The First Month

This is obviously a long due post as Raychi will be 6 weeks old in three days! And Yes baby is named Raychi 睿棋 and we think we are not going to bother with an English name. Raychi is beautiful and easy enough to pronounce plus it will be an unique name than Sophie (the one we were going for) or Lily-Rose (we googled and only found one girl with this name and she is Johnny Depp's daughter! I used to say that I'd name my daughter Lily-Rose as I love the sound of if but when baby arrived, I kind of had gone off it and I am not sure if she is a Lily-Rose!)

Anyway, We came back home from confinement centre on the 19th and didn't realise just how easy life was there even though we have a helper at home. The first few days were rather chaotic to say the least as baby was also starting to get used to a different environment and so didn't go by the routine! Oh yes, we decided long time ago that we were going to give her a military routine! hahaha Many friend have recommended Gina Ford's 'The Contended Little Baby Book' which advocates a daily routine for both the baby and the parents so it is the routine we are following.

A proud daddy

Height - 56cm, 85th upper percentile

Weight - 4.4kg, 85th upper percentile.  I was so worried about her not putting on weight during the second week as she stayed at the same weight for a week whereas all other babies were piling on weight! Nursed did say that breastfed babies tend to 'take longer' to put on weight but once they do, they really pile on!

Eating - Feeds 6 times a day as per CLB routine.

Sleeping - Raychi has started to become more alert and wakeful even though she still loves her sleep and we still spend a lot of time keeping her awake or waking her up so that she gets enough feed. We tried to have her on her stomach from week 2 and she can lift her head around 45- 60 degrees, sometimes even 90 degrees!

Development - 

• She responds well to sounds as I accidentally dropped iPad next to her and it startled her that she started crying..... :(  I felt sooooo guilty  

• She has started cooing and it is the cutest sound ever!!!

• She still enjoys bathing and it is fun to bathe her even though I haven't really done it on my own apart from holding her little hands...

• She suffered badly from colic and I really blame myself for this. My boobies were so sore when I came home I decide to bottle feed her for a few days. Even though she guzzled down the milk in 10 minutes flat every time and we made sure we burped her, her tummy was really tight and doctor has asked me to breastfeed her directly so I started breastfeeding her directly again. It took around 5 days for Raychi to get better as we massaged her whenever we can and had her on her stomach when she first wakes up from her naps etc. We also started to let her swim as it relieves colic too and boy does she like being in the water! It was also very entertaining to watch!

My Postpartum Meals

I have never been a big fan of Chinese herb infused food so I was rather scpetical prior to coming to confinement centre. However, it is not as bad as I remembered or maybe I just accepted the fact that it is the Chinese tradition and it's not as if I would be able to eat any other food.

So from the photographs, you get the drift of soup comes with every meal (and yes I mean every single meal including breakfast as its either congee or noodles on broth) and the logic is that mums get as much liquid as possible in order to have enough breast milk. Between three meals, we also get three desserts. In the morning, it is generally soya milk or walnut milk or sesame milk and Chinese style sweet soup in the afternoon and after dinner. When I first struggled to produce milk, I ate everything (the portions here are huge!) and guzzling down all the herbal tea as well as desserts. I'm glad to say it paid off and I now seem to have sufficient amount of milk if not more than enough!

So if anyone says they don't produce enough boobie milk, my advice would be drink plenty of liquid and I mean tons! I must drink 2000 litre of herbal tea and two large bowls of soup at lunch and dinner plus fruits and desserts! The downside is that I don't dare to weigh myself! Well, I did two weeks ago and I weighed around 56/57 kgs which I thought wasn't bad considering I weighed 65kg before giving birth. Though I'm not sure about now since I eat and drink so much but I'll have to worry about it after checking out of confinement centre as the priority now is to get enough milk supply and I get enough nutritions! Haha .... So I tell myself!

Happy weekend everyone!

My Little Cheeky Monkey

Baby is two weeks old today and it seemed ages since I gave birth yet it has only been 14 days!

Baby (we are still working in the name....) has regained her birth weight but very very slowly. In fact, she hadnt put on any weight in 5 days until yesterday! She now weighs 3300 grams! Still a tiny baby compared to her 'peers' but she is the only baby who is on breast milk exclusively hence the reason!

Baby sleeps a lot, in fact, she is so sleepy that every time when I feed her, she falls asleep in 5 minutes - every single time without fail! So we spend the next 10-15 minutes waking her up to make sure she gets her feed! She even falls asleep during her bath, which is rather unusual as newborns normally cry when they have their front washed! Though I am not complaining. I see myself lucky to have a baby who enjoys bathing!!! Hehehe

Confinement Centre - Ma Cherie

I started looking for a confinement centre back in April and thanks to J, she highly recommended Ma Cherie www.ma-cherie.com.tw as she has been there a few times to visit her colleagues. I then sent mum to have a look and she wasn't that convinced at first as the front desk didn't seem overly friendly. However, since I wasn't in Taiwan then and couldn't compare all of them in person, I decided to take a chance.

I checked in on 24th November and I have to say from the receptionist to the nurses (especially the nurses!!!) were amazingly friendly and helpful. As soon as I settled in the room, a nurse came to check my breasts and found that both nipples were seriously cracked hence they suggested expressing milk using hands since they are too fragile to use an electric pump too. Also with the whole plugged ducts epic, they come and massage my boobies every two hours to make sure I was ok. They have been wonderful.

Entrance to the room

Desk

My 'dining and expressing' sofa

A rather comfy bed

Television

Bathroom

Shower