Confinement Food Journey...

WAH...

today for dinner...
there's the usual papaya fish soup and steam fish.
But..there's a braised fore leg pork!!! which hubs totally loved to bits.

Stir fried beansprouts with prawn (i cannot eat unfortunately, this is for my helper and hubs) and red spinach with fried silver fish.

Confinement Food Journey

Today I'm having for lunch

1. Red spinach with fried silver fish
2. Steam fish
3. Pig trotter in vinegar
4. Papaya fish soup with woods ear (this time round, I remembered to take the soup before i eat!)

James - 12 days old

"I'm SEXY and you know it!"

Confinement food

It's dinner time!

1. Air Fried Tau Kwa
2. Air Fried Fish with ginger on top
3. Chinese spinach with wolfberries
4. soup (forgot to take photo again)

James - 10 days old

still having a tinge of yellow. but definitely looking better and better!

Confinement food

Today for lunch, I'm having...

1) very moist and savoury tomatoes stir fried with egg
2) Woods ear with sliced pork marinated with Dom Benedict
3) Pan fried fish topped with crispy sliced ginger
4) Asparagus with assorted mushrooms
5) Soup (so sorry, it came much later so I didn't take any photo!)

Another Hamper!

Here's another Hamper that has just delivered to our doorstep!

Loads of chicken essence which is my favourite because sometimes I get so sick of drinking longan red date tea. The hamper also contained a plushie cat, 2 packets of M size diapers, bird nest, another height measuring tape and a small bouquet of flowers.

Confinement - only APPLES?

right now, I'm only getting apples for fruits during my confinement. But I'm not complaining. Aunty cuts them up really nicely!

LOOK!

James - 9 days old

James: the weather has been so hot that i really need to 'air' my armpits! 

Anyway you know that I look very sexy like this yah!

Milk Journal - Day 9

it's 9 days after James is borned.
My milk production is currently hovering around 45mls to 50mls per breast.

I just want to encourage those mothers out there who thinks that they have no breast milk or little breast milk to begin with...to not to worry. I know many websites out there will say that as long as you breastfeed, latch on, the milk will come. I think this saying needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Because my first pregnancy, I tried to latch on all the time and pump for 45mins but yet it was never enough. Although my breasts look full but somehow when I pump, the amount just doesn't do justice to the size of my breasts.

So i just want to say to those worried mothers out there. You are not alone! I'm also like you. Big breast and no milk. or pathetic milk.

And i really hate to hear from my mother or MIL that so and so has loads of milk, pump and pump until the baby cannot finish the milk in the fridge. It just stresses me out so much! URGH!

Now that I'm having James. I no longer fear about not having enough breast milk, because i choose not to fret and worry myself sick, put myself through guilt and worry that my baby doesn't get enough nutrients or that I'm a bad mother because i have not enough milk. Now I just breastfeed and pump when it's time (every 2-3 hours) and if James is still hungry I will give him a top up with formula milk.

Pregnancy #2 - Jamu

after 8 days of delivery, the centre finally got me a masseuse for my Jamu and the masseuse couldn't make it for the time which i had requested.

sigh.

here's how the session went
1) massage engorged breasts
2) start with back, she works on both of your legs, back and butt.
3) next you face upwards, she will work first on your hands and arms, both legs and finally the stomach.
4) Last she will massage your forehead and head.
Massage is using the Citra body lotion. You will get a tingling hot feeling once she finishes rubbing it on you.

After the full body massage, she will use the hot stone to massage your body, so its face downwards again for the full body back then face up for the front.

Lastly, she will add the ginger to put on your forehead first followed by your tummy. This is the crucial part for the slimming!!!

I asked my masseuse what is the reason for putting on my forehead - obviously i need no slimming there!!! She said it is to prevent migraines in future when I grow old, also it helps to prevent post natal depression too.

WOW. didn't know ginger is so useful huh!

The session ended with the tummy binding as shown in the photo above. Sorry I couldn't get a full shot but this will have to do (as this is how far my hand can stretch for a snapshot!), it's a criss cross of knots working down and up again. So it's twice as tight.

Hope it works as well as the first pregnancy!

xoxo
velle

Jules - Master Junior Chef

Have you met my new Master Junior Chef in the house yet? I'm just kidding...recently with the new addition of my confinement aunty who does all the cooking in the house, Jules is very inspired by her. Sometimes when she cooks, he will cook by his IKEA kitchen too!

And this little fella noticed that our aunty wears an apron when she cooks, so he tried to imitate her by holding a towel to his chest and cook at the same time. Needless to say, the towel will drop so he tried to hold it by clipping it under his neck, by pressing his little chin against his chest.

it's quite hilarious.
and to spare him of this agony of him always bending his chin downwards just to hold the towel.
I gave him a little apron which was still too big for him.

he loved it for awhile. quite ya-ya about it.
but after a minute, he decided to take it off.

aiyoh.

Jules & James - Hamper from a friend

A hamper arrived at our doorstep this afternoon and Jules was very excited about it! Here are some photos of my little guy with the huge hamper.

The hamper arrived with a small bouquet of gerberras in pink wrapped in a polka dot paper. so cute!
Inside the hamper, there was a set of beginner's spoon, teether, milk powder container, a set of newborn clothings, bird nest, a height measuring tape which Jules especially loved and 2 bottles of chicken essence.

Thank you dear Pauline!
my financial consultant.

Confinement food - Day 4

Today I'm having 

fish (this is a staple for every meal), 

asparagus with mushrooms, 

papaya fish soup and 

long beans with sliced pork.

James - 8 days old

James - 7 days old

James at 7 days old. Still showing signs of Jaundice, skin is still with a tinge of yellow. But he opens both his eyes now instead of the one-eye-Jack.

i don't really trust the old way of sunning the baby in the sun now because of the strong UV rays as our ozone layer is depleting more and more. It's just up to Mother Nature now.

Be strong James!

Confinement food - Day 3

Today my confinement nanny has made the following for dinner:-

1. Papaya fish soup
2. Snow pea with assorted mushrooms
3. Spinach with silver fish
4. Pan fried fish with Dom topped with crispy sliced ginger
5. Pork Chops

YUMZ.

Jules - The boys are back from a visit to the Queenstown Library

Saturday was a good day for us. Hubs only visited one site in the morning and by lunch time he was back to accompany the boys. By mid afternoon, he brought Jules out to the nearby neighbourhood library for a walk and skip.

Hubs was telling me that when Jules reached the children's section, immediately he said "Thomas the Train!!!" and the librarian heard him and directly hubs to the books where they have Thomas the Train. Really nice staff they have there, initiative and helpful!

But Jules only flipped the book a few pages, sat for a few seconds and away he went, chasing after other boys in the library.

When he came home, he was full of smiles.

i bet Jules had a wonderful experience at the library but hubs was chasing him all over, he said it was no easy feat.

hmm.

back home, i'm like a milking cow. no easy feat either.

James - Newborn Photography

Photo credits: hubs
Model: James @ 5 days old

Hubs' XX Birthday

My first outing during my confinement and because it's hubs' birthday!!! So we had 1 hour of "you and me" time together.

First we went down to St James Kindergarten to pay some administrative fee and to put James on the waiting list. Next stop we went down to a neighbourhood mall to buy a birthday cake for hubs. And we managed to find a really small one, chocolate truffle flavour. There's so few of us in the house that most of the time, we can't finish the cake. So a small one is just nice!!!

One hour passes by so quickly and we must really head home since now that we have a baby and a toddler at home.

hubs making a wish here before he blows his candle. And Jules is smiling from ear to ear.

hubs blows his candle and Jules helped his daddy to cut the chocolate truffle cake. Jules was very happy, he thought it was his birthday!

a family photo of us! (i'm like a blowfish now.)

9pm: we decided to call it a day and we retired upstairs.

10pm: My parents surprised us with a visit with a chocolate cake from Bengawan solo, Nespresso coffee capsules (compliments from my sis and her hubs) and a GAP t-shirt for Hubs!

Jules was the most pleased because he has another birthday cake and candle to blow!!!

that's all of us