Saturday, June 25, 2011

Passport Untuk Baby Khayla

Hari ni, dengan semangat berkobar-kobar kiteorang bangun awal demi melaksanakan a few urgent tasks termasuklah membuat passport untuk si budak kecik. Maklumlah next week mak dia akan outstation ke Pasir Gudang, so dah alang-alang turun ke JB tu teringin la nak bawak Khayla dan nenek Khayla ke Universal Studio di Singapore.

Sebelum keluar rumah, haruslah beri si budak kecik makan bubur dan lepas tu makan ubat memandangkan dia demam. Part makan bubur, dia beriya-iya. Part makan ubat, ye memang sah dia anak aku! :p Kalau dia dapat lari, kompem dah lama dia lari dari bapaknya yang bagi ubat tu. Hehe.

Mula-mula singgah di UM beli buku teks mak dia. Exam dah dekat baru terhegeh-hegeh nak beli buku kan? Huhu... Nak buat camane, buku tu baru sampai minggu ni :( dah tiga kali pegi UM baru dapat membeli buku ni. Setel.

Next barulah kiteorang pegi ke Wangsa Maju untuk membuat passport Khayla. Mula-mula kena buat gambar passport dulu. Mujurlah dia dah boleh duduk tegak walaupun mak dia terpaksa pegang badan dia (Khayla belum pandai duduk sendiri). Oleh sebab dia demam, maka dia takde mood nak senyum. Aku dengan Suami Terchenta boleh tergelak tengok hasil sesi penggambaran dan muka Khayla tu macam nak marah orang! Takutlah mak, sayang! Hehe.

Gambar passport pertama Khayla :)

Adik yang tangkap gambar tu siap tolong isikan borang imigresen unuk kiteorang dan fotostat sijil lahir & IC ayah dia. FYI, kalau nk buat passport bayi kena bawak Mykid, sijil lahir dan dua keping gambar passport. Salah seorang parent kena sign borang tu dan also bawak satu salinan IC on A4 paper.

Gambar dah setel. Next kiteorang amik nombor giliran. Yang bagusnya imigresen ada kaunter khas untuk buat passport bayi dan warga emas. Cuma tadi tak tau la kat mana silapnya, aku asyik monitor nombor giliran tapi takde pulak nombor kami dipanggil dan tup-tup, dah nombor seterusnya appear di skrin. So agak lama gak la kami menunggu...

Si Khayla, as usual la akan dapat perhatian orang sebab pipi dia yang gebu tu kan. Tapi tu la, sebab dia demam so dia takde mood nak melayan orang. There's this family yang sangat teruja melayan Khayla sampai bergilir2 la abang dan akak tu amik gambar dengan Khayla yang buat muka derq je tu. Hahaha! Khayla, Khayla... Bila dah besar sikit biar Mak ajar PR skill ye.

Family ni teruja tengok pipi Khayla yang gebu, Khayla rilek je walaupun kesihatan tak begitu memberangsangkan

So bila dah terlepas nombor giliran kami pun dengan gabranya ke kaunter. Nasib baik dieorang berbaik hati proses borang kami dulu. Pegawai yang proses borang Khayla tu terperasan yang alamat dalam sijil lahir Khayla ialah alamat rumah aku di Sarawak. Dia pun tanya, "Parents dua-dua orang Sarawak ke?" So kiteorang pun cakap yes, both dari sana.

"So you nak passport anak you ada huruf A (for Semenanjung) atau K (for Sarawak)? Sebab ni first time nak buat kan? Kalau nak huruf K tu, kena hantar borang ni next Monday dan kita kena hantar ke Imigresen Sarawak untuk pengesahan dieorang, selalunya amik masa 5 hari la." Dia explained. Aku tengok Suami Terchenta, dia tengok aku balik. Kiteorang berdua confused.

"Tapi dia ni lahir kat sini. Boleh ke dia dapat huruf K tu?" En Suami tanya. Pegawai tu terus panggil kawan dia dan story pasal kiteorang. Rupa-rupanya kawan dia tu orang Sarawak gak. Dia pun explain dalam loghat Melayu Sarawak, "Sebenarnya anak korang boleh dapat K tu sebab korang dua-dua orang sana kan, and bila ada huruf K tu, dia dapat la privilage kerakyatan sana. Better kalau buat passport dia tu, ada huruf K. Cuma kita tak boleh proses hari ni, amik masa sikit sebab nak kena disahkan oleh imigresen Sarawak."

Wah, nampaknya si Khayla tak leh la join kiteorang cuti2 Singapore. Tapi apapun, kiteorang happy gak la sebab kiteorang ingatkan bila lahir di sini, Khayla tak dapat keistimewaan sebagai rakyat tempatan di Sarawak. Rupa-rupanya sangkaan kiteorang ni meleset, which is good jugak la :)

Ahem. So sekarang kiteorang tengah carik siapa leh tolong jaga Khayla di JB sementara mak bapak dia bersiar2 di Singapore. Sis Lin? Kak Linda? :p

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

How to Eat A Watermelon - Khayla's Style

On one hot day, my kay-poh little girl wanted to have a taste of watermelon after watching Mommy & Daddy devoured the cool, watery and yummy red-coloured fruit:

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Letter to My Child: Khayla (5 months)

Dear Khayla,

I must warn you, this letter is going to be a bit lengthy. Why? Because somehow, between the age of 4 months to 5 months, you reached terrific milestones that both annoy and amuse me at the same time. Yes, you giggle. And shriek. And then you swim and do other feats that make me want to gobble you up and then spit you out and repeat it again and again and again. Before I knew it, you'd be moving out of the house and graduating with first class honours. Now I'm being melodramatic.

Baby girl, you are now 5 months old. How cool is that? When I thought you could not get any cuter, you proved me totally wrong. You ooze of cuteness that simply melt my heart :)

Let's start on your milestones one by one.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wordless Wednesday: No Words, Just Laughter

Reviews on Breast Pump I Came Across...

Last week, Khayla turned 4months old and I am happy to say that she has been growing up healthy and strong, despite coming out 2 weeks earlier than her EDD. Suffice to say, her chubbiness and strong immune system is largely contributed by the milk she drinks - breast-milk :) Yes, Khayla is 100% and exclusively breastfed since she was born, Alhamdulillah!

I am very grateful to be among the mothers who are blessed with abundant milk supply. However, at the beginning, I was also worried that I wouldn't be able to give as much milk as little Khayla wanted. After returning from the hospital, I fed Khayla mostly expressed breast-milk (EBM) as she still struggled to feed directly from me. I first tried to express the milk through hand expression - which was not only slow, but tiring as well. After half an hour, I would get at the most 1 oz. AT THE MOST. That 1 oz soon was gulped down by Khayla and after that I would have to start over again because I knew she would wake up again to ask for more milk!

Then I tried Pureen manual pump:

Pureen Manual Breast Pump

Photo credit: Pureen website

This pump was slightly better than hand expression. But after the third usage, the pump broke! Yes, literally broke. Patah. End of story :|

So, there I was, pump-less, with engorged breasts, and hungry baby. That was when I looked up the Oracle of Knowledge - Google, to find a better (and hopefully lasting) alternative to manual pump.

I stumbled into a blog that raves about the benefits of double-pumping. Apparently, the lady claimed that her breast-milk tripled or quadrupled when she starts using double-pump. She has the before and after photos to support her claim. Intrigued, I wasted no time in looking for the same pump she uses - Ameda. Unfortunately, many stores near my place do not sell this brand. So I had to settle with the second most raved-about double pump - Medela Mini Electric Plus:

Medela Mini Electric Plus

I convinced Hubby to invest in this pump because we want Khayla to have continuous supply of EBM once I started work (photo credit: amazon.co.uk)

This pump is easy to assemble, and the manual is easy to understand. Unlike Ameda Purely Yours, this pump has only suction speed (Ameda has both suction and cycle time controls). In no time at all, I managed to put together the parts (after boiling some parts to sterilise them, of course) and began using it.

The first few pumping sessions, I did not see any increase in the amount of milk I expressed. Plus, for a first-time breastfeeding mother, the pump can cause pain and the highest suction level I can tolerate was 1. But over the next few weeks, I started to notice that my EBM did increase and soon, I could pump more than 10 oz - 10 times more than using manual pump or hand expression (maximum amount that I managed to pump after waking up was 14oz!).

That day, this pump made it to the list of Carneyz Hall of Fame - Top 10 Purchases Worth The Ka-ching!. I don't have to worry about resorting to formula because thanks to this pump, I managed to store plenty of EBM that I ran out of space (and storage bottles)...

...Until recently.

You see, the pump also has some major weaknesses. One of it is coz it is an open system pump as opposed to Ameda's closed-system pump. Read here to find out more. Due to this MAJOR weakness, on a few occasions during pumping, the milk enters the tubing and directly into the pump motor. This caused the pump to slow down and the suction became slow and interrupted.

After several occasions of milk going into the pump motor, recently the pump lost its suction. I was of course, devastated. For a few days, the pump did not pump effectively and suddenly, my milk production decreased dramatically! Eceh. Drama kau. Actually it was partly my fault - somehow I got into my head that I need to reduce my pumping session because the fridge has become crowded and I ran out of storage bottles. It was a BIG mistake. Never ever tinkle with milk production - I should have discarded the excess milk instead of messing with my pumping schedule.

If normally, I got 10 oz per session, I only managed to express 5 oz after the pump broke down. To make it worse, Khayla went into growth spurt - which makes her hungrier than usual and instead of finishing only 2 bottles (10 oz) per day while she was in daycare, she required 3 bottles or 15 oz per day! So with 2 pumping sessions instead of 4 sessions, it was clear that demand exceed supply.

Luckily the pump is still under warranty. So I decided to send it to the service centre at Bangsar OU and to avoid any disruptions in the future, I also persuaded En Suami to buy a back-up pump. I had my heart set on Medela Freestyle pump, but once again, the shops failed me. Plus, the price was totally out of our range. We were recommended this single pump instead:

Tommy Tippee closer to nature (R) Electric Breast Pump

Tommy Tippee closer to nature® Electric Breast Pump (photo credit: Amazon.com)

I must admit that the pump looks cute. I simply love the white surface, the portability of its design (lightweight) and the bottle and bottle nipple that come free with this pump. Also, this pump comes with a container to sterilise the pump's parts using a microwave (easy! I loike!). Compared to my Medela pump, Tommy Tippee's motor is less noisy.

But when it comes to assembling those parts and its performance, I still prefer my Medela pump. It took me 15 minutes just to put the parts together the first time. And, there are so many parts! Pumping-wise, I got 5 oz after half hour pumping, and after the third time using it, I got 9 oz. The top speed is 3, compared to Medela's 5. Although the pump is designed in such a way that there's little possibility of the milk going into the tubing, condensed water still form inside the tube and can go into the motor. So, Medela still top my list.

I also like Medela's service centre promptness. They examined my pump, figured out that my valve needed replacing (one of the reason my milk backed up into the tube) and my motor needed servicing (not sure how they managed to clean the breast-milk inside the pump). Words of advice to Moms who wants to send their pump for servicing - bring along all the parts including the funnels and tubes, and don't forget the warranty card and receipt of purchase as Medela will not accept second-hand pump. But if yours is second-hand, they will still service it with a fee (RM45, I was informed). Within 10 minutes, I got back my pump and it is still working fine till now :)

Excuse me, it's time for my pumping session. To all breastfeeding moms out there, happy breastfeeding! ;)