10 Weeks Old!

Its amazing how time flies...Marc is already 10 weeks old! He's become very talkative of late, talking to us, to strangers, to the air, to anything in general. I went out to lunch with my colleagues today and the Husband babysat him for a while. When I came home, he was extremely chatty, almost as if he had so much to tell me about his 2 hours with daddy. He is now 5.5kg. According to the Paed, he was below average weight when born. He's now slightly above average, which means his weight gain is rapid. The poor guy has a serious reflux problem though. He has to take Zantac, which cuts down the acid production in the stomach and reduces the pain in his throat when he regurgitates. He hates the medicine, so the only way to fool him is to syringe it really quickly into his mouth and stick the bottle in before he has time to scream. I've also started to freeze some breast milk in preparation of my return to work. In the bid to increase milk supply, I took fenugreek 2 days in a row. This resulted in a serious case of mastitis - infection of the milk duct. It was horrible - pain, lethargy and fever. And it had to happen on a Sunday that the Husband had MBA class. But the Lord certainly knows our need - just the night before, a sister from Church rang to offer to babysit Marc in Church so that I could listen to the message. After his 5am feed on Sunday morning, fever struck. I was pretty zonked out at Church but managed to listen to most of the message thanks to this sister!

So at the end of the day, a lack of milk is no good. Too much milk is no good either. Conclusion - be content with what you have! The Husband has been asking me to consider stopping breastfeeding to make life easier for myself and to avoid having to pump at regular intervals at work. I'm still going to persist...

We will be going on a family holiday to Malaysia, partly to visit the Husband's grandparents and partly to attend a friend's wedding. We're praying Marc will enjoy the car ride there and not scream his head off the entire way!

Marc's getting very strong too. Bathing is difficult - he loves his baths so he kicks up a storm. A slippery, strong, wet 5.5kg baby is not easy to handle. I keep telling the Husband something bad is going to happen. And it happened today. Marc got particularly excited and whilst trying to wash his groin area with one hand and supporting him with the other, he went under completely for one second. I scooped him up really quickly and he sat there stunned for 30 seconds. Then it finally registered and he screamed his lungs out! The good side is that his face was really clean after that! No need to use cotton wool to cleanse! We've been trying to find bath solutions and wanted to purchase a bath cum changing table. But a friend with a bigger and older baby told us it won't take the weight after a while - they are considering bathing the baby with a tub on the floor - which is currently what we're doing now!

Marc the Lady Killer

We brought Marc to see a renown lactation consultant, Mrs Wong Boh Boi last Tuesday. We attended her prenatal class and enjoyed it lots. She works at Thomson Medical Centre ("TMC") and is well known in Singapore for her baby-handling skills and knowledge. The Parentcraft centre at TMC is amazing - they have well-trained staff to help you with breastfeeding, all manner of breast pumps, classes on baby massage and care, etc. We arrived at 9am in the morning and after a short wait, I was ushered into a room and fed warm milo. The staff helped me to breastfeed Marc and noted that his latch was good, but his problem was that after the initial few minutes, he starts to nibble and ocassionally fall asleep at the breast. This was why he was taking an hour to feed and still ended up hungry. They also have a super duper machine that weighs the baby before a feed and after, so that they can determine how much the baby has drunk. After an hour of intense feeding, latching and un-latching him and breast compressions, he had only drunk 70ml! No wonder he was still hungry, he is full normally with 150ml!

We were told to leave Marc behind, go out and relax and have a nice lunch and return at 1.30pm to breastfeed him again. This is to determine that milk supply wasn't the problem. We were THRILLED! An afternoon without Marc was heaven-sent. We love the kid and all, but it can get very tiring facing a crying baby all day at home. Needless to say - we had Japanese food for lunch and I was so happy, my milk supply was SUPER abundant that day!

After returning to Parentcraft we found Marc quietly swaddled and lying in a cot with Mrs Wong by his side chatting to him. The consultants said he had a lot of wind in his tummy and passed it all out after they applied tummy massage on him. Mrs Wong also commented that he didn't cry much and was good all morning - we were surprised! She mentioned that Marc likes older women and was checking out all the women coming in and out of the centre - he was not interested in the infant girls at all!

That marked the start of his new career as the lady killer. We brought him to a birthday party last week and he woke up from his nap, hungry for milk (or so I thought). Normal scenario at home: Scream and yell at top of his lungs for milk. Scenario at the party: All smiles and giggles at the aunties! We were shocked needless to say. This boy is an Aunty killer! All the girls gathered round him and commented how handsome he was....the Husband and I are thinking...oh no, he likes women more than food! And we thought he was obsessed enough about food, now this....this is going to be lots of trouble when he grows up!

Two landmark things from the past week.
Sunday Nov 4th - Marc's first service to the Lord - appearing on stage in Church with a bunch of young adults from ACTS to promote Family Day!

Monday Nov 5th - My first time out with Marc ALONE - pushed him out in the stroller for a walk to Holland Village. He was thrilled, but thankfully I had the sense to turn back after 25 minutes because he spent the last 5 minutes screaming at the top of his voice, inviting lots of stares from passers-by. I can attest that every first time parent's greatest fear is - CRYING. The crying is unnerving at first, then you get used to it when he cries at home. Crying in public is a totally different matter. The fear is crippling! You get people staring at you like you're some crazy parent letting your baby cry in the stroller. They have no idea that its perfectly normal for babies to cry and that they don't have to be picked up the minute they cry - a few minutes is good exercise for the lungs! But no...many well meaning strangers actually come up to you, open the hood over the stroller, touch the baby and start telling you what's wrong with him and why he's crying (and they ALWAYS say he's hungry). This has happenned to us COUNTLESS times (and Marc's not even that old) and its always someone from the older generation who does that. I don't understand why - first of all, we don't know you! Secondly - please mind your own business. Thirdly - talking and smiling at a stranger's baby is perfectly fine, but TOUCHING without asking is way out of line...This strange phenomena happens everywhere we go and sometimes we cover the stroller hood as a hint for the person to "please go away" but they still don't get it! Friends from overseas - please tell me if this has happenned to you or if this is a Singapore phenomena!

A good friend commented that its been a week since Mum and Dad have left and I was still sounding cheerful. I hadn't realised its been a week already! Yes, the fatigue is a constant companion but we're getting the hang of things and becoming more familiar with taking care of him. Each day has been full of little mercies from God and we can see His hand at work with each step we take. Time flies - Marc is exactly 8 weeks old today!

Thanks Mum

Upon reflection, I've realised how misinformed I was about motherhood before I became a mother. I know that I've always wanted to have kids and be a mother, but I really had to idea what it entailed. I now have a deeper and greater understanding of a mother's heart and this has made me appreciate my Mum a lot more.

The past few weeks has really taught me a lot about myself. I'm a real control freak and even when things are beyond your control at work, its always manageable. Handling a baby really teaches you about helplesness. The kind of helplesness that drives you to your wits end and you have no choice but to say "help me Lord" - and really mean it! This has really humbled me and taught me the true meaning of dependence. I've never really had to depend on God till now and its truly a day by day dependence for everything. I'm in constant conversation with God, although most times the conversation sounds like "please make him sleep Lord!" or "please help him burp Lord"! I'm the sort of person that wants answers - but I've learnt that sometimes, there is no answer and perhaps God doesn't want me to have the answer - at least not just yet! This is tough for a control freak, but perhaps there's no other way for me to learn these lessons unless I become a mother!

After Aunty Mei Lan left, Mum and Dad came to stay with us. Chores were split up between everyone in the house. Dad was in charge of sterilising all the bottles and feeding equipment, laundry, general hygiene and all the other "hardware" sort of things around the house. Doesn't sound like much but I guarantee you that its kept him busy enough! There's lots of laundry for a baby even if we don't use cloth nappies. Mum did everything else - the cooking, the marketing, helping me to bottle feed Marc when I'm too pooped, bathe him when I'm totally exhausted, pat him to sleep, change his diapers, etc. Handling a baby day in and day out can wear anyone's patience thin and if not for Mum, I think Marc would have been left at the local orphanage by now! She has tirelessly volunteered to help and even wakes up at night when he cries for his feeds. Thankfully, I've never made her feed him at night as yet!

Mum is a very ambitious, assertive and business-savvy type of woman. I knew she took care of me but I didn't really know what that meant till now. She never gives up on Marc, even when he's really cranky and cried for the 200th time that day. She's always willing to help and patiently plays with him and entertains him. The best part is that she's really easygoing and doesn't insist that we handle Marc in HER way, but allows us to make our own decisions as parents. I'm thankful for the many mornings that she's taken over feeding and burping Marc when I'm too tired from countless night feeds.

Both Mum and Dad return to the US on Monday and we will miss them lots!! Thanks Mum for all that you've done for me, a lot of which I haven't really understood till now. And thanks for all the help you've rendered to us in the past few weeks. Thanks for being so encouraging and telling me that I can do it as long as I've set my mind to it, which means a lot to me during moments of helplesness. Thanks for giving up the chance to eat a proper meal to take care of Marc so that I can have a proper meal. Thanks for patiently "grooming" Marc and painstakingly giving him "facials" to remove his cradle cap. Thanks for babysitting so that we can have some time alone. The fact that you and Dad managed to take care of me in my infant days without any hired help is encouragement enough for me to know that it can be done! I will miss not just the help around the house but having an adult around the house to share a decent conversation with during the day! Now we're on our own and another chapter of lessons await us in the months ahead.

Marc is growing fast and learning new things each day. He's able to army-crawl on his belly, which is amazing for a 6 week old. His arms and legs are really strong and he can flip out of your hands if your grip is not firm enough. I've dropped him several times, which didn't result in him actually hitting the ground but being suspended in mid air with whatever part of his body I still have left in my hands! His reflexes are fast and his ears are sharp, so much so that he startles at the slightest sound. He's recently started trying to converse with us and smiles lots - as long as he's full! He's still got an appetite of a monster and feels heavier each day - partly due to weight gain and partly due to arm fatigue! We're slowly getting the hang of parenthood - there's so much to learn, not just for Marc but for us!

An Unwell Baby - the next greatest challenge

Whoever said that maternity leave is a 3 month holiday is obviously a man with no kids. No mother who takes care of her kids herself would ever agree with that statement.

Baby Marc is generally good natured and easygoing...I started him on a routine recommended by Gina Ford, author of the "New Contended Baby Book". http://www.contentedbaby.com/
It advocates putting babies into a routine so that there are set sleep, feed and playtimes. I was amazed that Marc actually woke and fed naturally in accordance with the recommended times, and managed to sleep for a 4 hour stretch at night. That was until Sunday.

He got over tired and didn't manage to nap during his afternoon nap which meant that he got super cranky in the evening. This resulted in lots of crying, which may or may not have led to lots of wind in the tummy. He was inconsolable from Sunday till today and between Mum, Dad, the Husband and me, we've been taking turns to console him and put him to sleep. We've also been using colic drops to ease his discomfort. Its heart wrenching to see your baby in obvious pain and screaming his head off, with nothing much you can do to calm him.

Still we are positive and praying that he will recover soon. Apparently they outgrow this phase when their digestive system is more mature.

Since the confinement nanny left, my free time is now a luxury. My days are a blur of feeds, small snatches of times for meals, going to the loo and showering when someone else is tending to him. Still, its important to see the positive side of things. Motherhood trains you to be patient, humble and totally dependent on God. For those husbands out there reading this - your support is absolutely essential to your wife's sanity. Don't think that looking after the baby is "her job" - its a 24 hour job with no lunch breaks, no smoke breaks and no job scope! You must offer to help so that she can take a nap or even pee during the day.

Here are some gift ideas for those of you thinking of buying your friend who is a new Mum something (disclaimer - only applies of the Mum is looking after baby herself, otherwise some items will be redundant).

1) A Waterproof Apron - very useful for baths. Baby normally pees on Mummy just before or just after entering his bath. This will save Mummy less of a laundry hassle.

2) A Massager that can be operated single handedly and without the help of another human being - sore necks and backs are a norm for mum's, whether breastfeeding or not. Imagine holding baby, 6-8 times a day for 30minutes at a stretch, with neck craned downwards towards baby while he feeds. This is a SUPER gift. Don't bother getting a spa voucher, she wouldn't have time to go out anyway.

3) A Breastfeeding pillow - a MUST for breastfeeding mums.

4) A voucher for Nursing clothes - a MUST for breastfeeding mums so that she can feed baby easily in public

5) An IPOD - I discovered its use recently. Good gift for breastfeeding Mums as listening to music whilst looking at babies pictures encourages letdown when expressing milk. To read more about letdown, go to:
http://www.babyworld.co.uk/information/baby/breastfeeding/breastfeeding_early_days.asp#Let-down

The day Aunty Mei Lan went home was a sad day for me. I had a short spell of feeling very depressed cos she has been such a great help. I think she grew attached to Marc as well and gave him an angpow before she left. I admit there was a twinge of envy as I thought to myself - she gets to sleep for 8 hours tonight. But that was quickly replaced with the depression again. My first concern was - what do I do with night feeds? I have been expressing breast milk at 3 hour intervals at night and leaving them in the fridge for her to bottle feed Marc so that I can get some rest. How does waking up at 3 hour intervals equate to more rest you say? Well, feeding time is usually an hour - by the time he's finished drinking and burping. Expressing milk can be as fast as 15 minutes - that's a whole 45 minutes more sleep, which equates to A LOT!

That's when I decided - Marc really needs a routine because I can't be waking up to feed him based on a demand feeding schedule. That's 1 hour feeding time plus additional time to express milk - I might as well not sleep at night! The other great push factor for getting him into a routine is our ability continue to have a life! I can't see how being held hostage by his feeding demands as something healthy, especially if we want to be able to continue serving in Church and for me to go back to work after maternity leave. Plus we never really know what's wrong when he cries, is he hungry, is he tired, is he unwell? With a routine, its easy to tell because you know exactly how much sleep he needs and whether he's had enough and how much milk he needs and whether he's still hungry. It also means we can actually tell people when is a good time to drop by for a visit, or when we can come out to meet them for a meal, etc.

I may not be able to update my blog so regularly now that the confinement nanny has gone home...but I will still try so stay tuned for more updates!

Motherhood 101

Nothing you read or hear ever prepares you for motherhood, so I'm going to come up with my own Motherhood 101, in the hope that it will help first time Mums out there. These are the things they never told you in prenatal class and the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting." Now that I'm hitting the one month mark, I kind of feel qualified to give advice on motherhood!! This is what I've learnt in the past 4 weeks.

1) When they say you will be tired in the first few weeks, they mean you will be so tired, you will hit the tired barrier, after which you will be running on adrenaline and sheer willpower alone. The tiredness never goes away, you just get used to it.

2) You will get some form of the blues so make sure your partner is prepared for it. Recognise it for what it is, have a good cry, speak up about how you feel and realise that it will get better.

3) EVERYONE has an opinion and view on how baby should be taken care of and they are absolutely certain that their view is the only right view. Be prepared for it and don't let it affect you. It will usually make your blues worse if you take it to heart. Learn how to discern and sift through all advice wisely.

4) When you walk on the street with your baby, many strange aunties will come up to you and tell you that you are either carrying your baby the wrong way or not dressing him up with sufficient clothes, even in the 34degree Singapore heat.

5) You are not a bad mother, just a new one. (Courtesy of the Husband who has given me tons of assurance)

6) Don't feel bad about outsourcing - if there are people willing to care for your baby so that you can take a break, accept it!

7) The best way to increase your milk supply is to do something you like and stop focusing on the supply. For me, it involved getting out of the house with the Husband and leaving baby with the confinement nanny for a few hours.

8) The malay jamu wraps really work! Get a good and skilled therapist, the full body massage helps ease those aches and pains from 2 hourly breastfeeding sessions and from constantly straining your next to look downwards at your baby.

9) Babies cry all the time, don't freak out.

10) Talk to your friends to vent and don't be afraid to ask for help and advice from other Mums. It helped keep me sane.

Breastfeeding - the greatest challenge

I am one of those people who was bent on exclusive breastfeeding for my baby before he was born. I read up a lot, spoke to many breastfeeding mums and psychoed myself into being a milk machine. When Marc was born, I breastfed him in the labour ward, even though a second dose of the anasthetic was given to me through my epidural and I felt like throwing up, along with getting the shivers cos the silly nurse overdosed me. Marc is a good sucker - to put it crudely - he latched on pretty quickly and had no problems sucking.

I told the nurses in the hospital that I wanted to breastfeed, so during my 2 night stay in the hospital, baby Marc was wheeled into the room in his plastic tub every 3 hours for a feed. I read that at that stage, I don't actually have any milk, but the body produces colostrum, which is high in antibodies and nutrients needed by the baby. These regular feeds are necessary to stimulate milk production, but it also meant that I got zero sleep, coupled with the flood of visitors during the daytime.

By the time I arrived home, I was already running on adrenaline - the sheer exhaustion is indescribable. The closest thing to it was when I didn't sleep in a 48 hour period during my Year 12 Maths Method project. Even that is peanuts compared to the early days of breastfeeding.

When we arrived home, Marc just wouldn't settle - I would let him suck till my nipples started blistering, then bleeding. All my pro-breastfeeding friends told me this was normal and to just bear with the pain till my nipples toughened up. The Husband was getting worried as he remembered pictures from our antenatal class where an overzealous mum let her baby suck for so long that she got such sore nipples that were infected and she could no longer breastfeed. Still I persisted.

On the first night back Marc's lips started to peel and he just wouldn't sleep at all. We were getting worried and he wouldn't stop crying - a good friend who's a second time Mum and successful breastfeeder told me to just supplement him with a little formula milk. The key is to get him to suck so that milk production is stimulated, but to stop after 15 minutes on each breast and just top up with a little formula. That did the trick and he finally slept.

Still I persisted and told the confinement nanny to bring him to me at nights whenever he cries. She told me outright that I would be totally exhausted by the second week but I insisted and said that I need to do this in order for my milk supply to come in.

And it came in all of a sudden on the Saturday after I came home from hospital in the form of breast engorgement. The pain is terrible - feels like giving birth through your nipples cos the pain is like muscle cramps all over your chest. My entire chest was rock hard and I couldn't even sleep properly! This didn't help things because baby Marc couldn't get any milk out due to the engorgement. I tried massage, cold compress, warm compress, but they helped minimally. This was until my Malay massage lady arrived on Monday morning for my slimming massage and wrap. She massaged my breasts and it was excruciating - but she managed to clear all the lumps and milk started to flow! What a relief! I also learn the proper massage technique which really helped.

Still baby Marc would suck for AGES - sometimes up to an hour and still end up screaming afterwards from hunger, so we would supplement. The first 2 weeks was an emotional roller coaster. I was so bent on breastfeeding, I felt so awful everytime I had to supplement him to stop his screaming. The Husband kept telling me that if I don't get any rest, I won't have enough milk anyway. Supportive friends told me to the same thing, relax, don't worry about the supply and make sure I get enough rest. Others said to stop giving him formula totally otherwise my supply will never catch up.

Herein lies the irony - if I don't supplement, he will scream his head off, which ends ups stressing everyone out, which means getting him to latch on again after 1 hour of sucking, which means he will be sucking continously, which means I won't get any rest, which means my supply will decrease. But if I supplement, he will sleep more and suck less, which means my breasts will not receive sufficient stimulation, which means my supply will also not be enough.

I ended up pumping extra to stimulate milk production so that I would have more milk for him. I took herbal remedies like fenugreek to get more milk, ate fish every meal every day, drank green papaya and fish bone soup and became totally obsessed with my milk supply.

Then I found out that baby Marc was no ordinary baby - at 2 weeks, he was drinking enough milk for a 1 month old! I was actually producing enough milk, for a normal baby his age, but not enough for this little monster! And the strange thing is that he's not a big baby by any standards. I kept thinking that I should still be able to produce enough milk for him so I kept pumping more milk at 2 hour intervals to stimulate production, which also meant less sleep at night. I'm now paying the price of my greediness - I have a miniature version of me!! When he wants his food, he makes it very clear and screams his head off and will give everyone hell until he's satisfied. And he takes his food VERY seriously, when he drinks, he zeroes in on the nipple, gobbles it up like a crocodile and covers his face with both his tiny little hands whilst he sucks voraciously. He even gulps his milk down loudly. Its like a war - he growls and grimaces as he tries to swallow every precious drop and sighs in between when he's tired from sucking. He makes such a racket when he's feeding that everyone can hear this tiny infant at my breast!

He recently went through a growth spurt in Week 3 and everything went haywire again. We weighed him today at the doctor's and he's put on 1kg in less than 3 weeks. We realised he was fussy and upset a lot because he wasn't drinking enough milk, so we topped up with more milk and he's gone back to his 3 hourly cycle again.

The Husband has been very supportive and put up with my obsessive compulsive streak with breastfeeding - he keeps telling me that 1) milk cometh not from the east or from the west but from the Lord and 2) breast milk is better, not best. In fact if I were to stop breastfeeding he would have no qualms after seeing how much I have tried and suffered sleepless nights.

Right now I'm at the stage where I've accepted the fact that I may never have enough milk for Marc and I may have to supplement as he grows, but I've stopped feeling guilty about it. I still get up at 3-4hourly intervals at night to pump but I've also learn to let go, rest as much as I can and not stress about the supply. After trying just about everything, I'm resigned to the fact that if God wants to multiply my milk supply, He will and He can, no matter what I do using my human efforts!

Confinement Nanny - the Sanity Saver

When we found out we were pregnant, we decided to book a confinement nanny. For those of you who live overseas, this is probably a foreign concept. But for us lucky folks living in Asia, we can actually hire a live-in-nanny for a month. Job scope includes caring for baby and mummy, including feeding, bathing, sleeping with baby and cooking for the recuperating mummy. I started asking around for recommendations and had about 5 on my list. When I started calling them in my first trimester of pregnancy, I was horrified to discover that many were already booked! There's a joke among my group of mummy friends that you basically have to book the confinement nanny first THEN try to get pregnant, otherwise the good ones get snapped up at the word "go"! I was quite discouraged but kept asking around.

The paradox is this - most of the confinement nannies come from Malaysia. Looking after an infant 24 hours a day for a month AND cooking for the mother is no easy feat and something that most Singaporeans would shun. Because these confinement nannies are not Singaporean, technically, a work permit is required. However in practice, many of them work on a visitor pass. The standard term of work is 28 days, so to get around the rules, most will work for 14 days, then cross the causeway back into Malaysia and return again for another 14 days. After some deliberation, we decided that we would hire a nanny that is agreeable to a work permit. It costs an additional $200 but we wanted to be on the right side of the law. I also felt it would affect our Christian testimony to the nanny if we were unable to even let her work legally.

We finally found a suitable one from an ex-colleague who fit all the requirements. After a telephone discussion, where I stated very clearly that 1) I am not traditional and intend to bathe everyday and 2) I intend to breastfeed, we had a verbal agreement to book Aunty Mei Lan. She indicated on the phone that she will care for the baby, cook for the Husband and I and clean up the kitchen after cooking. If she has spare time, she'll help out with other chores. I thought this was reasonable.

When Marc arrived early, Aunty Mei Lan had already made plans to spend the weekend with her children who were visiting her from KL. The earliest she could arrive was Saturday the 15th. We agreed, but to our delight, she rang on the day of my discharge to indicate that her children had urged her to come to Singapore early begin her engagement with us as promised. Hence she managed to come on Friday the 14th and rescued us from more sleepless nights (as indicated in my earlier post).

The first thing we realised about Aunty Mei Lan is that she's super hardworking - she has cleaned our home 10 times over, packed up and organised the kitchen, created a system for baby's clothes, sterilisation of bottles, storage of bottles, etc. The Husband was very pleased. Her daily routine involves waking up at around 7-8am every morning, regardless of how little she's slept, having breakfast, thawing food for lunch, putting a round of bottles in the steriliser. Next is to bathe Marc at around 8-9pm after he's had a small feed, then making sure he's full and ready to settle for a nap. Then she's off to empty all the bins in the house, magic-wiping the floors, packing up, preparing lunch, packing the sterilised bottles, etc. She's ready again for his next feed before cooking lunch and washing up ALL the dishes. The only rest time she has is after his afternoon feed where she lies down for a little nap, and steals an hour to watch her Chinese program at 4.30pm - to which she would tend to Marc if he's hungry or fussing in between. She's up cooking dinner again in the evening and washing up, then boiling my red date and longan drink in the slow cooker overnight so I have a supply for the next day. PLUS night feeds - I diligently woke up to breastfeed him every 2-3 hours for the first 2 weeks. Aunty Mei Lan kept telling me that I would tire myself out by the time she leaves and I realised it was affecting my supply, so I've resorted to expressing my milk at night and letting her feed him from the bottle.

After waking up 2-4 times a night, she's up again and the whole routine begins. There have been times when Marc would fuss and we would have no idea what he wanted, thankfully Aunty Mei Lan is here to help. I've been fed with nutritious food, daily bought and delivered by the mother in law. One piece of good advice given by friends is to accept all help given and do not hesitate to ask for help if you need it - I couldn't agree more! I think we would have gone insane if we didn't have Aunty Mei Lan's help. As it is, I feel like a zombie everyday from the lack of sleep, if I didn't have her help, I would be totally delirious!

Now I'm starting to worry - what will I do when she leaves???? We've started to observe how she bathes the baby so that we can learn and will probably do a hands-on session whilst she's still here. I've heard many horror stories about confinement nannies who discourage breastfeeding and believe in lots of hocus pocus and old wives tales - whilst Aunty Mei Lan has her views on my daily hair-washings and drinking of plain water, she will voice them but pretty much leaves me to decide. She consults me on what she intends to cook for the day and on how often and how I want to feed my baby. In this respect, both the Husband and I agree that she's very professional and has a great work attitude. Would definitely recommend her to friends!