Saya just turned nine months last week and here I am, finally writing something about her developments since god knows when. As always, there's much to talk about. I've been busy indulging all my free time making amigurumi, so I left none to write any recent blogs. Hmmm...where should I start?
Did I mention I wanted to try the Baby Led Weaning method? I thought I really failed with this method since the last post when I started her on cereals and pureed solids at five months. Initially, I bought a bunch of fresh organic vegetables (peas, broccoli, squashes, potatoes, and etc.), cooked and pureed them, and stored them in ice cube increments inside the freezer. It's been almost 3 months since I did that and I don't know if it's a sad thing to mention, but a few days ago, I had to dump a bunch of them into the garbage? Why, you might wonder? No, they didn't go bad. It's just that Saya CANNOT STAND eating baby food. She enjoyed the cereals and the purees for the first 2 months or so, but afterwards, she started feeding herself. I tried a combination of traditional solid spoon feeding (when there are things like soups and yogurt that I want to feed her) and BLW. Eventually, I encouraged her to feed herself more by placing her with some edibles at the dinnertable with BF and I. (I guess the whole pureeing and spoonfeeding was "fun" at first, but then it started to become cumbersome as Saya became more physically active and distracted.)
Things really took off since Saya has grasped the pincer grasp! I had a small stash of commercial jarred baby foods to use when I go out and didn't have proper food storage devices and there are still a few jars sitting in our pantry since Saya wouldn't even touch those. She has grown so fond of feeding herself that today, she wouldn't even eat the rice soup (w/catfish, no bones of course) from a sppon. We had to literally spread the thing across her high chair table for her to take a bite. It was a bit comical to watch the poor thing scoup up tiny bits of fish and rice with her hands. It was also an absolute mess. But I've been accustomed to cleaning up after Saya's meals, so the mess didn't seem too bad.
Saya's current repetoire of edibles include:
-Gerber puffs
-broccoli, which she can't get enough of (hooray for me)
-not too fond of the potatoes, but will try the first few chips
-white fish fillets
-chicken/turkey breast, shredded or in the form of nuggets
-rice bits
-hummus
-pita bread/nan/bread
-cheeses
-pasta and noodles
-fresh fruits: bananas (not too fond of), avocado (getting the hang of), grapes, papaya, oranges, apples, berries (I introduced these a little earlier as there's no history of allergies in my family. Luckily, she's not allergice to any of the berries, even strawberries. Lucky for her because she absolutely loves eating berries.)
-baby yogurt (Yo-Baby by StoneyFarms, the only ones that I'll eat now! I wish they had more flavors in this line)
Might I add? Saya has no teeth! Not even a single one. She loves ravaging her food with her gums. You wouldn't think she can eat eat a strawberry cut up, but no, give her that strawberry whole and she'll gnaw at it with her gums until the thing is reduced to strings of fruit. When we give her a slice of something she can't really grind with her gums, she'll just bite off a piece with her gums and suck the living crap out of the bits before she spits it out again. Just yesterday, I fed her some fish soup. I mean, I really tried to watch out for the fish bones (with every spoon I gave her), but somehow I missed this one. Saya ended up spitting the bone back out. One side of of me hung in shame for having missed the bone, but another side was super relieved that Saya can be so smart to spit it out!
I have to say, maybe I was lucky in some ways. BLW kind of came naturally to Saya. I was a bit skeptical that it migt not work at all. I've learned that this really is a laidback approach (you have to be considering the mess! However, the little time you spend in preparation makes up for time you spend in cleaning, plus baby learns to be an independent feeder and takes in highly textured foods! (i'm starting to feel like a BLW advocate now).
That concludes this chapter on BLW. Since I'm rarely on this blog, might as well just discuss other new developments with Saya. She just seems to be a cornucopia of new sounds. Lately, she's been babbling "dah, dah, dee, dah" and occasionally "mama." We try to get a "daddy" or "mommy" out of her, but she doesn't seem to get the message yet. (keep trying they say). I don't really see it in other babies, but Saya has different types of laughs. She has the genuine baby giggles that you get when you tickle her, but then she also has this weird laugh where she practically cuts off her air supply. I dont know how to describe it, but it sounds like you're breathing in too hard or too high in your trachea, like you're making the sound of a creaking door. Saya also laughs "aha" (literally that) or screams at the top of her lungs when she's ecstatic about something. In fact, she screams so damn loud that I can hear the vibrations in my ears during her screams. I only hope that she can keep that up when she gets older in the event that she wants to pursue a singing career. Saya also makes another weird characteristic noise. When she wants somethings, she'll clear her throat very hoarsely, as if she's desperate to remove phlegm from there. It sounds painful. Funny thing though, BF makes the same noise when he wants something.
Saya has become quite a clapper. She claps when she's excited or happy. To our amusement, she consoles herself by clapping when she's upset. Can you imagine a crying baby who happens to be clapping at the same time? It makes sense, of course, for her to amuse herself when she's upset. But for us, it's just hilarious. I'm really disappointed that I've missed videotaping those sessions.
And last but not least, Saya also makes those "mmmmmmmmmmHhh" sounds when she eats something she absolutely loves. I swear, it's as if these babies are born with the instinct to smell out a delicious slice of cake, ice cream, or brownie. Yesterday, Saya eyed a plain doughnut I was eating. I know it was bad, but I couldn't resist letting her explore the doughnut, and I let her have a bite of the nonglazed interior filling. Then another bite, and another bite, and another......because everytime I did, she just kept on going "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm." It's such a shame she can't drink a glass of milk with that because, guess what, she still will NOT take milk from a bottle.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Lazy me
I'm such a lazy bum. These past few days, all I've done during my free time is try to crochet some cute amigurumi from a book. God knows how long it's been since my last entry. Saya has definitely grown a lot. Let me recall her recent milestones:
1. Rolling over: although Saya had grasped this concept far back when she was four months, she had no interest in doing so on her own. She knew how to roll from her tummy onto her back and vice versa, she did it so rarely that I didn't even know if she really knew how to do it at all. Recently, however, she has been rolling onto her tummy a lot on her own. I suspect it's because she searches for the breast and ends up tipping herself over so much that she accomplished the task of rolling over.
2. Crawling: Almost at 8 months, but Saya shows no sign of trying to crawl. She was able to pull herself up into standing position at 6 months. I think Baby-Ya has the impression that she can already walk because everytime we think she's going to crawl (when she's in her crawling position), she puts her feet on the floor and tries to push herself up into standing position. I was told that not crawling may be problematic, but who really cares. She seems to be doing just fine.
3. Eating: Remember the whole baby-led-weaning method that I mentioned I'd try. Well, at 5.5 months, I succumbed to my parents' incessant nagging about how I'm starving my baby on an exclusive breastmilk diet and I started feeding baby purees to Saya. (Then again, Phuong's wedding was dangerously cose. My mother wanted to keep my relatives from finding out about my out-of-wedlock conception. As Phuong's bridesmaid, it was next to impossible to do that when Saya would not take the bottle. To make a long story short, they replaced me at the last minute. But my parents eventually let the cat out of the bag when they realized that it's still next to impossible to keep Saya a secret from the family. I was hoping that my unanticipated early introduction of solids to Saya would make it easier for her to go wihtout me that day. ) Saya loves eating. She is a picky eater, however. As of now, she refuses to eat any of the infant cereals. She can't stand smooth baby purees (good thing for me!). Even though the poor thing has no teeth yet, she loves highly textured foods. It makes my heart melt when Saya smiles at me while she's chewing on some crushed green grapes or soft pumpkin cubes.
4. Introducing the bottle: The irony of this all is that I couldn't get Saya to nurse initially and now that she's nursing, I can't get her to take the bottle at all. As a matter of fact, Saya took the bottle a few times a week up until the third month. Now, she'll play around with the bottle when she's not hungry. But when she gets down to business, nothing else but nursing will do for her. She throws huge fits when she doesn't get to nurse and it discourages me even more to get her to take the bottle because I don't know who will put up with that type of behavior.
I've tried various methods for REintroducing the bottle: getting someone to give it to her when I'm not around, having myself give it to her, giving it to her when she's not too hungry, giving it to her when she's really hungry, trying different bottles, trying different feeding positions, trying different feeding methods (I just need her to take the milk after all!)
To add insult to injury, my mother constantly blames me for Saya's unwillingness to take the bottle. "You should have given her the bottle earlier...you should just wean her..etc.." It also irks me to death when people respond to my situation with "well it's because you spoil her." (But then again, that's a nuance of being a parent isn't it. People always find a way to critique your parenting style even though they don't fully understand your situation)
Honestly, I've reached a point where I just think "fuck it." Forget about trying to go back to work. It's not financially worth it for me anyway. What's spending precious moments with my daughter in the first years of her life compared to a low paying entry position in the world of scientific research/public health/health care? With the way our economy is heading, my job options are practically next to none out there.
5. Personality: We've already had it figured in the first month when Saya screamed at the top of her lungs in her nursing strike. She's a mean baby. Today, Saya threw a fit everytime Chara (Hak's older sis) stopped clapping her hands. But when Um-Yaya resumed, Saya laughed with joy. She can be a calm baby, given that she gets what she wants. Otherwise, Saya whines a lot. She loves pinching my breast when I'm nursing her. I try to discourage it by giving her a blanket or holding her hand. But it seems like pinching my skin produces the most calming effect on her or something. I feel like I'm a part-time masochist or something because there are times when I enjoy her pinching my breast, as weird as that sounds.
Well, there goes my update on Saya. I'm terrible at this stuff. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to update more often from now on.
1. Rolling over: although Saya had grasped this concept far back when she was four months, she had no interest in doing so on her own. She knew how to roll from her tummy onto her back and vice versa, she did it so rarely that I didn't even know if she really knew how to do it at all. Recently, however, she has been rolling onto her tummy a lot on her own. I suspect it's because she searches for the breast and ends up tipping herself over so much that she accomplished the task of rolling over.
2. Crawling: Almost at 8 months, but Saya shows no sign of trying to crawl. She was able to pull herself up into standing position at 6 months. I think Baby-Ya has the impression that she can already walk because everytime we think she's going to crawl (when she's in her crawling position), she puts her feet on the floor and tries to push herself up into standing position. I was told that not crawling may be problematic, but who really cares. She seems to be doing just fine.
3. Eating: Remember the whole baby-led-weaning method that I mentioned I'd try. Well, at 5.5 months, I succumbed to my parents' incessant nagging about how I'm starving my baby on an exclusive breastmilk diet and I started feeding baby purees to Saya. (Then again, Phuong's wedding was dangerously cose. My mother wanted to keep my relatives from finding out about my out-of-wedlock conception. As Phuong's bridesmaid, it was next to impossible to do that when Saya would not take the bottle. To make a long story short, they replaced me at the last minute. But my parents eventually let the cat out of the bag when they realized that it's still next to impossible to keep Saya a secret from the family. I was hoping that my unanticipated early introduction of solids to Saya would make it easier for her to go wihtout me that day. ) Saya loves eating. She is a picky eater, however. As of now, she refuses to eat any of the infant cereals. She can't stand smooth baby purees (good thing for me!). Even though the poor thing has no teeth yet, she loves highly textured foods. It makes my heart melt when Saya smiles at me while she's chewing on some crushed green grapes or soft pumpkin cubes.
4. Introducing the bottle: The irony of this all is that I couldn't get Saya to nurse initially and now that she's nursing, I can't get her to take the bottle at all. As a matter of fact, Saya took the bottle a few times a week up until the third month. Now, she'll play around with the bottle when she's not hungry. But when she gets down to business, nothing else but nursing will do for her. She throws huge fits when she doesn't get to nurse and it discourages me even more to get her to take the bottle because I don't know who will put up with that type of behavior.
I've tried various methods for REintroducing the bottle: getting someone to give it to her when I'm not around, having myself give it to her, giving it to her when she's not too hungry, giving it to her when she's really hungry, trying different bottles, trying different feeding positions, trying different feeding methods (I just need her to take the milk after all!)
To add insult to injury, my mother constantly blames me for Saya's unwillingness to take the bottle. "You should have given her the bottle earlier...you should just wean her..etc.." It also irks me to death when people respond to my situation with "well it's because you spoil her." (But then again, that's a nuance of being a parent isn't it. People always find a way to critique your parenting style even though they don't fully understand your situation)
Honestly, I've reached a point where I just think "fuck it." Forget about trying to go back to work. It's not financially worth it for me anyway. What's spending precious moments with my daughter in the first years of her life compared to a low paying entry position in the world of scientific research/public health/health care? With the way our economy is heading, my job options are practically next to none out there.
5. Personality: We've already had it figured in the first month when Saya screamed at the top of her lungs in her nursing strike. She's a mean baby. Today, Saya threw a fit everytime Chara (Hak's older sis) stopped clapping her hands. But when Um-Yaya resumed, Saya laughed with joy. She can be a calm baby, given that she gets what she wants. Otherwise, Saya whines a lot. She loves pinching my breast when I'm nursing her. I try to discourage it by giving her a blanket or holding her hand. But it seems like pinching my skin produces the most calming effect on her or something. I feel like I'm a part-time masochist or something because there are times when I enjoy her pinching my breast, as weird as that sounds.
Well, there goes my update on Saya. I'm terrible at this stuff. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to update more often from now on.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Good eats in the D. household
So I was getting ready to eat my mom's pho today (which I might add, although was prepared half-assed, still tasted pretty delicious) and guess what I discovered: we ran out of Sriracha. I searched everywhere in my mom's house: her two fridges, her seemingly never ending overstocked pantry (scattered throughoutthe house, which is a mess!), and the dining tables. In the last 20 years of my life (for as long as I can remember), we have never run out of Sriracha before. In fact, I don't think a single American-Vietnamese household ever runs out of Sriracha. Even Hak's house (my crib actually), which is a Cambodian household, has 2-3 bottles of Sriracha in the pantry.
For those unfamiliar with Sriracha, it's an Asian brand of hot sauce with a consistency similar to that of ketchup. It's predominantly used as a condiment along with hoison sauce for pho, the Vietnamese equivalent of chicken noodle soup (aka all time favorite). Go to the link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha. I, however, prefer not to use the sauces in my noodle soup but rather use them as dipping sauces for my meats. Most people do both, but I think putting the sauces in your bowl underscores how complex and delicious the pho broth is alone. I used to put Sriracha and hoison sauce into my broth. It made the broth so intensely flavored (but not in a good way) that I could seldom ate the broth when all the "solids" were gone. Whenever that happened, my mother would ask me why I didn't "finish eating the broth." I never really understood why she asked this question until I started separating the sauces from the broth. Now, by using the sauces as dips for my meats, I get a burst of spicy and sweet from the sauces, but then I "water" it down with the warm broth with its hints of star anise and (maybe) cinnamon (which you can't really taste if you mix your broth with the sauces). Actually, I learned to do this from a Japanese-born friend whom I invited over my mother's house for dinner. She took one sip of the pho broth and claimed that it was so delicious she didn't want to put anything else in it to ruin the flavors. Now, I sip every bit of the pho broth. I showed Hak, my little sister, and my friends this way of eating too and we've all become pho-addicts since we converted.
Wow, talk about going off on a tangent. This is why I never really did well in English. Anyway, going back to the Sriracha. What can I say? I just love that sauce. It tastes great on stirfry. Combined with mayonnaise, it makes an awesome dip for shrimp cocktail or steamed vegetables. They use this combination on sushi too (spicy tuna maki anyone). Oh yes, and unlike Hoison sauce, you MUST absolutely refrigerate Sriracha. You want to eat a bright red Sriracha, not a dark pungent smelling and degraded-spicy Sriracha that has been left out on the dining table too long.
Going back to my predicament, I tried to use Sambal Oelek (another type/brand of hot sauce) for my pho, but it wasn't the same. I love Sambal and all, but it's not as spicy and dynamic as Sriracha to contrast the flavors of the Hoison sauce. It kind of just blends in with the Hoison sauce. I'm not used to that I guess. I'm a stickler with my food. Must tell the mum to buy more Sriracha for her pantry to avoid another meltdown.
For those unfamiliar with Sriracha, it's an Asian brand of hot sauce with a consistency similar to that of ketchup. It's predominantly used as a condiment along with hoison sauce for pho, the Vietnamese equivalent of chicken noodle soup (aka all time favorite). Go to the link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha. I, however, prefer not to use the sauces in my noodle soup but rather use them as dipping sauces for my meats. Most people do both, but I think putting the sauces in your bowl underscores how complex and delicious the pho broth is alone. I used to put Sriracha and hoison sauce into my broth. It made the broth so intensely flavored (but not in a good way) that I could seldom ate the broth when all the "solids" were gone. Whenever that happened, my mother would ask me why I didn't "finish eating the broth." I never really understood why she asked this question until I started separating the sauces from the broth. Now, by using the sauces as dips for my meats, I get a burst of spicy and sweet from the sauces, but then I "water" it down with the warm broth with its hints of star anise and (maybe) cinnamon (which you can't really taste if you mix your broth with the sauces). Actually, I learned to do this from a Japanese-born friend whom I invited over my mother's house for dinner. She took one sip of the pho broth and claimed that it was so delicious she didn't want to put anything else in it to ruin the flavors. Now, I sip every bit of the pho broth. I showed Hak, my little sister, and my friends this way of eating too and we've all become pho-addicts since we converted.
Wow, talk about going off on a tangent. This is why I never really did well in English. Anyway, going back to the Sriracha. What can I say? I just love that sauce. It tastes great on stirfry. Combined with mayonnaise, it makes an awesome dip for shrimp cocktail or steamed vegetables. They use this combination on sushi too (spicy tuna maki anyone). Oh yes, and unlike Hoison sauce, you MUST absolutely refrigerate Sriracha. You want to eat a bright red Sriracha, not a dark pungent smelling and degraded-spicy Sriracha that has been left out on the dining table too long.
Going back to my predicament, I tried to use Sambal Oelek (another type/brand of hot sauce) for my pho, but it wasn't the same. I love Sambal and all, but it's not as spicy and dynamic as Sriracha to contrast the flavors of the Hoison sauce. It kind of just blends in with the Hoison sauce. I'm not used to that I guess. I'm a stickler with my food. Must tell the mum to buy more Sriracha for her pantry to avoid another meltdown.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Upright Baby
Saya has no interest in rolling or crawling....yet. However, she is uber excited about being able to sit upright. She can't do it on her own yet, but given a little nudge, the poor thing can sit upright for a long time. My little onigiri has started to become quite the comedian lately too. Just the other day, she attacked Hak's tummy with her mouth. When he pretended to laugh, she would giggle and do it repeatedly until she got bored.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Tasty Little Toes
Saya discovered the taste of her toe today! Lately, she loves to hold onto her feet with her tiny hands.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
First words already?
Saya has become quite a babbler. I never noticed how much she babbles until about two days ago when she babbled "mum, mum, mum" and "ba, ba, ba" (Ba meaning "father" in Vietnamese) everytime she wanted something. I'm beginning to think that she has associated "mum" with me, in other words, food! Shame on me, I don't even know when she started to babble. I know it's just her babbling, but when does the "mum" and "ba" become a first word then? When she learns to associate the word with an object? Oh wells...
On another note, Saya seems to be more interested in solids. She constantly stares at us when we eat (sometimes her eyes even follow my spoon as it moves from the plate to my mouth) and puckers her lips like she wants some too. I think it's really cute. I bought her a sippy cup and filled it with water so that she can experiment with something else other than my breasts! She loves the sippy cup. She won't drink milk from it, but she adores playing with it and drinking water from it. (Of course, I give her very little water for fear of water intoxication). I think Saya is ready for solids (evident the other day when she beamed with joy after my sister sister gave Saya a taste of Ben's food), but I'm debating on whether I should start this early. I'm looking into trying the baby-led-weaning method, but don't know how much easier it is compared to mainstream solid feeding. I'll look into the topic a little more.
By the way, Saya turns 5 months in eight more days. She still doesn't know how to turn over yet. In fact, she doesn't seem interested in turning over at all. I encourage her by putting toys and bright colored objects to the side and giving her a little nudge to turn over, but she just rolls on her back and hold her feet with her two hands. The other day, during a family bbq, one of my very good friends, Mylan, (after having watched Saya) excitingly mentioned to me that Saya knew how to roll over. I thought, darn it, I wasn't there to record it! But then I learned that Saya only knew how to roll on her back from her tummy, which she learned in the early days of being able to hold her head up during tummy time. So it wasn't anything surprising like the way Mylan portrayed it to be. But now that I think about it, am I not paying as much attention as I should be? I guess this whole parenting thing has made me more absent minded. (Hence, why I need to keep a journal to remind myself of those more sane-minded days.)
On another note, Saya seems to be more interested in solids. She constantly stares at us when we eat (sometimes her eyes even follow my spoon as it moves from the plate to my mouth) and puckers her lips like she wants some too. I think it's really cute. I bought her a sippy cup and filled it with water so that she can experiment with something else other than my breasts! She loves the sippy cup. She won't drink milk from it, but she adores playing with it and drinking water from it. (Of course, I give her very little water for fear of water intoxication). I think Saya is ready for solids (evident the other day when she beamed with joy after my sister sister gave Saya a taste of Ben's food), but I'm debating on whether I should start this early. I'm looking into trying the baby-led-weaning method, but don't know how much easier it is compared to mainstream solid feeding. I'll look into the topic a little more.
By the way, Saya turns 5 months in eight more days. She still doesn't know how to turn over yet. In fact, she doesn't seem interested in turning over at all. I encourage her by putting toys and bright colored objects to the side and giving her a little nudge to turn over, but she just rolls on her back and hold her feet with her two hands. The other day, during a family bbq, one of my very good friends, Mylan, (after having watched Saya) excitingly mentioned to me that Saya knew how to roll over. I thought, darn it, I wasn't there to record it! But then I learned that Saya only knew how to roll on her back from her tummy, which she learned in the early days of being able to hold her head up during tummy time. So it wasn't anything surprising like the way Mylan portrayed it to be. But now that I think about it, am I not paying as much attention as I should be? I guess this whole parenting thing has made me more absent minded. (Hence, why I need to keep a journal to remind myself of those more sane-minded days.)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Why I started this blog.
When my daughter, Saya, was born a little less than five months ago, I told myself that I would keep a journal detailing all the milestones she goes through. How optimistic I was at that time because ever since Saya has been born, I have found very little time to do anything at all. It's the hardest blow that a new parent can get. It doesn't quite hit you yet until you realize how sleep deprived or exhausted you are from tending to the baby 24 hours a day. But slowly, you learn to make time. You readjust your priorities (including your work, your meals, and sadly, sometimes your hygiene) and pretty soon, you have assimilated the baby into your life. Who am I talking to anyways? I'm just darn glad I actually make time to talk about her now (even though I haven't yet.
I brought Saya to the Taste of Chicago two weeks ago. She refuses to take the bottle and I refuse to be cooped up in my apartment, so I bring her everywhere with me. Man, when they tell you that breastfeeding increases bonding between mother and baby, they weren't kidding! Sure, a mother can bond with her baby in many ways: reading to the baby, singing to the baby, bathing and diapering the baby, rocking the baby. But when you breastfeed your baby, it's more obligatory BINDING (especially when your baby refuses the bottle, and most babies do!). I can't spend more than three hours away from Saya. When I'm away, she will cry and fuss before she takes the bottle. And when she takes the bottle, she will drink only enough to stave off hunger until I come home to feed her.
I know it sounds daunting. (I have a knack for making things sound terrible for myself). But really, breastfeeding is one of the best parenting decisions I've made so far. Aside from the copious health benefits that breastfeeding provides for Saya and me, it's helped me understand the significance of mothering, which I thought I understood when I was pregnant. I love my daughter to death. I miss her when I'm away from her. I even miss her when I get an scarce 3-4 hours to myself during her naps. I bring her everywhere with me. With that, she learns what my world is like as well.
I brought Saya to the Taste of Chicago two weeks ago. She refuses to take the bottle and I refuse to be cooped up in my apartment, so I bring her everywhere with me. Man, when they tell you that breastfeeding increases bonding between mother and baby, they weren't kidding! Sure, a mother can bond with her baby in many ways: reading to the baby, singing to the baby, bathing and diapering the baby, rocking the baby. But when you breastfeed your baby, it's more obligatory BINDING (especially when your baby refuses the bottle, and most babies do!). I can't spend more than three hours away from Saya. When I'm away, she will cry and fuss before she takes the bottle. And when she takes the bottle, she will drink only enough to stave off hunger until I come home to feed her.
I know it sounds daunting. (I have a knack for making things sound terrible for myself). But really, breastfeeding is one of the best parenting decisions I've made so far. Aside from the copious health benefits that breastfeeding provides for Saya and me, it's helped me understand the significance of mothering, which I thought I understood when I was pregnant. I love my daughter to death. I miss her when I'm away from her. I even miss her when I get an scarce 3-4 hours to myself during her naps. I bring her everywhere with me. With that, she learns what my world is like as well.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
A Rainy Day
The past few days has been hella hot. It rained a lot last night, so today is a lot cooler: a breezy 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Saya has been sleeping for the past three hours, which is a rarity with her these days. Usually, Saya will sleep from 10pm-10am and take 20-30 minute naps throughout the day when she nurses. But she rarely gives me a few hours to myself because she's awake the entire time. Come to think of it, I'm beginning to miss her already.
Postpartum Attempt Turned Paranoia
Word of advice: Please closely examine everything you put into the microwave.
The funny thing is, I know better than to microwave aluminum foil, but I didn't realize that athletic shoe laces could be equally scary. You're probably wondering what the heck I was doing microwaving athletic shoe laces to begin with. To make a long story short, it's been 4 months since Saya has been born, and I still can't seem to get rid of the big flab on my tummy that makes me look like I'm still 5 months pregnant. After a serious of minor lifestyle and dietary changes with no significant results, I googled in "breastfeeding losing weight" and discovered a blogger who reported that microwaving a cloth filled with rock salt and placing it on her belly helped tone down the belly. My mother had prepared a similar device like this for me and had been nagging me (from day 1 postpartum) to use the method to make my tummy smaller. Even though I've tried this three times before, I felt motivated to try the method again, so I microwaved the bag Mom gave me.
My dumbass, however, was too hasty to microwave that bag that i forgot to realize the string tying the bag together was really a shoe lace. Apparently, the plastic that coated the ends didn't fare too well. When I opened the microwave door, an extremely noxious smell permeated the air. My eyes and tongue burnt from the smoke. I thought it was temporary, so I jammed the bag into another cloth bag to contain the smell and aired this contraption by a window in the apartment. Next thing I knew, the whole place smelled terrible. I was so embarrased because db's (darling boyfriend) parents woke up to the smell. I guess my sense of smell is terrible because his dad couldn't stand the smell and started investigating the source.
Thank god for that because I then realized how hazardous the bag can be. I threw the whole thing out the window because I couldn't bare to walk with it down 3 flights of stairs. When I looked down, I could see some red lights flickering from the bag. I suddenly grabbed a bottle of water, raced down the stairs, and put out the fire starter (forgot what that's called).
Did I just dodge a bullet there??! Should I tell db (who happened to be out with his friends) that I nearly burnt down our building? (Unfortunately, we don't have both a fire alarm and carbon monoxide detector, which I told db to ask the landlord about). I've tried to air out the apartment, but then I started to worry about whether I could go blind or lose my sense of taste due to the burnt plastic (or put db's family and Saya at risk). The Poison Control Center representative reassured me that airing out the apartment would suffice, but I have such a terrible headache (and taste that I can't get rid of) from this fiasco that I can't sleep. I went online to research this and found an interesting article entitled "Burning plastics could alter human sexual behaviour" in babies (link:http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2006/04/08/63819.html). Mind you, this is not a reputable scientific source (can't even imagine how they came up with the idea to study this topic). It just disturbs me that my baby could have such significant effects from inhaling the fumes (if she did at all, hopefully not). Now I'm paranoid and restless.
The funny thing is, I know better than to microwave aluminum foil, but I didn't realize that athletic shoe laces could be equally scary. You're probably wondering what the heck I was doing microwaving athletic shoe laces to begin with. To make a long story short, it's been 4 months since Saya has been born, and I still can't seem to get rid of the big flab on my tummy that makes me look like I'm still 5 months pregnant. After a serious of minor lifestyle and dietary changes with no significant results, I googled in "breastfeeding losing weight" and discovered a blogger who reported that microwaving a cloth filled with rock salt and placing it on her belly helped tone down the belly. My mother had prepared a similar device like this for me and had been nagging me (from day 1 postpartum) to use the method to make my tummy smaller. Even though I've tried this three times before, I felt motivated to try the method again, so I microwaved the bag Mom gave me.
My dumbass, however, was too hasty to microwave that bag that i forgot to realize the string tying the bag together was really a shoe lace. Apparently, the plastic that coated the ends didn't fare too well. When I opened the microwave door, an extremely noxious smell permeated the air. My eyes and tongue burnt from the smoke. I thought it was temporary, so I jammed the bag into another cloth bag to contain the smell and aired this contraption by a window in the apartment. Next thing I knew, the whole place smelled terrible. I was so embarrased because db's (darling boyfriend) parents woke up to the smell. I guess my sense of smell is terrible because his dad couldn't stand the smell and started investigating the source.
Thank god for that because I then realized how hazardous the bag can be. I threw the whole thing out the window because I couldn't bare to walk with it down 3 flights of stairs. When I looked down, I could see some red lights flickering from the bag. I suddenly grabbed a bottle of water, raced down the stairs, and put out the fire starter (forgot what that's called).
Did I just dodge a bullet there??! Should I tell db (who happened to be out with his friends) that I nearly burnt down our building? (Unfortunately, we don't have both a fire alarm and carbon monoxide detector, which I told db to ask the landlord about). I've tried to air out the apartment, but then I started to worry about whether I could go blind or lose my sense of taste due to the burnt plastic (or put db's family and Saya at risk). The Poison Control Center representative reassured me that airing out the apartment would suffice, but I have such a terrible headache (and taste that I can't get rid of) from this fiasco that I can't sleep. I went online to research this and found an interesting article entitled "Burning plastics could alter human sexual behaviour" in babies (link:http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2006/04/08/63819.html). Mind you, this is not a reputable scientific source (can't even imagine how they came up with the idea to study this topic). It just disturbs me that my baby could have such significant effects from inhaling the fumes (if she did at all, hopefully not). Now I'm paranoid and restless.
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