Mui Jie Xmas Visit

Mui Jie came visit us last night, stayed until quite late, she again gave us a lot of tips and recipe on baby porridge which Noreen will be starting by next month.

Wallpaper

Christmas Update

This is Noreen's first Christmas, lets update some of her naughty post

Noreen is so close to Lita

Ms Honey Bee (mee fen jie jie)

Her latest acrobatic stunt

Jacuzzi anyone?

Noreen's Potty training

DHA Omega 3

Recent research and marketing has a lot of hype about DHA or omega 3, what exactly is all the shout about? When Lita was pregnant with Noreen I did a lot of study about this miracle oil and why it is important. Here is a little information:

DHA Omega 3 and EPA

There has been a dramatic surge in interest recently, amongst the public and health professionals alike, of the health effects of omega-3 fatty acids derived from fish/fish oils - consisting of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) plus eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). DHA is required in high levels in the brain and retina as a physiologically-essential nutrient to provide for optimal neuronal functioning (learning ability, mental development) and visual acuity, in young and old alike. DHA plus EPA are both considered to have beneficial effects in the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease plus associated risk factors as well as other chronic disorders. Whereas considerable amounts of the plant-derived omega-3 fatty acid known as a-linolenic acid (ALA) is consumed daily in North America (approximately 2 g/day), the physiologically-essential nutrient, DHA, is consumed at much smaller levels (approximately 80 mg/day) while EPA is consumed at the level of approximately 50 mg/day in a typical North American diet.

DHA plus EPA are absent from plant food sources rich in ALA (such as flax, canola oil, and walnuts). Since the metabolic conversion of ALA to DHA/EPA (combined) by metabolism is very limited in humans, the most direct way of providing DHA plus EPA for the body is via their direct consumption. Current intakes of DHA are approximately 20% of the target (300 mg/day) suggested by an expert scientific group during pregnancy and lactation. The extremely low intake of DHA in young children (e.g., approximately 19 mg DHA/day on average for 3-yr. olds in North America ) is also of particular concern. Current intakes of DHA/EPA (combined) of 130 mg/day are approximately 15% of the target (900 mg/day) officially recommended by the American Heart Association for those with coronary heart disease and 20% of the 650 mg/day advised by an expert scientific group for healthy individuals. In view of the widespread reluctance of the public to consume sufficient amounts of fish, functional foods containing DHA plus EPA will become increasingly important sources of these important nutrients in the coming years to support optimal brain/visual performance, for cardio care, and other health conditions for young and old alike.

http://dhaomega3.org/index.php?category=overview&title=introduction-to-omega-3

I figure this is easy just take anmum maternal will do, and further study lead me to the source of the problem. Our ocean are tainted with industrial waste and one particular alarming toxic is mercury. Mercury are associate with autism and the heavy metal does a lot of bad things to your brain.

Pregnancy

The primary rationale for supplying sufficient intakes of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids for mothers is to support the optimal health of the baby during pregnancy (neonatal period), after birth (during infancy), and during the subsequent childhood period as well as providing for the health and physiological needs of the mother. DHA, with its unique structure, physico-chemical properties, and prevalence in neuronal cell membranes (brain, nerve), plays a key role as a physiologically-essential nutrient for optimal brain functioning of the infant (cognitive performance) and retinal performance (optimal visual acuity). A significant supply of DHA to the developing infant is generally considered advisable throughout pregnancy and particularly during the last trimester. Since ALA (found in certain plant foods such as flax, canola oil, walnuts) is very poorly converted via metabolism to DHA, the most direct and efficient means of supplying DHA to the mother for transfer to the developing baby during pregnancy is via DHA consumption. However, DHA as found predominantly in fish/seafood, is consumed only once or so every 10 days during pregnancy because of concerns with respect to contaminants (eg, methyl-mercury in a few fish which can increase the risk of impaired brain development in the infant), taste, convenience, etc.

DHA intakes average only 80 mg/day in pregnant women based on a Canadian study. The published paper(s) from the 1999 NIH Workshop in Bethesda advised that pregnant women should attempt to consume at least 300 mgs DHA/day. The Food and Drug Administration (U.S.) has recommended that women who are pregnant eliminate shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and golden snapper from their diets while limiting their consumption of other fish to 3 servings/week to minimize exposure to methyl mercury. A recent Canadian study indicated that the consumption of two-three servings weekly of farmed salmon, wild salmon, or rainbow trout, which would provide a daily averaged DHA intake of at least 300 mg/day during pregnancy, would not approach the tolerance levels for mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, or dioxins and furans as set by Health Canada, the NRC (U.S.), or the World Health Organization. The absence or extremely low levels of environmental contaminants in the DHA-enriched ingredients being introduced into functional foods is another reason for their acceptance by expectant mothers.

There is evidence from published clinical trials that women with higher DHA intakes (via 4 fish servings/week) or by way of supplementation during pregnancy, ranging up to 1100 mg DHA (plus 800 mg EPA) daily, gave birth to infants with higher cognitive development scores and young children with higher IQ scores and mental processing scores up to 4 years of age. A quantitative positive relationship between increasing intakes of DHA (per 100 mg/day) during pregnancy and the child's IQ has been determined. There is also published evidence that mothers with higher intakes of DHA during pregnancy along with higher corresponding levels in their body give birth to infants with improved sleep patterns. Furthermore, fish oil (with DHA + EPA) supplementation during pregnancy may enhance infant immunity (better allergy protection) and reduce to risk of allergic disease. In addition, higher intakes of DHA + EPA during pregnancy (levels as low as 150 mg/day) have been implicated with increased birth weights, moderately prolonged gestation, and reduced risk of preterm delivery. Finally, a higher dietary intake of DHA during pregnancy to support brain development of the baby in the womb has been associated with a great availability to the mother herself and a lesser risk of postpartum depression.

http://dhaomega3.org/index.php?category=life-stages&title=Pregnancy

I called up Fontera Anmum, enquire about their source of DHA, they only can tell me its from sea food, I asked about the mercury problem and they just say its mercury free with no back up data whatsoever. I know for a fact other than pure organic product even our dairy product are tainted with growth hormone and pesticide, but they're so minute that they decide to call it zero which is not exactly true.

http://xtend-life.com/product/Omega_3_DHA_Fish_Oil.aspx

I then stumble on DHA supplement oil which are oil extract from cold water fish, this particular product claims to be good, they are pharmaceutical grade, the oil goes thru molecular distillation that completely remove all foreign substance and leaving only pure fish oil.

They use HOKI fish from the south pole and best part of it this product is not available in Malaysia, I really have no idea why, so have to ask my sister to get it for me in Thailand. So Lita has been taking the DHA supplement from Xtendlife since she is 6 months pregnant till now.

Dec update

This is how Noreen eat, a big messed that she made

We put her photo on our credit card, cool, you can do this with Alliance You.nigue Master card

Noreen DVD2 is out hehehe, available only to family.

5th Month Vaccination

Noreen today is 7.63kgs, she had a bit of rashes on the side of her thighs, doc says is probably due to her diapers. She has a small blister on her hands and doc suspect that its due to mite. She had her last Hep vacine today.

Doc ask if we want the pneumococcal vaccine next month, so I guess she will have to continue her injection session.

says this would be quite expensive around RM300.

November Milestone

On her UFO

First time piloting her UFO

Right after her evening bath

Relaxing on the sofa

November month Noreen had learn to chin up when in the prone position, while lying on her back her hands can touch her toes. She do try to suck on her toes but just not yet. She had her first solid, nestle stage 1 baby rice with DHA, we had a video of how she messed her whole face with the rice cereal. The reason we start her on solid food a month earlier is coz babies are born with enough iron supplement until the age of 4 month, thereafter we have to supplement her from other food source, since Noreen is 99% on breast milk we figure better we supplement her.

She can now pilot her UFO, usually going nowhere, still very poor in navigation. We bought her the baby can read DVD and Book. Since we dont know how to entertain her in the morning and she enjoy so much watching the TV so might as well let her watch some educational program.

This month she became a very unfriendly baby, she would cry when we go Jusco or Pasar Malam which she used to enjoy.

When we bath her, she will start slapping the water and splashing water everywhere, the first time she does this was when we still bath her in the room, water went everywhere. So now we've moved the bathing session to the bathroom, this way she can splash all she wants, this is what she enjoys, splashing water on mommy and daddy.

4th Month and last dose of 5in1 vaccine

Noreens 4th check up today, she weights 6.99kgs and lenght 64cm. She is a brave girl because she didnt cry or complaint when Dr. Margaret gave her the injections, what a clever girl.

Hope she takes the last vaccine well as the previous 2 didnt gave her fever at all.

October milestone

cryin

Holding the colorful fan

The girl who look like a boy

First time sitting

October month, Noreen learn to control both her hands, she would hold them in a pray position and stared at them. When you gave her things she can hold them for a short while.

Her head control is much better, though she still hate to be put in the prone position. She had learn to sit with cushion support, still not used to gravity effect.

We bought a new bottle "mam" with more natural nipples like, she had completely rejected her avent bottles, the success rate for this bottle is 20%, we had also change to S26 hoping she would like new taste.

Noreen 3rd vaccination

Noreens 3rd vaccination visit, she weight 6.2kgs and 61cm long. She is such a clever girl today, Dr Margaret inject her and she just gave a shocking look with her big eyes and didnt even cry.

I took back the box to reconfirm and yes this is the new 5 in 1 vaccine without mercury.

Noreen is now 3 Months old

White Flags

In any battle they will come a winner, and the loser will raise the flag of surrender. Most time before the actual confrontation began a statistic will be drawn up. We the parents has so much more experience in life and ammunition. What has the baby got that we never anticipate a defeat?

But the flags were raised by us, we have been defeated by a tiny 3 months old baby doublefacepalm.jpg

Baby Hammock - Sarong

The price of surrender, bought Noreen a baby Hammock, and it kinda work for 2 hours maximum, after that she would want her mama to pretend to be human sarong so she can enjoy her nap, what a notty girl.

Water Baby

Notty girl playing water, she will enjoy her warm bath every morning, and a rub down in the evening.
this is her mood after her bath, she will be in such good mood when she is clean and comfortable.

In her 3rd month, Noreen I think is a left handed, she start having control of her finger beginning with her left hand, she would raise her hand and starred at her fist the whole day.

She would now take her anmum 90 ml at night, the success rate is around 50:50. Duno what kinda baby is this, doesnt sleep in the day, refuse her chupee (pacifier), refuse bottle. Likes watching TV at 2 months old.

The other day I was carrying her and she would look at the TV, I call her name and as usual she would just pretend not to hear anything, then I off the TV sound thinking it was distracting her and she show pouting lips and started crying. I quickly on back the sound and she is ok.

Playful girl

We start training Noreen to feed on bottles from mommies expressed milk but notty girl refuse, she will spit out the milk coming from the bottle. So no choice we try anmum milk, at first she reject but after trying few days now if we're lucky she will take about 60ml. So we feed her twice a day on formula and the rest of the day on breastmilk.

We plan to stop breastfeeding by next month and see how it goes, Noreen is such a "tiuman".

Now when she is in a good mood especially morning hours, she likes to listen and watch your lips when you speak to her, then she will try to copy what you're saying, her words would be "ang gooo" or "ahhh" very loudly.

Noreen is 2 months old

Baby dreaming in her sleep

Yesterday Noreen went for check up, she is now 5.26kgs and had her 5in1 injection and Doc says she most probably will have a high temperature. We had expected this and came prepared. We gave her liquid paracetamol from Doc at nite around 8pm before the fever starts. She cried a bit at nite more than usual from her mild fever.

This morning I measured her temp its 37.4ºC, so we gave her another 1.5ml. I've just sms Lita and she's doing ok.

Noreen's 60days progress:

Noreen had learn to carry her head when in the prone position but had yet learn how to crawl. We will put her in this position 15 minutes a day before her morning bath to play. At first she tried to move about few inches but without lifting her head and her face was scratching on the playmat. She would cry from the discomfort. It sadden our heart and we would quickly carry her and pacify her. Shows how little tolerance we had and this I think is poor coaching. But we believe we have all the time in the world.

In the morning when she is more alert I would carry her and talk to her, I can see she stare at me particularly my mouth to see how I talk and she would copy me and blabber. When I smile she would copy and smile back at me staring cheekily from sideways.

When she is awake in the morning around 6am she would stare at the ceiling and start blabbering loudly playing and talking to herself or perhaps talking to her little guardian angel. This is daily routine I've learn to sleep through it, I've even graduated from sleeping through her midnight cries leaving Lita to attend to her LOL.

Her "tiumaness" are getting worse, she would demand to be carried to sleep, I've talked to Lita about how to solve this problem, and we've both came to a conclusion that perhaps this will go on a maximum of 2 years. After this she would grow up and we would never get her back as a toddler. We will continue to manja her and enjoy the moment pacifying her and treasure every minute of our time taking care of noreen when she is still a baby.

Noreen is the gem in our life and it changes us so much, our thoughts and plan now put her ahead of everything else. This is growing up experience for us too and Noreen showed this to us. We learn from our baby as much as our baby learn from us.

31 Aug Lita and Noreen

Books that help

I'll do a little review on books that had help us out here. Hopefully this will help out first time parents.

The first book we bought "What to expect when you're expecting" by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel.

This book is a must have for first time pregnancy mom and dad. It explained everything in such detail its like your temporary pregnancy bible. We refer to this book almost every other day. It is very helpful and offer very useful advice, easy to read and not boring as you can skip around from month to month.

A must have pregnancy bible.

The 2nd book is "How smart is your baby" by Glenn Doman and Janet Doman.

This book is more of a scientific study and experiment. It gives you insight of how far we've develop on understanding of baby and toddlers. How useful is this book in your real life, I would say very useful however certain experiment like loud clapping with 2 blocks of wood to test your baby's startle reflexes I think can only be done with mat sallehs babies. If you're to do this on asian babies they would shit green poo for the whole weekend and you've to feed your baby with bo ying dan LOL! Some practicals are really over the wall but generally the Domans book and their discovery I find very important if you're the coaching parent typed.

They're some very useful research that will help you understand your babies like how important we need to follows natures path like the most important first step your baby need to make creeping and crawling. This will greatly enhanced their brain development. She encourage early brain development and setting your baby free.

This book is recommended if you're freaking academic and coaching type, but I'm just 50% here and there. Will not be too critical in this area, maybe I'm not the type who expect too much from my daughter. Maybe again I'm just being afraid over expecting may back fired on me.
The 3rd book we bought is "Raise a smarter child by kindergarten" by David Perlmutter.

This book is very interesting, its almost like a fiction novel that gets you chasing the pages. Its easy to read and understand. The book is somewhat similar to the above Doman's book but in a more practical adaptable in real life way. I guess if you follow Davids way you'll still end up with a smarter babies, but you get a more jovial baby and parents.

Its a more complete book about development of brain to other factors like environment toxin that somewhat affect our babies life. eg vaccine shots are tainted by mercury, and seafood we eat are also stain with mercury. Sometimes you get depressed reading too much of his studies to the point you feel like moving back to the jungle.

I find this book very very good and highly recommended.
The 4th book is "New babycare" by Dr. Merriam Stoppard.

This is practical baby care book for noob first time parents, but unfortunately many of the teaching will contradict with your confinement lady and your mother in laws. A clashing of the East and the West. You'll just have to compromise somewhere in between.

This book is not really needed if you've a confinement lady, but still it will give you an early understand of what parenting is about before all hell breaks loose. Buy the book and read before the baby comes.

Noreen's DVD

Front DVD cover

Back DVD cover

It was a good thing that we've recorded as much as we can in the beginning till now, I've compiled most of the useful and important stuff into a DVD and made a nice cover. So we decide to make this our vol. 1 collection and hope to continue doing so for her. Papa and mama hope you will cherish these memories later on in life.

We love you baby.

Probiotix Biolife

Expensive stuff

Mui Jie advised us to use this product Probiotix Biolife reuteri drops, according to her baby whom are fed this the first month will have better digestion, reducing stomach sensitivity and also reduce colic problem later on. Its quite expensive and rather difficult to find. I went to 6 pharmacy and non of them carry this product including Guardian, Caring and watson.

Finally found a pharmacy at Pudu, its Holistic Pharmacy opp Pudu Plaza, but need to be special order. Took 5 days for them to bring in the product and a very very tiny bottle cost us RM110 (wow). But lucky we only need to give Noreen 1 bottle, next time we will just replace with vitagen (hehehe).

Noreen finished her Probiotix last week, and we've no idea how much it help as she is our fisrt baby and nothing else to compared to, hopefully it does booast her immune system and digestion.

Mui Jie Coconut herbal chicken soup

Mui Jie, Noreen and Lita

Mui Jie special recipe coconut chicken herbal soup

Our confinement lady, Mui jie came visit us again, this time she made coconut chicken herbal soup for lita, again it look so delicious, and with a taste to back it up. We chatted till quite late both of us bombarding her with question on what to do next with Noreen, when we can remove her boxing?, how to weaned her from breast milk to powdered milk?, how to prepare powdered milk? (gosh how amature we both are (facepalm)hahaha).

We told her Noreen is very "tiuman" refusing to sleep on her bouncinet or playpen, she wants to be carry all day long. Mui Jie says we need to train her, must have a harden heart to ignore her when she cry. Well I duno how harden we can be, Noreen is so manja when she cry.

Poh Poh Says Noreen look like notty girl

Litas mom says Noreen look so notty, hahaha. Yea, she is really a "tiuman". Update some notty girls pic.

Manja Girl

Last week we had a small panic, Noreen's stool was quite watery, Lita and me were getting very concern as everything is so new to us. We called Dr. Margaret and she told us to keep a watchout, lucky thing it was only due to her not agreeing to Lita's diet, it all went back to normal 3 days later.

Noreen is getting more and more manja, she will refuse to sleep on her bouncinet for more than 10 minutes and start calling for attention, she's getting on Lita's nerve, want to be carry and she will sleep peacefully. Now thinking should we go back to the traditional sarong (baby hammock)? meanwhile we take this opportunity to make her cry in the evening so we get a better sleep later at nite (how sadistic parents we are)

1st week on our own

ui jieThis is day 7 without Mui Jie:

In the beginning it was return of the zombie, Noreen kept crying in the night, we tried all we learned to pacify her. But all else failed. We were really getting panic on what to do. We tried the last tactic we had in our bag. We would wake her up around 7pm and keep disturbing her when she wants to sleep. In the beginning she was feeling so frustrated that she kept crying when she was unable to sleep. But after the 3rd day it seem to work. So till today its been a week we would play and disturb her from 7pm and only around 11pm we would let her sleep, she will be so tired that Noreen will only wake up twice around 2am and 6am for feeding and changing, after that she will continue her sleep without disturbing us. This waking up twice is considered luxury to us.

Today Mui Jie came visit us, it was so thoughtful of her, and she kept nagging us for not keeping the crib tidy. We had unwashed cloths and tissue everywhere, she again start work and clean up the crib and clean up Noreen. We told her about her night crying and she said I thought I already teach you two how to handle? We look at each other and laugh, when Noreen was crying in the nite we were in panic and forgot everything she taugh us.

So Mui Jie again remind us to check whenever continous crying if her forehead and feet were feeling cold. If yes than we are to give her a quater of the Eu Yan Sang Bo Yin Dan. Means she has wind in her stomach. And we should rub some Yu Yee oil on her tummy, back and forehead. Gosh we've completely forgotten everything.

She was so kind, she even bought Noreen some cloths.

Fullmoon Gathering

Lita, Noreen, Janet, Chris, Mom, Jo and Kiki (under the table)

Noreen's Raspberry Chesscake

Noreen's present from family

Mom and Dad's first present

We gave her a cow

Today is Noreens Fullmoon, we had a simple family gathering, Mui Jie did the cooking for us. Noreen get her first present from mom and dad. I had another splitting headache today and didnt manage to snap much picture.

This also mean today is the last day Mui jie will be helping us to take care of Noreen, I told Mui Jie I'll have to move to her house.

Its been a month now and the feeling of a new born baby is still pretty new, rushing to buy things we left out, going from hyper market to hyper market looking for the cheaper diaper is a norm in my life now, I've never went near baby dept in my life and now it seem whenever I walk into carrefour or Jusco this is the first place I visit. In fact now I can memorize the price of diapers!!!

Sai Sou Day

Mama bathing Noreen with Pamelo Leaves

Mui Jie cutting Noreen's hair

This is a chinese tradition that I've never heard of, Mui Jie told us that when baby is born for the first month is pantang period very "sou" I cant seem to find this in english. So today is the day where we wash off the pantang and Noreen can go kai kai.

The ritual is very simple, everyone need to bath in pamelo leaves, this include Kiki we ask?

Noreen have her first haircut and we kept her hair in an angpow.

Chicken chop

To my susrprise Mui Jie made Chicken Chop ala carte, looks good, and taste heavenly.