The Hokkien Hands Free Bra

Link to initial Human Cow entry
I express breast milk in preparation for Son's Daycare phase of life. It involves holding milking devices onto my breast for 20 mins a side. 40mins a go with 6-8 milkings a day. That makes for 5.3 hours per day spent attached to a contraption. Yes, I used a calculator to do that math. I will not be one of those mothers who can impress their children with mental math. That is the father's job. I will however impress him with the ability to locate where the calculators( and almost all household nicknack's) are.
I actually spent less time because sometimes Son has the privilege of drinking directly from the tap. Nevertheless, we are talking about as much as 5 hours a day. Much of these blog was written one hand on the pump and the other typing. I read somewhere that you can buy this bra called Easy Expression so you can do it hands free. It cost $$ ( so said the Hokkienme). I can make it ( so said the Cantoneseme). I have old sports bra that I can resuse( Hokkienme jumped for joy at the salvaging and reuse of stuff people thought I kept for no reason). I can use my underused sewing machine to make sure it does not fray ( Hokkienme very proud. Cantoneseme relieved a little from the guilt of having bought a fancy singer electrical sewing machine just for altering pants)
Above is the product of yet another wonderful Hokkien Cantonese collaboration! It is a basic sports bra. Cut slit( not to long!!) Sew edges to prevent fraying. Reinforce bottom part of slit with more stitches. It may not be pretty but its yet another $30.00 savings into Son's imaginary College fund. ( read about Hokkienme and Cantoneseme at Hokkien-Cantonese Conflict

Monster Hands

Monster Hands about to attack son

There are Monsters that a mother must fight for the sake of her son. For the last few days its been the "Hand Monsters". Son is at the stage of development where the hands do their own thing. They scratch and hit. Repeatedly I have seen them hit him on the head and wake him and flay about wanting to escape him and in the process waking him up. Once they got their little finger buddy stuck in his nose and it didn't know how to get itself out.Which of course lead to more crying. We had to spend a night with him on me. I held his hands down so he could get a good nights sleep. And don't you mothers who think I should not let him sleep with me or on me start!! Those monster hands don't live in your house.

On Germs and Appreciation

To my beloved husband.

Did I say I really appreciate the things you do? The soup you boiled to make sure I didn’t starve when our son insists on being attached to me all morning. That I appreciate that you bought me a lunch sandwich because ….our son insists on being attached to me all afternoon. Or that I so appreicate you taking midnight shift because your son insist on attaching himself to me all evening? Did I say I appreciate it all in the midst of me yelling at you for stressing me out about putting fridge Pyrex containers on the floor while looking for our refrigerated dinner? But seriously?! “Germs from the floor will stick to bottom on Pyrex bowl that I will transfer into the fridge?” I know it’s your germaphobe way of demonstrating love for your son but really?? I also love you thoughtfulness in gave your keys to our friend so that she wouldn’t need to wake me when she returned from walking our son.

All I can say on the germ thing is
“Lah sam cheah lah sam tuar” ( so its not pin yin correct but its how it sounds in my head..it is in hokkien by the way)
Dirty eat dirty grow up?(direct translation) I always took it to mean a person who eats and lives less then hygienic can withstand less then hygienic surroundings and not get sick as often.
Any other interpretation of that saying would just be plain disgusting.

Everyone needs Gym time

I am not talking about me and my babyfat that needs to get some gym time. I am talking about baby gym like above. Got it when he was 3 weeks old and he loves it. He can spend up to 45 mins on it without any interaction from me. ( Think baby sister for 45 mins..how much would that cost) Makes me jealous at times. Oh! How ever so lovingly he looks at the purple elephant. Goodness, I am jealous of a purple butt elephant. An inanimate!Oh! when will these pangs of jealousy stop.

Anyhow, well worth the investment. I paid $39.90 for it from Amazon. $10.00 cheaper then baby r us and I had free shipping.$10 more dollars to son's imaginary college fund. Have you checked out my blog about Amazon.com yet? Oh wait a sec....mamabrains( brains that work at 65% of capacity. ) at work. I haven't posted that blog yet. Check in later....when the rest of the 45% of my brain checks back to work.
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FQS -" but mama will papa join you in heaven?"

The other day on the way to the Buddhist Temple, I sat in the car as my usual conflicted self. I tackled the question of me being a Christian and my husband being a Buddhist and how when I am dead and hopefully in heaven that my beloved husband wont be with me.

I am sure one day my son will ask me about that after learning that you go to heaven after accepting Christ as your Saviour. This came to me.

Son....
" One day, mama is going to be in heaven and since papa is a Buddhist and believes in reincarnation, he will die and be reincarnated and eventually one of his incarnation will eventually find Christ and he will be with mama" New twist on Nirvarna. Fairytale perhaps but who knows.....

Well its MY blog. and I can believe what I want!

In the meantime I harbor the hope that DH finds Christ in this lifetime and mama doesn't need to wait for him to be reincarnated into a being with some Christ sense.

Religion, Love of Jesus or Fear of God

On reading my blog on "Son going to temple" my friend commented that she thought my views on religion was weird and that a child does not know A from B. Its the duty of a mother to give them religion and later when they are older they can find their own way.
It is actually what will happen with my son. Who do you think is going to read him "Jesus stories"?
She had commented how glad she is now to have been forced to go to church as child and how now her children understands right and wrong from the fear of GOD. This lead to the question whether for a child, is religion the love of Jesus or Fear of GOD?
So whoever that is reading, feel free to comment.

Son,
This much I know, Fear your mama but know that she loves you and it is that love that will make her put the fear of God in you.

Why did the baby cry?

You know how new mothers are. You read something about how to take care of the child and you follow it. You also end up with too many rules!!

Don’t drink coffee or tea as it might pass through the milk and the child wont sleep. You know, I didn’t drink coffee or tea and he didn’t sleep or stay awake when I wanted him to, so I am taking that cup of tea because that makes mommy sane enough to deal with the not sleeping and not waking.

Don’t eat cabbage or other gassy vegetable coz it would give the child gas. I didn’t and he still grunted and groan as if he was a trying to lay an ostrich egg or grandpa trying to bomb Tokyo.( Son, this is what grandpa would say when he was going to use the facilities, perform his morning ambulation, doing #2..you get the picture) So I am eating that stew because it can be cooked in the croak pot and is a complete meal in a bowl!!

I have to admit I laughed about the gas bit and the grunting and moaning that newborns make. Apparently there is a reason why sometimes they let out a “someone is trying to kill me” wail when they are pooping. I read (in my frantic search for information on every single thing that I thought was troubling my child) that the infant's immature internal system sometime does not sync .i. e that the simple coordinate activity of pooping that we adults can do half asleep on the john, requires the newborn to coordinate stomach muscles contracting with anus opening. This, they sometimes get wrong and stomach contracts and anus shuts tight. The kind of pressure this would cause in an infant tummy? Well, lets say I would cry the way they do too….and yup…this mum laughs at the poor baby when he does it too. Well, that is a lot heck better then wanting to cry because I didn’t know what was troubling Master Stinky.

Look what I found! Promises promises.

See! This blog is already serving its purpose as a place to centralise my random misplaced thoughts. Below are promises I wrote the first few nights watching my son sleep. Hmm I did however seem to structure my sentenses in my usual self centered manner. It is phrased with "I want" rather then I promiss.

Bringing up Son

I want to give you the courage to pursue your dreams

I want to be brave enough to let you make your own mistakes.

I want to be supportive and positive in all your endeavors.

I want to be able to let, as many people love you as possible**

I want to be that voice inside your head that say you can do it & go for it.

I want you to one day ask yourself “what would mum do in a situation like this”:

I want you to always be able to come to me.

I want you to say "Mommy did that, I can do this" when faced with challenges.

These “ I wants” were written in the first few days of his life, as I sat alone in the room with him, tired and taking in all that had happened. I wanted it written down because I know, like many promises we make in life, sometimes we forget them. I slip up on promises sometimes(oh come on! Don’t tell me you never did!) Especially those made to myself.

Now, here it is son, you can one day remind me about these when I slip up.

** this one was made when everyone seem to want to take him from my arms ...e.g my mother in law who took him from me at 5 am in the morning irrespective whether we looked perfectly fine sleeping together. I know she did it so i could sleep better but my hormones yelled "Mine!Mine!Mine!" ( we have established that I am a tad self centered right?) do I need to say more?