Prior to having Kiara, i always wondered why parents were lugging around this huge bag on top of having to push a stroller with a baby. I thought, "Seriously? Aren't you carrying just a little too much?" Boy was i wrong! Now that i have a child, i can totally relate! I always pack spares now. I learnt my lesson! You never know when your child might dirty themselves. And trust me, it always happens!

So here's how my diaper bag looks like. (Thank you mum for giving it to me!) Its from Kipling. It also comes with a changing pad too! It's funny because my step dad actually bought that bag for my mum without realising that it was a diaper bag. She likes big chunky bags thats why!

The inner organizer piece that holds everything in place can be taken out, but i like that it has extra pockets to store other things like extra clothes, burp cloths, pacifier and bottle nipple wipes etc. The side pockets are the perfect size to put in our nappy cream as well as the milk powder storage container! Love it! Now that Kiara takes solids, i also carry her food in a container which fits perfectly in it too. Here's my list of items i have in my diaper bag;

• 6 pieces of nappies
• Hugies Wet Wipes
• 2 bottles (1 for Milk, 1 for Juice) + Bottel warmer holder
• 4 extra pairs of onesies
• Pacifier & Nipple wipes
• Nappy Cream
• Disinfectant spray
• Yu Yee Oil (Cap Limau) or Minyak Telon in Lavender   (This works wonders for wind! I always put it on her tummy!)
• Pacifier
• Toys! Lots of Toys!

I got this hand disinfectant from the Baby Fair a couple of months back as well and it's been a lifesaver. I can't stress enough how important it is for clean hand when handling your child! Especially since i often give her biscuits and what have yous, it's so important to keep my hands clean and sterilized so to speak. :)

By the way, i've been using Mothercare's nappy cream for a long while now. Was initially using Jurlique's cream but it didn't help when K had a real bad nappy rash. Sham's mother who swears by Mothercare's products, yes she used the same nappy cream with Sham's siblings the many years ago, bought us a few and it has been absolutely fantastic! I like that it's thick and creamy and protects baby's bum. K hasn't had any rash or sores since! This is definitely my holy grail! What's yours?

Oh remember a couple of months back i wrote about how Kiara was having bad heat rash on her neck? We brought her in to see the pediatrician that is at Olive Tree in Forum. So the spray that she reccommended us to get is this ----->

We buy them it in 2 sizes, 150ml and the 300ml respectively. If i'm not wrong Guardian & Watsons was/is having a promo on them. So you buy 2 150ml ones for $20+? And 2 of the 300ml one for $30+? I've seen the individual pricing for just one bottle on its own and its insanely priced! But it seriously works wonders! So i know i'm spending good money on a product that actually works! Bless the French for their wonderful skincare products! :D (Adults can use this too! Sham uses it when he has slight rashes and they disappear so quick!)

So if you still carry a diaper bag for your little munchkin, i'm tagging you to do this post too! I'd like to know what do you carry in yours? :)

2 days after Kiara turned 4 months old, (that was on the 7th of August) i decided to start introducing some solid food to her.

Before anyone starts telling me when is the ideal time to introduct solids to a baby, let me just state my piece. When a mother feels her child is ready to move on to the next step of solids, she would know best. :) I have watched for the signs, Kiara showed interest in our food when we eat, often opening her mouth or 'chewing' like there was food in her mouth. Besides, you can introduce solids to your baby from the age of 4 months onwards. :) Or you could check with your Pediatrician if you want to be extra sure.

I'm only going to start making her food from scratch when she's 6 months as i'm too afraid i don't manage to puree it properly and it might cause her to choke so we're happy to make our way down to Cold Storage and grab some. There's many different kinds, there's even organic ones which comes in some pretty amazing flavours. (My mum buys them for her house as she baby sits K twice a week) FYI, K isn't on organic food only. She's doing mostly normal ones, just for different flavours my mother buys the organic ones.

If you're new or just about to start your baby on solids and you decide to buy it off the shelves, be sure to check the packaging. Like the above picture, Gerber Baby goes by numbers, 1 or 2 etc.

• 1 for 4 months onwards
• 2 for 6 months onwards

And for Heinz, they do a wider age group stating from 4-6months all the way up to 1-3 years! I don't have a preference to which brand i prefer more but i ave to say Heinz has more vegetable mixes for Kiara's age group where as Gerber has more fruits. So i usually buy an equal amount. She also eats Frisco Cereal every alternate day and for her last feed before sleep, i give her a bottle with a tablespoon of Frisco for a heavier feed. (She still wakes in the middle of the night to breastfeed though)

K's already got her favourites! Carrots, Pumpkin & Beef and she loves Applesauce! Though, she can't take carrots too often in a week. (They can turn orange! Google it if you don't believe me!) She also has started taking some baby juice which i still water down, during meal times. I look forward to feeding times, its always so fun to introduce new foods to her. Now that she's almost 6 months, i can't wait to start doing her food from scratch at home. As a baby i loved pork & fish porridge. I wonder what she'll love? :) I'll leave you with the very first video we took of her when we introduced solids, till the next one!

I'm gonna start a new "Little Adventures" segment for my blog. :) Since K's more alert now and her eye sight is great, we've started to line up the many places we should go to and visit.

Last 4 weekends ago (yes i took this long to blog about it.), we decided, lets conquer the Singapore Bird Park. I don't even rememver the last time i went there. Probably when i was still a kidling. If you thought the Singapore zoo was far, man! The Bird park is literally at the other end of Singapore!! (We're residing very much in the eastern part) Cab fare sure could kill us! Anyways, we joined Sham's colleague who was bringing her niece & nephew there together with one of her girlfriends.This is also our first time out with other toddlers/children so it was quite exciting for us to be around other kids!

FYI, The SIngapore Bird Park opens from 8.30am-6pm daily. Tickets are SGD$18 for adults and for children from the age of 3-12, it is SGD$12.

I know right, what a classic picture . -__- Of all times, the bird had to choose ME to poo on. As if i don't get enough of poo action from K! Alaways, i'll let the pictures do some talking!

I must say, it was an extremely humid day, K knocked out not long after, though it was quite a short nap. We bought slushies afer slushies to cool off, the heat here in Singapore is crazy! Sham's WHOLE shirt was soaked! Imagine that! Oh, i just have to say this, besides the 'Ring Sling' or Sarong as we call it here in Asia, the BabyBjorn is our best buy ever! Sure, some can come up to almost $300++ but, it's amazing! K hates sitting in her pram, she's quite the nosey girl, so she always wants to be in a position where she can see everthing and thats where the Bjorn has been AMAZING! She loves her Sarong still, just that to her the sarong is for sleepytime and bjorn is for sight seeing. (Though i've trained her to sleep in her bjorn too!)

Well then, if you live here in Singapore, be sure to bring your kids to the bird park. I'm sure K's dying to go again! She loves birds! Sham brings her to the bird shop across the street from our house quite often, she's quite intrigued with them. Even if you don't have kids, no one is stopping you from going, i know i had a ball of a time! Till' the next litttle adventure!

hello!!

So i managed to capture yet another amazing moment on camera! Its so funny, because that new toy we bought is actually for her bath time, it sucks in water and you squeeze it to squirt it out. So Sham was just pressing it infront of her after taking it out from the packet and she started giggling!

I love how the littlest of things makes her laugh. Perhaps us adults should learn to laugh at the smallest of things too! :) Enjoy!

Oh boy!

It's been a while hasn't it? I don't mean to neglect, but i guess its harder to put aside time to blog these days especially since Baby K always wants me around her. We've been staying at the in-law's place the last 3 weeks, hence no blog updates. But, we're back home now. So how is everyone doing? We've been really good! Here's some updates!

We went for K's follow up for her jabs last monday. It's her second dosage for Hep B etc till she's 6 months before she needs to go for the next round. Surprisingly, she was really good! I thought she would be ballin'her eyes out, but she cried for all of 2mins before she was back to her normal bubbly self! Our PD told us that she might burn up with a fever, but she didn't and slept well through the night. Of course, she still woke up for her feeds. :)

However, today we noticed that her breathing was hard and somewhat blocked. She kept waking up many times in discomfort the whole of last night! Plus i noticed that she was couching and throwing up a little. We decided to bring her in to see her PD. Unfortunately, our own PD was unavailable, so we went to one that is at Forum that is called Olive Tree Baby & Kids Clinic. Dr Tan came highly recommended by Sham's parents as well as his bestfriend, so why not give her a try! And my gosh! I LOVE her! It may be just one visit, but she was really in depth in explaining things to us, as she does not immediately lean towards medication! She in fact, tells us to try more organic/natural ways before going on medication. I was telling Sham that we should change our PD. I like her THAT much. Please click on the link for more info. :)

K's put on quite a bit of weight too, she's now 5.38kg and stands at about 59.5cm. She now knows how to pull our fingers and put it into her mouth, she does NOT like pacifiers which is a good thing. She loves to suck her hands and if she manages to, she'll suck her thumb. :) HEr neck has always been pretty strong, though she still bobs her head every now and then.

She's started to use her BabyBjorn which is great because she used to cry when we put her in it. So real glad that she's taking to it. :) I'm still breastfeeding, and she's more dependent on the boobs than the bottle, which can make it pretty hard when i'm not around, as she likes to go on the boobs to fall asleep. :l We've gotten her to have some proper routine when it comes to her nap time in the afternoons.

• 1st Nap at about 12/1pm
• 2nd nap at about 3/4pm

It used to be so hard to get her to sleep before! Finally managed to get some sort of a routine going. :D Finally, she isn't so nocturnal anymore! She goes to bed at about 9/10pm every night, depending on how fast she falls asleep. so YAY!!!  Well, i'm off to put her to sleep! Thanks for taking the time to read, will update more soon! Love love! Xx

Hey hey!

I'm guessing this will be a quick post as Kiara is half asleep next to me. I have this gut feeling, she's gonna wake pretty soon. So just gonna squeeze in what i can before that happens.

So today marks Kiara's 3rd week of life! What a big girl she is! We went to visit her pediatrician on Monday and glad to know that she's put on quite a bit of weight, she was 2.7kgs (5.9lbs) and now she's 3.09kgs (6.8lbs)! She's about 53cm in length too.

Okay so a good friend of mine, Syra Skins, who is an amazing makeup artist, offered to do my maternity photoshoot. (Please check her out, she's got some very amazing skills and i love love love her work.) She did my makeup for this shoot,

But she could only do it on the 11th of April as she was out of town for a job. For some reason, my gut feeling told me to standby and get another shoot done by my good friend who is also a photographer, Haikhal, so should i go into labour, i would have some memories of my pregnant self. Thank god i listened to my gut feeling, because Kiara arrived on the 7th! I actually did the shoot 4 days before delivering, how lucky!

Sham's editing some pictures too, the perks of having an art director partner! Haikhal has done 1 and so has Sham and i'm here to share with you all! :)

They've only done/edited 2 shots so far. So i cant wait till all are done and i can share more with you. I'll sure be pushing both of them to get them edited quick!

I've got so much to share about my journey into mummyhood, but the bubs is almost awake so i shall leave you with this. I hope everyone has been having a good week so far! 1 more day of work before the long weekend yet again! YAY!

UPDATE! MORE PHOTOS! :)

HEY! HEY!

I was nicely counting down during one of my last few posts that i had 16 days left to my EDD. So rewind back to the week before last week, i was looking forward to Wednesday (6th April) because, one, my bestfriend Kaimana was touching down in sunny Singapore and i finally was gonna be able to spend 3 long weeks with her before she flies back home. (She lives in Alaska) She's also the Godmother of my princess, and in a way, she was also flying back for the delivery as well as her sister's and mum's birthday. I also had my weekly checkup with my OBGYN to check on my baby. So i was fully looking forward to WEDNESDAY!!

So the bestfriend and her sister met me at the clinic for my checkup. (It's great to have your bestfriend by your side!!) My doc had to check how dilated i was to determine how soon or how late my delivery would be.

DR HENG: Hmm...you're only 1cm dilated. Don't think baby is coming anytime soon. Also your baby's head is very low. I can feel her head. Quite a bit of hair.

CHERYL: So nothing to worry about yeah?

DR HENG: Nope. I'll see you again next week okay! Eat healthy! See you next week!

So we decided to go get our nails done. Typical girlie thing to do. But good time to catch up as well but mid mani-pedi i started to feel some pains. Like i felt constipated. But i knew it was coming from the baby. So i called my mum to tell her and she was all, "Maybe you're being paranoid." So i decided to just not panic and carry on ding my nails. The bestfriend noticed that i was starting to get uncomfortable and said we can leave if we wanted to but i though, heck, must be my imaginations. After getting our nails done, (and i tried OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Planks A Lot which is a lovely purple for my toes and Sparrow Me The Drama, pink creme, for my fingers. LOVELY COLOURS!!) we had our dinner which i felt i was dying already, so we quickly rushed home to my place and i plonked my butt in bed squirming in pain.

Thank goodness the bestfriend decided to stay with me at home, because i would have died in the pain i swear! She helped call Sham who was still at work to rush home. By the time he got home, i told him we needed to head to the hospital. Something was not right. The pain was nothing i had imagined. Good thing Sham's cousin lives across the street from us, because he offered to drive us down to the hospital and thank goodness that the Hospital was literally 5 minutes away by car from our house.

So we get to East Shore Hospital and they immediately put me in a wheelchair and i get pushed up to the Delivery ward. (OMG! It started getting so real at this point of time!) It's funny how earlier in the day when i visited my OBGYN, i took my weight and was 72.4kilos and when i was at the hospital and had to take my weight again, i dropped to 71.2kilos! Weird! And no, my waterbag had not burst yet.

My doc happened to be in the next room delivering another baby so she came to check on me right after, and broke my waterbag for me and in a span of just an hour, i dilated from 1cm to 3cm. No one prepares you for the kind of pain you go through for labour. The starting was not so bad. But then it started to get more pain as the contractions became more frequent. They gave me laughing gas to help with the pain, but that made me puke heaps. I remember my doc saying, "Baby won't be arriving till about 7/8am. So i'm going home to sleep. See you later!"

Midway, i had to be put on the oxygen mask as our baby's heartbeat was wonky as i took too much laughing gas i suppose. I freaked out a little, like what have i done? I hope our baby is okay. A nurse had to stay in the room just to monitor that i did not take the mask off and that baby's heartbeat gets back to normal. :/

About midnight, i took a jab to my thigh to help with the pain which at that point had become somewhat unbearable. Boy..that sure didn't help one bit. By that time, i was in so much pain i was begging for the Epidural but unfortunately, because i took the jab to my thigh, i had to wait 4 hours before i could take the Epidural. That would mean only at 4am. The nurses checked me again and found that i was 5cm dilated, so they called my doctor down and within minutes she was there i the room with me, telling me to push. Sham held my hands and encouraged me to push, and i paid so much attention to his voice. I was scared, like really scared. I didn't know what to expect or how much pushing i had to do, and Sham's voice helped me through, he made me feel calm.

It's all a little fuzzy now. Especially since i was so 'out of it', high on laughing gas. All i remember is having to PUSH. Push with all my might, and get that baby out. I remember telling my doctor that i couldn't do it anymore. That i was exhausted, and that i couldn't find anymore strength to push, and her telling me to try one last time and if i couldn't do it, they would vacuum our baby out to help. But YAY! I managed to give one last and good push and out comes our little princess! Meet our munchkin, Kiara Eve. :)

Kiara was born on the 7th of Apri 2011, at 0145hrs. She weighs 2.725kilos and was 49cm long. It's true what everyone says you know. The minute your baby pops out, you forget the pain, you forget how much that contractions hurt. All that matters is that beautiful little person that has just arrived. That he or she is okay and you just ache to hold him/her.

It has been a true joy to have her around, to wake up daily to such a beautiful face. I love watching her sleep. I especially love how she giggles in her sleep. My mum says that the angels playing with her. :) I love watching the many funny faces she pulls, i love watching how Sham cuddles and whispers to her. She's everything we've imagined her to be and more. I thank God for blessing us with a child. Children are indeed the best gift anyone could ever have. Our life just got a little more perfect. :)

Thank you for taking the time to read. Will try to update again soon! As much as it's a joy to have her around, the Princess sure can keep us up at odd hours making sleep such a luxury! Our eye bags have officially become luggage bags! Will leave you with this for now, the bubs has woken up for some 'hooter' food. Heh. I'll leave you with a funny face she pulled yesterday which looks like a Bruce Lee kinda face. Love this Princess to bits!

Toodles!