Stop and Come

The girls had their last feed of breastmilk on the 14th May 2009. I officially stop pumping breastmilk on the 19th May 2009. I am proud to say, I have been providing breastmilk for the girls for 11.5 months! Compared to those who is breastfeeding for more than a year, I am nothing compared to that. But as Hui said, 11.5 months for TWO babies equal 23 months of breastfeeding! My targetted supply of breastmilk was 6months initially. It then move to 9 months because I do not know how to stop that time as I feel so uncomfortable when I tried to drag the hours of pumping. So I continued till 9 months and the thought of 3 more months to 1YO, I might as well feed till 1YO! And so it continued for another almost 3 months. Towards the end, I am getting lazier and so I endured the pain and lessen the number of pump per day. From 8 times per day initially, to 6 times, then 4 times, 3, 2 and 1...

True enough, the supply drop tremendously. Within 2 weeks of pumping once a day, I discovered I no longer feel the need to express out the breastmilk anymore. And so I officially declared that I had stop pumping 1 day before their Lunar birthday!

It was a joyous occasion because all the midnight pumping are gone! No more need to bring out the pumps and finding a toilet or nursing room in shopping centres to express my milk. I can shop happily without worrying the timing on when my breast will harden up. Items to bring out when going outdoor become significantly lesser too as I do not need to carry the pumps and the bulky fridge-to-go to store my expressed breastmilk. The girls can also get to drink milk within 1 min (mixing formula milk) instead of waiting for 5mins to heat up the cold milk from fridge. If you are a exclusive breast pumping mummy, you will understand my excitement of getting rid of this daily task!

Yaaaaaa Hoooooooo.........

Byebye to my Avent manual breast pump, Ameda Lactaline electronic breast pump, VIA storage cups and Lansinoh Milkbags!
..............................................
She disappeared for almost 1 year and finally she is back for a visit! At first I thought she had enjoyed so much in wonderland that she had forgotten about me. Feel kind of happy when I did not see her for past 1 year as I get to enjoy the comfort without her around. But I started to get worried when she had gone for too long and wonder is it because of me that she is not able to come back. On the princesses' actual birthday, she suddenly appeared with tons of "presents" for me! I guess she wanted to give me a surprise and tag along to celebrate the girls' birthday too??

Now that she is back, she promised that she will try to visit me every month provided I am not overstress. So now I have to start monitor her appearance
because if one fine day she decided to went touring again and left me for many months, I have to start worrying as I might have created another life added to the Singapore population!

Officially ONE

They officially TURNED ONE! Woke up early in the morning and we started to unwrap the presents given to them at the party. I had purposely waited till today to unwrap the gifts since 30th May is then their actual birthday! SIL came to join the "fun" and 3 of us had fun tearing apart those wrapping papers and taking photos. It's as though the presents were meant for us! :p

Happily waiting for Daddy & Mummy to unwrap the presents
"Mummy, can we open the presents ourselves??"
Assembling the walker
The gifts from all the guests
Angbaossss!!
Since it's such a special day, Daddy decided to skip his French lesson and we had planned to bring the girls to McDonald for hotcakes. But by the time we unwrapped finish the gifts, the sky turned dark and seems going to rain soon. The girls started to feel sleepy too hence we decided to tabao back instead.

Since SIL and BIL had decided to had breakfast at McDonald, we requested them to tabao for us. And so when the girls were awake from their beauty sleep, they had a chance to taste their very first hotcakes!

Hotcakes from McDonald!
Chloe says "YumYum!"
In the afternoon, we brought them to JWT Gym at Kallang Leisure park. I had this 1-for-1 vouchers from standard chartered bank so thought could make full use of it on their birthday. Since I have 2 such vouchers, I invited another pair of twins to join them. Knew this mummy from the Singapore motherhood forum and concidentally she gave birth at TMC too. As her twins were also premature, they became the roommates of Elsie & Chloe in NICU. Jerlene & Jernelle were born 6 days earlier but they met my girls in NICU on the day Elsie & Chloe were borned! But Jerlene & Jernelle were discharge earlier ofcourse. However, they met up again for the first time after discharged on J&J's first birthday party. Yes, Jaslyn invited us for their girls' party and I invited her family too for E&C's party.

And on 30th May, the 2 pair of twins met up again at JWT Gym for some fun and actions!

Playing happily at the JWT gym
2 pair of twins - Elsie & Chloe and Jerlene & Jernelle!
After the class, we proceed to Suntec Toy 'R' Us as it was having sale. It was the girls' actual birthday so how could they had their actual day without any present! We, the parents left the place feeling contented although the presents were not for us! But I just enjoyed buying things for my darlings! haha...

These 2 photos were taken exactly on their birth timing.
HAPPY SWEET 1 YEAR OLD!


Oh, Jaslyn and her family joined us as well to suntec and we had dinner together at Aston Specialties. We parted earlier because Hui need to report back to camp by 9pm for his reservist.

I hope the girls had enjoyed themselves on this special day, as much as Hui & I had enjoyed their presence ever since they came to this world.

Their birthday present from Daddy & Mummy
"It's cool lying down here!"
Chloe: Mummy, I HAVE Boobs!Hehehe...
Elsie: What are these 2 round things in me??
Elsie: Hahaha....they are nice to squeezzzze!
To Elsie & Chloe,
Your first cry on 30th May 2008 had brought tears, anger and tons of laughter to Daddy & Mummy's life. Although Mummy couldnt give you both a very smooth delivery, but I'm really glad you both had survived the ordeal and is a happy little toddler now! Your smile with that 2 little dimples had brought shines to our dull hectic work day. Although you two like to throw temper by screamng and crying at the top of your voice whenever you couldnt get your way, we couldnt help get angry with you because your facial expression just looked so cute and funny!

Changing diapers and making you fall asleep is such an easy task 1 year ago. Now, it's so hard to get you just lie there for a few seconds for us to get you changed to a clean diaper. Both of you started cruising around by holding on to any stationary objects that you can find. It's a new milestone for you, but a new worry for Daddy & Mummy as we were so afraid that you will fall and injured yourself.

Both of you are so sticky to Mummy that it makes Mummy so busy, yet happy. Daddy is so jealous of Mummy whenever you both just cling onto me tightly when other people wants to carry you away (including Daddy!). Not sure how long this will last as when you start schooling, you might be more closer to friends instead and will not stick closely to Mummy as much as you do now. So Mummy better enjoy and appreciate this moment now before thing changes.

If blogspot is still around when both of you knows how to read well, I hope I will remember to show you this blog entry. Being the first child or rather, children, since you two are a pair of twins, all the best are given to you. You can never imagine how dearest you two are to Daddy & Mummy and how much we love both of you.

On this special day, we wish you both a very Happy 1st Birthday. Stay healthy and happy forever. May your life will always be smooth sailing and have many people love and dote you as much as we do.

Love, Daddy & Mummy

Party is over!

2 months of preparation. Many days of sleeping at wee hours. Many brain cells dead for planning the party and logistic. It's all over in a flash! Kind of miss the party after it ended. I walked into the Fruit room at hortpark at 12.45pm with a excited and happy mood. I walked out of the room at 6.15pm feeling sad that it ended too fast.

Why do I sounds like this is MY birthday party?

The decoration was great! I heard from the guests the buffet spread was good too. My colleague even took the namecard and said she wanted to cater from this company for her son's first birthday. The cake design had stunned many guests - simply beautiful! Many had asked me for the contact of the baker. But taste wise so so only. There were also 2 agar agar cake which I ordered from Beauty World. I never mention this item in my previous entry because I wanted to give everyone a surprise. Not only do you get to enjoy the birthday cake, but also agar agar. Many were surprised too that an agar agar can actually made into such nice pattern.

The party would be more perfect if Elsie was similing happily like Chloe during the cake cutting session. They fell aslp at around 2.30pm and I am glad they do have this nap before the cake cutting starts. They were usually more alert and fun after their nap and will definitely look nicer in pictures without those puffy and lazy eyes. But a bursting balloon just behind her stroller scared her up from her beauty sleep and she was crying and cranky all the way until after cake cutting. Haiz...

Abit disappointed with the party photos too because alot of important details were not taken by the photographer engaged. Things like the buffet setup, the decorations which my helpers put in alot of effort to display up onto wall/window, the many mylar balloons which were blown up and tied nicely together...etc... were not taken. Some group photos taken at the cake table were with the birthday cake and agar agar while some were only with the people but no cakes/agar agar shown (or some showing abit of the top of cake). I think some guests might start to complain why the cake was cut away in the photos if I show them the pictures. If anyone had taken photo of the overview of the function room with the decorations or the buffet setup, pls sent to me.

Overall, I think it is still a good party and I believed all the photos will tell the 2 princesses in future how much Daddy & Mummy love them! With this experience, if I have a #3, I believe I will do a even better job in planning his/her 1 year old birthday party! ^_^

Their princess castle birthday cake!
Does it have a WOW factor??
Chloe's agar agar
Spot the grammer mistake!
Elsie's agar agar
Spot the grammer mistake!
Another disappointment
More photos here!
PS: Special thanks to the following for helping us out on that day:
1) Jessica & Vincent (Decorate the room & collecting agar agar)
2) Maggie & Guy (Decorate the room & taking his self-claim "professional" photos..haha..remember to sent me the photos ya?)
3) Kelvin & Ya An (Decorate the room & transporting the table & high-chair to venue and back home)

Party is over, but not their actual birthday. Tomorrow 30th May is then their actual ONE year old! Had planned some activities for them tomorrow and forcing Hui to take off although he is suppose to be on duty for reservist. Hope they will enjoy another day of excitement and fun!

Lunar birthday

Today is the girls' lunar birthday. In tradition sayings, they are TWO years old today!

But it was not a smooth birthday for Elsie.......

During the midnight at 2.34am, I got a scare by Elsie. She kept toss and turned since 1+am and seems to be in discomfort. I didnt really bother about her as she always like to turn here and there when sleeping. But at 2+am, she started wineing and then sit up by herself. I went to adjust her back to sleep and found her body was hot! I touched her forehead and realise she was having fever!

This is the first time Elsie had fever (not due to injections) ever since she's borned. I got so panic and woke Hui up. I wanted to take the thermometer but it was in the room where my maid sleep. She likes to lock the door when she sleeps and Hui tried knocking but she never opened! I tried a few times and no respond still. I got so angry and frustrated that I started banging the door and shouted her name to open the door!

She finally opened and I quickly grab hold of the thermometer and rushed back to my room. Tested Elsie's temperature and it shows 37.8 degree. Paracetamol was given to my dear Elsie and she fell back to sleep. Guess she must be feeling very giddy and tired. I placed her to sleep on my bed between Hui & I so we could monitor her temperature. Hui then used a wet towel to wipe her body and forehead to try bring down the temperature.

Thanks to Hui who was still calm enough to have thought of using wet towel. I almost wanted to bring her to Thomson Medical 24 hour clinic! I didn't sleep well after that. Kept waking up to touch Elsie's forehead to see if it was still hot. Luckily the medicine had worked and she started to sweat.

Not sure why she suddenly had fever. Could it be due to the long crying yesterday night and the vomitting?.......

Yesterday night I had a few conference calls and was only free after 10pm. Usually the girls need me to be around in order to sleep and I always placed them to sleep at 8+pm. But because I had calls from 8pm-10pm, Hui had to be the one getting them to bed. In another room taking the call, I could hear Elsie's constant crying, getting louder and louder as the minutes passed. But the crying stopped few minutes before my call ended. After the call, Hui reported that Elsie had vomitted all the porridge out due to the long crying.

Haiz....since the vomitting, she had been coughing in the night maybe because throat was itchy. I fed her some water and she seems more comfortable. And during midnight fever started to take place. This makes me start to ponder upon my job.

1) To switch to a "normal" job routine which works during day time so no conference calls at night
2) To arrange my calls to start after 10pm and get myself working while the others are sleeping

This job issue had always been circulating in my mind ever since I gave birth. I'm not sure if my current role is actually suitable for a mother of two. Two young toddlers somemore! I read from a website which have a quote that truely catches my attention: "You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once."

I do not want to miss out any of their milestones due to my work. But to be a SAHM is difficult unless Hui earns $XXXXX per month. But I do not want Hui to work so hard by earning that amount of money and miss the quality times with the kids too. It will be very self-fish of me to have that thought just to satisfy myself having more time with the children while Hui suffering out there in the cruel working society. So to change my job into some supporting role of working from 8am to 5.30pm will solve the problem? But it might be a decrease of monthly household income. Well, you can't just get the best of both world! Till date, I am still considering switching my role............

Anyway, Elsie's fever seems to be gone. Just tested her temperature and result shows good. Later MIL will prepare some Mee Sua for the girls to eat. Hui will be getting a small cake from Pinegarden to celebrate their lunar birthday. It's just a few days more away from the birthday party. I hope both girls are healthy to attend the birthday bash. If either one is sick, I will call off the party. So pray hard!

New updates from the progress of the party:
1) Venue settled
2) Invitation card created
2) Invitation card email out to friends & colleagues.
3) Sent SMS reminder to friends to check their email and inform them of this party
4) Birthday cake settled
5) Party decoration stuffs settled
6) How-to design the venue with the deco stuffs settled
7) Photographer settled (Photographer had changed to someone with better equipments, more experience in event shootings and yet charges a low rate. Thanks to Ricky for introducing his friend to me!)
8) Photoshoot album completed
9) Buffet ordered
10) Booking of helium tank done
11) Party favour (for kids only) prepared
12) Printing of invitation cards to relatives done
13) Getting a dress for the girls settled (Thanks to my mum who help to settle on their princess dress)
14) Shoes bought (money paid by my mum. Traditional sayings "Wa Po must buy shoes when they turn one")

In progress:
1) Photo montage
2) Logistic for the day
3) .....

2 more weeks to go...

2 more weeks to their first birthday bash! 3 more weeks to turn toddler!

Had been really busy this month! Besides work and more work, I had to also plan for the girls very first birthday party happening on 24th May (1 week before their actual day).

Had made quite good progress this month with the following completed:
1) Venue settled
2) Invitation card created
2) Invitation card email out to friends & colleagues.
3) Sent SMS reminder to friends to check their email and inform them of this party
4) Birthday cake settled
5) Party decoration stuffs settled
6) How-to design the venue with the deco stuffs settled
7) Photographer settled (Thanks so much to my friend, Ricky, who is willing to take up this task. I have really low budget and is not able to engage a professional photographer. But to me, Ricky's skill is pretty professional enough and I am confident that he will do a great job!)

In progress:
1) Photoshoot album
2) Photo montage
3) Order buffet
4) Booking of helium tank
5) Party favour
6) Printing of invitation cards to relatives
7) Getting a dress for the girls

Although I did most of the work for their party, but I'm glad Hui did contributed to some of the tasks listed above. Last week, he made an effort during office hours to make a trip down to the venue and took pictures of the function room so we could plan how to decorate it before the actual day. FYI, he didnt drove all the way to the place during office hours. The venue is just 5min walk from his office! It was sweet of him to take this initiative and made this effort. Photo montage will be done by him as well and despict the tiredness after work, he is still willing to stay up till 1+am to do up the montage. Kudos to DEAR!

"Dear, I'm sure our girls will appreciate all our effort when they grow up through flipping the photos in the album taken at the party! It will be a very memorable Princesses' Party!"

We had a pleasant discussion on how to decorate the venue using the party stuffs I bought that night.
For those who are invited, pls kindly check your email for the details in the invitation card. Kindly RSVP by next week so I can book the buffet soon with the confirm number of attendees. See you there!

First photoshoot

Bought the girls for photoshoot on 25th April at Telok Blangah Way. It's a home-base studio and photographer is a stay at home mummy who possess the professional skills of taking professional photographs. I choose her mainly because it is CHEAP! And after viewing her portfolio of photos she taken for many other babies/toddlers, I would say it's really value for money lah...

We were slightly late as we could not find the unit. It is a very old type of block with long corridors. The photoshoot took place in a HDB flat where one of the room was made to be the studio room. Backdrop, flash lightings, props etc...everything is in that room. Chloe started crying when we enter the so call studio. She clinged onto me tightly and refused to get down to the floor. On the other hand, Elsie was enjoying herself playing with the toys she had not seen or played before.

We had a hard time pacifying Chloe before she was willing to get down and play with her sister while the photographer was snapping away. Having a photoshoot with 2 young toddlers were really not easy! We had to coax them to smile to the camera, make all the funny action and sound just to make them look up, pacify them if they got frighten and refuse to cooperate anymore etc etc!All the adults just looked like a clown that day!

The PS took about 2 hours to finish, including the time of changing into 3 sets of clothes and changing of backdrop and props. Elsie got cranky towards the end of the shoot and had her head knock onto the floor 2 times because she struggled too hard. Luckily the shoot was coming to an end or we would have miss alot of smiley expression of her.

Photos were display onto a private web gallery for selection 2 days later. We had to select 100 photos out of the 300+ taken. It was so hard to select and we took 2 days before replying her the selected images. Within 4 days, I received the CD of the 100 selected photos with touch-up.

I am not going to post all the 100 photos here. Nor am I going to upload the photos to a web gallery and attach the link here. If you want to see ALL the 100 photos taken, it will be display on their birthday BASH! :)

So for those who are invited and will be coming, 你有眼福了！

Here are some sneak previews though on some of my favourites: