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We brought her back to our new house this week! In the past few days leading up to this weekend, I’d been running around like a madwoman trying to get everything ready. We’d already bought her cot and a lovely bedding set, but I had to buy extra diapers, clothes, blankets, milk powder, rice cereal, etc. etc. etc….so exhausted it’s not funny. But it was more than worth it! I was so happy to have her home, even though it was only for the weekend…she slept on our bed on Saturday night and seeing her face when I woke up the next morning was the best feeling in the world!

We also finally started her on cloth diapers this week! I washed and dried the diapers three times before passing them on to my mum to try to ensure maximum absorbency. Unfortunately, within the first 2 days, we’d already had four ‘accidents’… The thing about my girl is that she hardly pees when she sleeps (which is not a bad thing). But when she wakes up…flood alert! I think I probably didn’t put enough inserts into the diapers hence the leaks.

However, cleaning the pee-soiled diapers is easy, just remove the inserts and throw the lot into the washing machine. Cleaning the poo-soiled diaper…hmm…it was abit icky at first, but I got over it. After all, it’s the product of what we feed her…haha…! I just held the diaper above the toilet bowl and used the bidet spray to wash off the poo, soaked it overnight and then threw it along with the next day’s diapers into the washing machine. I suppose cloth diapers are a lot about trial and error…certain ones work, certain ones doesn’t…but it’s abit hard to experiment if I’m not the one using it on her most of the time…sigh….

After much researching, I finally bought a Stokke Tripp Trapp for Elena to use in our new house. I like the idea of her being able to ‘eat’ at our dining table together with us, and the feedback that I read about Stokke from the net has been really good. I bought mine from Bebehaus @ 1U…decided to go for the full monty…the chair, the baby set, cushion, harness and the plastic table top that has interchangeable bases. What color? Red!

I initially had fears about the chair tipping backwards, and it didn’t help when I found some videos on YouTube showing exactly that. However, when I ‘tested’ it at the shop, I found that the feedback and instructions in the manual was right…as long as the floor is smooth, the chair will move backwards instead of tipping. But if there’s something restricting the chair (I used my foot), then yes, it’ll probably tip backwards. Since we’ll be using it on our marble floor, I won’t have to worry about it tipping, plus our table doesn’t have an edge for Elena to push her legs against. Anyhow, children are not supposed to be left unsupervised in their high chairs in any case, so I’ll make sure I keep a watchful eye on her when she’s sitting in her Tripp Trapp!

Developmental wise, she’s now able to sit quite well by herself. However, we still have to sit behind her as she has a tendency to topple to the side sometimes (coz she bends her legs as if she’s trying to stand up), or to the back (coz she like to straighten her legs and arch her back). Her hair is finally growing thicker, but it’s still taking a really long time to grow longer. It’s quite stiff though…she definitely took after hubby in this aspect! Can’t wait till her hair grows longer…then I can start buying hair clips and hairbands…

The solid food journey continues! As Elena is quite prone to rashes and has had mild cases of eczema, instead of following the ‘wait-three-days-before-trying-new-food’ rule, we decided to extend it to one week before letting her try something new. This week, I prepared pureed organic carrots for her…I steamed the carrots and then mashed it through a sieve. Since babies won’t be on pureed food for a very long time, I thought I could get away with using a sieve vs. buying a hand blender. So wrong! My hands were so tired by the time I finished!

During the past week, my mom fed her during the day while I was at work and she told me that if I let Elena see the spoon going towards her mouth and say 1….2….she’ll obediently open her mouth at the ‘3’. I tried that on Saturday with the pureed carrots…and you know what happened? The minute she saw the spoon, she cried! And again, she started squirming to get out of her chair…I barely got anything into her mouth before I had to carry her out of the chair to pacify her! My mum had more success when we tried again during her next feed, but she took at most one teaspoonful of carrots before she started squirming to get out of the chair again. During the rest of the week when my mom fed her, she also did the same thing…ate a few spoonfuls and started squirming. I wonder if it’s the chair or the food?

This week was also the week Elena ‘found’ her voice. She has started screaming and squealing for no reason…actually, I wouldn’t say for no reason…I think she screams for fun! She’ll just look at you, open her mouth and screeeeeaaaaammmm till her face turns red! And boy…she is LOUD! My dad could hear her screaming as soon as he steps out of the elevator… Who would’ve thought my little angel would have the voice of a little devil?

The rash at the bottom of her chin never really subsided (it comes and goes) and it flared up quite badly at the beginning of the week so we brought her back to the child specialist again. This time, she prescribed a mild steroid cream to apply together with the intensive moisturizer (Cetaphil) that she prescribed last time…I was really apprehensive about using the steroid cream, but it reached a stage where the patch became really red and raw looking. I was so afraid that it would get worse so we applied a little bit of the steroid cream for two nights. As soon as it started improving, we stopped the steroid but continued on with the moisturizer…and yay, it worked! For the first time in a long long time, the rash disappeared and the skin at her chin became nice and smooth.

Developmental milestones…she’s learning how to sit! She still needs support, of course, but she’s getting quite steady in the tripod position (hands supporting her body)! Can’t wait for the day she can sit all by herself…then I’ll have a new angle for taking photos… !

After much thought, I finally bought her the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo. I’ve wanted to buy it for quite some time as I know she loves to ‘jump’ (she always kicks her legs whenever we carry her), but it’s so expensive! Furthermore, she won’t be able to use it for a long time as the weight limit is around 11kgs, though I suppose when she outgrows it, I can always sell it off. I did hunt around for other alternatives but this was the only one that allowed her to jump safely (vs. the jumpers that are attached to the doorframe) so I decided…what the heck…why go back to work if I can’t buy stuff for my darling girl whenever I want, right? In the end, I was so glad I purchased it!

It’s very sturdy, very colorful and although Elena looked abit apprehensive when we first put her in, she soon found her footing (literally) and she looked pretty happy in it!

Making the change to cloth diapers

After much research – reading reviews, forums, checking prices – I’ve finally purchased some cloth diapers to try out!

I first read lots of reviews…

…then I listed down the brands that I wanted to try, as well as the types (AIO & pocket – easier as my mom helps me to change Elena’s diapers as well)…

…then opened several tabs on Firefox to the shops that I was planning to buy from:
1. Mybabypitstop
2. Lil’ Danzell
3. Ezmotherhood
4. Tiny Tapir
5. Mia Bambina
…and compared all the prices…

…and shopped and shopped and shopped!

3 Blueberry Minky Bamboo Velour

3 Bitti D’lish AI2

2 Cushie Tushies AIO

2 BumGenius 3.0

1 Organic BumGenius AIO

1 Grobaby Shell Set

1 Rumparooz G2

1 Dream Eze AIO

1 Large and 1 Regular Wahmies wetbag, some inserts and boosters and wipes and 12 raw silk liners later, my bank account started to take on the appearance of one chicken egg…

OK, perhaps I didn’t purchase ‘some’, I purchased ‘quite a lot’…haha! But compared to the stash that some cloth mamas have, this is nothing (consoling myself and my bank account)!

My Bitti D’lish CDs arrived in the post today, and the rest of the diapers should be coming in the next two days or so. Will post pictures once all the diapers have arrived.

Next…to wash them for the first time, then my darling girl can have her little tushie covered in organic cotton and minky!

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time now. And no, it’s not because of the environment. I’ve read so many opinions about disposable vs. cloth and how each one affects the environment in it’s own way and I believe both has it’s pros and cons. It’s also not because of nappy rash as I’ve also read that both disposable and cloth diapers can cause nappy rash. It’s because…

CLOTH DIAPERS ARE SO DARN CUTE!!!

I’m just drooling and drooling over the assortment of different designs out there! And my head is spinning from all the different terms and types and materials and stuffings. All-In-Ones, pocket diapers, fitted diapers. Inserts. Boosters. Liners. Hemp. Bamboo. Terry. Minky.

So many brands! BumGenius. Imse Vimse. Minilala. Goodmama. GAD. Dream Eze. Happy Heiny. Blueberry.

Lots more research needs to be done! I need to read reviews! I need to figure out how many I need to go full-time into cloth diapering! I need to know what type of diapers to buy! I need to know how to use ‘em!

Whoever said using cloth diapers will work out cheaper than using disposable has gotta be kidding. With so many lovely lovely diapers out there, I think if I make the switch, I’ll end up spending more! I mean, who wouldn’t want to see their baby wearing something as adorable as this on her cute lil’ bum?

Photo from Blueberry’s website

Note: As I haven’t tried other pumps, this review will purely be a review on the PIS and not a comparison between pumps.

I bought the Medela PIS from The First Few Years in Singapore (@ Paragon) after doing some research online about breastpumps. It was a toss-up between Medela and Avent, however, I did not choose Avent as their bottles are not BPA-free (at that point in time). The Medela PIS has also garnered quite a lot of good reviews, plus it’s a dual and electric pump, both of which were criteria that I wanted in a pump.

Photo from The First Few Years

What I like:
1. There are not many parts to clean/sterilize, only four in total: the breast shield and funnel, the valve and the membrane.
2. It’s easy to put together, easy to use. Just attach the four parts above to the tubing, attach the tubing to the motor, turn the knob and pump away!
3. It uses Medela’s 2-phase expression system, which means for the first two minutes, the pump stimulates your baby’s initial suckling motion, ie. fast pumps, then once let down occurs, you can switch to the longer and more powerful pumps. I go back and forth between the two as I found I’m able to squeeze a little bit more milk when I do that.
4. The power of the suction can be adjusted. Most women do not have equal sized breasts, yours truly included, hence I need to tweak the suction slightly when I switch breasts.
5. It’s pretty quiet (at least it doesn’t disturb Elena when I pump while she sleeps).
6. If I remember correctly, you can use all standard sized bottles with this pump, so it’s not necessary to buy just Medela bottles. Medela also produces breastmilk storage bags that can be attached directly to the pump (it’s not cheap tho!).

What I dislike:
1. It’s not hands free if you’re dual-pumping, hence it’s very hard to adjust the suction if you’re halfway pumping. In the end, I usually resort to expressing one side followed by the other (which also leaves one hand free to surf the ‘net…but also defeats the purpose of buying a dual-pump… !).
2. The motor unit is not exactly very light.
3. And that’s all!

The set that I bought includes two extra membranes, and cooler bag and ice pack, four bottles and one teat, a battery pack (which I’ve never used coz it needs 8-10 batteries!)…and all of it fits into a nice black shoulder bag (see picture above) which I’ve also used as a diaper bag.

For the price I paid - the cheapest I could find in Singapore - I think it was definitely worth purchasing considering I get more use out of it than my handphone these days (yes, it costs about the same as a decent handphone)!