Your Asian mom

I am nearly at the end of the 30-day of confinement period. It means that I am getting stronger and will soon have to do the babysitting, house chores, cooking all by myself. How was it to be in the confinement state? As I was about to deliver, many had told me that a woman has to be very careful during those period as she will be at her most fragile condition. I was quite worried as I thought I would be bed-ridden, severely sick and etc. The thought that I had to fully dependent on others was not that I intend to be.  However, it turned out that I felt quite energetic after few hours of laboring the baby except I could feel numbness at the perineum side with sanitary pad soaked with blood. Other than that, it wasn't as bad as what had been told. Despite the surge feeling to do everything as usual.As I have used to move fast in everything,  I was repeatedly advised by older people i.e mother and mother-in-law to walk slowly and sit like a princess (no crossing leg) to pr...

Unless the baby is unwell, there's no way to ensure a newborn sleep through the night as adults usually do. I am sharing my way of taking care of her at night time as I find mothers' who share theirs on line has helped me a lot going through the phase. I put my one-month-old baby to our bedroom, where she is co-sleeping with us, at about 9.30pm. As newborns have problem to differentiate days and nights, I initiate some routines for her to understand the time- which she is supposed to sleep through the night as she is growing up. Among the routines include cleaning her up with damp warm clothes (will bath her later after confinement period), dress her into a pyjama and change to diapers. Swaddling her seems giving her the sense of security which reduce awakening episodes as the tightness reduce her startle reflex. Other than that, yes, I do give her forehead kisses which I don't during daytime. Of course, we also reduce other stimuli such as the light intensity and c...

I actually googled the least sleeping hours required by a new mother. As I had been sleeping less than my usual 8 hours routine to put three-week-old baby to sleep especially at night. Yes, she likes to take short naps and will cry for more milk when she is awake. As I have yet introduce botlefeed her with expressed milk, (due to mother in law's presence who disallow it for thinking the milk isnt fresher/ safer than impromptu prepared infant formula), the responsibility to cuddle and feed her fall solely on my shoulder. Each feeding will take about 30minutes, and the cuddling time that will put her into deep sleep is another 30minutes. As the action is done in sitting position, it really hurt my back although I was sitting with straight back and supported with pillows. There were two times which I lost my patience...that I scolded the baby. And she could feel it and even cried harder and became more irritable. It was quite dangerous though as at that stage any exhausted caret...

It's my day 15th when I typed out this post. At the eleventh hour after I delivered my 3.25kg baby girl to the world, my husband bought flight ticket from Penang to here for mom-in-law to be my confinement lady. I was not the good daughter-in-law who could tolerate her presence between husband and I. Therefore, I was a bit hesitant and reluctant to have her around at this time. And, earlier I had warned spouse about it as well as I was scared to have postpartum blue later. Explaining on the not so good chemistry between us is mainly because of the generation and knowledge gaps. I, blaming the inheritance of impatience gene from my father's side, could not tolerate people repeating aka nagging me more than three times. Secondly, I point fingers on the knowledge acquired as of now which usually contrast with mom-in-law's beliefs based on eerience and old wies tales. For examples, Neonatal jaundice- focus on breastfeeding. But, she insisted to give infant formula, mi...

I prefer to have diapers for my newborn as it helps her to sleep better throughout the day. Currently I'm using mamypoko diapers which sold at Rm32++  for a packet of 52 pieces, which mean it is RM0.60++ each. As husband and I have allocated 2 sets of  them each month. our baby can use maximum three diapers in a day. Mathematically, she is using each for 8 hours provided the baby doesn't soil them with her poops. So far, the diapers really give a comfort and uninterrupt sleep to my baby as it really absorbs the liquid well and make her feel dry all the time until next change. However, there's always concern on diapers causes buttock rashes for the little one. I read through few articles on that. Preventions include to keep the butt dry and clean, wash hands regularly, and to watch out for tupes of detergent used to wash the cloth diapers. As of now, as mother in law is at home confining the baby and I... She prefers old-school which is to wear linen diapers that cou...