Welcome to our Nappy Free Home!

I finally got my lazy a$$ to toilet train our baby of the house. Usually the process takes 3 steps (eg. teaching them how to wee in toilet which is usually the first thing they learn, then it's number 2 which is 3-6months later and finally toilet training for night which toddlers tend to learn around 3-4y.o). 

To my amazement, Mak just got all 3 in the period of 5 days at the age of 2.75y.o! I started to toilet train her from Christmas Eve onwards until Sun 28th, she just got the hang of all 3. This funny little girl actually learned how to go poo first in the toilet before wee. So learning how to wee was a breeze. Then when it came to toilet training for night. She got it straight away. I only had to change the bed once because she had asked to go to the toilet from her room and we didn't hear her cos we were to tired to wake up!

So..  finally, Mr M & I are NAPPY FREE after 6.5yrs of nappy changing!

Mind you, I still have a storage full of nappies cos I didn't think Mak would learn so fast.

Here are my tips to toilet training:

1) Go straight to using undies. Forget the pull ups - This means it's better to train them during warmer days where they can wear shorts or skirts so less for you to wash if they ever do an accident. You will need to be prepared to mop the ground at least 3 consecutive days. Each time they leak and make an accident, make sure you take them to the toilet and let them know they need to it here in the dunny. 

2) Forget the potty, go straight to the toilet bowl using the toilet trainer step seat - If you use the potty, then it means you've just created an additional step for them to ultimately transition to the toilet. So I say remove this step and go straight to the toilet bowl.

3) The key is to forecast when they will be doing their wees and poos - With wees, they will probably want to go every 3-5 hours depending on how much they've drank. So always ask them every half hour if they want to go to the toilet so it sets as a reminder that they no longer can wee in their 'undies' but rather in the toilet.

4) Let them make mistakes & be patient - they will probably make at least 3-6 accidents. Let them as the wetness will cause somewhat embarrassment for them to learn faster the next round.

5) Give praise when they've done their thing in the toilet - always be super proud and rejoice when they eventually do their thing in the toilet. Continue to praise to reinforce this behaviour.

6) To train them on doing poos in the toilet, take a note of when they usually do their poos when they were in their nappy. For Mak, it was always around 5mins after dinner time. So once she was in her undies, I made sure she went to the toilet 5mins after dinner. Lo and behold, this new routine worked and I think that was why she learned how to do poos in the toilet before wees as it was always at a consistent time.

7) When you are sitting on the toilet - sing a song or read a book so it helps them to relax to do their thing. For all of my 3 kids, I made up a song using the 'Happy Birthday tune'. It goes like this:

Xiao Mei and Mama, we do a kaka (which is Africans for poo), 

We sit on the potty and do a wee wee! 

Or you can alter the song to say and Mama, we do a poo poo, 

We sit on the toilet and do a wee wee! Hippip... and wait for your child to exclaim ' Hooray'! It always works and they always ask for me to sing them the song while they sit on the toilet! And when you do hear the ke-plonk in the toilet bowl, you giggle with excitement over... poo in the toilet!

Ah.. another chapter over in the joys of parenting!

Makayla at 14months!

Our gorgeous baby of the house finally turned one in April! I can't believe how time has just swoosh by. Each time I look at her, I am always reminded of my first child Zach simply b/c they look so alike.

Makayla or Xiao Mei (baby girl of the house) we call her, is the easiest baby out of the 3 to look after. Both my MIL and mother says the same. She is such a good baby. Always sleeps through the night from 8pm through to 7:30am (and can be later but her siblings wake her up each morning). I must add it's also b/c we trained her to fall asleep herself awake. So we never rocked her to sleep but simply just placed her in the cot and overtime she learned to fall alseep herself. She's always happy to sit on her high chair or play station and watch her siblings run around the house. She is just such a great baby to take out to restaurants. Happily watching the world go by. Her personality is somewhat similar to Zach but an uncanny similarity to Davina. She has this aggressive temperament when she wants something. She would smack if she doesn't get her way (similar to her da jie or perhaps it's a female thing? we are all aggressive bunch of humans?). M has a dimple in her forehead and in the beginning I was beginning to get worried by it. It wasn't until Mr M told me Davina has it too. And when I lift her fringe, there it is there! You can definitely tell they are sisters now :) Oh and we call her miss smiley too as she is always smiling and giving you the cheeky look.

There is a love triangle happening with our 3 kids. Zachariah absolutely loves going to find Davina to play as they are both in the same developmental stage. However Davina is smitten by her baby sister. Her tender motherly side of her comes out and each time she sees M, she always goes kiss her gently on her forehead and caresses her. Makayla on the other hand is enchanted by her big brother (perhaps she sees a mirror image of herself? not sure). But each time she just follows him everywhere and looks up to him like a big role model. She would laugh in hysterics at every silly thing he does. It is quite entertaining to watch the three of them interact with one another.

Here are Makayla's developmental highlights:

*She is probably the only child that didn't like to drink milk that much (or maybe it was cos she never had NAN as a baby but instead was on S26 Gold instead). Even so now that she is on cows milk, she would drink no more than 180ml each time (vs the other two would drink at least 200ml or more).

*Her first set of bottom teeth (both) cut through at around 10months. A record for the Ming family considering the other two were at least 13months.

*Her first word she spoke was mama which was around 6-7mths. Then she also learnt how to say mei mei (when it should be jie jie).  Oh dear! She has just started to say gor gor & bah bah (at 13months).

*She started to crawl at around 7months & furniture crawl only at around 11months (late developer).

*She is average for her weight and is slightly above average for height.

*She understands words such as 'bai bai', pai pai shou, shua ya (brush teeth), friend kiss.

*Her fav food is undoubtedly the delicious berry smoothie that I make. She absolutely loves it and sucks on the straw continously until she gets a brain freeze!

*She is now wearing size 5 shoes, size 1-2 clothing

*She loves her pink teddy. That is her security blanket. She can't sleep without it.

*She still doesn't know how to walk yet. I think she will be very similar to her jie jie who walked at 16months. We shall see!



Makayla turns One!

Our dearest Xiao Mei,

Today marks exactly one year since you made your very quick entrance into the world!

Praise God for giving us such a precious, perfect, bundle of joy. You truly have been a wonderful blessing to our family and we are all besotted by your 'full of colour' personality. Your moon-eyed smile is so infectious and adorable and your mah mah just wants to bottle your baby scent forever.

Your bah bah loves to stir you all the time as we all know how much you favour your mama instead. But your dad just can't help it. You are too cute! He is always quick to give you loads of cuddles and kisses. Your big sister is the same. She loves to shower you with kisses every time she sees you until it you have to gasp for air. Your big brother is always very protective of you making sure all of our visitors are never to take you home with them. You love playing with your siblings and your bah bah and mah mah can only hope the three of you will grow up to be very close; Confidant for one another.

So our little one, as you are about to take flight with your very first step, we pray that God will guide you through all life's journey. That you will learn to be humbled by all of your achievements giving only praise to your creator; That you will pause and be thankful for each day; That you will grow into a beautiful girl and then to a fine woman of God who will not be influenced by the world but be an influencer....

We seal all this in Jesus Name, Amen.

We love you to the moon and back, always and forever,

Bah Bah, Mah Mah, Gor Gor & Jie Jie

xo

Makayla at 4 & 5 months!

Oh my dear xiao mei! so sorry mama hasn't wrote any where near as your jie jie and gor gor.. not because I love you any less, but because I am so busy with looking after the 3 of you and not to mention the sleep I am NOT getting! haiz...

Nonetheless, mama is trying extra hard to taking more photos of you and to write all of your milestones down.

Here are your developments:

4th Month:

1) Makayla has a real fascination with her hands. She would stare at it for ages and clasps her hand with each of her tiny fingers going in and out in utter amazement.
2) She loves eating her hands and sucks it to sleep. She also loves to rub her face/head and sometimes when she gets really angry, she would scratch all over her head! Poor thing!
3) Her cradle cap is slowly disappearing
4) She is still in size 00-0 clothing
5) She now knows how to move her eyes and head to follow an object she is watching
6) Her neck is getting stronger. Can do tummy time for at least 5 mins (as opposed to 1 min previously).
7) She sleeps from 6pm-6am, but occasionally wakes up at 1am for a feed when she has a growth spurt which lasts for at least 4 days
8) She loves her bath. Out of my 3 kids, M would be the only one that doesn't cry when she has a bath! She now has discovered the art of kicking and loves to kick in the water.
9) She is extremely good at holding things and grabs for things every now and then. When she sits on her bouncer, she loves to pull all of her toys down and she is very good at it!
10) She also loves to squeal and screams at the top of her lungs sounding like a bird in a very high pitched voice. It is very cute when you hear it as it sounds like she is talking to herself (usually in the cot).
11) She had her first ear infection (left ear).
12) She now weighs 6.47kg, standing at 60.5cm tall with a head circumference of 41.5cm. She is 50th percentile for her weight & 47percentile for her length. Jia you xiao mei, you have to be as tall as your jie jie!

5th Month:
1) At the end of the 5th month, formula milk was finally introduced to my little darling in preparation for mama to go back to work. She drinks S-26 and it has made her a bit constipated but my breastmilk has helped her to poo later in the day. So she still poos once a day! thank God! She now drinks about 180ml per feed x 5 feeds a day.
2) She now knows how to laugh in hysterics. She loves to stare at her siblings and loves to smile whenever they are around.
3) She wakes up every morning now at around 1am or 4am for a feed probably for around 2wks now.. I really hope this is not a permanent thing as I am just exhausted. Doesn't help me at all to go back to work in a few weeks time!
4) I have heard her say mama in her cries. Not sure if it was by accident or deliberate but I've definitely heard it at least 3 times now.
5) Like both of her siblings, she LOVES it when I sing to her 'twinkle twinkle little star' and with the actions. She just smiles every time with her eyes wide open in much excitement.
6) She was very sick for a whole month thanks to the stupid cold weather that doesn't seem to go away now that it's Spring. Her nose was severely runny, then became blocked usually at night, she had a slight temperature and even caught a cough too! It was very disheartening to watch but thank God she is now on the mend.
7) She is now very responsive as if she understands what I'm saying to her. She knows how to play peek-a-boo with me. When I slowly come give her kisses to her cheeks, it's as if she knows it and she would start to smile (without looking at me) knowing that I will kiss her soon. Sooo cute!
8) Whenever she wakes up, the first thing I would do is bring her to the mirror and ask her 'who's the pretty girl?' and she would smile in return. lol.

Makayla from 0-3 months!

I can not believe our baby of the house is now 3 month's old! That is a quarter of the year gone! Oh how fast they grow.. sniff sniff..

Here are all of her developments:

1st month:

1) From the moment she was in my tummy, I just knew she would be a placid and very easy to look after baby. After all, my pregnancy with her was exactly the same as Zach's and Zach's temperament is one of good nature, happy to sit there and watch the world go by (after a feed and clean nappy). So I knew she wold be the same. And voila, as soon as she came out, she cried just like him, she looked just like him and even the way she latched on and drank the breast milk was exactly like Z. I just couldn't believe it. She is a female version of Zach!
2) Throughout the entire three months, she has always been very good at sleeping in the day time. She would sleep at least 3hours straight, play for 15-30mins and then go back to sleep and repeat. It's not until the 5-9pm mark, that's when she would cry and cry and cry and everything that we did just did not settle her. It reminded me of when Zach was exactly the same. They call it the sun down period (ie when the sun goes down), apparently all the elderlies and all the babies become very unsettled (talk about similarities btw the old and new - old folks going back to the start of the pie in the cycle of life).

3) At 9 days old, she weighed 3.34kg which was back to her birth weight!
4) At 3weeks old, she weighed 3.94kg & fits in 000 perfectly
5) At 5weeks old, she weighed 4.69kg at 54cm length, with a head circumference of 38cm.
2nd month:

1) She was officially diagnosed with breastmilk jaundice at about 6 weeks of her life. Unlike normal jaundice, where the baby is severely tired, breastmilk jaundice just makes them look yellow but she was still as alert as ever. Breastmilk jaundice usually last for 3 months (vs normal jaundice which is around 2wk-4wks).
2) We also shaved her hair at 6wks since she did not have much hair. I thought I'd do her a favour by shaving it off so that she can have coarser/thicker strand hair in her later years..

3) I think at week 8, this was truly a milestone for her. All of her sudden, she was a super responsive baby. She would smile back to you - her first true smile (unlike the milk drunkard ones). The major difference between Makayla and my two other babies is that she is definitely the most responsive out of the three. Any one that holds her and look straight at her cooing to her, she will automatically respond back. This happened from week 8 onwards and she is still going at it ever since.
4) I never gave her the dummy so the poor girl would be crying her lungs out when she wanted my attention. Since I have two older ones to care for, many times, her cries would be unattended. Not because I don't want to, but because I had no more hands! The good side of this is that she's learnt to sleep awake all by herself without any aid (ie dummy, rocking, etc) from about week 8 onwards.
5) At 9weeks old, she weighed 5.67kg at 57cm length, with a head circumference of 40.5cm and fits in a size 00 perfectly.

3rd month:

1) At exactly 3 months, we decided it was time to move her from her bassinet into the big cot in her own room. Ever since then, M has decided that she would sleep from 7pm-7am! I think it's because I have never picked her up while she was crying, always swaddled her to sleep at the same time of the day and always when her eyes are open and the fact that she is in another room meant that she would not be tempted to wake up as soon as her tummy starts to grumble since she can smell her mummy's milk previously when we were in the same room. So there you have it, finally my third child..  there's no rocking, no dummy, no control crying! I think I need to write a book!
2) I showed her the mirror the other day and she loves looking at herself whilst cooing and smiling back at her twin. I on the other hand would be kissing her cheeks, pretending to eat it (still looking in the mirror) and she would smile in hysterics! Super cute!
3) Her neck is getting much more stronger but she still hates tummy time.
4) She is now wearing 3-6months/00-0 clothing and in crawler nappies
5) She has finally discovered her hands and loves to suck on it and use it to rub her eyes, mouth and nose.
6) It wasn't until the 2.5month mark that she was totally cleared from jaundice and regained her normal complexion in order for mummy to finally give her the photoshoot that she deserved.
7) She loves to grab things and loves to kick on the keyboard toy.
8) Out of all of my 3 children, M is the one that loves the bath. She hardly cries and when give her a headwash, she just stares at me with contentment and in total relaxation unlike the other two who absolutely hated the bath when they were a baby.
9) If the car is moving, she loves to sleep in her car seat which is very similar to Z (and contrast to D who hates her car seat even to this day).
Overall, M is such a good baby to look after. Probably the best out of the 3 (I think it's also cos I finally know what I'm doing! lol).



Mother's Group with friends

Remember back in high school days, when you would sit around with your close girlfriends pondering about life? about your dreams? about your future? Well I'm pretty sure we also had one of those moments where we'd joke about having babies some day and having them all close together so we could share maternity leave together!

Fast forward to more than ten years later, here we are! 4 girls all sharing mat leave and all unplanned too! I remember when all of us girls caught up in September last year, we were all asking how Chai was feeling since she was the first to announce she was pregnant. Then one hour into the conversation, they all looked at me and asked when my 3rd one was coming and I said 'April next year' and they still didn't get it until someone asked again. Then they all gave me a hug. Finally just before we left, we turned to Wongie and asked when she would become a mum and she replied 'May 4th' and the girls still didn't get it and I just jumped with joy (cos I knew no one would ever give an actual date as a response unless you were already preggers!) and everyone was yet again overwhelmed by all the pregnancies & especially that our babies would be born all around the same time!

So Chai had her bub on April 3rd, mine April 24th and Wongie's May 5th and all 3 of our baby girls' names start with M (unintentionally yet again!). Linda's baby boy is the luckiest of all to have 3 girlfriends already at such a young age!

Anyway, it has been a very uplifting mat leave so far as all 4 of us would be on our phones either msging each other or writing emails to each during wee hours of the night just sharing the same sleepless night issues with our bubs. It's like mother's group 24-7! lol.

I can't believe that the next time we have our Annual Christmas party, there will be 7 kids present already! Man talk about multiplying! lol.

Oh just look at how precious they are....eeeek!

Pregnancy 3: 39 weeks & 5 days - Makayla is Born!

Introducing to all our final addition into Ming Dynasty, baby Minga #3,

Makayla Lai Ying Ming

Born: Tuesday 24/4/12 @4:43pm

Weight: 3.3kg

Head Circumference: 34cm

Length: 48cm

Meaning of Name:
> Makayla - Hebrew for 'Who is like God?'
> Ying 颖 - Chinese meaning outstanding, clever, brilliant

 Why we chose this name:
1) Makayla was always one of my favourite girl's name. It is a sweet, gentle and feminine kinda name.  More importantly, we wanted her to grow up to be a woman of God, to follow His ways and to fear His name.
2) We also know and believe in faith that she will grow up to be a very intelligent woman, brilliant in everything that she does.

We Praise & Give Thanks to God for Makayla and all three of our precious little angels!

P/S In case you didn't notice, all of our children's names are of Hebrew descent, have 'A's in them and 3 syllables to subtly link them together as siblings :)