We survived our first vacation with the little one!

It was quite terrifying, thinking of all the possible things that could happen when going on a holiday with my baby. Him not being able to clear his ear pressures during the flight; giving me a poo explosion on the plane; screaming the plane down; not being able to sleep in a new hotel environment; going on a food strike and milk strike; screaming down the michelin star restaurants that we were planning to go; etc etc etc.

I'm more than overjoyed to say that we survived, with non of the above (at least, not much). And here's proof of my happy baby, with the beautiful skyline of hongkong behind. More about our trip and what I learnt in upcoming posts :)

15 FREE Toy Ideas for Babies Under 1

I am a strong proponent that our little ones do not need expensive toys to be happy nor to become smart. In fact, nature has the best and most sophisticated things that our child can explore and learn from. Before our child grows old enough to run around and explore the world, here are some great ideas of how you can entertain them with things that you can easily find around you - for FREE!

1. Metal biscuit tin with lid. Attach the lid on one end, and let loose another, Your child who can start flinging his hands with mildest amount of control can start hitting the lid to make sounds!
2. Curtains and wind. The variation in wind strength and direction makes the curtain move differently every moment. It captures even an adult's attention, let alone a baby!
3. Bubble wrap. Any plastic wrap is fun to scrunch and make sounds with, but a bubble wrap with different textures embedded in them adds much more fun. When they're older, bursting the bubbles adds a whole layer of fun to it too,
4. A bunch of keys. These are the favourite toys a father usually shares with his son. 
5. Balls. Mix all sorts of balls with different properties together - ping pong ball, tennis ball, soccer ball, balloon, paper ball etc. Let you child figure out how they behave differently!
6. A light chair that is tall. Watch your child closely with this. But when they can sit and are strong enough, they would love to move huge pieces of furniture around the house. Their ability to move things that are much large than them makes them feel extremely strong. Be right next to them to make sure the furniture do not fall on them though.
7. Ice. Babies are still learning about heat properties. So letting them touch ice is a huge exploration for them. Not only is it cold, it is slippery, and it gets smaller over time. If you're afraid ice is too cold, substitute it with a can of soft drink or an apple from the fridge. Anything that is cold, small enough for them to handle, but not too small to become a choking hazard. 
8. A container with trinkets in it. This could be marbles or wooden blocks or keys in a little plastic container. Basically anything that can be shaken and makes sounds when the baby does so. Try a variety of items to make different sounds. In my case, it even included diaper rash cream tubes in their respective paper boxes, and dental retainers in its plastic container!
9. Thick plastic containers of toy boxes. By this I mean those plastic covers that come with a new toy, where the toy sits in a box with the front all cut out, but covered with a layer of plastic so shoppers can see the toy without touching nor damaging it. That thick plastic is less prone to breaking, and tends to have interesting curves to them. They are nice for grabbing and making loud sounds, or (when edges are safely taped up so they are not sharp) nice to look through to see the world all distorted. I don't quite like giving my son this because it can be sharp and a hazard, but he LOVES looking at the world through this. Kaleidoscopes next time :)
10. Any semi-hard surface. Good for drumming. Different surfaces give different sounds when hit upon. Hit with your palm to show your baby how to make sounds on the table or the chair or the overturned bowl. Soon, he'll be smacking everything to make his own orchestra
11. Netting. This can be found on most playpens, or cot bumpers. Teach your baby to look through the netting, or even press your face into it. Again, perception of the world changes, and see the funny faces that emerge from the other side of the netting! :P
12. Flour and water. Mix food flour and clean water to a nice, dough-ey consistency that keeps it in a piece but is not overly sticky. Add food coloring if you like. This rare texture will be fun for all babies and toddlers. And you don't have to worry about them sticking it into their mouth. Babies will be more interested in the texture and the random flour powder falling out. Toddlers will like making different shapes and other things they do with regular playdoh. 
13. Bubble bath and a ziplock bag. Squeeze a drop of bubble bath into a ziplock. Lather up the bubble by adding suitable amount of water. Zip it up and let your baby play with bubbles while keeping all dry and clean! Make it interesting by adding some food coloring to it. 
14. A container full of water. Babies love splashing in water. Watch your child closely so they don't risk dry drowning. 
15. A piece of velcro. The different textures on the 2 sides of velcro, and how they stick together and tear apart with a unique sound, is bound to entertain for a long time. 

Please note that all of the above ideas will still require close parental supervision. Play with your child!

3 Certain Signs of Labour

This is the most common question for first time mummies. There are many MANY different possible signs of labor - loose stools, cramps, leakage, tummy 'dropping' etc... but none of these are certain. The most certain signs of labor are only the below 3, taught to me by my gynae:

1. Bleeding. It can start off as spotting at first. But once it becomes a patch of blood (like the start of menses), it's time to leave for the hospital. 
2. Water bag bursting. This is the sign that has received the most 'publicity' (re: movies and dramas). What we see most on media is when the water bag has a big hole, and there is a gush of fluid. It is hard to miss that. However, it can also be that the defect on the water bag is small, and fluid slowly leaks or drips from the vagina. It will be continuous and cannot be controlled, unlike urine. If you experience either case, put on some pads like during a period, and start to leave for the hospital. 
3. Contraction pains. Apparently this is the most confusing of the three, since pains can be observed throughout pregnancy (and also during our regular menses!). How to differentiate labor pains from baby's kicking, from tummy upsets or pelvic pains from the heavy tummy?Firstly, these pains occur in the abdominal area (not stomach, so it's not tummy ache or diarrhea or constipation). Secondly, they persist, their intervals shorten and intensity becomes greater as time passes. Thirdly, the contraction pains are regular. Meaning you experience them every 15 minutes consistently, or every 5 minutes consistently, not once at 9am and another at 915am and then a break before another at 12noon. In the event of experiencing any abdominal pain, rest for an hour first - that is how you will know if the pain is from anything else. If pain does not subside by instead gets more intense and regular, IT IS LABOUR! For 1st pregnancy, leave for the hospital when pain interval is 5 minutes. For subsequent deliveries, labor can progress much faster so leave for the hospital when the pain interval is at 10minutes. 

Note that not everyone will experience all 3 of the above labor signs. You may go into labor with only 1, or 2, or all 3 of them. If you still get confused when the time is near, just give your gynae a quick call (they usually have an emergency line), or if the hospital is not too far, stop by for an assessment. 

7 Tips to Shed Pre-Pregnancy Weight - and More!

As vain ladies (c'mon, we are all vain in our ways! And we have our rights to be), we are always concerned about how that big pregnant belly will go away. We know it is cute, and what rests in there is even cuter. But when the baby is out, we no longer want people to ask "how many months along are you?" anymore. Shedding that weight is important to recollecting good self esteem, and I personally believe, important in minimizing risk of post partum depression. I was blessed with some good genetics, but I also did my fair share of work to shed the weight (read my other post on how to minimize excess weight gain in the first place to make this simpler). I lost a lot of weight in the first month, then it fluctuated with a big waist line not going down for the next 2 months. But before my son turned 3 months, I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight, and was wearing all my pre-pregnancy tight fitting clothes! :) Never had I felt so good about my weight. Here's what I did:

1. Breastfeed. You're transferring your fats to your baby, a win-win situation. Pregnancy weight gain, in the first place, is a natural way of the body to store fats to ensure sufficient food supply for your child when he is born. So breastfeeding is the natural way to transfer the fats to the 'rightful' receiver. They need lots of fats to grow the way they do, so be happy giving it. (I know breastfeeding also tends to make you hungrier and eat more, but I don't think it leads to overeating)
2. Take care of your own baby. That sounds like a given, but sometimes we leave the work to our helper, family, nanny, or infant care. Though we want all the help we can get, we should also engage with our baby and bond along the way. Change some diapers, feed, maybe bathe. Just getting on our feet a little will burn those extra calories. This is especially so when baby starts to become a little mobile - flipping, rolling, crawling. I crawled along with my son when he was first crawling and was very unstable. I developed lots of muscles then, and definitely burnt a lot of calories! You'll enjoy this time with your baby too, so it's a win-win again.
3. Eat healthily. Think of your baby, and that what you eat is what he eats. That is a very strong motivation to reduce junk food intake. Because junk food makes us fat, eating zero amount of junk food prevents us from getting fat. 
4. Hit the gym. Not just to lose the weight, but the burst of endorphines with even a short 15minute run on the threadmill will make you feel better. I strongly believe the moods and emotions do affect our weight as well, because feeling down and under can lead to comfort eating. 
5. Take your time. Remember, your pregnancy weight took 9 months to accumulate. So do not expect to lose it all within 9 days. Your body needs to be loved and cared for. Also, if your weight loss is too rapid, there will be lose skin all over, which is even uglier than a small little tummy! So take your time, slow and steady wins the race!
6. Choose good fats. Although the fat content in breastmilk remains relatively constant regardless of what you eat, the TYPE of fat matters. So in order to make sure your child gets the right fats for brain and eye development, make sure you eat the right fats in your diet. This means fats from fruits, vegetables and nuts. Think avocado, walnuts, almonds, soybean. Say no to pig's trotters and deep fried nuggets. 
7. Pack on the protein. Protein, as mentioned in my previous post, is very important to a growing child. Protein is also highly recommended in regular weight loss diets, as they contain a hunger fighting hormone that will fill you up more than carbohydrates. Fish and eggs are a good source of good protein. They'll also increase your energy levels, which make you feel more like going for a run and losing even more weight. 

7 Tips to Control Weight Gain During Pregnancy

This is soooooo important if you don't want to have an extra 30kg to lose after giving birth. Given that we have a healthy weight gain to support the growth of a healthy baby, we want to make sure we do not overload ourselves on unnecessary calories. If your starting weight is within the healthy range, your gynae will most probably recommend that you gain 1-2kg every month on average throughout your pregnancy. (note that this number can fluctuate, where some months you gain less and some you gain more. The gynae will have a better recommendation catered to you and your child's medical needs) I gained a total of ~11-12kg throughout my pregnancy, without having to restrict my diet much. Here's what I did:

1. Snack on nuts. These keep you fueled up consistently, and you can almost never eat too many nuts. Not only are you eating good fats, you know that these contribute to a healthy baby (they need lots of good fats to grow well, especially when developing the eye and brain in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters).
2. Limit indulgence of unhealthy cravings. If you're craving char kuay teow, or deep fried wantons, or german pork knuckles, think twice! It's ok to indulge once in a while to ease that craving, but definitely not daily! Being pregnant doesn't mean you get your way with eating unhealthily. And remember that everyone can have cravings, not only preggies, so don't think that you are THAT special to be able to bend the rules. 
3. Replace unhealthy cravings with healthy ones. If cravings keep coming and are very strong, try replacing them with some healthier options. Yoghurt? High in fat and calcium, just perfect for a preggers. Fruit salads and nuts are also very good as snacks, provided you do not have issues with gestational diabetes. When you feel that you need something more substantial, how about a baked sweet potato, a slide of bread with cheese, or an oven roasted chicken breast? These are all packed with goodness, taste delicious, and can fill you up.
4. Keep walking. Walking is good to make sure you build your muscles to support the additional weight your body has to handle. It also prepares you for motherhood, which is physically demanding. If you have pelvic pains, getting your butt off that chair will also ease the pains. Start early, so you don't feel the sudden pressure on your legs. Muscles don't develop overnight. Walking is also said to lead to smooth labor. Do note that walking is not recommended for high risk pregnancies, and even healthy mothers should be limiting walking to stretches of not more than 30minutes. Stop if you feel pain in the tummy or start spotting. Any exercise should be done with caution and with advice from your gynae. I personally walk a lot throughout pregnancy. There happened to be a walking challenge, and I met the 180-240 minute targets almost every day, up until I was 8 months when I became too heavy to move that much. Plus, I didn't want to go into early labor, so I stopped. 
5. Go swimming. This has low impact on the knees if you're feeling heavy. In fact, you'll be happy to feel a lot lighter suddenly. A good break from heavy pregnancy. You'll feel sooooo good in that cool water you won't want to come up. Same warning applies as above. 
6. Shop for baby items. And I mean shop at physical shops, not online shopping. This will be a lot of fun especially for first time mothers, and indirectly keeps you moving. There will be a lot to buy, so I bet you do not need much motivation or instruction for this. (you just need your husband's credit card!)
7. Involve your husband. Resisting cravings is never easy. So why not rely on your husband / partner, who is equally responsible for the pregnancy? Have him remind you not to submit to cravings all to time, or have him reject your pleas to buy you more food (moderately, that is, as you still need to take in sufficient nutrients for you and your baby!). You can also ask him to pass you the healthy snacks, or to go walking with you. Knowing it is for the health of the baby as well as to return him the hot wife he had as soon as possible, I'm sure he will be more than happy to help. 

5 Tricks to Encourage Baby to Drink More Milk

I faced many times when my son refused to drink milk, or drank very little a day (note that this can be as little as 10ml out of his usual 200ml bottle now!). This problem was usually most evident during bottle feeding. I didn't like to waste my breastmilk (i.e. liquid gold), but also because I wanted my son to get enough nutrients to grow well. The first time I experienced this, was when he was teething. I didn't know he was going through that (being a first time mum, and he was teething from 5 months! too early to expect), and he ended up losing quite a few hundred grams of weight in a month. That sounds very little, but is actually rather significant, considering my son only weighs a few kilograms in total. From then on, regardless of his tantrums and his teething pains, I always tried my best to feed him as much milk as possible. It takes a truly resilient mum to do that with a screaming baby, but our love for them triumphs! Here are a few tricks I use with my son.

1. Mix it into cereal. Cereal, being dry in powder form, requires a whole lot of liquid added to it before the baby can eat it. This is the perfect vehicle to feed milk through, because usually a solid feed of cereal will require as much milk as a regular milk feed. Perfect. As long as your LO has started solids, and loves to eat solids. (mixing into other foods work as well, but cereal is the most efficient)
2. Use another vehicle to give milk. This could be a spoon (slow, but works even for newborns. That's how they feed in some nicu), syringe, sippy cup, straw cup, and even open cup. Whatever the baby is willing to drink from. Or even a mixture of all! My son takes milk from a spoon on one day, then rejects it another. It could even take a combination of all to get him to finish half his usual milk feed too. 
3. Sing songs. Or do whatever that distracts him. When babies are happy, they do (almost) anything you want them to. This works for feeding, changing diapers, showering, brushing teeth, etc. 
4. Cuddle him as if breastfeeding. This worked mostly when he was a newborn or very young, when I could trick him to thinking that I was breastfeeding him. It seems that babies seldom reject breastfeeding, especially if they have been latching on well enough most of the time. They love it, and will not reject. So if you can trick them into believing they are breastfeeding (or at least feel as comfortable), they might drink some from the bottle. I know many people say that babies are smart enough to know whether it is the bottle or the breast, but at least the comfort of the cuddle is real. 
5. Make a bread dip. I suggest this because my son loves bread. He will always take bread. So if he doesn't take milk, I dip the bread into milk before giving it to him. Same for any solid foods he doesn't want, I will just put them on top of the bread as spread, and he will eat them all the same. Find the one or two foods that your baby loves unconditionally, and use that as a vehicle to feed milk. I know some mummies recommend making things like pancakes and stuff from milk, but because I feed breastmilk, I do not want the milk to undergo high heat and lost part of its goodness. As a last resort, maybe, but I suggest searching for other non-heating recipes first.

Hopefully some of these work for you too!

65 First Food Ideas

Starting solid food for the baby is a major milestone in his first year. I waited patiently for 6 months before giving him his first solid food (according to WHO, total and exclusive breastfeeding is highly recommended for the first 6 months). There are multiple sources of recommendations as to which foods are best as baby's first foods - be it low allergenic, soft texture, easily digestible or easy on the palate. Below, I compile my own list of tried and tested baby foods, based on their availability in Singapore (listed in order of testing).

Despite the earlier foods being low allergenic, I (being a very kiasu parent) still strongly recommend that all parents stick to the 3 day rule of letting baby test out each food to be allergy-free before moving on to the next food. We, after all, want the best for our child. And because of that, we test about 10 new foods per month.

As we progressed, I sometimes tested 2 foods together, if they were both deemed to be very low allergenic, and especially if they are recommended for babies younger than my son (e.g. recommended for 6 months babies, but I was giving it to my son at 10 months). I reason that some babies outgrow their food allergy when they get older, so if my son was already older, the risk of allergic reaction to that particular food was even lower than expected. Of course, testing 2 foods at the same time is not very scientific, because IF anything happens, I wouldn't know which was the culprit. I would then have to either test each one individually again, or just eliminate both from his diet. With that risk in mind, I only tested 2 foods together if logistically they made sense.

I also indicate below the food group each first food belongs to, so that you can vary the tests to include foods from different food groups, ensuring your little one has a balanced diet most, if not all the time.


6-7 months

1. White rice (carbohydrates)
2. Brown rice (carbohydrates)
3. Wheat (carbohydrates)
4. Oatmeal (carbohydrates)
5. Pumpkin (fruit / vegetables)
6. Apple (fruit / vegetables)
7. Pear (fruit / vegetables)
8. Avocado (fruit / vegetables)
9. Banana (fruit / vegetables)
10. Spinach (fruit / vegetables)
11. Threadfin (protein)
12. Watermelon (fruit / vegetables)
13. Plum (fruit / vegetables)
14. Prunes (fruit / vegetables)
15. Broccoli (fruit / vegetables)
16. Papaya (fruit / vegetables)
17. Peach (fruit / vegetables)
18. Blueberries (fruit / vegetables)
19. Barley (carbohydrates)

8-9 months

1. Carrot (fruit / vegetables)
2. Sweet Potato (fruit / vegetables)
3. Millet (carbohydrates)
4. Cauliflower (fruit / vegetables)
5. Lean Pork (protein)
6. Salmon (protein)
7. Peppers / Capsicum (fruit / vegetables)
8. Potato (fruit / vegetables)
9. Tofu (protein)
10. Chicken (protein)
11. Grape (fruit / vegetables)
12. Cucumber (fruit / vegetables)
13. Yam / Taro (carbohydrates)
14. Apricots (fruit / vegetables)
15. Persimmon (fruit / vegetables)
16. Turnip (fruit / vegetables)
17. Flax seed (carbohydrates)
18. Pasta (carbohydrates)
19. Cherries (fruit / vegetables)

10-11 months

1. Beet  (fruit / vegetables)
2. Egg Yolk (protein)
3. Onion (fruit / vegetables)
4. Couscous (carbohydrates)
5. Quinoa (carbohydrates)
6. Cantaloupe (fruit / vegetables)
7. Honeydew (fruit / vegetables)
8. Cherries (fruit / vegetables)
9. Coconut (fruit / vegetables)
10. Cranberries (fruit / vegetables)
11. Garlic (fruit / vegetables)
12. Kale (fruit / vegetables)
13. Eggplant (fruit / vegetables)

After 12 months

1. Tomato (fruit / vegetables)
2. Green beans (fruit / vegetables)
3. Corn (fruit / vegetables)
4. Peas (fruit / vegetables)
5. Beef (protein)
6. Egg White (protein)
7. Kiwi (fruit / vegetables)
8. Strawberries (fruit / vegetables)
9. Cow's milk (protein)
10. Yoghurt (protein)
11. Cheese (protein)
12. Mango (fruit / vegetables)
13. Orange (fruit / vegetables)
14. Lemon (fruit / vegetables)