Motherhood: Nursing Wear Idea

After becoming a total breastfeeding mum, I realised that I need to revamp/reinvent my wardrobe! Does this feel like a familiar situation to mummies who direct latch? 

Some might think that this is the perfect reason (or excuse) to go shopping. I think so too :p But personally, I want to minimise my spendings on nursing wear to stretch my dollar. 

In case you are wondering, I have regained my pre-pregnancy figure. The reason for me not being able to wear some pieces as I would used to is because they do not facilitate nursing. Here are 2 photos of such pieces:

My solution? I did buy a couple of nursing wears (mostly for formal occasions), but I try to reinvent my wardrobe where possible. 

Full body dress without frontal access

High neck

I am sure a lot of nursing mummies out there also reinvent their wardrobe. So, my reinvention might ring a bell to you. Anyway (apologies for the unglamorous shots), this is what I do with my stretchable T-shirts and tank tops/tube tops/spaghetti strap tops/camisoles:

Wear baggy shirt over tank tops/camisoles/spaghetti strap tops

Nursing in progress 1

Nursing in progress 2

As you can see, my T-shirt doubled-up as my nursing cover (one less thing to bring around!). The one great thing about this "nursing cover" is that your baby cannot flip it away and expose you while doing it ;) You can either cover just your baby's head, or even include her arm (See Nursing in progress 1 and 2 photos above respectively). When nursing, just pull down the neck hole of the tank top/tube top/spaghetti strap top/camisole and adjust your bra to allow your baby access. 

Do take note to choose T-shirts which do not trap too much heat unless you are going to be in a colder environment. Else, your baby will feel very hot being inside the T-shirt! By the way, you can see your baby through the neck hole of the T-shirt :) 

How do you reinvent your wardrobe? Hope you find this idea useful :) Happy nursing :)

Motherhood: Play Mat Review

When my girl did her 1st flip and turn at 4th month, I felt that the play mat I bought for her is finally going to be of use. From my trips to baby fairs and kids' stores, play mat typically costs above S$75. Hence, I turned to online sources.

I am a Qoo10 person (though many swear by Taobao). Do note that price fluctuates (and sometimes the same vendor sets different prices for the same product!) at Qoo10. So personally, my strategy is to buy my desired quality of the lowest price. Of course, it must cost less than those sold offline. If I have the time, I might take the risk of waiting for the vendor to set a lower price.

A quick search yielded me quite a list. FYI, I excluded the play mats which are foldable (since I already have a Seahorse foldable mattress) or require me to piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle. Cost wise, my budget was at most S$75.

Below is a snapshot of the comparison table I created when I was deciding which to purchase:

Cut border

In the end, I bought a Proby:

The play mat in my house

The play mat in my in-law's house

Why a Proby? Its 22mm thickness is the thickest among those which I researched both off- and online. Back then, I was thinking thicker should be better (since they all claimed to be great shock absorbers). Price, design and reviews from other buyers are also the determining factors. Personal preference for cut border played a part. Plus I wanted an educational play mat that teaches my girl both numbers and alphabets.

Just a note, the shipping time is typically 2 to 3 days if the seller is based locally in Singapore. But, Proby took about a week since the seller is based in Korea.

The packaging

Vegetarianism: Concerns over Vitamin B12

I am a vegetarian (specifically an lacto-ovo vegetarian, LOV) since birth because my parents are vegetarians, and now by choice by choice.

Under the Vegetarianism sub-header is where I will blog about anything related to vegetarianism, such as health-related readings, recipes, local eateries which I have tried, etc. As for overseas eateries, they will be shared under Travel.

Some quick background first. There are many types of vegetarian diets [1]:

Today's reading is on vitamin B12, triggered by my dinner conversation with my husband. First, he mentioned that vitamin B12 are only found naturally in animal products. Then, he shared his concerns over the lack of vitamin B12 due to our diet, especially more so for our little girl. Although people has raised this concern to me umpteen times during my years as a LOV, I was never concerned enough to read up on it seriously since I felt nothing out of sorts.

Out of concern, I did a web search on vitamin B12 and found a couple of useful resources.  I will share some of the links under the References section of this post. The gist which I gathered is that animals, plants and fungi are incapable of producing vitamin B12. Deficiency of it results in damages to brain and nervous system. It can be found in food because of bacterial symbiosis, since only bacteria and archaea have the enzymes to synthesise it [2][3]. Food sources with vitamin B12 available to vegetarians are fermented food, food fortified with vitamin B12, eggs and diary products [4][5][6].

Conclusion? The effects of deficiency in vitamin B12 is not to be belittled (It concerns the brain and nervous system! That sounds serious enough for me!) Since I am an LOV, I am getting some vitamin B12 (albeit lower than non-vegetarians). Hence, our little girl would probably be getting her vitamin B12 from my breastmilk then. Just got to remind myself to consciously eat food containing vitamin B12 and supplement with multivitamins.

References:

1. Wikipedia - Vegetarianism
2. Wikipedia - Vitamin B12
3. VeganHealth - Vitamin B12: Are you getting it?
4. Healthaliciousness - Top 5 Natural Vegetarian sources of Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
5. Healthaliciousness - Vegan Sources of Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
6. Vegan Health - More vegan vitamin B12 food sources

Motherhood: Our Bundle of Joy

April 2014 was a magical month which my husband and I welcomed our little girl, Qianwei, into this world.

Before she arrived, I was working as a senior editor at Marshall Cavendish Education (MCE). I have seen many mothers at MCE wearing numerous hats: mother, wife, daughter, etc. Hence, I planned to be a full-time-working-mother (FTWM).

After she arrived, I made the decision to leave publishing and became a stay-at-home-mother (SAHM). The choice was personal and I enjoyed every moment of it (of course excluding the loss of income).

Her Full Month celebration photo
(Photo credit: With thanks to my dear ex-student James Ho)

Her motion-picture selfie

Her cute we-fie with her father at 3rd month

Our we-fie taken during her 1st overseas tour in Phuket at 3rd month

Her growth over her initial 5 months

Her 1st swim

Being new to parenthood, we have much to learn and grow together. We look forward to enjoying many joyful and meaningful moments with her for the days to come (: