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20th World Breastfeeding Week

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August marks breastfeeding month.

Aug 1-7 is 20th World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) with the theme “Understanding the Past – Planning the Future: Celebrating 10 years of WHO/UNICEF’s Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding.”

 

 

UAE on the other hand celebrates WBW in November each year as decided by the Ministry of Health. I don’t have any information of any activities happening on November just yet, I will surely write about it once I get some information.

What I can share with you is the wonderful helpful and supportive group here in UAE – Breastfeeding Q&A Dubai UAE. “A non-profit Dubai base support group to help mothers to breastfeed through mother to mother support. The admin are volunteers trained in breastfeeding management and support.”

If you are in the UAE and would like to know more about breastfeeding and want to have a support group away from home click on the link above. Plenty of moms will be available to answer your questions or just listen to your worries.

 

To end this post I’m sharing this Boob-olution video

 

 

 

 

2000 Restaurant

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My MIL is in town and we initially planned to go around the city and try all sorts of cuisine. On her first week we had dinner at a Ahl AlMandi Restaurant but the food well was not pleasing to her taste. Each time we ask her what food she want’s her only reply – no local food 😦 we always end up eating at a Chinese restaurant.

 

Last year while waiting for Vierte’s laboratory results and very hungry we managed to get a table at 2000 Restaurant which was packed with Chinese expats celebrating the Chinese New Year. We were sure glad to have accidentally dined here because we had one of the freshest and yummy dumplings.

 

Seafood Steamed Dumpling – 2000 Restaurant

 

You get to choose between chicken, beef or seafood filling and whether you want it steamed or fried. We had a  steamed seafood dumpling (DHS 18) each amazing bite with the hints of fish, shrimps, and spring onions that you need not dip it soy sauce.  Two ladies standing behind a clear glass manually roll each wrap, fill them with your choice of meat and cook them to your liking.

 

Mixed Seafood Fried Rice – 2000 Restaurant

 

My husband C can eat fried rice everyday in each of his meal, so whenever one is available in the menu we order it.  We also ordered Mixed Seafood Fried Rice (DHS 18) on our first visit and it was yummy, sadly this batch of rice was overcooked.

 

Sizzling Seafood with Japanese Tofu – 2000 Restaurant

 

Sizzling Seafood  with Japanese Tofu (DHS 45) seconds the dumpling for it’s yumminess. It has the right amount of sweet and salty, seafood was not overcook and veggie had the right crunch.

 

Salty Chicken – 2000 Restaurant

 

“Chicken looks funny Mama!”

Vierte’s comment when the chicken arrived on our table, I don’t remember the actual dish name but it did have salty in it thus I shall name it Salty Chicken. It is not salty at all! Each bite had the right amount of salt that is quite addicting it would have been nicer though if it was accompanied with a side dish of fresh cucumber or something pickled.

 

We had a good dining experience as the food was yummy and price reasonable, it would have been more nicer if our lady server was not grumpy. We both had a hard time understanding each other since I don’t speak Chinese and I was having a hard time understanding what she was asking. I think she speaks little English because when C asked for Coke Light she looked clueless that we had to act out drinking from a glass which she replied by pointing at the refreshment fridge.  I suggest that when you order point out at the pictures and or the choices at the menu to avoid confusion.

 

Total bill: 138 DHS (includes 2 Coke Light and 1 Big Water)

 

2000 Restaurant                                                                                                                                                                   Ground Floor, Al Rabaan Building                                                                                                                                                 Opposite Reef Mall, Deira

Ladybug Cake

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Ma, how old is my baby sister? 

Vierte always ask me this question, after getting a reply he would get one of my cake books and start to plan a party for Chloe.

Happy1stLadyBird

When I told him that Chloe is turning a month old he already had a cake in mind. Vierte grab my 50 Easy Party Cake by Debbie Brown book and showed me the design (and he does insist that it’s a ladybug not ladybird) with instructions that it should be a chocolate cake with dark chocolate icing.

ChloeBugCake

LittleMan V also deserve a thank you cake. He got a mini bug cake.

ThankYouBugCake

ThankYouKuya

I love you Kuya Vierte and Baby Chloe! Both of you make Mommy and Daddy happy.

Chloe Isabelle is 1 month

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Chloe is a month old!

C and I have been talking about the night we went to the hospital and if it weren’t for the 2 emergency CS who came after us Chloe should have been born on the 24th. All those seem just like it happened yesterday.

During our hospital stay we struggled with breastfeeding that I almost resorted to formula good thing the nurses around me was encouraging that I was feeding her just fine. Here we are a month after happy to say that I have established a good  breast milk supply.

Oh sleep..well I’m lucky if I get a good 3 hours and that only happens if she sleeps beside me in bed with her Kuya Vierte. The first week we came home I let her sleep in the crib but that didn’t work for us, I kept checking if she was ok and by the time I’m sure that she is breathing well and I’m about to sleep Chloe wakes up hungry.

In the morning though she sleeps long hours in her crib and bouncer. Morning however is my time with Vierte who was a little jealous of the time I’m giving her sister. A week after he now understands that Chloe needs Mommy more.

This month we are going to introduce pacifier and bottle (with my breast milk) with Dad or Grandma having the task of doing this. I too have to prepare myself since we only have 2 months till my MIL goes back to Pinas.

To our little Princess,

Thank you for bringing more joy to our lives. Your Kuya loves you so much, singing lullabies when you cry and just can’t stop giving you hugs and kisses.

I love you Chloe! and I love you Vierte!

Sponsored Video: Domestos for UNICEF

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As parents we work hard to be able to provide our children with a safe and clean environment.

Safe and Clean! A community free of violence. A community with abundance of food. A community with access to electricity. A community with access to clean water. A community with proper sanitation.  A community knowledgeable of proper hygiene. Unfortunately this are also some of the things that we take for granted.

What is sanitation? Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes.

What is proper hygiene? Hygiene refers to the practice of cleanliness and also refers to the preservation of health.

Did you know that an estimated 2.5 billion people around the world who do not have access to basic sanitation. Sadly most of them are children.

 

Domestos and the Unilever Foundation have joined forces with UNICEF to help improve access to basic sanitation for hundereds of thousands of people by supporting UNICEF’s Community Approaches to Total Sanitation (CATS) programme.

The CATS programme is a behaviour change programme that promotes good hygiene practices, helps create demand for access to toilets and raises awareness of the sanitation crisis in order to reduce disease transmission.

Find out more about this partnership here.

 

How can we help?

Buy specially marked Domestos bottles.

Domestos is contributing 5% of its average proceeds received from the sale of specially marked bottles of Domestos in select countries (UK, Ireland, Poland, Vietnam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirtates) to UNICEF’s CATS programmes in South Sudan and Vietnam.

Watch this video on Domestos project with UNICEF.

This post is sponsored by Domestos, but all thoughts are my own.

 

 

 

Baby Bump Update: 36 Weeks & countdown begins

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As I’ve said on the previous post we are now doing a scheduled C-Section on the 26th of June. That’s exactly 14 days from now.

 

I’m moving slow as a turtle this days and occasionally experience nausea and migraines but of course I still have active days where I get a lot of things done in the house. I’ve had the urge to scrub every knob and corner of our flat, it’s I think what they call nesting.

 

Our (baby and I) hospital bag is ready, prepared it weeks ago but I have to repack again after reading some tips on packing a practical hospital bag. I’ll share it here soon.

 

Breads yes bread, I’ve been craving for home baked ones and since most of my mom-friends aren’t fond of making one I decided to make some for us. Last week I made Sticky Cinnamon Rolls from the FoodNetwork website and oh boy was it yummy! You can get the recipe here.

 

V has been really clingy, he kept on asking how much I love him and would sometimes request that he be called baby.  He would do all the baby stuff like crawling in my tummy when in bed, baby talks, and throwing tantrums. Most of the time he would settle for stories of him when he was still in my tummy asking how the doctor got him out, so I would show him my belly scar and we would watch the video of how the doctor got him out. One thing that he never forgets though is to kiss my belly and say bye to his sister before he get’s on the bus and sing songs to her after school.

 

The husband C has been patient with me, there are days that he doesn’t get any packed lunch and sleepless nights just to rub my back. Now that we have a date on the babe’s coming out I’ve been bugging him to re-arrange the furniture and make room for the crib.

My MIL is arriving on the 21st to help us out and give V the much needed attention he would surely miss from us. I just hope I don’t get tantrums 🙂

 

Maternity photoshoot by Ryan Nisay

No longer qualified

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For VBAC (vaginal birth after ceasarian) that is.

 

I’ve been reading happy stories online on normal birth delivery after undergoing a C-Section. For the past 8 months my mind has been set.

Last week though I’ve read that if you had a vertical cut on the c-section you are not qualified for VBAC. See, I have a visible vertical cut on my tummy but there still is a possibility that the incision done inside was done horizontal which would mean that I can still qualify for a normal delivery this 2nd time.

Good thing I was still in touch with my OB in the Philippines – Dr. Elma, so I sent her a message asking if she could still remember the cut she did inside me and this is her reply.

“Hindi vertical ang cut mo sa loob horizontal but if I remember it right because of d big blood vessels,we had to extend the incision a little vertically so your not a good candidate for vbac.repeat cs ka na lang para safe.sana okay din ang course of pregnancy mo and delivery!”

😦

We had our scheduled OB visit yesterday with Dr. Helena Taylor after all the routine check she happily informed us  that all our vitals our good and asked if we had any question. So I told her about Dr. Elma’s email…and she replied “If that’s the case you are not a candidate for VBAC, we have to do an elective CSection.” I was heartbroken. She further explained that because of the little vertical incision made my uterus is weak and there is a possibility that it will rapture.

I know it’s no big deal, I mean a few of my friends who had a normal delivery even discourage me because of the unbearable pain they experienced but see a whole lot of bunch of them also shared that giving birth is really painful but once the baby is out it’s gone and you heal faster after the delivery.

 

We are scheduled to deliver via CSection on June 26. Please do say a little prayer for our safety.