14 Months

Bulilit turned 14 months yesterday.  We went to the pedia last week and he grew taller by one full inch.

He didn't gain a lot of weight, just a few ounces.  I think that the pedia is worried that he is not eating properly and just gulping down his mashed food without really eating.  She advised us not to turn on the tv especially while eating.  This task has been challenging to do, but what struck me most was that the doctor said teaching discipline should start right about now.  

We were successful on not turning on the tv or ipad the entire weekend.

It was difficult, messy table, messy floor, dirty baby...but we were able to make him chew real food better.  Hopefully by learning how to chew, he will learn how to eat properly too.

Our next challenge is talking.  At 14 months, a baby should be able to say 6 words, but my son still cannot speak a single world.  He learned to walk alone last a June 6, but has not yet mastered the art of talking.  Somehow, I think the doctor also advised against tv and ipad so that there can be more interactive time with real people instead so that he can learn how to talk. 

I'm a little bit worried that he hasn't achieved this milestone yet :( 

Now if only I can get the whole family on board with the no tv rule....

 

Walking Feet

I am absolutely thrilled that I was home to witness Gavin's first steps alone without holding on to anything or anyone.  It happened last June 6 as I was packing for a trip and he was walking along the bed and closets.  He walked by himself from the bed to the cabinets... Yaya and I looked at each other and cheered.  

Starting that day, he walked more steps without helped and after two weeks, I am happy to note that he is walking by himself already.  Ang bilis pa!  Happy mommy, happy feet baby :)

Solids

At 13 months, Gavin only has 2 lower teeth and barely two of his upper teeth.  It has been very hard for him to eat real food, except for tinola and nilaga plus fresh fruits.  London was great for feeding babies because of their extensive selection of baby food.

They had a lot of chunky food selection - real food in disposable containers.  You don't need to ou these in a bowl, just squeeze into a spoon and directly feed to your baby.

It also inexpensive at Php50-60 per pack of you buy it Tesco or Sainsbury.

Some are locally available at a healthy options at Php115.

There were also a good selection of breakfast porridge in different flavors and dinner mix like broccoli and cheese rice cereal.  

The local grocery also had different kinds of baby yoghurt and baby pudding.

My son developed his love for these things when we were in London,

He used to not like the regular bitter taste of the yoghurt in Manila, bit the baby yoghurt had less of the taste and it was in smaller servings.

I was also happy hat they had a lot of selection for baby juice.

In Manila, only he SM Aura Supermarket had different kinds of juice for tots, bit all were out of stock during summer time.  Nakakasawa din ang walang kamatayang apple juice.

We also happened to find different kinds of organic crisps for kids.

They were mainly made from carrots or tomatoes and some flavored with cheese.

I know that making food for your tots from scratch is really healthier, but I was happy to be able to find different selection of ready baby meals.  It increased the taste pallet of Gavin and it also helped increase his appetite more.  I do hope that groceries in Manila can import these baby food items soon to improve the local selection.  I do hope that they can also maintain the value for money prices, in case these products are imported. 

Just an update that our pedia, Dra. Carmela De Lara gave us a moratorium on no watching television or Ipad while eating.  The little one was used to eat only if he is watching Mickey Mouse or Hi5.  She warned us that the baby should learn to concentrate on eating in order to know that he needs to eat when hungry plus to practice him to eat by himself with the finger food presented.  It has been a tough couple of days, but we are slowly getting there - no tears while eating.  God help us, hehe!

Storing Milk While Traveling

I am a working mom who travels for business.

I only chose to do very short 3 day business trips before Gavin turned 10 months old.

The longest I was away after that was a 5 day trip to Japan and I was exclusively breastfeeding at that time.  I was able to express 40 packs of milk which I have started to save 2.5 mos before my departure.  However, during the trip, I pumped and dumped milk.

I was only able to bring back the milk I expressed on my way back to Manila.

In my next trip to a nearby Asian country, I tried to store milk at the hotel mini ref.

I had blue ice with me and a small cooler wherein I stored milk going back to Manila.

Since I only brought a small cooler, I had to throw my extra chilled milk because it didn't fit the bag anymore.  I also hand carried everything inside the plane.

During our family vacation in London, I learned that they have to examine each expressed milk if it's going with you as a hand carry.  That will be a tedious task if they are to examine 15+ packs.

In my next long haul trip, there was no mini ref at the hotel.

Not all hotels at the outskirts of UK would have one per room.

I tried to request for one and good thing that the hotel was able to provide :)

This is my big cooler bag:

These are my different kinds of blue ice :)

On the last day of my trip, I was scheduled a full day meeting at the office then to travel to the airport straight away in the evening.  I brought my stash of milk which I stored together in two large ziplock containers to the office.  I placed these on the ref and I froze all my stash of blue ice with me.

After the meeting, I placed everything in my big cooler bag and I included it inside my checked in baggage.  Note that I was only on a 3 day business trip so chilling the milk and not freezing it was okay. I timed the time traveling to airport, flight time, stop over time and amount of time to reach my house ipad it was roundabout 24 hours.  The blue ice will still be able to keep everything chilled in 24 hours.  When I arrived at the house, the milk was still cold and I was able to feed my son for the next two days with the milk :)

I was also able to express milk while in flight and the flight attendants of Cathay were nice enough to give me ice to chill my freshly expressed milk.  I had placed my milk inside a big zip lock then I placed the ice outside another big zip lock so the milk does not touch the ice directly.

Storing milk while traveling is really a lot of work that entails time and effort.

I recommend that you try it, breastmilk is priceless, no matter how few you manage to bring home.

I am now mix feeding my son as he is drinking 5 bottles of breastmilk per day and the rest of his bottles are from the lactose free formula since he developed allergies from cow's milk.

My milk supply is not as plenty as the previous months, but I do my best to express whatever I still can to nourish him :). As they say, breast is best! 

*you can buy th Chicco bottle disinfectant so you don't need to sterilize.

*or you can just wash the spare parts in very hot water at your hotel

Breastfeeding Room: Ayala Greenbelt 5 VIP Lounge

Ayala gives complimentary use of their VIP family lounge to nursing moms.

The area has wifi access, computer access, sofas, a play mat for kids and a big family bathroom.

It also has two private nursing rooms.

It has a lounge chair and a table beside it.

There are so many things that I didn't like about the area.

First off, it is very had to pump with a chair that is reclined.

You have to sit up straight when pumping or nursing a baby.

You don't lounge around when you download your milk.

The seat even has an ottoman, but it's hard to pump with your feet up there.

The room was beautiful, yes, but functional...I don't think so.

The light in the area was also very dim.

It's good for a sleeping baby, but very hard to locate your pump and other milk items when you are merely pumping.

It had two electrical sockets though, good for charging your pump.

I wish that there were other things in the area, a changing table maybe because the changing table was only inside the toilet and there was only one toilet in the space.

If you have a child who's nappy needs changing, it's hard to wait for a long time just to use the loo.

I hope that they also placed simple things in the area like a box of tissue.

Breastfeeding Rooms: Hong Kong International Airport

HKIA has plenty of nursing rooms.  You can find one every few meters or every ten minute walk in this airport.  Each nursing room has two private rooms that you can lock.  Each private room has a chair and a table with a changing area.  The lighting was also bright, but the room temperature was really freezing cold.

Outside the private nursing area, there is a sink, plenty of tissue and another changing area that can be used.  The space is functional and what I like about it was that a cleaning lady came in regularly to make sure that it's sparkly clean.

Baby Area: Shinsagae Korea

Shinsagae is the Korean equivalent of Japan's Takashimaya or Manila's Rustans.

It has a very big baby area which has an extensive nursing room for breast feeding and pumping moms.  I wasn't able to enter anymore because there were a lot of nursing moms inside.  It even has an area to park the strollers of the babies.

What amused me was that right outside the nursing room, they had a baby play area where your kids can play when they are restless with shopping or for older children, you can leave them to play while you are shopping yourself.

Use of this area is free and it right at the childrens floor and as I've mentioned, outside the nursing rooms.  I think that Korea really puts importance to moms and kids that establishments would have this.  

Breastfeeding Rooms or The Lack Of in London

London is not a mom and baby friendly country.

It did not have any nursing room at Heathrow, London Eye, Harrods, Selfriges, M&S and even at Westfield.  I don't understand on why to one of these establishments had an area to breastfeed babies or to pump.  

These establishments only had baby changing areas for nappy time such as this one at M&S at Bath.

Breastfeeding Room Review: Incheon Airport

The baby room at the Incheon Airport was pretty much complete.  

It had a chair to breastfeed or pump, a changing table and a nursing pillow.

The room also had a bed, perhaps to help a baby sleep.

It had a high chair too if one has to feed a baby.

I find this very much helpful now that Gavin eats solid food as it is very hard to constantly make him eat in the stroller while we are at the mall and other establishments.

The room also had an air decongestant.

The only downside to their nursing room was that it didn't have any sink and faucet to wash your feeding materials.

 It was also hard to find, I had to ask for clear directions from the information desk re where it can be found.

Incheon has high speed wifi for its passengers so it's a big plus that you can go online while pumping milk :)

They also have a great playground for kids!

Visiting London

This summer, my family visited London together with the little one.

In spite of all the hurdles of bringing a baby with us, it was all worth it.

I know he probably won't remember the trip when he grows up, but

I will always remember how happy I was that he was there with us every step of the way.

How great was it for Gavin's first train ride to be going to Scotland, his first taxi ride to London, his first public bus ride to Bath and his first tube trip to Oxford Street?

How fantastic was it to have his little steps at Buckigham Palace and St. Paul's?

Or to sing London Bridge is falling down in front of the actual Tower Bridge?

Then to slowly cross Abbey Road with a little one in tow?

How memorable it was for Lolo to see St. Andrews while carrying you in his arms?

How fun it was to see the Beatles' studio with Lolo and Lola :)

I will always remember how you wanted me to carry you the whole stretch of the bridge from Big Ben to London Eye! Still can't believe I did.  See my not so amused smile below. Haha!

I will always treasure seeing you walk the cobbled stones of Bath.

I will always remember carrying you the whole time whole crossing the Millenium Bridge, ayaw mo talagang magpababa!!!

I will keep in my heart the days without a stroller when I carried you in our Baby Bjorn while going around Edinburgh New Town.  I know that days that you will need my hand to hold while walking will not be for long, so okay lang my love.  

Thank you to Lolo, Lola, Ninang, Titas, Titos and Tita Lola who joined us in this wonderful trip!

We had the greatest time.  As they say, best to build many new memories than to have many new material things :). Tamaaaa! Till our next adventure xxx

Long Haul...Short Trip

Gavin's first airplane ride was a 14 hour long flight to London.

I was dreading the long flight weeks before because I know he will be restless and I will not have a yaya with me, plus it's my first time to fly PAL long haul, so I don't know if their service was fine.

Some notes and realizations on this trip.

1. PAL is not baby friendly

They do give their bulk head seats to passenger with a baby, note that it only for one- the paying passenger and baby on lap. Any accompanying passenger with the one carrying the infant must pay the extra amount to be seated in the bulk head seat, even if no other passenger is occupying it.

PAL will not give you a bassinet if your infant is more than 6 months old.

They base it in age and not in weight, so even of your baby is a 9 kilo one year old, the use of the bassinet is not permitted. 

I usually fly CX and they always let babies below one use their bassinet even if the baby is beyond 10 kilos.  A bassinet for a sleeping baby would have really been a big help.

PAL does not have an infant on lap seat belt.  I asked the flight attendant for one and she simply told me, there isn't any.  My son was jumping and kicking and twirling during take off and landing, totally not safe.

They gave out two Gerbers for baby food going to Heathrow then gave two bottles of baby juice and 4-5 baby food on the flight going back.  I would have appreciated if a blanket was given for Gavin and a small toy to keep him entertained in the long flight.

The worst thing ever was that PAL lost our stroller, even if I left it with them at the actual gate of the aircraft.

After the flight, they said that they checked in the stroller and I would have to get it in the baggage carousel.  Unlike other airlines that give you back the stroller after getting off the aircraft, PAL didn't do it on this particular flight. I hope hey understand that parents need the buggy so you can use it to transport your child since there are long walks required in traversing big airports and strollers are brought to carry infants at all times, right?  Well...not PAL apparently.

The stroller never came out of the conveyor belt and was declared lost when I reported it.

They said at they will send it to our hotel wherever we are and I gave them our itinerary and hotel addresses.  It didn't show up at the hotel either.

I got two missed calls from a UK number which I assumed from PAL, but never got any message.

The website simply stated, stroller en route.  

Before headin back home, I went to the lost baggage office and lo and behold, the stroller was there.

They said they sent it to our first hotel, but we weren't there anymore.

They didn't want to send it to Scotland because it's too far and they simply gave up when the mobile phone wasn't picked up after two tries.

    Pre-flight with his stroller at NAIA, waiting to board.

2. Everything bad that can happen will happen

Food dropped on the blanker, chair and myself...check!

Poo during the flight....check!  Poo again during the flight....check!

Lost items...check!

3. Make sure you have electronic and non electronic toys on hand to keep the baby busy

Books are really useful, a teether, a musical toy, Mickey Mouse and some wooden toys to keep the little hands busy.

4. Bring extra clothes for the adults

Since food was dropped a lot of times, great that I was able to change my shirt before arrival :)

5. For Heathrow flights, they check the breast milk and all baby food in their special machine to check if it is safe to be brought in-flight.  Be patient while this is being done!  

6. A neck pillow for baby and mommy is a big help when sleeping with a baby on your lap.

7. Feed the baby during take off and landing so his ears won't have any problems.  We were lucky that Gavin drank milk during both instances and had no trouble with his ears.

8. Make sure you have a steady supply of infant wipes, diapers, soap free baby cleansers, etc.

Bring a baby carrier (Baby Bjorn) so in case all he'll breaks loose and you loose the stroller, you still have a baby carrier to help you carry your child :)

9. Best to use disposable bibs and bottles during a long haul flight.

10.  Pray that both you and baby have a great time...in spite of :)

 Pray that you survive.  Pray that you will have enough rest to go on for the rest of the trip, haha!

May 11

Business trips suck when it falls on occasions such as Mother's Day :/