Free Baby Session Night at MotherCare

Yesterday night, sister-in-law and I went down to MotherCare in Melville to attend a free demonstration and information session for mothers and mothers-to-be. Sister-in-law is due on November

It’s a 2-hour session and we had to register our names in advance. There’re information talk for breastfeeding by a midwife, and also demonstrations and information guide for car seats and strollers by a representative from Britax and MotherCare staff.

The session started at 6pm, so I asked D to feed Hiro as we normally bathe and feed him at 6pm. There’re about 20 people attending the session. First, a midwife talked about breastfeeding, how to use breast pumps, and what to bring to the hospital. It was luckily that sister-in-law attended this because she didn’t know she’ll need maternity pads after having a baby!

Next, a guy from Britax talked about different type of car seats and their pros/cons. I thought the information was very useful. He pointed at the good thing on having a capsule (which I wrote about mine here), as well as its bad side which is that babies may get too hot in the capsule if stayed inside for too long. When he said that there’ll be no second chance if an accident happen and the car seat is not properly fitted, I started to worry if mine is properly fitted as we didn’t ask any specialist to install it. When it comes to a baby’s life, I think it’s worth going down to a store I bought the car seat from and ask them if it’s been installed properly. Good to know that Australian standard for car seats is the best in the world.

Then a midwife talked about safety including SIDS and using a baby monitor. She also did a quick demonstration of CPR. It was good to know that there’s actually a change in CPR guideline for babies.

After the talk, staff at MotherCare picked a couple of strollers and showed us how to use them. We could get 15% off any items purchased on the day (yesterday), and the strollers they showed us were pretty good, I thought. There was also some prizes gave away (which was kind of our main purpose of going there) but we didn’t win.   Two lucky ladies won Medela pumps and a $600 worth stroller!  We all got a free bounty bag which includes baby wipe, disposable changing mats and maternity pads, so it was nice.

It was a great session overall, and I really liked that MotherCare doing this kind of free information session for expectant mothers. I love their products anyway, reasonable prices and wide range of clothes and toys.  Plus they do sales and promotions quite often, and give away discount vouchers through few websites (e.g.http://parenting.thetest.com.au/thetest)

When I got home, D told me that it had been a disaster after I left… Hiro started crying during the feed, and didn’t even finish drinking 40ml of milk. He continued crying, didn’t take a dummy, and fell asleep after D tried settling him down for 45 minutes. It was a first time that I left him at night, so it might be the reason? But how did he know that I left? I gave him lots of cuddle and kisses when he woke up for feed at 11pm. )

a

Japanese Mayonnaise

Japanese mayonnaise has different taste from Western style mayonnaise.  It’s thicker in texture, and has rich flavour.  Some people love this Japanese mayonnaise, and some don’t.

When I came to Perth I tried Western style mayonnaise the first time, and I hated it.  I thought it taste like cooking oil (well, all mayonnaise contain oil, but it tasted more oily to me somehow), and didn’t have the creaminess that Japanese mayonnaise has. I’m used to it now and enjoy it occasionally though.

I wasn’t actually a mayonnaise-lover in Japan either. My mum and brother love (Japanese) mayonnaise and add it to any food such as braised vegetables, pickles, grilled fish and meatballs. Some super-mayonnaise-lovers in Japn eat mayonnaise with just steamed rice!!!! (yuck…)

I, however, need mayonnaise when I eat some certain foods.  They include okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and salad with tinned tuna. They are meant to be eaten with mayonnaise!!

It wasn’t my intension but I made tuna sushi and okonomiyaki 2 days in a row. I need Japanese mayonnaise for both of them. Mayonnaise tastes so good on okonomiyaki…. yum! I ate lots of mayonnaise in these two days, but I guess it’s fine.

Oh, one more food that need mayonnaise.  Teriyaki chicken burger!  Mayonnaise and teriyaki sauce match so well.

What to Feed a Baby

There is one thing I regret of doing while Hiro was still a newborn.  It is that I should have tried harder on breastfeeding him.   I had difficulty feeding him from breast (because of my nipple shape and also the size of Hiro’s mouth etc) but I think the problem should have been solved if I had tried harder and continued doing it longer.  I didn’t want to give up on giving him breast milk, so I expressed using an electric pump and gave him with a bottle. It had became a regular routine, and he got so used to the bottles that eventually forgot how to suck on nipples.

At my friends’ house I see them breastfeeding their babies and it looks so natural.  On the other hand, I have to carry a bottle of expressed breast milk (EBM) or formula to feed my baby everywhere I go.  It’s not a big deal, I know.  The important thing is to feed him and not letting him feel hungry.  But, somehow I feel that I failed.

When I visited a Japanese playgroup with Hiro, I had to warm up a bottle of formula.  Then I noticed other mums watching me and telling me “oh, you are feeding him formula….” with an “interesting-look”.  I felt they’re thinking why I’m not breastfeeding my baby.  Also, while chatting with other mums, they were saying that breast milk is the best and you can tell if the baby is breastmilk-fed or formula-fed by their sizes.  I know breast milk is the best, and I’m not giving Hiro formula because it’s easy to prepare.  I wanted to yell at them, but I was shocked when my friend agreed with them and said that she wouldn’t want to give her baby more than 120ml of formula a day.  She knew I give Hiro quite lots of formula.

In Japan, I feel, they are more serious about breastfeeding, and they judge other people by what they feed their babies; breast milk or formula.  They are proud of breastfeeding their babies until the babies reach 2 years old, or giving ONLY breast milk at least for the first 6 months.  I’ve been asked this question  ”do you breastfeed your baby?” by doctor, nurse, or Japanese mothers.  I don’t know why they are so obsessed about this.  Of course not everyone is like that, and maybe it’s all in my head, but I felt that mums at the playgroup were looking down on me for feeding formula to my baby.  The experience kind of made me feel shame of being not able to breastfeed my baby and giving formula.

Well, what can I do?  Since then I don’t want to feed Hiro in front of other Japanese mums, especially while they breastfeed their babies.  I shouldn’t care about what other think, like D tells me, but somehow I still feel shame.

When Hiro was around 6 months old I started giving him rice cereal as his first solids. I thought it’s one of the best food to start since everyone (child health nurse, people on internet, etc) recommended it to give babies for the first food.  I didn’t have any doubt about it, and Hiro took it pretty well.  After rice cereal I moved on to hand-made pureed vegetables (carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, zucchini, etc).  Then, again, I heard some Japanese mums complaining about feeding rice cereal to the babies.  In Japan, very soft rice porridge (o-kayu) is a typical first solids to babies, and they think that store-bought pack of rice cereal is a not good food to start with.  Hmmmmm…… why they care about such small thing? I mean, someone gives rice cereal, someone gives home-made porridge, it doesn’t matter.  It’s everyone’s choice and they don’t need to complain about it in public.  Yes I did give my baby rice cereal, but was it wrong thing to do?  I don’t think so.  After “rice cereal” subject, they now started talking about commercial baby foods.  Yes, complaining again.  I can’t stand people who complain all the time.  :(   What to feed babies is everyone’s choice!

McDONALDS PLAY I SPY

My quick lunch at McDonald’s last week.

McDonald’s is doing this Play I Spy campaign, which could win you some prizes.  When you buy selected items from McDonald’s, the items come with Play I Spy stickers and 1 in 5 wins instantly!

I got McNuggets value meal and D got BigMac value meal, so we had 4 stickers in total to peel off….

Did I win something??   YES!!!!!!!  …. just a cup of coffee  But it’s better than nothing!  D didn’t win anything..

There’s also 2nd chance where you can enter to win unclaimed prizes.

Hmmmm, anyway, I did enjoy McNuggets.  I used to eat McNugget a lot back in Japan, and this is one of the foods I craved for while I was pregnant!  I normally get mustard and ketchup to accompany, but this time I only got mustard.  Yummm…

a

Sweet Fix

Our window shopping at Carousel shopping centre ended up as a hunting trip for sweets this week. We found a stall in the centre of hallway selling unique candies and soda drinks.

They all looked colorful, and reminded me of a candy shop I used to spend my whole afternoon while I was little. The products they sell at this stall are different from what I used to eat in Japan though. They are more like  American-style sweets which are in different colors and flavors.

D wanted to buy something, but I thought they’re bit expensive compared to other chains such as Darrell Lea. But, they all looked cute and we bought few packs of sugary candies. One of them, “fruit sticks” tasted like the one I used to get from a game centre machine in Japan, and recalled my memory of feeding the sugary candy to my brother when he was sick. He was around 5 years old and that candy was the only food he could manage to eat. I remember I thought he was dying (he was actually having measles) and worried about him a lot. So I got lots of the same candy and kept feeding it to him until he said “enough…”.

While remembering these childhood memories, we walked pass Darrell Lea and went inside the store to have a look around. Then we bought 2 packs of peanut brittle and 1 pack of caramel snows (which is finger-sized candy with layers of chocolate, caramel and white icing). Caramel is usually not my favorite thing, but I felt like eating it then. I even wanted to buy caramel McFlurry (which I ended up not buying). Our bodies needed some sweets!

That night we went nuts over these sugary treats…..   I had stomachache afterwards, but no regret! :p

a