Recalling memory on breastfeeding....

For my first pregnancy, I had very little knowledge about BF. Just know that must let baby latch on asap and stimulate to get milk flow....
Well, baby Rachelle being a 'big and mature' baby (3.45kg at birth of 39 weeks), latched on immediately and started sucking non stop in the hospital. I didn't know if there's any milk flow (coz i couldn't see at all and no engogement) but she can keep on sucking for hours ;-)

When I reached home, I started to feed her with my breast (still no engogement yet on the third day)....I could see milk flowing (white) and yes, she was still sucking non stop. Then, I got 'panic'. I dunno whether she's full coz I hold her for an hour and when I put her in her cot, she'll still continue to open her mouth as if still hungry.....

she had a huge appetite and I always feel breathless coz my supply always can't catch up with her demand!

Mil, whom doesn't believe in BF, told me that baby is still hungry. so, there start the formula of 1 or 2 oz for her....

I had a good flow of milk since then. I decided to pump it out (using Avent, of course) and feed her. This way, I thot I can 'measure' how much is her intake and also 'time' her as to 2 hrs per feed or something like that. My milk was enough for her but I was so busy pumping like a cow!

Now that I m in my 2nd pregnancy, I just wanna get the advice from all your expert out there....what have I done wrong and right?

Tag : The meaning of Rachelle Loke Joo Ann's name

Chanel, sorry for late submission :-)

Daddy came out with the name 'Rachel'. And, becoz mommy's name ends with 'elle', so I decided to give her the French version of Rachel - Rachelle.

Meaning of Rachelle - lamb according to the Baby Names book. However, because we are not Christian, so, we didn't actually quite bothered what the meaning is ;-)

We took quite some time to decide a chinese name. Daddy can't read Chinese so can't help much. Mommy read thru the Chinese dictionary and look for nice and 'not-so-girlish' Chinese words.

We then decide to end the name by the word 'ern' (mandarin. Meaning in BM = 'jasa' can't think of its English translation...) This word can be used for both boy and girl. So, we decide to adopt this word for our kids :-)

Then, the middle name 'rou' (mandarin. Meaning - gentle) .

Instead of calling Rachelle Loke rou-ern, we decide to adopt the Hakka pronounciation of rou-ern. So, it became 'Joo' 'Ann'.

Infact, she can be called Joanne but daddy doesn't like this English name....

Chubby cheeks :-)

I've not updated Rachelle's picture for a long time.....she has grown so much and her chubby cheeks are still obvious....hii hii.

Many said she looks more like hubby. Only one or 2 of my frens who knows my side of family member said she looks more like me. I think she inherit the round and chubby face from my side of family...

Pregnancy update

Well, obviously not a very consistent blog.....and, I have tonnes of tags to finish :-)

Yes, most of you have known that I m carrying big tummy right now....well, literally BIG! Mil said ppl think I m gonna deliver anytime soon....but I m only at my 30th week now. Still have 2.5 months to go :-)

I had my 30th week check up last weekend in Melaka (as I plan to deliver in Melaka just like my first....). This is the first time I m seeing him for my 2nd pregnancy. As usual, he's nice and friendly and despite sooo...many patients outside, he still did my scan carefully and patiently.

Baby is very active and keep blocking him while he was trying to get a good mugshot of the baby's face :-) It was fun to see him 'fighting' (yeah, by hitting my tummy with his scanner) with baby to get the shot. haha.

It's my first time having a 3D scan for my 2nd baby (pethetic right....didn't had chance to see Dr Guna as timing was always out- again, the other of my beloved gynea!) We were thrilled and excited!

baby's weight = 2.1kg
I think this is consider BIG. i checked Babycentre.com and it says baby at 30th week weighs about 3 pounds = 1.36kg only....

Gynea said I have excess water....
Well, he said this is a sign of diabetic ;-( I'll have to go for a blood test soon to confirm. Yes, I love sweet stuff a lot! Even for dumpling, I go for nyonya 'chang' then my usual favourite of the 'bak and salted egg'. Love dessert and ice creams!
Love fruits too. Have tonnes of fruit whole day ;-)

Ray's reaction:-
Whenever she sees my big tummy, she'll rub it and say 'sayang baby' and start kissing my tummy. I don't know how her reaction will be like when she see the real baby delivered in September ;-)

Trying to link back to bloggers' world....

As many of you can see, I've not updated my blog for a long long time. Many thot that I'd have lost interest or many have given up checking my blogs :-)

Well, many things happened over the past 7-8 months....
First i lost my beloved dad end of last year.....He was 81 and passed on peacefully without sickness.....yup, it was a big age gap between me n him and I was the youngest child in the same generation....

Then, I was travelling a lot between KL and Melaka just to make sure my mom's ok. Thankfully, she has lots of Buddhist temple activities to occupy her.... and, also, thanks to my sis as she was there all the time to accompany her too....

Writing fun

I was teaching Joo numbers and alphabets. Now, she can read A-Z (but she always confuse V and Y, M and W....haha) and of course, all numbers! (ah hem)

Last Saturday, she was sitting with me and scribbled on her drawing board. Suddenly, she started writing! See, her'Z' is actually quite nice. 'O', 'G' and the terbalik 'C'....haha.

Joo with mommy-popo and Ye Ye

I usually take whole-week off to give MIL a break bi monthly. Was supposed to go on leave week commencing July 31st (except Thurs and that was hubby's turn to take....) Sent MIL back to Melaka and my parents followed me to KL for holiday. Joo doesn't mix with them a lot and therefore, she's closer to PIL than Mommy-popo and Yeye. Oops, my mom wants her to call mommy-popo instead of 'wai po' coz my mom doesn't like the word 'wai' (means, outside). Haha.

For the first 2 days, Joo was doing fine with them. As for PIL, Joo was like 'out of sight, out of mind' and never mentioned about them at all. On Wednesday, there was a urgent meeting in the office and I left Joo with my parents and cancelled my leave. When I came back, she was doing very fine. Infact, not so lao-kai compare to the time with MIL.

She's also very fine with my mom's vegetarian cooking and my dad's sense of humour. I cancelled the rest of my leaves and went back to work....

Joo can read!

Joo can recognise few numbers since last month and now, she can recognise no 1 to 10! I m not a good and consistent GD mother so I can't say much whether GD helps but Barney definately helps a lot! Recently, we took out her alphabet mat and re lay them out in the study room again (we kept it coz she likes to bite them at once...). Mil and I started teaching her on ABC. Now, she can read A,B,C, H,J (for BJ), R (her name), L and O. haha. Now, whenever she sees words on poster or books, she'll point and want us to read to her and she'll follow. It's real fun seeing her learning fast!

Not feeling well.....

Joo was not well the past week. She had fever on Wednesday (38.5) and vomitted. Mil blamed Fil for 'dipping' her too long in the pool over the weekend....
I rushed back from office and brought her to see pead. We got a very 'cold' pead (no interaction with kids at all) who just gave her normal pink liquid and charged me (well, charged my company) RM65 for it. However, her fever was still on and off the whole evening.

Next day, I took half day coz it was Mil's check up day. Slept with Joo till 9am and she was cranky and cried. Still slight fever (37.6)....after drinking milk, she vomitted again. Got panic and rushed back to DSH...This time, we looked for Dr Azizi. Medicine obviously the same but he was very patient and gentle. He gave a 3-day antibiotic coz Joo's throat was infected already.....Bill was RM120!

Joo was well and active again on Friday....I sent Mil off to pudu and Joo stayed with mommy again in the office from 5-8pm till daddy came and pick us up for dinner. At night, fever came back again.... Struggled with another round of medicine....

Saturday, we had breakfast and lunch and 3 of us slept thru the whole afternoon. She couldn't eat fried or oily food so we decided Japanese! Joo's appetite was good and she took 6 little cucumber sushi in a roll! she loves Jap food i.e seaweed, soba and handroll....

We shopped in the Curve and reached home at 10.30pm. Another tragic incident happened! We found big red patch at the back of her tigh! It was not like rashes but more of blood clot patches. She has rashes (like 'fong-mok') the day before and now it's at the exact place. We took her to a 24-hr clinic nearby and doctor also could tell what it was. I suspect it was food allergy but it was not the first time she took Japanese + seaweed. Maybe it's the juice of raw fish?

Now, Mil is back and seems that Joo has running nose and phlegm pulak....aiyo, this girl, have all sickness at one go!

Fun and Go Tag!
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
"His digestive system is not mature enough..." (Parenthood mag this month. someone just came and pass me a copy few days ago and it's lying on my desk now...)
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
didn't manage to reach anything, air only
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Some Cantonese show by Aaron Kwok last nite
4. Without looking, guess what time it is?
5pm
5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
5.22pm
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
sound of someone clicking on keyboard
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
In a conference room discussing a launch event this June.
8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
Replies to my blog
9. What are you wearing?
Office T-shirt + slack coz it's dress down Friday
10. Did you dream last night?
Yes something familiar but I cannot remember a single thing at all
11. When did you last laugh?
My colleague talking about her wedding in July
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
My little girl's poster...facing me all day :-)
13. Seen anything weird lately?
Sure a lot but can't remember off hand
14. What do you think of this quiz?
Good to de-stress
15. What is the last film you saw?
Da Vincci Code! I went for preview :-)
16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
So many things to buy....dunno what to list....
17. Tell me something about you that I dunno.
Feeling guilty went to watch movie til midnite and leave baby at home
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Peace and everyone's equal, no comparison (my goodness, sounds like communist)
19. Do you like to dance?
Yes but I m a kaku person....
20. George Bush.
dirty man
21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
'Tong-ern" but not fit so became "Rou-ern" (chinese pronounciation of JooAnn)
22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Still thinking
23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yes! yes, been thinking about it day and nite. Love Europe....don't mind to even 'jump aeroplane'....love the peaceful feeling.
24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
Dunno....Buddhist don't hv pearly gates.....
25.Hopefully nobody tag them yet...
I think ppl that I know all kena tagged or tag me liow....
maybe, Jazz (again! haha), Chinnee and Michelle?

What's in my handbag

Sharon, 'thanks' for telling me I kena tagged lah...haha.
I have a few but I don't like to change handbags. Reason being I will miss one or two items and it's frustrating when it happens.
For work, I'll stick to 1 handbag which is black colour (safe to match any outfit) and for shopping, I'll tumpang my stuff in baby's bag instead of carry another handbag.
My current working handbag = no brand...haha. I bought it during X'mas sale in singapore. I love to go Singapore during sale to get real cheap and nice bags :-)


well, back to the topic:-

Handbag
- wallet
- Handphone
- car keys
- house keys
- staff tag
- office keys
- sun block cream
- Comb
- Thumb drive
- cosmetic bag
- lipstick mirror
- name card holder
- dentyne
- privilege cards holder

Wallet
- credit cards
- ATM card
- IC/driving license
- family photo (passport size)
- Travelling receipts
- 'Fu' from temple
- ATM receipts
- Monies
- Ang pow which I received post CNY

Cosmetic bag
(I don't use make up but i hv a basic cosmetic bag to hold all the small pcs)
- Lipsticks
- Vaseline
- Lip gloss
- Lip liner
- Face powder

You're tagged...
- Chanel
- Jazz

Kena tagged....long long overdue

I kena tagged by Chanel since January.....(sorry huh)....here's the homework for submission....

4 jobs you have in life
1. Nursery teacher (during uni break)
2. Secretary (during uni break)
3. Hotelier (Corporate Communication - first job)
4. Advertising and promotion - Bank (now)

4 movies u would watch over and over
1. Forest Gump
2. The Sound of Music
3. Totoro (Jap cartoon)
4. .....Can't think of it now....

4 places you've lived
1. Melaka (birth place + hometown)
2. Singapore (for 2 months - consider? almost work there)
3. KL/PJ (uni and now)
4. Nil

4 TV shows you love(d) to watch
1. Naked chef (or any cooking show)
2. Ghost whisperer
3. Cantonese series (but not much time to spare these days)
4. any DIY shows (not the macho kind but more for origami, deco, beads etc)

4 Places you've been on vacation to:
1. Thailand (hubby's company trip)
2. Japan - Tokyo (2 weeks, uni sponsored)
3. London
4. Eastern Europe (honeymoon)

4 Places you would rather be:
1. Home
2. Mommy's house (hometown)
3. Austria/Switzerland (not that I kacang lupakan kulit but this is the place that I love and don't mind going over and over again)
4. Ikea restaurant (I find it very cosy and baby friendly....)

4 of your favourate foods
1. Anything whitish and creamy looking (say me freak but I hv this habit since young...i even go for indian dessert which is white and milky)
2. Japanese (esp Salmon sashimi!)
3. Mommy's cooking
4. Italian

4 of your favourite beverages
1. Fresh juices
2. Iced Chocolate (with thick choc and scoop of ice cream)
3. Green tea
4. Yakult or any yoghurt drink

4 websites you visit daily
1. Gmail
2. Group discussion + any blogs that prompted me
3. Nil....sad lah, these days really too tight up with work....come to think of it, must catch up soon....
4. Nil....

4 tagged (Dunno if they kena tagged b4...)
1. Michelle
2. Hui Sia
3. Sabrina
4. Jefference

Ok? Late better than never hoh.....

Happy moment

It has been a while since I last blogged. Work has been like crazy and with Joo now staying 'permanently' with me, just cannot find time to breath!
Previous, me and hubby would have all the free time to ourselves after work. Now, we would rush home as soon as we finish work and no more lingering at shopping mall or makan place. Straight home to see our little princess :-)

Joo was stranded in our little apartment during working hrs. We bought her a cooking set and she now learnt to 'cook' and 'wash'. Look! how she enjoys her masak set....

Shopping in Ikea

Ikea, curve, 1 U hv been our hang out place in the evening. Just a 3/4km drive and we manage to bring Joo to 'kai-kai' after being stranded in our little apartment from morning till evening.
Little Joo was so difficult to manage when she's in shopping centre. Refused to be carried and refuse to hold our hands. What we did was to give her little trolley so that she can shop on her own. That will keep her occupied for awhile....

Amazing Joo!

Talking about how Joo destroys my mom's cookie jars, here's some pictures in sequence (well, the first pix supposed to be last but I dunno how.....)of how she managed to stack the cookies up and clapped. I was amaze to see she could actually thought of a game like this.....

Happy Doggy Year!

Joo has tailormade cheongsam every year from Grand Aunt. Hubby's aunt is tailor and she used to make CNY samfu/cheong sam every year for SIL when she was young. Now is Joo's turn. See how time flies!

Nothing special happened this CNY. Me and hubby had a very anti-social CNY. We hid at home and only attended relatives gatherings. Weather is too hot and too hassle to bring Joo out for friends gathering :-)

Joo got to meet her cousin (my brother's DS) this CNY. She calls him di-di (7 months younger) and they both get along very well. 2 little rascal running in my mom's house and destroyed my mom's mosquito netting, plants, cookie jars...etc. hevoc!

Zoo-Zy-Zoo!

Daddy n Mommy brought baby Joo to Singapore Zoo. Joo was stunned to see so many big animals live! Joo has been watching Barney Goes to Zoo and a few days before our Singapore trip, I actually sat down with her and 'went thru' all the animals on the screen so that she get familiar with them.

Joo loves to do the elephant walking act. She will put her hands together and moves her arms pretend like the elephant trunk and open her legs and walk pretend like how elephant walk. and, she called elephant 'el - fern' now!

Weather was good on the day we visited the zoo (mommy hates hot day). Joo was fascinated by the monkeys, Siberian tigers, elephants, lessie dogs, seagull...etc.

White Collar Joo

Today is Raya's eve. I didn't take a day off as today is a good day to work. No jam on the road, no phone calls in the office and not many people in the office.
PIL got to leave KL today and they dropped Joo with me after we had a vegetarian meal.
Joo was so excited to see new environments. White boards, sofas, photostat machines, files were all her new toys at that moment! She ran from reception area to the conference room and from pantry to mommy's room. Climbed up mommy's chair to play with mommy's tea and made her clothes wet.
She stayed in the office from 2pm to 5.30pm when daddy came to pick us....

Poor little Joo

Joo was admitted to Pantai Melaka midnite last nite. Both me and hubby rushed back from KL and reached Melaka at 2 am. We both were so worried and I kept praying on my way home.
When I reached the ward, poor Joo look so sick and pale. Fortunately, her fever subside after the antibiotic jab. We put her in baby cot and she slept for a while. Daddy slept on her bed while mommy slept on the couch.
We thot she can discharge the next day. However, pead held her for 3 nights! Her fever was monitored but everyone in the family treated the ward like a hotel room. We stayed with her, tabao food in, watch TV series and brought our clothes to bath there!

Superstar Joo!

I was searching hi and low for baby talent for my new product. Out of sudden my boss said, "hey, why not you use Rachelle?" Then, I picked up the phone and checked if mil can bring her up. They were all excited coz Joo is gonna be a superstar!
The shot took place from 11am all the way to 4pm. Joo refused to nap at the studio. She was like a real superstar coz whenever spot light shine on her, she got energetic!
Joo slept on the way home from studio....all the way till 7.30pm that day. Guess she was really exhausted. Mil told me that it's no fun to be a superstar. Asked me to try avoid this again.
Here are some of the shots we did.....Joo earn her first salary today....hehe.