Birds of the same feathers… (flock 2gether)

“Onotoligical specimen of identical plumage invariably congregate to the closest proximity.”

My ex-classmate, Emily C from High school would sprout this sentence into my face ever so often that I had to look it up. That’s right, you guessed it.

Leave by Big Golf

It simply means, “Birds of the same feathers, flock together”.

To succeed in your breastfeeding journey, you will need SUPPORT. Lots and lots of it and back-up plans as well.

Surround yourself with people who share the same values as you. Stay away from naysayers politely and concentrate on doing your own things.

They won’t be of much help. Not with their droning of “Come on, give the baby infant formula, he/she is crying already, stop the crying immediately!”

It can be rather intimidating if it is coming from your husband or in-laws.

Show them your determination and practise patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Everyone in the household needs time to adjust and get used to the little bundle of joy, including you.

Allow time for acceptance. Do your “buying-in” before the baby arrives. Sell the idea that breastmilk is best milk to everyone, especially your spouse/partner. The next level of people to convince, what I call the ” outer ring”; people who are not in the marriage/partnership, would be your employers (if you are going back to work) and surprise, surprise, your Mother or Parents-in-law.

Mother-in-Law interference complaints are very common amongst my clients. The cops were called in when Su and her Mother-in-Law clashed. She was frustrated when her newborn was not latching on properly and started to cry incessantly. Due to her inexperience, she had expected her baby to latch on straight away after delivery. Not all babies are able to latch on instantly. It is a learned skill.

Each baby is different, just like how each of us are unique.

Whenever you find yourself in an intense situation, quickly suck your tummy in and take deep breathes. Take your baby out for a stroll for some fresh air. Calling time-out will allow you to regain some composure.

Some Mother-in-Laws are very protective and will do anything to prevent the baby from “starvation”. Understand that they have good intentions and they too, love your baby. See it from their perspectives and you will not be so boiled over by the time you return from your walk.

Take one day at a time, you will reach your destination. Do not give up.
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” A Japanese Proverb.

Cultivate a network of like-minded friends or join breastfeeding social clubs. Common interests groups aim to foster relationships and offer support for one another. Being on the same page has its merits. It is especially helpful when you are faltering. It is like summoning all those players from the bench to play on your behalf, to give your strength.

Giving your baby breastmilk and overcoming obstacles are part and parcel of motherhood. Be as cool as a cucumber and as calm as a summer sea. Some of my clients swear by the benefits of meditation. You may like to explore that option. Check it out here.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.Source: Wikipedia

During your breastfeeding journey, in order to optimise your success, always try to “Begin with the End in Mind”. This term was coined by Dr. Stephen R. Covey. It is listed as habit # 2 of  “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”

[Source]

More on this author : “Recognized as one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential Americans, Stephen R. Covey has dedicated his life to demonstrating how every person can truly control their destiny with profound, yet straightforward guidance. As an internationally respected leadership authority, family expert, teacher, organizational consultant, and author, his advice has given insight to millions.”

Dr. Covey’s teachings has improved my life and perhaps it might benefit you too.  Try it and let me know if it works for you. Good luck!

Thanks for reading!

Till later,

Jo

When things get in your way

Continuing from my last post, I’ll answer Steve of Steve Pavlina.com’s question :

“What if something gets in the way of your commitment?

Here are some of the steps you can try if things get in the way of your breastfeeding commitment.

• Re-Evaluation : When things do get in your way, you need to gather your bench warmers and re-evaluate your situation. Many heads are better than one. Take a deep breath, step back and look at the challenge with a different lens.

• Take a break : Have a shower, have a hot cocoa, relax. Analyse the situation and identify its cause(s).

• Improvements : Focus on possible actions/solutions that can help with the situation .

• In the same boat : There are other mothers just like you and me in the same circumstance. There is no point in beating yourself up when things go wrong. Just be patient and learn from your mistakes. We have our own learning curves and so does the baby.

• Yak /Write : Talk to someone, it could be your lactation nurse, your doula, your spouse/partner or anyone whom you are comfortable with. If you don’t wish to talk, write these thoughts in a journal, acknowledge your thoughts and process your emotions. You will feel better later.

• Challenge yourself : View the issue at hand as a challenge that can be overcomed. “For every problem there is a solution which is simple,clean and wrong.”  Henry Louis Mencken

• Self – Affirmation :  This is an important step in getting things out of your way. After incorporating self-affirmation in your life, you will notice that something has changed in you. Your outlook in life will likely be more positive than before.” You may like to try these phrases : “I let go of limitations”, “I choose to change my challenges as opportunities” and “I can accomplish anything I set my mind to”. More here.

For those of you new to self-affirmation, here’s what Erin Henry from Huffington Post has to say :

“If I were feeling defeated, I would write down an affirmation stating that I’m strong enough for anything that comes my way. It became easier over time. I felt like I had been given the ability to reprogram my thinking and undo the false subconscious thoughts that had been building since I was born. I started looking at our universe as one big yes, as opposed to before, when I saw a lot of nos.

I am happy to say that today I am not a glazed donut, but I am an optimistic person who believes in my potential as a human being and has faith that I am always supported in life.”

New Wright Military Aeroplane by
The Library of Congress

The Wright brothers believed in themselves, and thank God for that! Otherwise, we would never be able to fly from point A to point B.

I hope the above 7 tips are useful to you. Share them if you like. If you have other tips, I’ll be happy to hear them and add on to the list.

Thanks for reading!

Till later,

Jo

To nurse or not to nurse… that is the question

By Jan Riordan, Karen Wambach: Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, Fourth Edition (Riordan, Breastfeeding and Human Lactation) Fourth (4th) Edition by -Author- (2009)

How many of you have gone through that question over and over in your head? Discuss it in great details with your loved ones, including your mother-in-law?  Aye, you would love to nurse your new born baby, and understood all that was touted to you.

Breastmilk is THE best milk….cows drink cows’ milk and babies drink breastmilk. It doesn’t help when latter-day disciples of Florence Nightingale go on and on like a pre-recorded tape recorder regurgitating at the maternity ward or during house visits.

To be honest, don’t you just look at them like Eveready batteries? That goes on and on and on?

What’s the numero uno key ingredient in successful nursing? Drum roll….. COMMITMENT.  I repeat, it’s commitment. There’s no way you can go around the merry-go-round mulberry bush without this essential component. It is like a promise. You make it and you stick with it.

Definition : “Commitment is defined as the act of binding yourself to a course of action.”

According to the founder of StevePavlina.com, he said :

“Put your head underwater and keep it there for a while. You’ll soon realize that you’re 100% committed to breathing. Notice that you don’t make excuses not to breathe. Notice that you don’t worry about motivating yourself to breathe. Notice that you don’t need to justify your desire to breathe.

You just breathe.

Commitment is action.

No excuses. No debate. No lengthy analysis. No whining about how hard it is. No worrying about what others might think. No cowardly delays.

Just go.”

He went on to ask this question :

“What if something gets in the way of your commitment?”

Now that you know what you are in for, I shall answer Steve’s question in my next post.

BBC pushes for Myanmar presence

Source :  The Myanmar Times

By Thomas Kean and Nan Tin Htwe
17 September 2012

BBC World Service Director Peter Horrocks
by Ko Taik

Senior officials from the British Broadcasting Corporation’s World Service last week met government officials and private broadcasters to push for the opportunity to operate legally inside Myanmar.

Following a recent invitation from the government, the BBC delegation also proposed providing editorial and production training to journalists and editors at state media outlets and some private organisations, including Forever Group and Sky Net.

“The first thing that we want to do is offer a substantial training package and to establish a project office,” BBC World Service director Peter Horrocks told The Myanmar Times on September 8.

“We would hope to be able to develop from that a regular presence here for our journalists … but we also want to work closely with the media sector in Burma to help it to reform, to improve its standards,” Mr Horrocks said.

“That ability to do the journalism from here is really important and the ability for people here to be able to see and hear our journalism is really important. We would like all of our services in English, both television and radio, but also our Burmese language radio service to be on air as well and we’ll be talking to people about the possibility of that, not least because it would be good for the people inside the country to see and hear the journalism and be able to judge it for themselves.”

Despite the strict internal censorship at state media outlets, Mr Horrocks said the BBC felt “the time is right” to start training government journalists.

“I think it’s partly the opportunity is there, we’re being invited, but it’s also something the BBC thinks about carefully, in terms of whether it’s appropriate to be working with journalistic organisations that haven’t previously been free and independent.” he said.

Continue reading here.

Traditional Chinese Medicine for cough

Two fellows in the family have been infecting the air with virus droplets.  It’s distracting while you are preparing for your exams. Once again, we have decided to venture into the ancient world of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We are not 100% true believers of TCM but only as a last resort after taking front-line western medicine and did not recover.

Bought this from Ban San Hoe Medical Hall for RM6.00/-

Cough herbs from Ban San Hoe Medical Hall.
323 Burmah Road.

We told the TCM man “Cough during night and cannot sleep, no phlegm”

He said ” Oh, sounds like a dry cough. I’ll prepare some medicine for you.”
The instructions were : “Don’t drink or eat anything sweet when you have cough.
It will bring about the phlegm.”

We got the TCM man to write down the cough prescription :

(Wow! It is written in scholarly Chinese handwriting!)

Cooking instructions : “Boil herbs with 3 bowls of water for 30mins. Add 3 slices of fresh ginger if no green or yellow phlegm. Finish the 1st brew, save the herbs and repeat another brew in the evening before bed time”

Okay, that sounds like RM3.00/- per brew.
Stronger for 1st drink and milder for the 2nd.
Got that!

The address :
No. 323, Burmah Road (Opposite Pulau Tikus Police Station) 10350 Pulau Pinang   Tel : 04 – 227 1724

Papaya – THE cheapest.

My family is big on papayas and seriously overdoses on Vitamin C on a regular basis. Especially so when it is “Hawaiian Papaya” season. We love the smell and its unique taste. Can’t quite describe it in words, you gotta try it to understand our addiction! You can spot it easily by looking at the body. It is roundish, cute and small-  unlike the long big ones. The sellers recommended that we cut it into half, get rid of the seeds and simply scoop the flesh out to enjoy. He said : “No need to skin okay?”

Sorry about going off-track about Hawaiian papayas. Simply can’t get enough of it. They drive us “papayas”!

Okay, THE cheapest papaya stall in Pulau Tikus Wet market is NOT inside the market. It is directly outside a Magnum 4D Lottery/Toto shop, just by the road side. The lady priced hers at RM2.50/kg which is RM1 lesser than those inside the wet market. Go for the small ones, they are sweeter with a lot more juice.

Also, it might interest you to know that papayas that got plucked before they were ripe will not taste as sweet as those that were allowed to ripen naturally while still up in the air. The artificial method of ripening the papaya – by wrapping them in newspapers, is how the locals do it here.

I didn’t know this tip before…

One day, one of the sellers got really excited and almost shouted at me (pointing at the fruits) with bulging eyeballs (short of splattering her saliva on my face) : “From the tree! From the tree! Ho liao! Very sweet, guarantee sweet!” She was not kidding. We bought one home to try and it was true.

When the locals shout : “Ho liao” it means “excellent”. Literally? It is translated as “good ingredients”.

Please let us know if you can find another stall that can beat this price of RM2.50/kg, we would love to hear from you!

Thanks for dropping by!

Cheap Gingko nuts

Gingko nuts @ Boon Sen Medical. Pulau Tikus Wet Market. Penang.

The price is an incredible 60 Malaysian Sen for every 100g! Boon Sen Medical is located on the left as you turn in from Burmah road into Pulau Tikus wet market. Since it is a Chinese medical shop, you will be able to find all sorts of other herby stuff in there too. They have another make-shift stall in the wet market itself.  It’s hard to describe the location since it is just a few tables joined together for morning sales. Look out for the eggs section, you should see 2 men and sometimes 1 lady at the stall. This make-shift shop is behind the eggs stall.

Info on Gingko nuts from Wikipedia see here.

Livestrong’s take on health benefits of Gingko nuts see here.

Dunno about you, but our family goes nutty over this product nearer to exam time. Our family members take  it 6 weeks right up to their exam dates.  So far so good.

Fresh? Checked.

Cheap? Checked.

Effective? Definitely!

What happens if we cannot find fresh gingko nuts when we need to travel to another country for exams? No problem! We take this little bottle with us. Currently we are using this product from 21stcentury. It is easily available here. Just walk into any pharmacy. Walk around Pulau Tikus area and you will be able to find at least 6 pharmacies littered around the wet market.

Actually, any brand will do as long as it has the dosage of 1,000mg in each capsule.

If you are trying Gingko nuts out to boost your memory, all the best!

Fresh pork, clean stall.

Pork Stall by schoolphotoproject.com

This stall sells fresh pork and is the supplier of most restaurants around Pulau Tikus area. One of them is, Kasuga Japanese Diner located at Premier Center along Burmah road.

The owner-chef would personally collect his pork at this stall daily. According to ShutterAsia; a photography site, Kasuga serves “Awesome Japanese cuisine”. See link here. Could it be the pork you think?

I asked the seller’s wife to give me their address and she wrote :

“Ah Keat , Tel : 012-484 5999”

No matter, theirs is the first stall not facing any wall. It is also the most crowded at different times of the morning. Like the chicken stall, it is best to place your order and walk away. Go collect your veggies, eggs, breads, fruits and whatever else before coming back here.

The owner – Ah Keat and his wife/son and brothers are all very helpful. Just tell them what you would like to cook and they will recommend which part of the pig you should buy.

Lately, we have discovered that there is an alternative to soft textured pork at a lower cost. You see, we are not experts in piggy things and cannot tell the difference, meat is meat! From the time we started to cook on our own, we like to use “Mei Hua Rou” in Mandarin or “Kup Sum” in Penang Hokkien because the texture is good. It is somewhat like Wagyu beef, fats alternating with meat. It is the perfect part to use for stewing. This however, is a tad pricy.

So, the discovery of an alternative, means we can buy more!  It is called “shoulder meat”. The texture is similar and cost less per kilo.

We like this stall because we like the fact that they scrub their chopping board to death. First, they vigorously scrape out the film of oil and what’s leftover on the chopping board, then they scrub it with a brush mercilessly.If you go after they have closed for the day, you can see them in action. To our family, that’s good hygiene.

Oink!