Cloth Diaper (CD) and Mommy

 I want to share my simple thought about cloth diapering; I am so in love with it . It’s easy to use as easy as using a disposable diaper but without all the unknown chemicals, minimal waste and definitely value for money.

The responsible party who introduced me to the world of CD is not other than hubby cousin Annette. At first, I thought Goshh!! This stuff was a lil bit too costly for a diaper!

I mentioned it to Hubby and he said “Cloth diaper? Ya we bought the cloth diaper already, lampin is a cloth diaper why need to buy online? duhh” Apparently in the 21^st cloth diapering means more than just “the lampin”. Hehehe. After doing a bit of reading Hubby then bought 2 pieces of cd ( Bumgenius and BabyKanga ) for trial. Initially when at home, we alternate between using BumGenius, Baby Kanga and lampin. Now that we have 12 CDs we use it almost exclusively . It turned out CD is so much fun to use and no need to change diaper every hour. So once in a while I use the lampin when staying at home. Disposable diaper? Only when it rains cats and dogs for two days and all the CDs are not dry or when I don’t feel like doing laundry. 

What is it about CD that I like :

1. Shopping Experience!

My current addicted is surfing through the many online store and comparing prices, brand design and features. Other than shopping or window shopping for CD, I also enjoy surfing for breastfeeding clothes, poncho, baby’s legging / warmer, slings (baby wearing) and the list goes on and on and on. The idea of cyber shopping made me feel high-tech. hehehe. I lived in a small town so whenever I cyber shopping, it feels like I’m shopping overseas, siok sendiri SS.! I can do window shopping without living the house and still can check on a lot of stuff! Isn’t that great! ( Baby’s a bit difficult to bring out if you want to shop till you drop! ). I am also able to meet other like minded cyber mother and read their review about baby’s stuff.

2. Happy Baby

    Since we are using the CD, we manage to lessen Ava crankiness due to wet diaper,  she would feel very dry even after peeing many times. My favourite for nighttime wear is BumGenius and Romparooz, it can last from 9.00 pm until 7 am even only using one insert. No crying, no changing diaper, no messiness and both mom and baby can straight away continue to sleep after every feeding. I am always concern of Ava’s bum getting rashes whenever using disposable diaper and I would change the diaper every 2 hours to avoid the rashes. But since using the CD, we don’t have anymore problem with rashes. At the moment I only have 12 CDs and need to add another 6 more so I can officially be a an exclusive CD user ;p and if possible try to minimize the usage of disposable diaper.

3. Baby Wearing

    I don’t need to put on a pants for Ava since the CD is stylist enough as a pants! It’s colorful, great design and not to mention it’s waterproof! What more do you need for a baby pants! It’s like Superman style – wear your underwear out!

4. Natural Prozac aka Happy Pill

    This is based on my personal experience. I love colors! Whenever I see bright color, my mood would suddenly be lifted up! CD comes in so many different colors and patterns. I just can’t wait for Ava’s diaper change time, feel so motivated to do diaper change, it is so enjoyable 



5. The many amazing feature of CD.

    The new ones comes in two type, Velcro and Snap. It can last between 4 to 10 hours., Depending on how much the baby or toddler pee. The absorbency of the insert increase with every washing. The more you wash it, the more absorbent it is!One standard insert can absorb like 8 to 10 oz. after many washing.  Last but not least it’s value for money.

6. Environmental Friendly

    Disposable diapers you need to buy every so often, means that you use it and throw it away but with CD, it can be used until the baby become a toddler. CD don’t have any dioxin and other dangerous chemical. This is one of our part of contributing to a better world. Now I can comfortably call myself as an environmentally friendly citizen of the world. ( Just kidding,  have a long way to go because I’m still using plastic bag! I have plastic bag which I am recycling as garbage bag which can last years to come)

By the way big thanks to Annette for introducing us to this genius invention!

My next stash is Romparooz applix G2..nice huh..I plan to get those pink flowery pattern ( Lux).

Down to my 90's Memory Lane...

I have a recollection of my teen life last nite as I watched one of the 80's movie titled "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" co star by Sarah Jessica Parker.

On my teen years, I wanted to :

1. Have a boyfriend just like everyone else.
2. Dreaming to be like the Wakefields twins. ( Remember the novel from the teenager series about Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield (Sweet Valley High)?) I want to be like Elizabeth, the miss goody two shoes yet got a very strong personality like her rebellious twin sister Jessica.

3. For Once I just wish I have a more "user friendly" parents. i.e. you understand how they function, and they suits your teenage wants and needs and they don't breakdown so often.
4. Have a slim body just like everyone else.
5. Eat my report card every semester so that mum n dad dun have to see all those marks which were bleeding.( I never regret failing on it as I don't like any of the the subject I took for SPM. I always know that I love to draw and paint but you know lah Malaysia School- Art is not a serious subject. ( Back then my parent didn't realize how much I hate being in the science stream. It's my fault because I just followed what the elderly asked me to do ."Science is good for your future!". As explain in #3 they are not user friendly parents).
6. Wish that I can go back to my old school back in SMK Bundu Tuhan, Ranau. I don't like SM SungSiew Sandakan, the school made me sick. Thinking back I had a culture shock due to transferring school, back than nobody knows of culture shock when you transfer school, you only have culture shock if you move to different country like moving to Japan, but not transferring school. I know now that I suffered culture shock (silently) from transfering school and I never recovered.
7. I feel like I want to strangle my lovely sister most of the time. ( We used to be arch-enemy back then..hahaha )
8. I have the guts to get my own own room without sharing with my little annoying sister. ( But it is just that I am afraid to sleep alone. Scared of the unknown aka ghost kunun, buduh oh..)
9. To have a Baby G watch because everybody have it! ( now,even I've my own money I don't want to waste it on Baby G. )

10.Meet Prince William.;P

11. One of my wishlist for Christmas (when I was 15) was a walkman with ear phone instead I got a first generation Walkman yellow in colour with a muffler head phone..u know the first generation walkman. "Made in China".hahahaha.

I could never showed the Walkman in school because it's so out of fashioned!!! It looks worst than the illustration on the right.

12. Desperately want to be like my mom youngest sister. When I was a kid, I lost my nanny so when I went back to kampung this aunt looked like my nanny so I start to call her with my nanny's name and until these day everybody called her by that name . Not only I named her , I also desperately want  to be like her. Our age  difference is very close so she's become my role model and I admire her so much!

Play Syllabus for Ava..Fun and Creative!

I already bought a few (alat bantu mengajar) for Ava to teach her on the near future. Need to make an early preparation so by the time she start to learn I already know how to teach her .

Action Words - Baby  begin to learn words meanings as early as four months of age and this video may enhance Ava's language development significantly.

Toopy and Binoo- I like this dvd cartoon. Each short story from this dvd take in a different environment and is interactive, educational and teaches me to help Ava use her imagination to look at things with a fresh perspective! Not to mention the character of this cartoon are sooo adorable! ( I'm also learning at the same time since I am poor with English vocabulary and pronunciation)

Creative children - I m trying to read this as early as possible so I can teach Ava to play without wasting a lot of money to buy toys. This book open up parents creative ability to play with their children which is really2 good.

 

 

                                     Ava really likes this cloth book till she want to eat it!!haha

Oh, kind of out of topic..this is for me n hubby, trying to learn a few of Chinese vocab..:).

The Before and After

                                          from the left : Baby Ray Xin, Baby Ava and Baby Zoey

A TV addict?

I wonder if she's a tv addict, while hubby and I sweating our pants off on doing the cardio exercise from the dvd, Ava's watching it like she knows what's that all about. I wonder if she's a tv addict and we think she might have to go to the TV Addict Anonymous Program!! hahaha...

 

Now daddy have to pull you away from the tv and just watch daddy doing his move.

 

 

Lose the baby fat!

I was thinking of going on a diet but diet means you need to count the calories and I am so not good at counting calories which is very depressing. Normally if I count calories I ends up eating more!! So as you can read on the book cover, I don't need to count my steps because it is automatically count by pedometer. The only thing is I need is to hit 10,000 steps a day for it to walk like ( magic ). The thing is 10000 steps! I've no idea how far it's 10,000 steps actually. Just now as we walking around the neighborhood and doing laundry, I just hit 3000 steps, another 7000 to go.
"If we all followed the advice in The Step Diet Book and ate a little less and walked a little more, we would be happier and healthier." - James Levine, M.D., Associate Prof of Medicine, The Mayo Clinic.

We just bought 2 couple of dumbbells and we try to commit doing cardiovascular exercise for 2 weeks following  the Biggest Loser exercise program DVD workout which we bought a few days ago and I dunno whether I could follow this program religiously or hangat hangat tahi ayam only..hahaha..I've got to lose another 5 more kilos! well just wait and see...

Metarmorphosis

A bit under the weather and a sick baby..

Probably it's only because of the baby blues or the present of my past depression..i've  got anxiety attacked but it's all under control...have seen the doctor to know their point of view about the post partum depression but at the end we just went back with couple of supplement prescription, no anti depression pill bcoz I am exclusive bfeeding..probably my anxiety was due to my pms because by the end of the evening I was smiling back again after strolling at Megamall..hehe.
Ava was a bit of feverish yesterday,this was her first fever since she had been born 3 months ago. She didn't have any appetite to eat since morning and only by 2pm my breast's start to get sore signalling that my baby already hungry and I was so relief!! Her temperature was ups and downs ,from 36.88 until 37. By night time after a few feeding ( breastfeeding made them sweat a lot and it make the fever to decrease quickly )and put on wet cloth on her forehead, her temperature went back to normal ...pheww... and today she cannot stop talking (mumbling)to us, maybe she felt she's missing out her activity yesterday due to the fever and trying to catch up..
This whole fever thing makes me scared and tired but we just have to accept it, this is one of so many challenges new parent have to get thru,hopefully she  come out stronger than before.

Lazy...

I  just got soooo lazy....the house is messy, laundry still in the machine, ava sleeping on my lap, dont want to put her down coz she might  wake up and crying...damn..i am so restlesss.

1st stroll at the park

After hubby reached home, we decided both of us need some walk exercise and we went to City Fan park near the town. On the way driving to the park, Ava as usual was kept in the carrier and suddenly did a movement which was new to us,she's playing with her hand and grab her handkerchef from her lap by using her little finger and pulled it closer to her mouth and apparently she's fall asleep doing that. Me and hubby are really excited with her new development.

Nowadays, she's learning how to sleep by herself , we have a big mattress on the floor on our living room and we called it Ava's learning and napping space. We will do everything there, singing her songs, talking to her,playing and also put her to nap. She seem very delightfull to have her own space. She would crawl and rolling all over the mattress, she would be moving towards like a caterpillars and fall asleep in the middle of the journey with mouth sucking her finger, and mummy can also do her own thing for awhile..hehe.

Anyway, after reached at the park, we thought she wouldn't be like to be put on the stroller but surprisingly she didn't mind . Maybe she is captivated with the evening scenery and the sound of the bird chirping,she's so busy checking and looking at her surrounding till didn't have time to talk with mummy and daddy ...looks like the method really works for her. Before this she'll be struggling and cried asking us to take her out from the stroller. 

Okie dokie, need to take my nap now...

Make-up mania!!

I am a make-up junkie, I can just pick up one similar colour of lipstick which I already got and never regrets buying it. I would browse at the make-up counter for hours and tested here and there but now I have to control myself for trying out the lipstick sample because you just don’t know who was sampling it before you. They might be contaminated with lots of viruses such as H1N1, MRSA, HIV and the list go on. I have tons of make-up before I get pregnant. So many which I didn’t get to finish even half of it. I have more than three kind of blushers, one was powdery matte kind of type, two type of color for creamy and one type of shimmer blush, 3 type of mascaras which every one of it was for volumising,curls and long lasting eyelashes, not to mention tons of different kind of lipsticks and lipgloss and so many different kind of eyeshadows colors. (I wonder if I only bought it just to have the cute pot!)


Anyway back to my story, unlucky for me my pregnancy hormone was seriously hating the smell of my foundation, eyeshadow, lipstick and every powder which I got!! Whenever I put on it, I can suddenly had my gag reflex!!! So, I have to give it all to my cuzy since it would be wasted if I just kept it unused.

Over 10 months, whenever I went out , my face would be naked without any single of make-up with acnes all over on my face.( did I mention that I also got attacked by acnes during my pregnancy?) After holding back on buying new make-up and my skin slowly rejuvenated thou I still had light scars from the acnes, I started to buy my long time “favorites stuff to buy” again!! And this time, I tried to buy only the essential one. A make-up base, one compact powder foundation, 3 shades of eyeshadow( natural color), a black eyeliner, a volumising mascara, 3 lipstick with different colour, a blush which has 3 different tones in it and a concealer. I don’t believe in concealer but this product of Body Shop really makes wonder of my acne scar, my face suddenly looked nearly flawless when it applied on my face! But I really need to practice how to blend it at my skin since the first time I tried I get helped from a lady at the Body Shop kiosk.

I want to share about my new blusher from the Body Shop, it’s called a Blush Trio 3 from the Fall Make-up Collection, new released for this year.

I really adored these blushes because it has 3 beautiful colours on it which can create a 3D effects on our face contour!! This trio collection only available in two shades which makes it easy to decide between settling on a cool or warm look. Warm Sunset is my fav and the flattering of the two. This is a mix of deep shades of coral, orange and bronze. Three shades in one pot! How cool is that!! Cool Dusk was my least favourite as it applied a little too frosty on me and not really suitable with my tanned skin.

I just don’t know how to end this make-up story, it will go on and on……..

I’m So Thrilled I Persevered!

I’ve been trying for so long to find a time to write this on my blog. So here’s the story..
Before I delivered. Husband and I already decided to breastfeed our baby. Breastfeeding sounds less hassle than having to sterilize bottles and it seem really straightforward, like it is the most natural thing in the world!

Day 1

June 30 after Ava was born and I’ve been sent back to the ward, the nurse came in and asked me, “ Do you want to breastfeed your baby or bottle feed?”

With a confidence answer and not knowing the hardship of breastfeeding I said, ‘Yes, of course”.

They gave Ava to me and this good nurse came and help me how to get started with bfeed. Ava started to latch on and she’s seem quite natural with it. So far so good and I was still excited in doing the breastfeeding.

Day 2

My nipple started to feel sore and I was exhausted. Ava’s been latching on my breast for almost an hour for every feeding and the sometimes almost took every hour. To make the matter worse doctor told us that she’s got jaundice. One of the nurse told me to let her to be fed by formula milk since I haven’t produce enough milk to make Ava enough to passed motion and peeing to decrease the jaundice. Feeling upset, bitter and depress, I let Ava drank formula milk for the whole day.

Day 3
I never realized bfeeding would be such hardwork( especially when you've decided to fully breastfeed from the beginning).Just when I think Ava has finished I pull her off my breast and she start sucking again. I told doctor that my nipples a really really sore. He then told hubby to get a nipple shield and breast cream from the Guardian store.
Day 4
Oh my!!! Why didn't anyone tell you how painfull it can be when your milk comes in?
My boobs are massive, hard and throbbing with pain. Even wearing the shield didn’t lessen the pain! I was sobbing every nursing! The good part is, Ava had no problem in drinking and her weight’s increasing and also the jaundice had gone( the jaundice gone by day 10)!

Day 5

Everytime Ava cries to be fed I felt sick. Both of my nipple were seriously cracked, as it’s taking all the pressure from feeding. A large part of me thought I m just not cut out to do this. So tired I let mother in law take care of Ava and gave her formula for one feeding and other time I expressed my milk so that she can fed her with it.

Day 6

Still in pain, feeling like to give up. She’s feeding every hour. Have to expressed milk again so that mother in law can take care of her while I get my sleep.

Day 7 till 17

Ava’s feeding every 2 hours and though I can’t say I’m loving it, it was definitely less painful ( the nipple sheild really help during this time). But the sleep deprivation is killing me! She spent the evening cluster-feeding until about 10.00pm, dropping off then woke up again at 1 am for more milk.

Day 17 till 22

I ‘ve decided to take each day as it comes rather than set myself a deadline for success.

Everyday my baby gets my milk is a bonus. Hubby had been giving 100 percent fully support from the beginning. I mean seriously a very fully support, he did the research about breastfeeding on how it's really worth to persevered and help me to take care of Ava’s other need. He even bought the best breastpump so that I can express my milk faster and zero hassle and pain. The rest of the time Ava feeds on demand. Perhaps I’m going the hang of this.

2 months day 1

Have a brilliant feed this morning. Ava sucks away for about half an hour before falling asleep. When I see just how content she is, it feels like my heart will burst.

3 months

Nowadays breastfeeding is never an issue for me anymore, my milk has been produce enough for Ava’s need and she’s feeding at 2 to 3 hours interval.

I’m so proud I preservere at breastfeeding and have been given my daughter the very best start. I can believe how close I came to giving that all up. Looking into her eyes as she’s feeding is the best feeling in the whole world.