I’ve finally lost all the pregnancy weight! I weighed myself the other day and was two pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. Hoorah! Probably all thanks to breastfeeding, since I have not exercised in the slightest since giving birth.
Now if only the residual tummy flab would just magically disappear….
My maternity leave comes to an end tomorrow as I go back to work for the first time since giving birth to Mio. I definitely have mixed feelings. Of course, I can’t help but have some reservations about leaving Mio to go work, after spending virtually every moment of the past three and half months with her. I already know I’ll experience some separation anxiety and constantly wonder how she’s doing while I’m at the office. I feel sad and guilty that I will likely miss some moments in her development and growth. At the same time, though, a part of me is relieved to be going back to work. During the past few weeks, I’ve found myself craving some more human interaction with grown adults, with people who can actual talk when I speak to them. I love Mio and cherish the time I spend with her, but there are definitely moments as a new parent when I feel overwhelmed with stress as well as feelings of exasperation and frustration. Every parent feels suffocated at some point. My cousin once told me that it’s important to have some time away once in a while, since it will make you appreciate your children more and your love for them will grow. I think that for myself personally, having part of my pre-Mio life back will give me balance and a sense of normalcy which will help keep me sane. As rewarding as the experience of motherhood is, I want to continue to pursue my passion that I’ve worked so hard for. I want Mio to grow up to follow her dreams and know that as a woman, you can have both a beautiful family life and the career you dreamed of. What better way to show her than by example? I’m very goal-oriented and feel that I’ll always need to work in some capacity — whether it’s in an office for a company or at home as a freelancer — to feel fulfilled. I don’t consider this selfish, and I think that I’ll function better as a mother for Mio. A happy mommy is a better mommy.
Thankfully, I won’t be completely sacrificing the majority of my time with Mio, nor will I have to worry about whether or not Mio is in good hands. My boss has been very gracious and flexible in working out a working schedule with me in which I would only go back to work part-time, three days a week, instead of a full five-day work week. We’re also very fortunate that Dan’s mother has volunteered her time to come to our home and care for Mio during the days that I’m at work. I love and trust my mother-in-law, so I know she’ll take very good care of Mio and we won’t have to worry about Mio suffering any shortage of love and affection.
I’m very grateful for the past three and a half months I’ve had to bond with Mio and watch her grow. It’s been such a joy, and I feel so lucky to have had that time with her.
Wish me luck tomorrow — it’ll definitely be difficult to part with this little cutie!
Whether at work or at home, Mommy loves you very much! ♥
We’ve been taking Mio outside the house a lot more lately, and I have been on the lookout for a good bottle warming system. Although Mio is solely on breast milk these days and we haven’t had to supplement with formula since the first couple weeks after she was born, I have been making sure to pump and bottle-feed her the expressed breast milk about half the time, so that she can be used to the bottle so that other people can feed her when I’m not available. (Don’t get me wrong — I do think nursing directly is the best way to feed the baby and I still do so over half the time — but I’ve heard horror stories of babies only wanting the breast and refusing bottles, and with me going back to work in mid-July, I would like to avoid that hurdle altogether.) We’ve been using Dr. Brown’s bottles at home, which have been awesome — they truly seem to be the best with their internal vent system that reduces feeding problems like colic. They do have a few more parts to wash and assemble each time compared to other bottles, but that has not bothered me and I really believe it’s worth it to prevent air bubbles that can oxidize the milk and deteriorate the nutrients in the milk.
When we go out, we usually take a bottle or two with us because we’ll often find ourselves in a place where it wouldn’t be so appropriate — or I’m not comfortable — to nurse in public. We put the bottle(s) in an insulated bottle holder and try to find a way to warm up the milk via hot water if it is too cold, but honestly, it is a hassle to find a way to warm the cold bottle every time Mio gets hungry while we’re out. I’m especially nervous about feeding Mio during my 6-hour flight to DC next week, along with all the time we’ll have to spend at the airports. And so the search for the perfect bottle warmer began. But all the ones that have traditionally been sold in the US market have had mixed reviews — there are ones that plug into the car, others that use a gel heat activation system surrounding the bottle, and others that are just plain bulky thermoses. All of them seemed to have disadvantages that seemed to outweigh the benefits. Virtually all of them take 10-15 minutes to warm up a bottle, which can be a long time when you have a hungry crying baby. I told myself that there had to be a more convenient solution out there that would warm up a bottle quickly without needing the help of plugs or hot water, and continued to scour the web to find it.
Then I came across what seemed to be just what I was looking for. The yoomi self-warming bottles.
The brainchild of husband and wife team Jim and Farah Shaikh, it is a self-warming baby bottle system that features breakthrough technology to warm up milk directly in the bottle to the ideal temperature for the baby. It’s already a hit in the U.K. where it was introduced, and was just made available to the US market last month. With yoomi, you don’t have to worry about overheating or losing valuable nutrients, and the best part about it is that once you push the button on the warmer, it only takes 60 seconds to safely warm up the milk so that baby can feed right away!
Here’s an illustration of how it works:
The cold milk flows through the heated warmer channels that is lodged in the teat, thus heating the milk inside to the appropriate temperature (86 to 90°F, or 32 to 34°C), never too hot or too cold.
The only aspects that are possibly inconvenient are the fact that the warmer unit needs to be recharged by being boiled in water for 25 minutes after each use before it can be used again, and the fact that after being recharged and used 100 times, it needs to be replaced. But honestly, if you are only using these bottles for when you go out or travel, it’s small potatoes in the grand scheme of things since you’ll only have to use them once in a while. And once you recharge the warmer unit, it’ll remain recharged almost indefinitely and will be ready for use at any time.
Also, based on some articles I read while doing my research on the yoomi bottles, they are developing a new warmer unit that can be recharged in the microwave for two minutes, for those who don’t want to deal with the 25-minute boiling sessions anymore. It’s slated for release later this summer. (I have my eye on it already!)
The bottles are BPA-free and ergonomically designed, and the wide silicone nipple mimics the mother’s breast. The well-placed vents in the nipple also prevent air from bubbling to help reduce colic (which is important to us, since that is why we use the Dr. Brown’s bottles at home).
Below is a video on how it is prepared and used for the first time:
After reading about this self-warming bottle system and doing all my research on it, I was sold. I ordered two 5 oz bottles with two warmer units, along with two 8 oz bottles for when Mio starts drinking more in the months to come. They got here relatively quickly!
We tried the yoomi bottle out on Mio this weekend while we were out, and we’re happy to report that she drank from it just fine! 🙂 (Because as cool as the technology may be, it won’t be any good if our baby refused to drink from the bottle.) I was so excited!!!
So far, we’re very impressed by the yoomi bottle and can’t get over how cool the technology is! I feel a lot better about my upcoming flight back East, now that I have these bottles with me…. Going out and about Mio is going to be a lot easier now.
Every once in a while, a revolutionary baby product hits the market and changes everything. I’d have to say that this is absolutely one of those products. I would definitely recommend this for on-the-go parents with babies!
Before you were conceived, I wanted you.
Before you were born, I loved you.
Before you were here an hour, I would die for you.
This is the miracle of love.
– Maureen Hawkins
photo © Dreambox Photography
Sunday was Mother’s Day, and this year was my first time celebrating it as a mother myself. It still feels a little surreal that I’ve become a mother and that this day will now hold a special meaning for me for the rest of my life. Though it’s only been a little over a month since I have joined the ranks of motherhood, it’s already been such a wonderful and life-changing experience so far.
For my first Mother’s Day, I awoke to this cutie:
Later, Dan surprised me with a colorful bouquet of flowers.
Our friend and uber-talented photographer Tea came over to take some photos of Mio for us, and she brought me some flowers as well! So thoughtful and sweet of her… thank you, Tea! 🙂
Thank you also to all my friends who sent me Mother’s Day cards and e-cards to commemorate my first Mother’s Day… I was surprised but of course very touched to receive so many from everyone. You made my first Mother’s Day truly memorable! ♥
In the evening, we went out to dinner with Dan’s family to celebrate at Yusan Sushi. So happy I can finally eat sushi and sashimi again! 🙂
We ended the day by taking some photos to remember our first Mother’s Day together… 🙂
I couldn’t help but be consumed by an overwhelming feeling of gratitude this Mother’s Day.
I have always been thankful for the amazing mothers in my own life — my own mother who gave birth to me and raised me with love, my mother-in-law who has always welcomed and embraced me from Day One with such warmth, as well as my grandmother back in Hiroshima whom I rarely get to see but writes me letters every month.
But this year, I have even more to be grateful for. For the wonderful husband I have and for this precious, precious daughter we have brought into this world together. I feel like nothing I have ever done in my life warrants this incredible gift that has been bestowed upon me. I have never been — and never will be — the most beautiful, the most talented, the most successful. I am as imperfect as they come. But somehow, despite all of my innumerable flaws and shortcomings, I have been given so much in this humble life of mine, and now have been entrusted with the greatest blessing yet.
I look at Mio and am dumbfounded that she loves, trusts, and needs me more than anyone else in the world.
I am so undeserving, and I wonder if I ever will be worthy of all of this.