The struggle is real

My Dinos are undergoing a phase that they are rejecting the bottle for no apparent reason.

It is especially hard to feed Louis at this point when he is awake for he will go into a shouting fit once the nipple touches his mouth. Sometimes he starts pouting the minute you put the hankie under his chin. He knows it's a cue that we are gonna feed him. I gotta resort to dream feed him now.

Since the feeding time is per 4hours, we will feed him at every 3hrs 45min. It's not very recommended to dream feed him since in this way we are not able to let him feed on demand but it is near impossible to feed on demand now and we had to spend time rocking him to sleep before being to feed him. In this way, the feeding time will be sometimes drag till 5 or 6hours plus and being so the milk intake drops.

Since I kept a log of their daily feeds, it pains me to see their feeding amount drop and they seems to slim down though taller now. I have since try not to be too obsessed with the numbers to keep myself sane. Luckily they are still happy, active, pooing normally. Many a times, I need to stop myself from wanting to go PD to check what is wrong. But the polyclinic PD told me that sometimes it is a phase that kids go through.

Went google too but none of the articles can pinpoint my Dinos problem. Some say it's growth spurt, some say is 4th month sleep regression and some say is due to the jab we got the other day. The only common denominator is this phase shall pass but not sure when. Gosh.

So now, I resort to setting my alarm every 3hrs 45min away from each of their feed to feed them. Including night time as they cannot seems to sleep as long as they did previously. Lucas did 7hours stint for a few days and reverted to 4hours after the jab. FML.

Well, I am struggling hard to stay sane and patient since it is as hard on them as on me and they don't know what hit them too.

Please let this pass soon before I go back to work in 2weeks' time.

My precious Dinos

You know you are a mum

You know you are a mum when no matter how tired you are, you will get up 4times in the middle of the night to feed your babies and suddenly be alert after their feed for fear of reflux.

You know you are a mum when your babies sleep longer than their normal hours and you keep getting up to check on their breathing and wonder why they are not asking for milk.

You know you are a mum when even you used to sleep 8hours per day, now a 2hrs straight sleep is a god send.

You know you are a mum when your morning coffee sits there and become cold and forgotten because you are busy attending to your babies.

You know you are a mum when you took a liking to something and contemplate whether to buy or not but always end up not buying since you know the monies can be used to buy something else for your babies.

You know you are a mum when you only get to poo in the middle of the night after your babies are fed and tucked nicely into their bed. Then again you will be straining your ears to hear for any cries while doing your business.

You know you are a mum when you desperately hoped that you can help your babies get sick and loses sleep when they are sick just to nurse them in the night.

You know you are a mum when you feel guilty for stopping breastfeeding but rebound the next day since you know you have no time to wallow in self pity.

You know you are a mum when the first thing in the morning you look forward to is seeing your babies poo.

You know you are a mum when you spent an hour dressing your babies to go out but you take 5mins to change your outfit only.

You know you are a mum when your choice of bag in now a haversack since it makes you hands free to carry your baby.

You know you are a mum when a laugh or giggle from your babies makes your day now.

You know you are a mum when you master ninja speed of making milk for your babies.

You know you are a mum when you can differeniate the cries of your babies for different needs.

You know you are a mum when you google lyrics of nursey rhymes and memorised them to sing to your babies.

You  know you are a mum when you can finished your meal in 10min flat or shorter especially when your babies fuss.

You know you are a mum when you can eat with one hand and rock the babies with the other.

You know you are a mum when you find every action of your babies to be fascinating and amazingly cute.

Such is a mum's life and joy :)

My happy Dinos

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015 -Seoul - The 3rd Tunnel

We were brought to the what is commonly known as the 3rd Tunnel where tourists are allowed to walked down for a tour.

There are 4 tunnels in all that the South had discovered and suspect the North of digging them for the purpose of infiltrating the South but the North had denied.

No photos were allowed in the tunnel.

Entrance to tunnel

 We were given a briefing before making our way down and were issued a hard hat for protection. The tunnel is located 73m underground 435m into the South from North and have a arc of 2m diameter.

We were allowed to walked till 265m and afterwhich barricades were installed to prevent infiltration from North.

As this tunnel is nearest to Seoul (52km) away, this is considered as the most dangerous of all the tunnels found.

Mock up entrance

The walk down was very steep and we had to hold on to the railings to prevent rolling down hill. Since the passageway was built as a slope, the way down is around 100+m instead of the actual 73m.
While walking down, I kept thinking how on earth I am going to make my way up later since I felt tired even on the way down.

Needed alot of energy to keep braking in order to walk safely. Was already sweating like hell when walking down.

We reached the tunnel and started walking along the tunnel but even as an Asian Female I was too tall for the tunnel at some point. Keep knocking against the railings on top, luckily I had my hard hat on. The caucasians in our tour group had it harder than us since they are of bigger built.

We were allowed to peep through the heavy metal door at the 1st baricade before making our way back to the start of tunnel and then up the slope to ground level.

Walking inside the tunnel is totally not easy but it was said to be able to allow 30,000 soilders to pass through every hour here from North. Scary thoughts if you asked me. It makes Seoul very vulnerable I guessed.

True to my previous thoughts, the way up the slope was a killer. I had to rest on the bench many a times to catch my breath. We took off the outer jacket since was perspiring like mad. I was one of the 1st to enter but dropped off to the middle of the pack on our way up. Haha Got Mr Love to pull me at 1 point but he gave up since he is also too tired to walk let alone pull me along.

We completed the walk up!

 Rushed to buy bottle drinks the minute we hit ground level and welcome the gush of ice cold water.

I was so warmed by the walked that need not put on my jacket for quite a long time even when walking outdoors under the cold winter wind. This is how tedious the walk is.

But there were no regret going down since it is interesting to see how the actual tunnel is like and hey how often you get so close to danger?

Hoping for reunification

There is also a show room displaying items they found in the tunnels but it is not as big scale as the one in the camp we first went.

Suspension Insulator

Truth to be told I don't know what the items are used for as they only have names of the items but no explaination. Then again, maybe their name is self explanatory.

Electric insulator

There are also brief write ups on the different tunnels with information of when and where the tunnels are found. It's length and diameter are also stated. But I was a bit puzzled on how they knew how long the tunnel is since the starting point is in North.

2nd tunnel write up

3rd tunnel write up

4th tunnel write up

If my memory didn't fail me, the only tunnel that allows visitors is the 3rd tunnel. All others are closed to visitors.

There are quite alot of different packages of DMZ offered by the organisation I booked with. Some exclude visit to the tunnel which of course has cheaper package fee. But personally, I feel the 3rd tunnel is a must visit as compared to other sites.

It is the most interesting place on interest in the whole tour.

I'm glad we are able to make it for this trip since there is a chance the tour is cancel should there be any circumstances that deem the DMZ to be unsafe for touring.

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015 -Seoul - Dora Observatory/Lunch/ Dorasan Train station

 Dora Observatory is located on top of Dorasan where one can pay 500won to use the telesope for 2min to try look into North Korea.

Vistors trying to look into North Korea

We didn't try the telescope since it was too foggy to see much and stood around trying to take pictures.

Too foggy to see much from here

There was nothing much here except for the observatory and a small gift shop selling some North Korea mechandises. There were some North Korea's alcohol which I saw vistors getting excited over. Well, not a drinker and we brought nothing here.

Then we were brought to a canteen near the border where we paid KRW 10,000 each to have "buffet lunch" where we were given plastic plate to fill up with the food in a line. A bit like army lunch line. There are vegetarian and non vegetarian options and you can go for the line again if you feel like it.

This is the only eatery nearby and we do not have other choice. The funny thing that happen here is there are alot of television broadcasters on standby here and our group is a bit freaked out thinking that something major had happen since the broadcasters are camping here.

We kept asking our guide and she had no choice but to go ask 1 of the campers to calm us down. Imagine if there is some provocative actions by the North and we are just at the border! Scary thoughts. Haha

Turns out there are some talks for the wages of the North Korean workers for Kaesong Industrial and the broadcasters are going to repor the results.

Our lunch

Then we moved on to Dorasan Train station where this the last station in the South before moving into North's territory.

Brief introduction of Dorasan station

There isn't much train services to this station and I am not sure whether your required special passes to board the train since it is near to the border.


You can however pay a nominal fee to buy a ticket to the platform to take pictures. Clever way of earning monies I say. Everyone in the group did so to go down to platform.

Ticket counter

Waiting to go into the platform

Next available train to Seoul

There was this map of the projected Trans Siberian railways where they hope one day the North will open it's door to allow trains to pass through and connect up the railways. Then Dorasan station will be the first station towards North, no longer the last station of South.

Trans Siberian Railway map

Station name at platform

I think the DMZ train is a kind of tourist train where you need purchase special tickets to board. Didn't look up the details since I have booked this tour.

But then again if you have taken the train here, there is basically nothing else here to see and the only thing you can do is wait for the return train.

Distance to Capital of both Koreas

The track to North

This is by far the most dead train station I have been to in the places I visited. There is practically no activity here and station is located in middle of no where. Quite a sad station to me.

Hopefully someday the routes towards North will open up and the Trans Siberian railways will take place and we get a chance to jump on the train to take in the sights. Then again will I ever have the chance to see this happening? I don't know. Afterall, the North had shut its door for so long and had no indication when it will open up.

Front of train

Maybe during the next visit when we have more time on hand I will book the train trip on this DMZ train just to see what it is like for the journey to here. Shouldn't be too long since it is 56km away from Seoul, the East Coast train we took had a much longer journey.

We then moved on to the last destination, 3rd tunnel tour.

My First Mother's Day

It has been a really long wait for me to celebrate Mother's Day though once upon a time I am not even sure I will have a chance to celebrate.

Yesterday came and went quietly with no celebration in my household. Partly because the boys are still too small to know and partly Mr Love and I were dead tired from looking after them.

Weekends are crazy in our house as we are on our own since Mummy only help out during weekdays. Personally I love the family time we have to bond but then there are times I wished I had some time to myself. Piggy brother did came by for a few hours to help rock the boys while Mr Love run some errands and I do housework. I reckon things will get easier once they are older where we could put them in playroom to play. Then again, they might required more attention from us since they will be very mobile.

Came across an article to console women who are waiting for their turn to be able to celebrate Mother's Day telling them they are not forgotten.

Felt alot of emtions when I read the article for I was once part of them, wondering when is my turn while friends around me celebrated this day delicated to all Mothers. It doesn't make me any less a mum than them since I went through alot before the Dinos are conceived. Just that I am not entitled to celebrate without a child in my arms.

Though there is no celebrations for my first Mother's Day, I felt contented watching my Dinos sleep, drink milk and most importantly poo. I spent the whole day begging them to poo as a present to me. They did in the evening after drinking some water and rounds of assistance to get them poo.

Such is Mum's life.

Dinos wishing everyone Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers, Mothers to be and Mothers wanna be.

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015 -Seoul - DMZ Village/Bridge of No Return/Hacked Tree incident

And so we boarded the bus again which will take us to a higher point where we are able to see the DMZ propaganda village of North Korea side where it is built to attract South Koreans to cross over and stayed. Sounds funny to me since I think no South Koreans in their right mind would defect over. Then again, you never know human minds.

Group members trying to look out to the North side

Our guide explaining to us

It was believed that the buildings there are empty nests. Our liaison told us that during night time if you look over to the buildings, the top levels are most lighted and the light density gets dimmer as we descend. So it was concluded that there are no stairs inside, just empty buildings where the lighting are fixed on the top most level shining downwards which explains the uneven lighting density observed.

Then again, no one can confirm this assumption.

Another "place of interest" is a huge ass flag pole that was erect to counter the South's flag pole. Really huge since we can see clearly from where we are standing which is quite some distance away.

Also there are multiple guard post along the border, not so much to prevent people from entering but to prevent people from leaving. We cannot see whether there are any guards inside but was told that should be even we cannot see them.

Spot the large ass flag pole

Everyone tries to take pictures of the opposite side.

Its really funny that we spent time taking photos of barren lands and nothing much but everyone still want to leave some memories of this place.

Comparison of the flags

Since it is still winter season, everywhere we see are barren landsand more barren lands and it was really chilly to be standing her. On top of it there is pretty much nothing to see so the stop was brief and we moved on back to the bus.

Then we did a drive pass an axe tree accident site when both sides clashes over chopping down of a tree which results in deaths of soldiers. There is a plaque now in place of the tree to commentate those who perished in the unfortunate incident.

The plaque

And the next drive past point is Nulmoon Bridge or The Bridge of No Return where (if my memory didn't failed me ) repatriate of each country's POW was done back during the just after war days.

Nulmoon Bridge

After this drive past, we were taken back to the main building where we watched a documentary of the history of the Korean War which is essentially not over yet. There are also a display hall of various artifacts of the war.

With this we ended the tour at DMZ area and we proceed to the next destination, Dora Observatory and then lunch.