Back to work soon...

In about 2 weeks plus, I will have to go back to work.

After a long break like this, since 23 Oct, I simply don't feel like going back to work. Not because I'm lazy. Instead I would like to spend more time with the two kids, especially Natalie. I haven't been spending enough time with her since the day Max was born.

I know she misses me, and I could feel that she is upset that I neglected her, and she ignores me sometimes, just to let me know that she's upset. However at times she wakes and cries for me at night, since these days she's sleeping at my in-laws'. Really feel sorry for her. And I miss her too.

Of course now that she's and my MIL again is so scared that she would pass the flu virus to baby Max. She ask me to stay upstair with Max.

I'm really upset that why all thse flu things have to happen now.

Well, think of the bright side, hopefully the flu will go off completely soon so when I go back to work, I'll be healthy and fit, as I still need to take care of Max till late night and get up early the next morning.

Actually I'm thinking to extend prehaps a week or two. If possible few months unpaid, which is unlikely.

Well, I certainly can't quit, or DH has to carry the burden on his own. Seven mouths to feed on one income.

Really pray hard that something will work out. Just one opportunity...

Sleepless Morning

Since last feed, about 5.30am till now, I just cannot sleep. The nose is blocked again. Took a Piriton, but didn't work.

Looks like I have to try Actifed again. If it still doesn't guess I have to see the doctor again. :(

Besides, the whole family including the maid is in sick mode. DH is half way there and started on Actifed. Poor Natalie is having runny nose since yesterday, with a slight temperature. The maid was sneezing last night.

Not sure about my in-laws, I have told them to take some Actifed just in case, since they are very prone to flu, partly because they like to eat heaty food, especially curry and pisang goreng(fried banana).

And I'm praying hard for Max not to be infected. Poor baby, he's too young... Otherwise more sleepless nights and days for us.

Btw, just found this site which provides some reference on cold medications for breastfeeding. Quite useful.

Cry to sleep

Nowadays I let Max cry to sleep after the last feed of the day, at about 12 to 2am in the morning. I'll burp him, check his diaper, apply some minyak angin Yu Yi to warm his tummy and cuddle him close to me for some time. And if none of those work, I will leave him on his cot, off the lights and let him cry. Sounds a little cruel.

But I have to train him. I can overly pamper him.

I guess he is learning it too, as he'll normally cry for a while. If I don't response, he'll quiet down for a while and cry again. Then quiet down...

And finally he'll stop after about 10 to 15 minutes, look around, and fall asleep on his own.

I feel sorry for him though. But he needs to learn.

And all I need is patience...

Revolution of searching and rating

The recent revamp of PageRank affected many blogs and sites. The incident shows that a lot of things aren't within our control.

Well, maybe it's time that we users and bloggers take charge.

That's why EarthFrisk.org, an alternative search engine, is created, to make things different. It's a community powered search engine and its search results are the best of all "Big Brothers" and the spams are filtered.

At EarthFrisk.org, users have the freedom and power to rate and rank websites and blogs as well as individuals with its Meta Functions. It changes the paradigm for search and gives the power back to us, users.

Let's take charge and be part of the community to power search results now!

*This post is sponsored*

It's Christmas!

Just want to wish everyone who visit Dolphinitis, Merry Christmas.

It's heartaching to see...

Since the night before, I'm down with bad flu and terrible sore throat. I'm getting better though, with the stronger medications.

I went to see a doctor, he gave me some medicine I used to take during pregnancy, which are safe for breastfeeding. But they just not effective enough. So I decided to go for some stronger ones, like Actifec, which is really effective in getting rid of flu, and the Extra Strong Strepsils. And I stop direct breastfeeding Max since last night, though I tried. But luckily he didn't want it when I offered.

Coz this morning I called my GP to ask him about the stronger medication and found out that the Extra Strong Strepsils are not so safe for baby, as well as Actifec. They can cause agitation in baby. So the milk that expressed since last night have to be discarded and it's heartaching to throw them away, as every drop counts. However, I don't want to take any risk of making Max more agitated, as he is already one fussy little baby at times.

My daily routine...

12am - 2am
Trying to calm Max and get him to bed. If lucky he sleeps at 1-ish... He's a fussy baby at night. Sometimes, he fall asleep while feeding. The moment we put him on the bed, he gets up and cry for more. Sometimes, he just want to be held...

Sometimes I let him cries himself to sleep, since I can't find his reason.

2am - 5-ish
Sleeping hours... though sometimes we get lucky and Max gets up at about 6-ish for feeding... it depends.

5-ish - 7.30am
Feeding. Burping. Epressing Breatsmilk. You may wondering why I didn't breastfeed him at this hour, he always falls asleep... And it's faster to bottlefeed him and express the breastmilk. And I still have time to eat my breakfast or at least a cup of light oatmeal. Otherwise, I won't be able to sleep till at 8am or so.

7.30am - 11am, as late as 12pm
The moment I close my eyes, I simply couldn't open them as early as 11am. Of course in between, I drift in and out sleep when I hear Max's cry, who these days would be sent downstair ,after 8am, for MIL to take care.

12pm - 2pm
Feed myself. Surf a little while having my lunch. Breastfeed Max, if he awakes, or expressing the milk out. It normally takes about 2 hours, if I breastfeed him then top up with formula before I can bath Max.

The bathing takes about 30-45 minutes for the last two days. I need to clean his poos first.

For the last 2 days I have to massage him first with olive oil. Then let it soak for 15 minutes. Then rinse it off before bathing him in Eubo bath. Lastly clean his mouth.

Then wash and boil the bottles and breastpump again, sometimes I do myself, and sometimes the maid. If I do it I stand at the stove and wait for the things to boil for longer time. I'm very paraoid, espeacially the breastpump, I try to wash and boil after every use, except midnight.

2pm - 5pm
Sometimes I sneaked out to get my haircut, do facial, and body slimming. They are very time-consuming.

If I don't go out, I breastfeed Max myself, then express the balance milk out, then breastfeed him again for about 2 hours. After the breastfeeding, I have to top another 2 ounces of formula or EMB.

5pm - 8pm
If I'm outside, rush home to breastfeed him or express the milk. them wash and boil the breast pump parts.

If I'm at home, I would take a short nap. But haven't been able to do that, as sometimes, I would have itchy hands, trying to clean a few things in the room, or go online.

Then quickly take a shower.

Dinner time.

This afternoon, I slept through the afternoon after the flu medicine... feeling a little better, and my throat is not as sore as last night.

8pm - 1am
Feeding and expressing milk hours. I have to watch something to keep myself awake. I tend to fall asleep too at this hour whenever I breastfeed Max.

As usual, Max would fall asleep during breastfeed or bottlefeed(if DH feed him). We try to burp him before putting him on the bed. But the moment he leaves our arms, his eyes would open and become fussy. Either no enough milk or for cuddle.

So "Ee...at, Ee...at..." DH and I would feed, burp, calm, feed, burp, calm... It would 1am again, before we know it.

Max would be drink, sleep , cry, drink, sleep, cry... before he finally sleeps.

Sometimes, get lucky can surf a bit like tonight.

There goes a day... and same things everyday.

Post-natal Rhinitis

Few weeks ago, I visited the E&T, and it seemed everything was fine till yesterday.

All those nose irritations and frequent sneezing are back. And I'm having a bad sore throat.

Last year after I had delivered Natalie I had this too. It took a long time to recover, a few months. I couldn't remember how long, but it has become part of my daily routine, until one day it just disappeared. But not for long, as shortly I was pregnant with Max. Everyday, other than taking care of Natalie, I was sneezing and nose blowing. And feeling tired and sleepy all the time even after I was back to work on after 60 days maternity leave.

Yesterday I went to see doc, but the medicine doesn't seem to be working. Gosh! This is horrible. The nose simply doesn't dry up, and the bloody mucus keep back dripping down my throat. All these back drippings irritates the lung, accumulate there and become phlegm. As a result, bad coughing and sleepless nights. Been there few years ago.

It seems this rhinits will stick to me forever whenever I get pregnant.

Well, I thought I want to have another baby but looks like I may want to think again.

I want to work from home...

Ever since I had Natalie, I've been dwelling on possiblities that allow me to work from home. So that I can spend more time with her.

Now that I have Max, the desire of working from home is growing stronger.

Online business has been one of the areas that I've been considering. Online business no doubt has great potential but it's also very competitive, as many people have already jumped on the bandwagon. The most popular option is blogging. And there are companies offers themselves as the middle man to connect bloggers with advertisers.

There are many other online business ideas which are shared by Experienced People about Where's there's free, there's money.

What they are sharing are simple ways of making money online, such as buying and selling websites, Ebay trading and so on. You can also find out ideas of how to work from home with your skills and passions.

Besides, they also have a complied list of websites and contacts which can help the middle-aged experienced of individual to find job opportunities and trainings course.

They have some simple yet interesting ideas which are worth checking out.

With these interesting ideas the Experienced People share, all you need is just to add a bit of creativity and originality, you and I can also make something work.

Oh no, it's yeast...

I think I'm having yeast infection on my breast.

I've been having this breast soreness during and after breastfeeding. I went to see the hospital lactation assistant, they couldn't identify the problem. I thought it was engorgement. But it wasn't.

But after what I read in kellymom.com today, I think it's what they called yeast infection.

I don't have crack nipples but breastfeeding makes them sore and painful. I need to see my gynae to tomorrow.

Meanwhile Max is having thrush too on his tongue. Poor boy. No wonder he has been acting weird sometimes when I breastfeed him. Sometimes halfway breastfeeding he seems have this vomitting sensation. And he would pushed himself away from my breast.

I just brought him to see his pae, and medications were given.

Besides, Max's face has eczema, and it's spreading to his body. *Sigh* This poor baby is having so much problems. Pray that he recovers soon.

PayPerPost and Me

Hoo hoo... payperpost (PPP) had finally approved Dolphinitis blogspot last month, but I was too busy with Max and had no time to sit down and work on anything seriosuly.

To kick start my PPP writerhood, this is it, to write about PPP.

I’d long heard about PPP, even before I started this blog, through blogs which I frequent. It’s an interesting way for bloggers to make some extra cash while doing what they like, blogging.

However, I wasn’t keen on signing up with PPP as I knew that I didn’t have time to blog often, to meet their minimum requirement. It’s because I have a day job, and at night I have to take care of my darling daughter, Natalie. I was still a new mother who was trying to juggle between work and family, so is now with Max, the crying baby.

Meanwhile I have another two blogs to take care of, my chinese blog, Dolphinever blogspot, and my photolg, Lifeisadarling blogspot. After all, I tend to spend more of my time with Dolphinever, with my emotional entries, about my late mom, and others.

Now that Natalie is getting older and with a new member in the family, baby Max, well, money not enough. It’s time to look for ways to make some extra cash by writing paid posts.

Also, I've more topics to blog, about pregnancy, parenting as well as journal for Natalie and Max. It means I’ll spend more time and effort in the blog. The blog is slowly build up with content to meet PPP’s requirement. So why not give it a try.

What do I think of PPP?
Well, I started with Smorty to test water and to see if I can manage it. Well, I have to admit that writing review is addictive. Apart from the money, it’s fun and addictive to write. It makes me use my brain. Sometimes, when I breastfed Max, I thought of ideas for all these reviews though I have no time.

However, my first attempt of submitting my blog was rejected. So I tried PPP Direct. It’s still no result so far. Later I tried again before I went for my labour, after Dolphinitis has met PPP’s minimum requirement. Finally it’s approved!

Opportunities...
One of the things I like about payperpost is they have a numbers of available opportunities, if one don’t mind the price tag. And some are really interesting to write about. However all of them are grabbed fast like hot cakes. And I was always late… never mind.

Also it’s exciting yet sad to see all those red and grey coloured opportunities as some of them would be fun to blog, such as food flavourings, car wallpapers and others.

However, PPP takes about 30 days to approve a submitted post. It means the payout will take longer time. Oh well sometimes it is better to keep moving on and writing whenever I have time, without thinking about the earning too much. As I believe when the time (money) comes, the sense of reward is greater. Don’t you think so?

How would I spend my extra earning?
Simple! Rule number ONE, whenever I get paid, I always pay myself first. Every dollar I earn I’m saving it for my two little darlings. This is my main reason to blog for money. What about you?

After all, one has to love what he or she is doing with passion. I’d spent a few years finding my passions. Now that I’ve found them, other than my family, I love surfing, web designing (I mean beautifying my blog) and of course, blogging during leisure. So why not killing two birds with one stone; making some small income via something I enjoy doing for my family?

A Blessed Natural Birth After Caeserean Journey 02

Since then every week I visited my gynae.

By 5 weeks(gestational) or 7 weeks (if counting from the first day of my last period, first week of Fed 2007), my sickness morning was surfaced but still bearable.

Our little embryo Max was still about a week smaller than its actual size and heartbeat was weak. And I had spotting and I was given some medication, which I was relunctant to take, and a weekly hormone injection, for 4 weeks, to boost my pregnancy hormone.

Later it was found that the spotting was due to uterus infection. More medications, antibiotics. Meanwhile with the hormone boost, Max's heartbeat was getting stronger.

However the worse has yet to come. Morning sickness became me and had to resort to anti-vomitting tablets.

Also I was getting bad nasal blocked. Sleepless nights and sleepy days. And more medicines.

This second pregnancy was like a riding rollercoaster, another spotting at week 16, which turned to be a false alarm. It was some kind hormone adjustment after I stopped my hormone pills. Then fear of baby Max having some birth defects and so on.

I have to say during that time, I couldn't myself whining and complaining about all those discomforts. But looking back I'm grateful that everything turned out alright, with a healthy baby in return.

So when most initial doubts were finally cleared, new worries; can I have a natural birth since I had a caeserean? It clouded my mind till the morning I was in labour, as my gynae also couldn't guarantee. Many times I asked her. But she didn't really answer my questions, even at my last follow-up. I knew that she didn't want to overpromise me.

I understand that all these pregnancy and childbirth issues are at will of God and blessing. No one knows what can happen. So the whole time I was praying. Hoping for an easy natural birth. I didn't want to go through another caeserean. As I fear most in caeserean is the pain when a urine bag was attached to my bladder and pulled out. Gosh! That short but sharp pain with possible bladder infection. I still can remember it clearly.

When the day finally came, that Saturday, when I had bloody show, I was having this fear inside me. I was wondering if I couldn't have a natural birth. I was praying for my water bag not to break before major dilation.

My gynae had warned me that I couldn't opt for epidural, due to my caeserean wound. She said most gynae prefer not to have that as if the wound give way, the mother would feel it.

While I was in labour ward waiting for the first stage labour to happen, I was praying and talking to Max, telling him to relax and take things easy. Just take one step at a time. He heard me I guess.

The contraction was there all the while but it was mild and I couldn't recogise it. Now I know what is contraction. I didn't really have it when I had Natalie.

Since my water bag was in tact, my gynae allowed me to wait for the real thing to happen... to be continue.

Family trip planning

My aunt has been asking us to visit her in Vancouver next year. Well, I'm condering the invite, but most like not in near future, as we had planned our family trip down under next April, to visit my siblings and sister-in-law.

However, it’s no harm planning our future Vancouver trip, most like in 2009, early, right?

I've been checking out the flight ticket prices and some hotels at HotelReservations.com.

The site main features ishotel reservations, where I can check out the hotel rooms availability of most hotels in Vancouver and compare their nightly rate, some are at a discounted price and offer, as well as their location with the map provided. The hotels listed are from four and a half stars to just bed and breakfast. When I find out the one that fit my budget, I can immediately make my reservation online through the site.


On top of that, they have this Special Internet Rate Price Guarantee, a special deal for those who make their hotel booking online through the site, to gurantee the lowest rate. Sounds like a good deal, eh? Sadly they don't offer any Australian hotel booking services for Melbourne city.

Also it offers flight tickets booking to most international airports, though ticket pricing is a bit pricey since they are priced in USD, in comparison our Malaysian ticket pricing. But if you're residing in US, Canada or Europe, it's worth checking out their best fare offers.

Besides hotel reservation and flight booking, Hotel Reservations.com also offers car rental services and vacation package which help us to plan and budget our trip just within clicks.

*This post is sponsored*

A Blessed Natural Birth After Caeserean Journey 01

I've been pray that one day I can write about this, to share with mommies who has ONE caeserean and would like to have a varginal birth in their next pregnancy.

Both my pregnancy were planned long before I even conceived with Natalie.

But after I delivered Natalie via caeserean, my gynae warned me that I shouldn't conceive within the first 6 months to avoid complications. I was worried that my initial plan of conceiving again when Natalie reached one would be ruined due to my caeserean wound.

So I followed my gynae's advice, took good care of my wound. When Natalie was 8 months old, I revisited my gynae to check if I could start trying again. Thank goodness she gave me the green light to go ahead. It was early January 2007. She said that we could start trying end of Jan or early Feb. And I'll be allowed to try for natural birth as the previous complications was because of fetal distress prior to my due date.

I was really excited and started to prepare for it, I mean eating right. I took the steam "Gao Li Shen"(高丽参) water, which is normally used by ladies who had miscarriage, to rejuvenate the womb for conception.

It was CNY, I thought I had missed my ovulation. But I thought just give it a try, hoping we could catch the last boat. However, little did I know that my ovulation was late that month due to my anxiety.

So happened the next day I fell sick due to food poisoning and I was given antibiotic, but I told my GP that I was trying to conceive, so she gave something safe.

Then a week or two later, I got on the wrong bed, and had a stiff. It was so painful, so I went to see a "sensai"(*TCMD). He gave acupuncture and some Chinese medicine which contain Red Flower(红花). In the old days, the Chinese use it for abortion.

I took the pills one day. Then I stopped with the feeling that I might have conceived, though I did five tests but all negative.

On 20 March 2007, my period still missing in action. With a mixed of hesitation and anticipation I repeated the test, as I still have this pregnant feeling. Finally I saw this very very faint second pink line. Quickly I took the test to my gynae. And she confirmed it with an internal ultrasound but she said that the 3 weeks old embryo Max was smaller than it should. It's either the conception was late or the pregnancy might be an unhealthy one. And she asked me to come back the following week...(to be continue)

Max, the crying baby.

Gosh Max is certainly a crier. He cries when is wet. He cries when he's hungry. He cries when he want to poo. He cries when he's colic. He cries and cries and cries, even after feeding. Gosh!

My plan always get ruined just when I thought he should resting and quiet, and I can do something like takinga nap. He will start crying. When I do everything I can to settle him, he still cries, certainly for comforting. So I comfort and he sleeps.

But when I thought he settles, thought closing my eyes, he starts crying again.

Now I'm wondering should I give him a pacifier. Frankly I HATE the idea, because it can confuse Max in breastfeeding, though he seems to have learned how to latch on better than before. And I hate to use it, coz my MIL loves to use it. And see what she has done to Natalie. She can't sleep in the afternoon without it, and my MIL still using that darn pram to rock her to sleep in the afternoon besides the pacifier. And I really hate that.

When Natalie was born, she kept pastering me to use it, as Natalie disturbed her sleeping when it's her turn to look after her. Now I don't know how to make Natalie get out of that habit when she is going to be 20 months old soon.

O.k back to Max. He seems to like sucking for comfort, I can't offer my breast for that, coz it will be a big problem to moment I'm going to back to work. But I really want to help Max to learn self-soothing without using a pacifier or sucking. How? I'm really clueless cow. Any idea, mommies?

Manage to find this site for tip on handling crying baby. But I'm not sure if they help or do I have the patience.*Sigh*

Reflux

The night before Max vomitted four times. So I decided to him to see Natalie's pae last night. According to him, Max is having something calls reflux.

Max has been like this on and off, but that night was the worst. Drink, vomit cry, drink vomit cry... Finally he was tired and he slept. Luckily through the night. However, I notice that he always goes a bit cranky approaching midnight, around 12 to 2am. Thank god other time he is fine.

So the doc gave us some medicine to get rid of the gassy stomach and asked us to change his supplement formula to the anti-vomitting one. Last night things were better, thoguh he was still a little cranky during those hours.

Max is rather manja(pampered) by nature compare to Natalie. And he cries a lot more than his sister, when she was three week old.

Natalie was a happy baby who drank a lot, burped well, no vomitting problem, neither a fussy baby. Except she tend to sleep too much in the day and she refused to sleep at night. So I had to hold her in my arm till 3am every night for the first 2 months. It took me a long time to train her to sleep normally. Those were the days. Max seems to have a better sleeping pattern. I hope Max stays that way.