Monthly Archives: March 2010

Time to swap sides?

Posted by Misty Mom on 31/03/2010 None comments

I should have perhaps switched sides a long time ago but I never made the move. I guess I was looking at short term expenditure rather than long term and hence, I’ve been putting off getting the girls onto cloth nappies. I’m not talking about the ones from Pureen like the muslin cloth or terry towel nappies that you need safety pin to hold them together but the kind where you can slip in soaker pads and used them like your normal disposable nappies ie Pampers, Huggies, etc.

I had actually bought some pre-loved Swaddlebees nappies from a friend and thought that they were great coz it did help lessen the use of the disposable nappies which was great for our finance. But as usual, when they dont get washed in time you revert back to using the Pampers and what nots again. It’s really very bad when you think about it. Honestly, these nappies are expensive to buy first hand BUT I know that in the long term, it will help with our finances along the way. You don’t really see it at once but when you put the numbers together, they crunch pretty hard!

So I’ve been thinking that it’s now or never, really. I just joined this forum dedicated to cloth wearing nappies called Nappycino and hopefully I can score me some good buys.

Just what I don’t need now

Posted by Misty Mom on 31/03/2010 None comments

Did I tell you that tomorrow is my last day at work? Well, my assignment got extended to another week so that’s why I’m still here. Not that I mind, I mean I do enjoy the time away from the kids but at the same time, I think I’m pretty much over with dealing with the kids here.

Seeing that Easter is just a couple of days away, it’s been relatively quiet. Even my tm-t88iv hasn’t been getting a proper workout! :P On average I get around 10-15 transactions a day but this week has been so quiet, I honestly (sshh….do not speak of this else where!) have nothing to do but read my books at work. Not that I’m complaining but I’m just saying that’s how quiet its been.

One good thing though is that my boss is back so I guess he will be getting back into action after Easter when people have come back from the long break and such. The kids have it good though…..they got 2 weeks of school leave and are only back at the college on 19/4/2010! Lucky buggers…..

As for me, I can’t wait to start sewing again. :) I’ve been itching to sew some baby stuff for my best friend who’s due in September but I want to give it to her when I’m down. So lots of sewing to do PLUS some flannel jammies for Arianna when we get back. It’ll be winter then. Blek!

Stinky baby

Posted by Misty Mom on 31/03/2010 None comments

And it’s not even her fault! Poor thing….

At the moment, KR is still sleeping in her cot. From what I see, I think it will be easier to get her into the bed when the time comes coz she doesn’t really move around much after she’s fallen asleep. Like last night, Ted put her to bed and when I went to bed, she was slightly at an angle but when I woke up this morning. She was still in the same position.

(Psstt…she slept right through last night – touch wood, touch wood!) Anyway, to avoid any unwanted spills, so to speak, we’ve got a matress protector above the matress and omg, I don’t know what sort of material it is made from but every time KR wakes up from her nap, she really stinks! I can’t explain the smell but when it happens, I’m so tempted to chuck her into the bath.

Perhaps its some reaction to her sweat, I’m not sure but more likely than not, it’s mostly the cover that’s the problem I think. MIL did advice us to get one of those allergy mattress covers instead and I think after the numerous times that KR’s woken up stinky, I think it’s a pretty good idea!

And to think that the current cover that we are using is well, still rather new coz Arianna hardly ever used it and it’s only now that KR is doing so. Weird….

I jinxed it. :/

Posted by Misty Mom on 30/03/2010 None comments

Blek….I jinxed, I just knew it!

It was just too good to be true. For almost a week, KR was sleeping through the night from 10.30pm right up to at least 8am and then, silly me thought that, ‘O, this must be her new routine so if I skip something, she’ll be sleeping right through now.’ And I had skipped her miracle meal once and let her sleep right through from her evening nap around 8.30pm. What a BIG mistake! :/

What happened was, she woke up not once…but twice that night coz she was hungry and had 2 bottles : 1.30am and 6.30am. :/ So after that hard lesson, I knew that I had to get her back on her miracle meal, which I did last night but somehow, she still woke up at 1.30am for a bottle but slept right through till morning. (Lucky Ted!)

She’s so different from Arianna which in a sense is what you’d want coz having 2 same kids would be kind of boring. That said, I wished that some of her would be the same as Arianna as that would be excellent for me. Especially this night feeds….I still remember how I got Arianna to stop her night feeds quite clearly. I was still bf at that time but somehow, one night when she woke up for a feed, I just cuddled her and when she had stopped crying, she actually went back to sleep and that was it. That was the start of her sleeping right through the night. How excellent was that?? No hassle, nothing….

With KR…omg, once she wakes up crying…she wont stop until she has either her bottle or something to distract her and at that time of the night, I wouldn’t be letting her play with anything to get her out of that it’s-still-sleep-time mode. And no amount of cuddling or comforting will do for this little girl. It’s the bottle or nothing! I’ve not really tried just just cuddling her and then putting her down, and repeating it numerous times to drum it into her head just yet simply becoz with me working, I really need that sleep. So I might try this out next week so see if it works.

I can’t be sure if this is more like comfort feeding or if she’s really hungry. At the moment, she already gets 3 solid meals a day and to good measure, I give her her miracle meal comparatively late at night just so she’ll have a full tummy before bed. And while that worked almost the whole of last week, it has now backfired. :/ I’ll keep trying this week to see what’s not happening and then figure out what to do next. I’d love it if she’d sleep right through but as we all know, you can’t always get what you want. *sigh*

I miss sewing!! :(

Posted by Misty Mom on 26/03/2010 None comments

Boo hoo.

Did I already say that I miss sewing? Did I tell you how long it took me to sew up a pair of pants for KR? I didn’t? Well, lemme tell you now – almost a WHOLE week! I was literally sewing one seam a night for the whole of last week. Goes to show how much time I really have on my hands these days with my blasted job! >.<

While I love being at work, I miss having the time to just sit and sew for more than 10 mins at any one time. Thank goodness my current job is not as stressful as my previous position where I had to do insurance marketing – UGH! That was one tough job! So while sewing then, really helped with the stress, nowadays, it’s more like a hobby. BUT then these days, even with my better job, my sewing time is SO limited. It’s more like kid watching tv – sneak in a seam, kids taking nap – sneak in 2 seams, waiting for stew to simmer – insert elastic, etc…..crikey, I’m glad I don’t a shop to run or have any orders in or I’d go down under before I can even start the business! :/

I am really in awe of some of the girls in my forum who have managed to juggle working, running a biz and sewing for that business and at the same time, keep the household in order. These women are just amazing!! I reckon they made a deal with God and asked Him for a couple more hours a day so they can sew. *lol* But there is a very famous saying on my forum, if you really love doing something, somehow, you’ll make time for it and I guess, while I absolutely love sewing, I just haven’t around to figuring out HOW to management myself and get my head around things. *sigh*

If only I knew how to be more organized. :/ Until then, I’ll just be on here, whinging and whining about it!

Officially toothless no more!

Posted by Misty Mom on 24/03/2010 None comments

It’s taken a long time but we can now officially say that KR is no longer toothless. :) Her 2 bottom teeth have finally got through and she looks just like Arianna when hers broke through too. Some of the latest shots of her showing off her pearly whites.

Proud of her 2 teeth

Proud of her 2 teeth
These are pretty much the shots I took at the same time. I couldn’t help myself – I thought they turned out well! :) KR is about 11mths here. (Ps. I know she is way overdue for more teeth but dunno why it still hasnt come through and she ain’t walking just yet either – such a lovely lump!)

I think she’s just glad the pain is over at least for now. I really pitied her as they were coming through. Poor thing didn’t know what to do with herself. You knew she was uncomfortable coz she’s be rubbing the top of her thumb back and forth across her gums as if they were irritating and she’d drool a fair but not too much. I didn’t really give her any Panadol and the once she has that gum relief was the once that Ted took the risk to try and rub it on her gums. Did you know that that thing tastes foul?? How do you expect a child to be ok with it? Crikey, I wouldn’t put that in my mouth if it was the only thing that could help me! So you see why I was reluctant to slap it on her gum. But Daddy is a big softie and didn’t want to see his little baby in pain, hence he caved in and gave it to her. I don’t think she was impressed by the flavour. *lol* Like I said, it is FOUL.
Now, I can start looking for those cheddar cheese sticks so she can chomp on them coz she finally realised that those 2 sharp things actually have its purpose and she’s made a pretty good effort demolishing that rusk I gave her a couple of days ago. Should have seen her – so proud of her efforts! :P

My stretch marks disappeared!!

Posted by Misty Mom on 22/03/2010 None comments

Yes! It’s true….a miracle man! :D *does a jig*

Till now I don’t know when it happened or HOW it happened. *lol* With Arianna, I was diligently rubbing on cocoa butter everyday after my bath from the moment I found out it’s benefits and properties. My best friend’s sister told me about it and swears by it coz after 3 kids, she’s got NO stretch marks at all. Lucky woman! And truth be known, I didn’t get any stretchmarks at all and I was so happy about it.

Then KR came along and I guess I slacked a little and took my skin for granted. =.= I’d only put it on when I remembered and sometimes, I’d go on for days before I remember slapping some on. And throughout the pregnancy, although I hadn’t been diligently been slapping it on, I did keep an eye out in case something happened. And just when I slacked in that department as well, I got hit by a couple of lines!! :/ I was so upset about the lines as well as upset with myself for slacking off like that. The fact that I didn’t notice it was because it was at the end of the 3rd trimester and it was underneath my belly when I would not have noticed it at all if I didn’t just happen to give it a rub during my bath. I thought to myself, ‘Wait a minute, that felt like a stretch mark.’ And the as the thought sank in, I was like, ‘NOoooooooooooo!!!’. But ‘twas too late.

Unlike slapping on my acne scar cream which actually does reduce scarring to a certain degree, once you get stretch marks, it ain’t going anywhere at all, hun. *sigh* So you can imagine why I was so upset with myself and totally blame my laziness on what happened to me. Keeping THAT in mind, just imagine my elation when I noticed it gone just a few days ago!! *lol* I was over the moon coz I just couldn’t believe it possible. To be honest, the moment I realised that I had those ghastly lines, albeit just a few and not too deep, I slapped on my cocoa butter like nobody’s business I tells ya! I was going to redeem my skin as best I could after the damage I did to it myself and even after KR was born, I continued for awhile until summer came and I couldn’t take the greasy feel of it on sweating skin. Guess part of that after-birth treatment might have helped a bit but I’ve learnt my lesson well. No more taking my skin for granted anymore! :P

Going bald!

Posted by Misty Mom on 18/03/2010 None comments

One of the things that I hate most is combing my hair coz each time I do, I always end up with a handful of hair! As disgusting as it sounds, it’s more painful for me to watch. I think it’s my scalp that’s had enough of me keeping long hair and having it tied up in a bun most of the time. *lol*

While Ted would love to see me grow my hair past my waist, this is clearly an impossible task let alone manageable. The main reason why I tied my hair up is coz I can’t stand it getting into my face and having frizzy and not curly or wavy hair makes this even more irritating to me coz I look like the Lion King! Minus the roar…

I’m also on the lookout for a hair loss shampoo that works. I’ve tried almost all the brands I can think of but none of them really work. The only thing that actually works for a longer period of time is to actually chop my hair off. After many decades of having long hair, I finally chopped them off for Christmas 2008 and what a feeling that was! I felt free and it was so easy to manage but then it got to that stage where it was neither long nor short. And I absolutely hate that stage with a passion! But after suffering for quite awhile, I can finally tie my hair up into my signature bun. *lol*

My only Christmas 2008 pix with Arianna
See how happy I am here after my chop – Arianna isnt too happy to pose with me though. LOL

If I ever get lost in a crown, the easiest way to spot me is to keep an eye out for the bun at the top of my head. Never once did they pick the wrong person! :P Hey, even notice how funny ‘hair loss shampoo’ actually sounds? If I was looking for a shampoo to generally keep it clean and healthy, and wasn’t thinking too deep into it, it’ll make sense but honestly, why would anyone want to buy a shampoo that causes hair loss?? :P Isn’t the English language a funny little thing…..

I don’t want to jinx it but….

Posted by Misty Mom on 17/03/2010 None comments

…I just had to tell someone!!! :)

Today is night 3 that KR has slept right through from the time we put her to bed. :) This simply means, she’s been off her night feeds which is excellent!! A proper extended nights sleep for the working Mummy. YAY!!!

While I wasn’t sure what I was doing that reaped this marvellous outcome, it only just occurred to me what it was. While a lot of babies are sleeping through the night at a younger age than KR, who turns 1 end of April (Egad! Where did the time go??), I was getting worried as to how long I had to keep this up! It is really a nag to wake up at 3am to heat a bottle and give it to her so you can imagine my joy and elation over this fantastic development. *big grin*

Anyway, it is simply because she’s got a nice full tummy hence, she doesn’t need to wake up to fuel up. Her normal food intake is (with me) 150ml milk when she wakes up and 1hr later, 1 tub of yogurt. Then she has her lunch (normally stewed mashed pear with cereal) after her nap around 12noon, has another 150ml milk before her afternoon nap which is around 2pm. Her dinner is around 4-5pm depending on what time she wakes up which is the frozen cubes of veg and meat and then if she’s whingy, another bottle of 150ml before her evening nap around 7-8ish. Sometimes she sleeps for more than 1hr other times, just a power nap of 30min which is fine by me coz she gets her bath after she wakes up and is up till about 10ish. It’s between 8-10pm that I give her this miracle meal that seems to work its magic.

It’s just 3 teaspoon of custard mixed with milk. It’s not too heavy like her normal meals but just nice I suppose. And of course, the final meal of the day would have to be her last 150ml milk for the night. And then it’s off to bed at 10.30pm….right till the next morning! ;) While I can’t be sure that it’s that miracle meal that is keeping her asleep all night but it’s what I have been doing to get this result so I guess, a full baby is a happy baby!

What do you say when you don’t know what to say?

Posted by Misty Mom on 16/03/2010 None comments

I hate being caught in situations where you just don’t know what to say or do to make the other person feel better because sometimes, it’s just clearly impossible simply because there is nothing one can say or do to help heal the pain of losing a loved one. This is especially when such things happen without warning.

I am never good at funerals. Thank goodness while I was in Malaysia, all we had to do was be present and sing during the final rites mass. If we had to provide solace and comfort, I’d be running the other way! I remember clearly one incident, which is totally unrelated to funerals, where a girlfriend of mine had just broken up and she was just bawling her eyes out. Other people would have felt it normal to reach out and give her a big huge hug just so she’s feel comforted but it wasn’t something I do. It doesn’t come to me naturally. And while I still reached out to offer her a hug, it felt so alien to have my arms around this bawling girl. Not to mention she looked like a train wreck with her make-up all messed up!

Coming back to funerals, while I couldn’t handle consoling people DURING the funeral, it was a lot better after because by then, most if not everyone would have gotten out of that extremely sombre mood. And the wake would be just be groups of people standing around with a drink and something to eat after the funeral. I guess this is when distant relatives catch up and other just stand aside and wait for time to pass. I’m in that category. :P While I’m not that crude to talk about funeral costs or how they intend to make the tombstone, I am inclined to at least be sympathetic and offer my condolences to the grieving family. And this is when it gets tricky. We all know how tricky words can be and in sombre situations as this, you’d want to be extremely careful where and how you tread.

Question is : After you offer your condolences ie. I’m very sorry for your loss. Do you add anything else? A lot of people tend to add ie. I’m sure he’s/she’s in a better place now, Be strong, etc. While they may sound comforting….in reality, I don’t think people want to hear that. They have every right to feel sad that the one they love is no longer there. They have every right to feel weak, sad and angry because someone they love left them. And while I’m sure that the said deceased is, hopefully in a better place, who am I to assure this? So in my most humble opinion, one should just offer their condolences and keep their mouths shut. Anything along the lines of ‘At least they are not suffering anymore…’ should be well steered clear of, if you know what’s good for you. K.I.S.S – keep it short and sweet!