Since the arrival of little 17chipmunks, much cooking gas has been used mainly for boiling water. The cooking gas has been used up quite quickly and we called the new cooking gas supplier that we found. Once again, they are really efficient. This time we got the sticker and for those who are looking for cooking gas supplier, you may contact them. Currently, the big tank of gas cost RM30.
IT has been a week since I posted something. Well, for one, I did not go out to consume things/ services during my confinement (so to say), so I have no reviews at the current moment. Secondly, I have been tired and couldn’t think of a topic or two to write. Finally, besides the colicky baby, I currently have a baby that is undergoing growth spurt. Never came into my mind that such thing could happen to babies, but after several researches – found that it is “normal” so to speak.
What happens during growth spurt? In the case of little 17chipmunks, she goes very hungry, very soon – that is almost every hour, every day, and luckily most of the time, it is just the day time. So, I am “stuck” with the baby sucking my breasts like almost an hour. Then, I need to burp and make her go to bed or play with her. It is really exhausting. It is more “frustrating” when she wants comfort sucking and did not let go. And, I did the most guilty thing – twice (sadly), I did scold her. Well, she is such an innocent baby – and I think she didn’t want it to be so. My bad.
From the researches, it says that growth spurt lasts for a couple of days in five occasions during the first year. However, mine – don’t seem to “end”. But, good news is that she is growing healthily – from my exclusive breastfeeding. She has gained about 27% of her birth weight in 25 days and turn to an average size baby from a small size baby. I am proud of myself for being able to feed her well.
Currently, my little one has phlegm on her throat. Prays that she will be able to get rid of the phlegm soon.
And, yeah, she is going to reach her first month soon!
I am sharing her cheeky face here. I have fallen in love with my baby. ❤
On the day we went home, Dr Fatima has asked me to do a follow up check up with her in two weeks time. And, so, we had the appointment with Dr Fatima last Saturday (we brought forward the day of check up so that hubby can go to work on Monday). At the same time, we also brought little 17chipmunks for her follow up check up with Dr Syed. We knew that there would be a long wait at Dr Fatima’s clinic, so we took the queue number, which were 12 before proceeding to Dr Syed’s clinic. After the visit at Dr Syed’s clinic, the queue has merely moved to number 4. So, we waited almost 1 and half hours before my turn.
Once seeing Dr Fatima, she asked about “how’s life?”, which we told her a dramatic change. This is so true as we used to have breakfast at the mamak below the hospital on each visit at Dr Fatima’s clinic – but on that day, we woke up to get little 17chipmunks ready and had our breakfast at home.
We proceed to Dr Fatima looking at my wound. At the same time, she was glad that I was exclusively breastfed our baby and said once the first baby, I am able to do so – the second child will be easier. She also gave advice on how to store breast milk and so forth. I really like how she care and concern about her patient. After looking at the wound, she helped to clean up abit and told me to scrub away those “tread” that appear on top of the wound.
After cleaning up the wound, she spoke about family planning to us. She recommended that we should plan our family as soon as possible, as I am having endometriosis and also fibroid (size around 3-4cm), which hubby actually saw during the delivery process. However, since I had c-section, it is best to have our second child after two years – it is also so that attention can be given to little 17chipmunks, she says. We were introduced several prevention methods. She did not prescribed any medicine but wrote down the names for us – telling us that we can obtain those medicine from any pharmacy (meaning she is being independent with her advice). Given the presence of endometriosis in me, the best method for me, as per her suggestion, is to take Noriday, since I plan to breastfeed and so that I would not have problem conceiving in the future. At the end, she advised me to return for a paps smear test in two months time.
For those interested:
If you plan to take hormone pills and do not plan to breastfeed, Dr Fatima recommends “Yasmin”.
If you plan to get hormone injection, which is 100% accurate, it will be RM60 per jab taken three times in a year.
If you plan to do hormone implant, it will be RM600 for a span of three years.
If you plan to insert an intrauterine device, it will be RM200.
The prices are as at Jan 2013 and at Dr Fatima’s clinic.
I personally want to handle my confinement alone because I don’t want to abide by the unnecessary traditions that could/ would definitely be imposed by the elderly. I did not want to have a confinement lady because I heard many of horror stories about them and that I did not want to be nagged unnecessary plus I wanted to save cost. But the main reason is I wanted to exclusively breastfeed little 17chipmunks – if I were to have people around me that have lacking of exclusively breastfeed knowledge – it will definitely failed. When anyone offered to give help, I actually ignored or refused them. The most that we went was to have a confinement caterer.
Two days after the arrival of little 17chipmunks, I was rather depressed as I could not handle my little one totally alone because I was still in pain. This was because the emergency c-section was totally not in mind at the first place. At the end, I got my mum to stay with us for about 5 nights. Well, totally appreciate her presence to guide me – but all the 5 nights, I did handle little 17chipmunks independently and alone – hubby was still not too well at that time. At the same time, we got the confinement caterer food sent to our place – with mum presence, she tends to boil additional soup or drink for me. And, if mother in law comes, so will she bring food. Nevertheless, their practices did go against mine actually such as bathing baby in herbal bath and Guinness stout. However, I managed to “save” little 17chipmunks from being bathed in Guinness stout – thanks to Dr Syed’s advice, right in front of hubby. Also, it seems so funny that when it comes to my confinement period, everyone has someone they know that did not follow the confinement tradition and end up suffering. Well, I should reserve this page and re-post in 20-30 years time – and tell everyone if I regretted not following the tradition – for example, did I get migraine because I washed my hair and air entered into my head.
I am also annoyed with remarks such as:
Thankfully, this is just own parents. If more relatives come into place, there will be more havoc.
Thereafter mum’s five night stay, we had the nights ourselves – but most nights, it was me only because I am the only one that could latch the little one and feed her – through breastfeeding. After the week when hubby had his paternity leave, it left me and baby – with occasional visits from my parents, which I saw as totally inconvenient especially with the presence of my dad when I want to breastfeed freely at home. After that, my parents went holiday and left me alone. On the first day, little 17chipmunks started to have colic attack – I really did not know how to handle the crying and made me cried as well – till hubby has to return home from work or he sends his sister to accompany me. I really never expected such stress that could cause depression. It was heartache seeing my baby suffering and not knowing what I can do for her. At the same time, I started thoughts like – losing my freedom and became burdensome to hubby – and did my decision to handle confinement myself correct. Over the weekend, I eventually overcome it – when hubby went off to fetch his mum and did shopping for me.
I have handles little 17chipmunks and the colickly her since Monday alone. I am getting used to it. I just feel quite troublesome waiting for Tracey to send me the food – because at times, it coincide with baby’s feeding time – but, the wait is worth it as I definitely have no time to cook for myself.
Hope I will be fine in the rest of the month(s). And, I pray that little 17chipmunks will suffer less with her colic condition. Please bless her. Amen.
I was chatting/ discussing with members of The Breastfeeding Advocates Network and found that a baby t-shirt that states “Mom’s milk is the best” attractive. I asked the member where she got it from and she referred me to Fabulous Mum. And, so I began surfing the website.
This is my first online purchase with Fabulous Mum and also my first purchase after little 17chipmunks is born. After going through their items (I am not totally sure how “cheap” they are, as I am more attracted to get the t-shirt for the little one), I emailed to ask them about the courier fee. Well, they replied and said that it will be a minimum of RM5.85 within Klang Valley. In addition to this email response, I did email them to ask about swim diaper – if they were unisex. They replied and said yes.
Nevertheless, at the end, I bought just the t-shirt and (2 pieces of) nursing bracelet (which reminds me which side of breast was last fed). They cost RM15.90 and RM13.80 respectively. Inclusive of the postage fee, the total spending was RM35.55. The payment can be made either bank transfer or credit card. I choose to make the payment via Maybank transfer. I made the payment on Monday and the order was processed yesterday. And, I just received the parcel during lunch time (around 1 something). Well, I am truly impressed by the speed and satisfied with this first purchase. I will look forward to the next purchase if there is great bargain and provided I am at home to receive the parcel.
I made this purchase back in November 2012 (to be exact 17 November 2012). I made numerous attempts to get my parcel – which include dialing in to the retailer – Mandy, sms her, email her and Jackcow. I really got very fed up with such a retailer – who sucks to the max on their service. In addition, Jackcow has not been very effective in handling this issue. They even ignored my email till I went on live chat with them. This is officially the worst online purchase from discount sites ever since 17chipmunks is formed. It is totally disappointing. Guess, in the future, there is less possibility for me to purchase items from Jackcow especially that need to be courier to our mailing address.
The retailer:
This was the emails liaising with them:
Hi there!
I would like to seek for a refund as I HAVE NOT receive my parcel up till today and it is close to 2 months – and even after my baby has been delivered.
Kindly do something about this. Thanks.
XXX
On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 4:47 PM, XXX <XXX@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi there,
If the item has been sent out, can you please ask your merchant to at least send me the tracking number? it is so annoying that you and your merchant is not answering my emails.
Thanks.
On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 9:55 AM, XXX <
XXX@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi there,
I have not receive any updates or the parcel yet. It is 5 days now from the day you emailed me. Kindly please RESOLVE this issue for me, or otherwise, kindly refund me. thanks.
XXX
On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 3:05 PM, Jack of JackCow <support@jackcow.com> wrote:
Dear XXX,
Thanks for your email.
We will follow up on this for you. This delivery is being done by our merchant. Kindly please hold on for a day more while we check up on this for you.
Your patience is highly appreciated.
Regards,
Jack
From: XXX [mailto:XXX@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 9:26 PM
To: support@jackcow.com
Cc: mandyhouse85@hotmail.com;
Subject: Fwd: 5 pcs of Adjustable Baby Cloth Diaper – Coupon No: 38991134
Hi,
I made the purchase on Nov 17. And, after this email, a call and two sms (to ask for my tracking number), I have yet to receive my items. How can I resolve this?
It is more than 21 days already.
My details are as below.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: XXX <XXX@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 10:33 PM
Subject: 5 pcs of Adjustable Baby Cloth Diaper – Coupon No: 38991134
To: mandyhouse85@hotmail.com
Hi,
I would like to check if my purchase has been delivered. I made the purchase from Jack Cow on 17 Nov.
And, the items should be delivered to:
YYY
Hope to hear from you. Thanks.
This was the livechat with Jackcow:
This was the email I received right after I went livechat with Jackcow (how coincident?):
I have replied them my voucher number and password, and I wonder how long it will take for me to get my refund and how the refund will be given!!!!
Finally, I found a reliable alternative cooking gas supplier. Well, how do I get to know the supplier? He was actually sending cooking gas to other tenant(s) in our condo area. I asked him for the contact and he gave me the shop’s phone number – which is 03-7874 7104.
I have used their service twice so far after failing to contact Usagas. And, so far, it is an excellent service – they come as promised and on time. The man hasn’t given be their name card, but he told me that their shop is located at SS5, Petaling Jaya. Hope this could be our long time supplier.
It is my wish to handle my confinement period myself because I did not want to be obstructed to do things because of “tradition”. I had an open discussion in the TBAN facebook and was told that I had to at least have good and nutritious food during the one month period. And, someone by the name of Cathrine actually asked me to write to her if I were interested in confinement catering. Well, I wrote to her and the confinement food is under Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness Sdn Bhd. This is the first that I enquire actually. I also enquired with SHL Confinement Meal Services via Janet Chow in June.
Price comparison:
SHL Confinement Meal Services charges RM2,100 + RM400 delivery fee for 28 days or RM1,150 + RM200 delivery fee for 14 days
Optional: Just add on RM180 if you wish to have 14 days of Vitality Drinks (1.5L per day) or RM330 for 28 days.
While
Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness Sdn Bhd charges RM1,350 for 14 days, which include transportation fee and vitality drinks or RM2,500 for 28 days, , which include transportation fee and vitality drinks
At the end, I choose Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness Sdn Bhd, as I find it is possible to negotiate the terms with Cathrine.
Before I officially made the confirmation, I wrote down the terms and pre-agreed before I made the transfer of deposits. I wrote the email:
I would like to confirm my booking:
HW Confinement Menu (with pork liver and intestines) for 14 day, 2 meals per day includes 2 mains, 2 veg, herbal soup & tea (food does not include rice) @ RM 1350
with the following conditions:
· Payment of 50% (RM675) as deposit to CIMB, Ac No: 1471-000-4331-055, Name: Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness Sdn Bhd.
· Remaining (RM675) to be paid upon first delivery of food.
· I would be provided with receipts (either soft or hard copy) for each payment made.
· The total payment is inclusive of transportation charges.
· I would need to provide at least two days advance notice before the food to be delivered on the first day.
· With the flexibility to extend to 28 days on Day 7 – by paying the additional RM1,150 (which is the difference of RM2,500 and RM1,350).
· In the case where I do not wish to extend to 28 days, I would need to complete the remaining days (of the 14 days) without refund.
· Provide Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness Sdn Bhd two(2) days notice for the first delivery of food
o Contact point: Cathrine (XXX)
o My estimated due date: 4 Jan 2013
· Delivery address: XXX
· Contact numbers: XXX
· Delivery to door step.
· Food packaging: Food delivered in tiffin carrier provided by Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness.
· Estimated daily time of delivery: Between 10am and 1pm.
· Terms if there’s failure to deliver in any one day during the said period: Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness will replace the day that food is not delivered. Usually if there is a public holiday Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness do not deliver and will just replace the day. However, 1st Jan is an exception.
Kindly revert with “Hampden & Kidderpore Wellness agrees with the terms” before I made the deposit transfer. Thanks a lot.
– – –
And soon after the email confirmation, I transferred the deposit amount to the company’s account. On the day of delivery, coincidently, Cathrine sent me a sms wishing me for a smooth delivery. I told her that I would be going for emergency c-section, and supposed to get home after 3 days and asked if hubby needed to re-confirm with her again, which she responded by saying it would be better to confirm.
As I was still in pain, we could not really confirm the date when we will be going home. So, instead of giving a day in advance notice, hubby actually called Cathrine if it is possible for food delivery the day after, which was possible. And, so, the delivery of food began on 1 January 2013.
The food is delivered by Tracey,who actually cooked the food. She comes around 12.30pm (sometimes hubby got inpatient, and called Cathrine/ her to ask her whereabout). We were rather surprised that instead of just delivering the food, Tracey actually stepped into the house to see the baby and see my condition; in addition to find out if there’s anything that I don’t consume. Overtime, I find that she became kind of nosy, giving me a lot of traditional advice, which I wished to avoid at the first place.
After consuming the food for 7 days – well, I find it overall – average. What’s different is their soup and vitality drinks. The food wise – such as pork, chicken, fish and vege – well, they are more or less economy rice kind of food served – but with more ginger or tailor-designed for confinement. We decided to extend it – as we want to save the hassle of someone handling my food – not that they are above average (seriously). Is it worth the price? Well, difficult to say – about RM80-RM100 per day, well, taking into consideration of their profiting motive and also transportation fee – well, I think it should be bearable, but hubby seems not too agree with it.
In my confirmation sms to Cathrine, I did drop her a note that I would prefer if Tracey could nag me less, though I could understand her well intention. Eventually, Tracey did tone down.
Well, today is the 11th day, there will be another 17 days of food catering for me. We did not notify her that we would be away for some days – possibly back to in laws – and if we could replace the dates – which Cathrine mentioned the possibility with early notice to Tracey. Well, one thing for sure – they could adjust to my request accordingly. When I did not like the ikan haruan, hubby just told her off and she says that she will adjust accordingly. Also, when the portion isn’t sufficient, hubby just informed them.
Source: homegrownbabies.com
17chipmunks has attended four breastfeeding sessions during pregnancy. The sessions were from Klinik Kesihatan Kelana Jaya, Antenatal class at Kelana Jaya Medical Centre, Gina Yong’s breastfeeding class and Breastfeeding talk @ 4th Maternity and Children Expo. I have a very big dream of exclusively breastfeed my baby, not for the sake of cost savings but also the health benefits for little 17chipmunks. I, once wrote on facebook, that I “hopefully can”; while my friend who has been advocating breastfeeding told me that “there is no hopefully. If you think you can, you can”.
Even when we showed Dr Fatima our birth plan, she told us (which was a little discouraging/ demotivating) that it is difficult to just breastfeed on the first few days, especially on the first few days. And, she did not agree on spoon feeding either on the first two days in hospital – saying that the midwives will bottle feed the babies. However, she said that the babies will be brought to us for breastfeeding (which they actually do so upon request and not before they start bottle feed) and advises us to try latching the baby and never give up.
Due to the emergency c-section, I did not have the energy (because paralyzed half body) to let little 17chipmunks to suckle my nipple for the first few hours. It was later in the night and the day after that little 17chipmunks was brought to me for the breastfeeding. It was the second day when the midwife started to squeeze my boob that I actually saw colostrums. I think I have gave the “best” to little 17chipmunks – colostrums on the first few days, even though she wasn’t exclusively breastfed.
After we have gone home, my parents (and in some part hubby) were in particularly worried that little 17chipmunks will go on hunger. They actually bought formula milk in addition to the samples given by the hospital. I was rather sad of the decision but I had no choice – because I was still in pain (from the wound) and really I can’t bear seeing little 17chipmunks crying. On the first day back at home, it was seriously a horrible night. Baby was crying none stop – even after given formula milk and she kept wanting to suckle my nipples. The two care takers – being my mum and hubby – were KO-ed. At the end, I hugged my little one to sleep – and yes, she felt asleep on my chest. I think she was still rather insecure and unfamiliar with the new environment. The day after, things went better – my milk started to come in – thanks to little 17chipmunks’ effort in suckling my nipples. Thereafter, little 17chipmunks has been exclusively breastfed till now.
Not many people could understand what exclusively breastfeeding is, but I continue to hope that whatever I do now is benefiting to little 17chipmunks’ health. Hope she grows up well. Even World Health Organisation WHO advocates exclusive breastfeeding.
Mummy and papa loves you, little 17chipmunks!
Yesterday was a rather tough day – little 17chipmunks was not feeling particularly well. She was wailing whenever I put her down. I let her suckle my breast for more than an hour, but there wasn’t anything else that I could do to calm her down. Then when I was trying to burp her, noticed some rashes around her shoulder and neck; became a little panic. I immediately informed hubby about that and according to his colleagues that recently gave birth to babies – they are normal. Later on, my mum came to visit little 17chipmunks and we noticed that the rashes were getting worse – we decided to send her to Dr Syed. Nevertheless, upon arrival at Dr Syed’s office, we were told that he will only be available in the evening. Given that there is a paediatrician below KJMC, we decided to proceed to the clinic.
The clinic’s opening hour for the noon session is 2.30pm to 4.30pm. However, we were early, that is 2pm. We were allowed in to the clinic by the nurse/ assistant. A simple form was filled. We were told that Dr Cheng will be back by 2.45pm. We waited till 3pm only Dr Cheng returned – and hubby managed to rush to the clinic. Seriously, the doctor is not punctual, and he called back to say he will be back in 2 minutes; but it was instead 20 minutes later.
Well, Dr Cheng did do a detailed check up on little 17chipmunks. He diagnosed the little one as having heat rashes (which was obviously to me – as both my mum and mum-in-law wanted us to swaddle the baby though the baby obviously did not like and felt hot). He did other check up – and said that baby has sensitive nose and stomach was bloated with air (his diagnosis is rather more Chinese diagnosis). We told him about baby’s often hiccup – and he explained some crap – and I told him I wanted to exclusively breastfeed the baby (and he seems to ignore that). He says that baby needs to drink some water after the breastmilk. Does he know what exclusive breastfeeding is? I got quite agitated – because of his “stupidness” and my tiredness. I said right in front of him that “I won’t be giving her water”. He responded by saying “what’s wrong with water?” and he said that rudely to me. I told him again about “exclusive breastfeeding” but he was just again ignorant or has need not heard about it? If not of hubby’s trying to comfort me, I think a commotion will probably happen.
The medicine and payment were given and paid in his room – not like usual clinics. He doesn’t seem to be a Western medical practitioner – his practice seems emphasise more on Chinese traditions – which again annoyed me – talking about not possible for mother to drink water but the Chinese herbal drinks. It makes no sense when he asked what’s wrong with water for the baby and then now insisted that mummy not drinking water.
Well, overall, though he did diagnose some of the things correctly, I did not like his attitude towards the traditional way of confinement (while he should be more medical proven kind of doctor) and also his reaction against exclusive breastfeeding (still wonder if he knows what it means). I would return to this doctor if only we have an emergency; and unlikely to take him as our family paediatrician. And, we certainly did not like his unpunctuality.
For those who did not understand the reason why I am “against” feeding water to my little 17chipmunks, please refer to this article titled: “Guidelines for offering water to breastfed babies” at http://kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/baby-water/
Read more: Return visits to Dr Cheng’s clinic
17chipmunks 