally done and I'm glad to see hubby's happy face at the results of our gifts this year. I hope hubby's clients will like their snowman too!

So what do you think of our gifts this year?

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** FORETHOUGHT: Hmm... it took a lot of courage for me to write out this post. At the mere mention of placenta, it gets people giddy and feeling weird. The feeling gets worse and gross when I said placenta can be consumed.. and that I ate mine. The first time I mentioned about placenta encapsulation, there are kind-hearted people commenting and telling me to delete the post on my FB wall for fear that I will be branded as a cannibal.

Here in Malaysia, such acts is not that well-known yet and normally people (Muslims ^***the local Malays) here brings back the placenta to bury near their house as they believe the placenta is some form of sibling that nurtures the baby during pregnancy and that it is only right for it to be buried after baby has been born safely. Other than that, the placenta gets thrown away after labor.

* NOTE: If you are a squeamish person who cannot stand the idea of consuming placenta, please feel free to skip reading on this post. I would appreciate only positive comments after this post and if you want to find out more, do google first before you write in to ask me.

** HOW IT BEGAN... So, how did I come across this placenta encapsulation thingy? Firstly, I saw it on some bloggers wall when I was reading up on some baby stuff. So I googled for more info to know more.

** WHAT IS IT AGAIN??  Placenta encapsulation is the act of consuming one's placenta in the form of pills or capsules. "I could deal with this", I told myself after reading about the benefits and why people are doing this. I mean, if you asked me to slice off a piece of my placenta and eat it raw (yes, people do this too!), no thanks, I couldn't stomach that thought yet... but to process the placenta and consume it in a pill/capsule form, yes, that can work!

** WHY DID I DO IT????  Now why do I bother myself with all this? Well, when I gave birth to our 2nd child in 2011, I had post-natal depression for a month, which I suspected was triggered by me wanting to tandem nurse our 2 kiddos then. And since I'm planning to tandem nurse when our 3rd child comes along, I want to be prepared this round and definitely do not want to be having PND again. That feeling sucks, really!

And of course, there are people thinking 'Ewwww... placenta is part of your body! You do this, aren't you a cannibal?!' For me, well, that placenta is in MY body, what I choose to do with my body is my decision. There are people out there buying sheep placenta pills to beautify their face and skin and are not giddy about it why go on harping about what I choose to do with mine? As I read on the benefits of this, I am more focused on it helping me should I suffer from PND again. So this is the reason why I do it.

** WHERE TO GET THE MATERIALS/TOOLS???

 I googled more on how I should go about doing this. It seems people who blogs about the placenta encapsulation process already has some ready-made utensils and tools to go about making it. Things like steamer (I have!), dehydrator (I don't have but I can use my oven to replace this!), capsule filling tool (I need to get this!) and of course, empty capsules to fill up the placenta powder in (need to get this as well!

The next step I did was to find out where I can get hold of the capsule filling machine/tool and the empty capsules as well. I bought my placenta encapsulation kit here. Because I live in Malaysia, shipping charges is very high, in fact, higher than the kit selling price! But I told myself, no choice I need to get it. And so I did. The kit arrived few weeks later which I excitedly shared an update in my FB wall that the kit arrived and that's when I get the cannibal comments and I deleted the post update and keep quiet since then. Until now... after much thoughts and considerations.

** HOW DID I DO IT??? After labor, just bring back the placenta and clean up the bloody mess a bit and keep it in the freezer until you are ready to process it. Hubby helped me clean up my placenta and kept it in a plastic container. To be honest, I only started processing my placenta a week after I gave birth. I need time to do this alone without anyone interrupting me so I waited for the whole family to be out at church and I got down to clean, wash, steam, baked, dehydrate and blend it all within a day.

** WHY DO IT MYSELF??? After I ordered my placenta encapsulation kit online, I found that there are some individuals offering the service to encapsulate your placenta for you here in Malaysia. Now, it is not that I want to save up money since I have ordered the kit for myself, but I feel I should do it myself and not let others do it.

Reason being, I trust myself to handle my own things. I don't know whether other parties will be hygienic enough or professional enough to handle my personal things. If everything fails, I have myself to blame, not that I pay money for others to screw up anything with regards to this. These are my own reasons, of course, if you are squeamish and can't deal with the sight of blood or body organs, then do feel free to pay someone else to do it if there is resource for that. For me, I don't have problems with blood or any body liquids or anything, so I'm fine with doing this myself.

Oh, just want to add, when I was cleaning up my placenta after defrosting it, I was just amazed at the sight of my clean placenta. The veins on the baby's side of the placenta is just breathtakingly beautiful. No wonder people called it "tree of life". This amazing organ nurtured our baby throughout my pregnancy stage!

** ANY EFFECTS AFTER TAKING IT??  This is the important thing that everyone wants to know, right? I have so far only taken 2 capsules of my placenta. 1 capsule a day to be exact. Although the instructions on the capsule bottle said I can take 2 capsules 1-3 times a day, I chose to take 1 a day to start it off. My reasons?

1. I've already established my breastfeeding routine (tandem nursing by the way) and have no problems at all with my milk supplies, hence I don't need to take so many capsules to up my milk production.

2. I've read that some mums reported having higher bleeding when they take higher amount of capsules and I decided to take 1 to test it out. And yes, the days I took the capsule, I have bleeding (lochia) a bit. But do note that on the days I DID NOT take the capsules, I also have bleeding so I don't think this is related.

3. I decide to take the capsule only because I want it to help me if I have any depression feelings again. Not to increase my milk production, or any other reasons, but to help rid of the depression feeling, though I was pretty thankful with the energy boost I had when I consumed the capsule.

Anyway, effects after consuming the pills... on the 2 days I took the capsules, I felt dizzy, giddy and sort of high like the times I relied on the laughing gas (Enthonox) when I was having painful contractions during labor. The high dizzy giddy feeling lasted for few hours and went off by evening time. The first time I took the capsule, I felt energetic throughout the day and was not moody at all, did not snapped at my kids or any sort of moody reactions. The second time I took the capsule, I snapped at my kids once, that was towards the evening time when I was already overwhelmed throughout the whole day dealing with 3 kiddos and hubby returning back to work.

Why I stopped taking the capsules? The instructions on the capsule bottle said not to take the capsules if I have any flu or common cold, which I did still, so that's the reason of me stopping the capsules for now. As for why we have to stop the capsules when we have flu or cold, according to an article I read:

"The reason for this is because placenta is extremely tonifying in nature and can cause a pathogen to grow stronger and get deeper into the body."

** Updates on 10th Nov 2013: I have so far taken about 10 placenta pills - though not continuosly on daily basis as there were some days I was down with flu and had cold and I did not take the pills on those days. I noted everytime I took the pills, I will have long lasting energy throughout the day! No snappish moodiness or bleeding or giddiness anymore.

** MORE INFO?? I will leave the links to the resources I used/referred to for your reference. I did take pictures of my placenta and the step by step taken when I cleaned it, steamed it, oven baked and the dehydrate it and blended it into powder form and finally filling up the powder into empty capsules. But I don't think I will share all the pictures here. You can google and see the pictures posted by other people all around the world, no need to personally see my pictures to reaffirm this.

Resources:

* Benefits of Placenta Encapsulation

* More info on Placenta Encapsulation 

* More info on Placenta Encapsulation  

* Where to buy the kit?  

* How to do it? (Graphics, may be gross to some!!)

* Is there any time that I shouldn’t take the capsules?

Updates on 20th April 2015: ^*** I have earlier wrote that Muslims in Malaysia here brings back the placenta to bury near their house as they believe the placenta is some form of sibling that nurtures the baby during pregnancy and that it is only right for it to be buried after baby has been born safely but a Muslim fan PM-ed me to inform that such rituals are actually based on Malays' beliefs, not Muslims. I did however shared some links to the fan which made me wrote such statement originally (such as from fatwa and an article). Although the fan is not able to provide any article links that she can share with me such rituals are not based on Muslims' beliefs, I have decided to amend my post as I later on found an article which stated it is indeed Malay cultures.