Suzette's Parenting and Breastfeeding Blog

I think Ian is jealous.  Well, the 3-steps thingy that my friend taught, only makes Ian love Isabel.  That did not make him not jealous.

Yes, there is a difference.  I can tell Ian likes (if not love) Isabel.  He wants to kiss her.  He wants to hug her.  When Isabel cries, he insists that I at least have a look at Isabel.  He is more sensitive to Isabel’s voice/noise than me, and always alert me about her.

But, he also likes to 争风吃醋 (jealous).  Some proofs:

• When I am bfg Isabel, Ian wants to pee.  He wants ME to help him.  Not daddy, not grandma, not maid, not anyone else.  Even when daddy helps me to help him (as I only have 1 free hand), he won’t allow.
• When Isabel cries, Ian also cries.
• When Isabel poos, Ian also wants to poo (and not allowing others to handle him).
• When Isabel baths, Ian also wants to bath.  He actually jumped into Isabel’s bathing water, before we put Isabel down!

Well, I can let others handle Isabel, and even to feed her EBM.  But that is not a long term solution, as I can’t let her have EBM all the time!  So struggled sometimes, but slowly learnt how to handle a few things at the same time now.  Hahaha!  Training makes things perfect. 

OK, share one more Isabel’s photo here.  This was taken on 8 Jul, she was 1 month 2 weeks old.

Just 2 days before Isabel’s full moon, I woke up to be shocked to see her sleeping 90 degree away from where I put her.  She turned herself clock-wise!

Then, after back to home and sleep in her own cot, I found her like this in the morning, got stucked with her two legs out like this…

I love and I hate let down reflects.

Well, let-down reflects, is a term in breastfeeding.  It refers to the way our body responds to babies’ suckles, and have an instant producing a lot of milk.  Milk can shoot out in streams into baby’s mouth, makes it less effort for baby to suckle (which is quite tiring I guess).

I hate let down reflects, because Isabel hates it.  Whenever there is a let-down, Isabel would protest by: unlatching, crying, kicking her legs, arching her back, screaming…  And the milk would just spray on her face - coz she unlatches during let-down!

This is the most messy moment for any moms.  I hate it most when I breastfeed her in public, coz it could expose my breast, or wet my clothes at the ‘right’ spot.

But then, I also love let-down, especially when I am expressing.  With let-down, it can double the yield amount, and time can be cut by half too!

For instance, without let-down (when stressed or too tired), I can only get 2oz in 30 min.  With let-down (usually when tandem pumping), I can get 6 oz in 15 min!  So, if you were me, will you love let-down? 

Oh, by “tandem pumping” (not sure such term exists or not), I refer to pumping one side of breast whilst direct feeding the other side.  This requires some skill.  I can only do the right one, as I use right hand.  Tried the left side, very clumsy…

I am very proud of Ian’s development.  Since few months ago he has already mastered all alphabets A to Z, and numbers from 1 to 30.  Not only that he is able to recite them, he is also able to recognize the writing.

Well, to be exact, he was able to recognize all the numbers from 0 to 13, and capital letters from A to Z.

I realized that I have been teaching him alphabets, of upper case.  I have left out the lower case!  Now, he doesn’t recognize them.  I’ve started to teach him now.  Hope not too late.

He is very confused between these two: lower case of L - “l” and upper case of “I“.  When I taught him the lower case l, he insisted it is the upper case I.  Err… hope I’m not confusing anyone who reads this.  Most of the documents are using the … err, I dunno serif or san serif, which is which… Anyway, if you type ‘I’ in Times Roman and in Arial, they look different - one with the hat and tail, one without.  Ian is confused with the one without the hat and tail…

Anyway, I am very proud of his development.  Hahaha!  One proud mama boasting about her child’s development again.