Suzette's Parenting and Breastfeeding Blog

Many people praised that I am a good mother because I breastfeed. Well, actually to tell you the truth, I don’t feel great at all. Breastfeeding is just the beginning of everything, coz it only involves the first stage of the kids.

What follows that is more difficult and challenging. As my children grow, I feel more and more challenging to teach them and to discipline them. I often hate myself whenever I fail in any discipline issues. As usual, if my children misbehave, all blames go to ME. Me Me ME ME, all because of me, my children behave like THIS.

2 of my friends lend me 2 great books from the same author, Dr. Jerry Wyckoff and Barbara Unell. I can’t remember the title of one book as I returned them without finished reading, but I still keep this book: Discipline without Shouting or Spanking.

It starts with an introduction to prepare parents to understand why shouting and spanking are counterproductive, the differences between boys and girls, milestones of developments, etc. This way, we understand why our children behave like this and we know (theoretically) how to react.

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I came across some reviews of the following books: Don’t Tell Mummy and When Daddy Comes Home, by Toni Maguire.

They are not fictions, i.e. they are narrated by the real child and written/recorded by Toni Maguire. They are true story.

I felt like I should buy the books, to support the victim’s courage in revealing her suffer. She is a victim of domestic violence (molested and raped by her own father under her mother’s nose, who delibrately ignored). This kind of things actually happen everywhere, and people tend to get numb. Awareness is there, but nothing is done or could be done. We don’t know why these mothers are not protecting their children. Is a sad thing to even know or read about.

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When I got my Palm 3 years ago, I read a lot of e-books with it, mainly Chinese books as there are many from free domains.

I had a lot of problems with that, and stopped doing that after a year. The main problem is battery life, and another problem is to do with the LCD screen. The back light is either too bright or too dark, very difficult to read under sunlight, etc.

Amazon has recently introduced their e-book reader - Amazon Kindle.

This is an e-book reader, with the size of a typical paperback book, perhaps lighter and thinner.

The part that attracts me most is the screen. It is not the LCD type like any PDA or computer - it is called something like electronic paper display. Continue Reading »

Breastfeeding is not easy. A lot of sacrifices a mom must be prepared to make, and a lot of determinations as well.

It is toughest, both mentally and physically, during the first few weeks. The husband and other family members must give a lot of mental support to a breastfeeding mom. I urge them not to give the mom extra stress (discouraging words, mostly), even if they are not able to help.

Some of the common challenges are sore and/or cracked nipples during the first few days, as the nipples are still delicate and not used to baby’s suckling motion. When breastmilk ‘comes-in’, engorgement is also another pain that a mom has to bear, especially if not breastfeed frequently enough. When the breasts are full and hard, the pain can be so severe that one may not even lift her hands up!

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Our bedroom’s window is facing the East. Every morning, the sun will wake us up. Depending on how the curtain rested on the window, it can sometimes leave a tiny little whole on top.

When the sun comes in through the tiny little gap, this is what you can see on the wall directly opposite the window:

When Isabel sees this, she’ll say happily: MOON!