Exclusive Breastfeeding Journey Part 3 – Weaning Off

In June 2017, our little firstborn turned 2 years old. Alhamdulillah, we managed to still provide him with his mother’s milk until then. However, with every journey, there must be an end for it. Having gone through very painful episodes of blocked duct for more than a couple of times throughout the 2 years duration, I was naturally anxious about stopping.

Nevertheless, for various reasons, I wanted to stop my son from breastfeeding. And I prefer a method that does not involve cheating or tricking my son. That’s my preference, and I respect other moms’ methods should they feel the need to do it any other way.

A few months before stopping, I consulted with many people, mostly my own seniors or friends that have gone through the process. They shared a few tips and from there, I formed a strategy. I also read up on the topic to prepare myself mentally and physically. Coincidentally, my husband was away for the fasting month and the majority of the ‘Raya’ month. From my previous experience of fasting while breastfeeding my son, I really do not think I could go on another month of it. (Bad thinking, I know!) I felt really weak and tired last year, so I decided to ask my son to refrain from breastfeeding during the day throughout the month of Ramadan this year. Instead, I gave him the liquid, full cream milk when he wanted milk. I started to give him ‘the talk’ about a couple of weeks beforehand, to make sure that he understands and cooperates with me.

The first few days, he asked for it. We called it ‘susu ummi’ and the full cream milk as ‘susu kotak’. The first dew days of putting him to his daytime nap was quite a challenge because he is used to breastfeeding till he falls asleep. Thankfully after a couple of weeks, he got used to the arrangements. This went on until the first couple of weeks of ‘raya’, when my husband returned home.

A couple of days after my husband returned, our son seemed to be in such a good mood that we started to completely stop him from breastfeeding. We told him that he’s a big boy now, already two years old, and he could stop ‘susu ummi’ and continue eating normal food. If he misses his milk, he can drink ‘susu kotak’. We struggled for the first week, whereby he would wake up in the middle of the night, throwing tantrums and all, because he was hungry. So we tried feeding him a night snack right before putting him to sleep, to prevent hunger pang in the middle of the night. So far, it’s been nearly a month and he seemed to have been weaned off completely and successfully.

I feared that I might suffer from blocked duct or anything once I stop. Fortunately, I survived without any need to express my milk and the supply dwindled to the point that even my breasts returned to their size before I got pregnant.

I’m blessed that my husband is around to help and that my son is cooperative. Alhamdulillah, we managed to complete that part of our duty to our son. May our next chid will be blessed in the same way. Aameen.

All the best to other moms out there! I hope this sharing helps.

Our First Toilet Training Part 3 – Using the Potty

In my previous sharing, we managed to train our son to be off his diaper at 19 months of age. I will be honest. Life after that, can be quite difficult. Especially when we have to travel and the size of the toilet seat outside is only for adults. Sometimes he would pass motion on the floor and I need to pick his poo up / use a lot of water to drain the poo into the hole.

We’ve had situations whereby my son was passing motion and someone really rude keeps on knocking on the door, impatiently, until I told her “My son is using the toilet”. Then only she stopped. Well, there are many other toilet cubicles and she just had to attack mine, despite only being in there for a couple of minutes (when she started knocking).

Another situation is when there are many other cubicles available, but one selfish lady walked into the family sized one – the one with a toilet bowl for kids) and took her own sweet time inside. So please, refrain yourself from using those toilets labelled “family” unless you are taking your little children along with you.

Anyway, initially my son refused to use the potty seat (see picture) that I bought for him. I read that children needs their feet to touch the ground when passing motion, so I bought him a cheap, small potty with very basic feature.

Still, he refused to sit on it. He only passes urine/motion while standing over it, so I could just dump the whole thing inside the usual toilet bowl to be flushed. The challenge is that his poo would be stuck on his thigh and buttock, and it was such a hassle to clean. I wanted to teach him to clean himself so that I could teach him that his private parts are only for him to touch. No one else can touch him there, not even me. So with so much poo to be cleaned, I can’t make him do it himself without risking him touching everywhere with his ‘poopy’ hands. LOL.

So, to solve this, in July this year, I purchased a comfortable and cute seating potty bowl for him. (see picture). It was on sale at GIANT for RM34.99. I just had to grab it because the cheapest I have seen in LAZADA or elsewhere, is more than rm50! So now we are in the process of teaching him to use the potty, clean himself, and clean the potty bowl as well. So far so good.

I hope I can totally teach him to be independent so that I could start to teach him about no-one-should-touch-his-private-parts-but-himself soon.

Any tips from other mommies are greatly appreciated :)

All the best to other mommies out there!

Our First Toilet Training Experience Part 2

Salam.

Last week I have shared about the general rule I followed for toilet training our first son. Here is the next part of that. :)

Monday, 16th of January 2017. First day of toilet training. The most tiring! We rolled and kept away all the carpet in the house. We told him he won't be wearing any diaper from now on, and that he must pee/poop in the toilet. We asked him to repeat that many times.

We had nearly 10 accidents. He nearly ran out of pants to wear because we had to keep changing him. Not to mention the amount of work to mop the mess on top of doing the usual housechores.

Sometimes, he peed during the toilet trip. Sometimes he did not. When he did, we would congratulate, praise and encourage him. When he did not, we simply say "ok perhaps next trip you will pee". Patience is the key.

The moment my husband got back from work, I passed the baton to him to take our son to toilet. It was really tiring! But we persevered.

Night time, we slept on a comforter (because thick mattress is more difficult to clean, so bye bye comfortable bed) and layered it with a thin plastic below another layer of thinner comforter (which can be thrown into the washing machine, just in case). The tips says not to wake him up more than 2 times at night to pee, so when he wakes up for milk (12-1am and 3-4am) I would take him to toilet and ask him to pee.

Tuesday, 17th of January 2017. Same routine except the time gap between toilet trip is longer. I felt as tired as the first day (probably more). Sometimes, our son asked for his diaper. "Lampin" as he would say it. But we were firm in telling him, he won't be wearing any "lampin" anymore after this.

Just like the first day, once my husband got back from work, I passed the baton to him. Thank goodness he was ok with it.

Wednesday, 18th January 2017. Third day. We saw less accident, but I tend to ignore my guts saying that "it's time for his toilet trip" so there were some frustrating accidents. However, each toilet trip is fruitful. He was then able to pass urine when taken to toilet.

He passed motion 3 times this day. Once in toilet (I was running like crazy and taking him to toilet when I saw his grunting face, which indicate defecating is in proses a.k.a muka meneran), another two at the living room. It was easy to not be angry at him because he seemed so scared and clueless. It was apparent that he needed us to guide him so we could not get angry.

Day 4 basically had no accident. We were back to sleeping in our bed. Yay!

Friday, 20th January 2017. Day 5. A new challenge because we were taking a trip back to our parents' for the weekend. We stopped a couple of times along the highway for toilet visits and once he fell asleep, it was such a relief because we know he will not pee in his sleep.

Saturday, 21st January 2017 Day 6. He had one accident while at my husband's father's house. Probably triggered by the change in environment as well as him being busy playing with his cousins that he forgot about peeing in the toilet. Otherwise all was well.

To be continued...

Our First Toilet Training Experience Part 1

Assalamualaikum wbt / Hi

We are extremely blessed that our first son is quite a quick speaker. He started speaking comprehendable words before he was even 18 months old. He picks up words as we speak them and repeatedly try to pronouce them until he is able to remember. On top of that, he is able to use the words correctly within context afterwards.

Since we stayed at my parents' place until he was about 19 months, I had to delay his toilet training, despite seeing some signs that he is ready. However, I took the chance to introduce him to be aware of the act of passung urine and passing motion and what they are called. For example, during showertime, when I see him pee I will repeatedly tell him "this is peeing". After a while, he is then able to say it himself (the words pee & poop, "kencing" & "berak")

Once we are back in our own house, we picked a day to start, and never looked back. I am also blessed that my husband is so cooperative about this. We did our readings and strategised. We also spoke to him repeatedly about our intention a couple of days before we started.

DAY 1 Every 15 mins. Stay toilet 5 minutes. 1 hour = 3x 12 hours = 36x

DAY 2 Every 30 mins. Stay toilet 5 minutes 6 hours = 11x 12 hours = 22x

DAY 3 Every 1 hour. Stay toilet 5 minute 12 hours = 12x

No leaving the house for chores/errands at all for that 3 days.

Stop the diaper cold-turkey. NO DIAPER AT ALL EVEN AT NIGHT. (We found these tips on fb by the way)

To be continued...

Postal Order (Pos Malaysia)

Assalam / Greetings,

Today I would like to share about claiming Postal Money from the Post Office (Pos Malaysia). It was my first time, too, so I suppose sharing this might help many other who does not know what is the procedure like. This is the example of the postal money/order.

back view

front view

These are the steps:-

1. Go to nearby post office (Pos Malaysia).
2. Obtain this form (picture 3).
3. Fill up the sender / recipient details.
4. Sign the form at the bottom left section.
5. Get your number for your turn at the counters
6. Hand over the postal order and the form.
7. The Pos Malaysia staff will return the copy of the form to you, a receipt and your cash.

example of form from this page

You are all done now. Hope it helps :)

Jom Minta Resit GST Part 2

Assalam / Greetings

from here

Remember my post about this contest?

Well, I won something! Alhamdulillah.

They notified me by phone and I had to go to the customs office nearest to my registered address on the contest form to claim the gift.

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and join this contest! The deadline is November 30th 2016.

Wisdom Tooth (Third Molar) Removal Part 2

Assalam / Greetings.

Remember what happened on 18th April? Well, you can read it here.

After less than an hour, the local anesthesia's effect began to fade, leaving me in PAIN. I was so hungry but I cannot eat! I could barely open my jaw!

Anyway I searched for some information, so basically this is how I looked after myself after the procedure:-

1. Avoid hot/warm food/drinks for a couple of days to promote blood clotting. Iced drinks were the BEST!
2. Take soft, liquid diet like soup, porridge, milk to avoid moving the jaw so much.
3. NO GARGLING AT ALL for the first 24 hours. Which means, no toothbrush too! This is important to promote blood clot, which will ensure good healing and prevent infection.
4. Avoid heavy/strenuous activities for at least a couple of days. (I rested for the whole week!)
5. Apply ice packs over the cheek to reduce swelling and pain. (This is so helpful!)
6. Take the pain medications as prescribed (I did not, because I'm still breastfeeding so I would prefer to avoid medications unless REALLY necessary)
7. If bleeding occurs, put the gauze as supplied by the doctor and bite on it over the affected area for at least 20 minutes to ensure blood clot is formed nicely.

So why did I say my choice was awful?

Because, having a baby means having to breastfeed him, carry him, having him wanting to hold you, cuddle you and punching your swollen cheek! 

BIG OUCH!

The swelling started a few hours after surgery. and really, I just wanted to sleeeeeeeep afterwards. But, having a baby (with husband not around) means, not being able to simply sleep. I was counting the days and telling myself, it will get better. 

It WILL and it DID.

So, cheer up mommas. We have got to do what we have got to do, right?

Finally, the appointment to remove my stitches was one week later. So, after the removal, the lady dentist said I can totally do anything I want. LOL. What a relief. It took me at least another week to exercise my jaw to function normally again due to stiffness after resting for the whole week. Phew.

I'm done. I hope I don't need any more of this surgery. Aamiin!

Moral of the story : Go and get yourself checked before you became pregnant!