Thursday, June 24, 2010

...on breastfeeding

i woke up in the middle of the night again and started thinking about my HS batchmate who just gave birth and announced it in facebook.. i commented with "congrats! don't forget to breastfeed!" then her husband replied with "breastfeeding is good but not for a 'lifetime'" (lifetime was really in quotes).. i didn't reply back because i was afraid i'll appear a die-hard (treehugging) advocate of breastfeeding.. but since this is my blog.. i'll reply here.. "A COUPLE OF MONTHS IS HARDLY A LIFETIME" lol. sorry. i just needed to vent.

i see all these facebook statuses of my friends' babies having allergies, amoebiasis, getting confined and all that stuff..it's just so disheartening.. of course, i can't solely blame the formula.. but i am blaming 80% on it. lol.

sa dami ng kilala kong buntis ngayon, sana meh magbreastfeed sa kanila (paging jane, harbie, anshe, my sister,etc.).. i know it's hard.. but i've encountered every single obstacle in breastfeeding and if i can do it, i see no reason why you guys can't too. never mind the new baby paraphernalia,.. the best gift you can give your baby is your milk. and i hope the husbands are involved too. because without the husband's support, it's just so so so so easy to listen to your crying baby and give in to the pressure of 'ginugutom nyo na daw ang baby nyo' and give the synthetic crap.

every bottle of formula you give to your newborn, tells your body that it doesn't need to supply that amount of milk anymore. and for every time, i hear the excuse 'i didn't have enough milk", "hindi kaya eh, kulang" i just wanted to shout out loud and ask them, "HOW LONG DID YOU TRY??" (but of course i just smile.. but in mind i'm thinking.. "if you say so".. yeah, i'm a bitch lol) you have to give at least 2 weeks of just pure breastmilk before you can even say that. and pumping is NOT the measure of how much milk you can produce. the baby is the best sucker (lol) than any manufactured pump. pump after 2 to 2.5 weeks if you're going to work to introduce the bottle.

i know it's harder for working moms.. but at least give the baby breastmilk when you're still in maternity leave..

don't think 'IF kaya' .. kaya talaga, i don't want to hear 'WALA AKONG milk eh' kasi i'm your friend and i'm gonna tell it to your face. bullsh*t! i'm being a hard ass because breastfeeding may be difficult, but you're going to thank me in the long run when your babies haven't seen the inside of a hospital until he gets his tuli!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

...what week am i in again?

i just can't keep track..i just know i'm on my 4th or 5th month.. anyway, lately i've been waking up in the middle of night and having trouble getting back to sleep. it sucks! this happened to me before, when i was pregnant with tsug, but that was much later on the pregnancy, during my 4th trimester.. i can't possibly be starting this early! i just kept on thinking about everything and nothing!

i was thinking of my parent's visit this friday.. i'm so excited.. i miss my daddy (and mommy) so much.. i was thinking of the places we'll visit.. we'll be going to bintan (daddy's first time there), and universal studios sg (USS). was thinking of how to convince Pangs to get the Express pass ticket for USS to avoid the queues, but it's almost double the price. (a ticket already costs 66sgd.. with the express pass it's an additional 48 sgd. ang mahal!) I wasn't able to convince him myself, but he consulted his officemate and his officemate told him it was still the school holidays and it'll be worth it, so there. (thank you, officemate ni pangs!) I was thinking if tsug will enjoy USS, if USS is toddler friendly. I was thinking if we'll see the streetboys (lol). Anshe said she saw them dancing there haha.

I was thinking of our upcoming looooong vacation to Pinas. I don't even know if i should call it vacation or just hiatus from singapore. I'll be there till I give birth to babynoname, and who knows how long after that. I was thinking of how I'll be able to handle a newborn, and tsugtsug.. even with a yaya. and then I began thinking of where I'll get a yaya when so many of my friends are having a hard time getting one too.

Then I began thinking of how I'll replace the stuff tsug and I do here in SG once we're in Antipolo.. what if he wants to play with sand? (I've asked my dad to build a rectangular box and put white sand in it. buti sa pinas, meh garden /yard!) where should we put his playroom in my parents' house? (my parents are already clearing the dining area and daddy even installed a wall mounted fan in the area) .. what about his afternoon stroll to the playground? (afternoon stroll na lang sa kalsada hehe)

Then I began thinking of all the stuff we CAN do once we're in Antipolo.. he can have gardening time with his lolo.. we can set up his mini pool in the garden.. (everyday swimming!).. he can even get a pet! dito ako natuwa... dito kasi sa sg, kahit hamster lang kelangan pa ng license para mag alaga.. sa pinas , kahit ano! woohoo. I was thinking of a hamster or a guinea pig or a rabbit but my friends convinced me a hamster doesn't smell bad (they clean themselves) and was easy to take care of..(and then erlyn had the brilliant idea of a sisiw! cheap, easy, fun! brilliant!)

which made me remember the incident in the playground when tsug saw this little girl holding a hamster and he immediately shouted "mouse! mouse!".. we then watched the hamster (soon a group of children joined us watching the little girl and the hamster) and i, (the auntie.. *sighs*) began interviewing the little girl.. i asked if that was a mouse (hey, i had no idea what it was) and she said it was a hamster.. His name is Alvin, and she feeds him rice. he doesn't take a bath but she brushes him to make him clean. when it was time to go, tsug panicked and suddenly grabbed the poor hamster and squeezed so hard i saw it's pututoy wahahaha. i managed to pull off the hamster and it looked fine. good thing the little girl was nice and she didn't look worried. we said sorry then i hurried tsug out of the playground before it turns into a crime scene.

which made me remember that Criminal Minds, The Good Wife, GG, all my favorite shows are on a break. *sighs*.. but at least Trueblood is back. yey. (Team Ericcccccc *mwah*) and I've been watching season 1 of Supernanny, trying to absorb everything as much as i can. I've realized that even if tsug is only 2 years old, i can already discipline him and make him understand. so i've been using the 'techniques' i've learned from the show when he does something bad like throwing his cereal, etc. I go down to his level, establish eye contact and in a low tone i say 'NO, don't do that. don't throw your corn pops' and then make him help me put the corn pops/cheerios back to his cup. since then I've only had one incident (it usually was everyday) and it feels like i'm in control of tsug. i still don't know if he'll understand the concept of the 'naughty' stool but i'm sure i'll get around doing it. (especially when we're at pinas where everything is 'bawal'.. i've been asking my parents to child proof a bit, so tsug can roam around the house without us constantly telling him 'NO, not that')

i remember how we've stopped the 'letting him fall asleep in the stroller while raymond strolls him around the block' routine during bedtime. what was once an easy routine has become ridiculously tedious because it's hot outside even at night and sometimes raymond will be walking around for almost 2 hours before tsug falls asleep! so i've adapted the supernanny technique.. after his bath, we read him a story, then cuddles and kisses, and put him straight to bed. the first night I sat at the floor while he was on bed but he just kept on crying and crying and calling out 'Mommy, Mommy' (it was the same in supernanny) but i'm too weeeeak to do that so i just laid beside him and turned my back on him. I did ignore him and just let him roll and play in bed.. one time he even tapped, tapped me on the legs (just like what i used to do to him to make him fall asleep) and he even kissed me on the leg! it was so funny i was trying to keep myself from having any reaction whatsoever. it has worked though, less than an hour later he has already fallen asleep on his own. no more hele, no more stroller, no more tap tapping.. *whew* .. we've been doing it now for a week, and each a night, a success! i even get to rest! (sometimes i fall asleep too hehe). now the next thing to do is let him fall asleep on his own bed. (but he still doesn't have his own bed so, i guess buying the bed should be the first step hehe).

and then i remember all sorts of other stuff like tsug not going to playgroup anymore cause he wakes up late.. (he falls asleep at 10:30pm, then he wakes up at 9 or 930am.. he still naps from 2-4pm) and that i was glad the school i was looking into at in Antipolo has a schedule from 10-12:30pm, so its more likely he'll be able to attend everyday.. and i remember the books i've read this week.. Hush hush, pretty little liars, fallen, and other young adult fiction books kasi feeling young adult parin ako. then i worry about the balikbayan box, still sitting in our kitchen (we have to fill it up and send it asap), i worry about my 'bilins' to ate ging ( i have to buy them asap so SHE can send them in a balikbayan box), and i worry that tsug still isn't talking phrases, and i worry, worry, worry,.. and then finally, i fall asleep. ( i guess)

that's a lot to think about at 3:30am.