Mummy's hack Part 2

So half a year had flown by since I did up my Mummy's hack post. I realised I missed out some and also found some hacks along the way.

1). Recording of feeding time

This was initially a "homework" for us when we first discharge to go home. The key is to monitor feeding amount, number of poos and pees and also colour of poo for the boys. I found this method so useful that got Mr Love to go buy a exercise book to record the feeding time, amount, poo and pee times.

From there I will know when to increase the milk intake. I.E. if they start asking for milk every 2 hours since they can usually last 3 hours in between. Or how much did we feed them each day. You will need to give polyclinic a rough estimate to see whether they are taking enough.

The initial days poo and pee diapers times are also essential to know for this is to make sure they passed out enough to clear jaundice.

For me who are dealing with twins, I find it easier to know what is the next feeding time for we staggered the feeding time to make it possible to do solo night feeding.

Even now that they are a year plus, I would also check how much they are taking in a day. There's no need to add more feeding now that they are on solids but it is helpful to let me plan their meal times.

My record books

2). Filing up the bottle with milk powder beforehand

This is my saver back in the days I do solo night feeding or even during the day. I would prepare the milk powder 1st in the bottle judging from the last feed amount.

 Also, I would like the measuring bottle with room temperature water first. When it is time to make milk when the Dinos scream, all I have to do is to top up the hot water into measuring bottle and pour into the milk bottle and shake and viola! Milk is ready.

This seriously save my life as when the Dinos cry for milk, it would erupt into screaming fit for the milk in no time. Fast is the key word to make them drink. There's a period of time that they would reject drinking milk if you attend to them too slow and must slowly coax them back.

So now in order to save time and not make myself fumble while making milk, I would pre-prepare powder and room temperature water first. But only during morning feed since I am too sleepy eyes to concentrate. They had come to the stage that I can tell them to wait for me to make milk when they wanna drink. Big boys now huh.

Ready bottles

3). Thermos Shuttle Chef

This is introduced by my colleagues and is especially useful for working mums though I am using it for weekends only if we are going out.

The Dinos now eat 2 meals of porridge and I do not want to compromise their solid intake even if we have to go out.

The Shuttle chef basically cooks the food using its vaccum insulation. All I have to do is to make my porridge boil over fire in the inner pot and placed it inside the outer pot and let it cook my porridge further till it's time to feed the Dinos.

I usually used this when we need go out run errands in the afternoon and it is too late to cook dinner when we are back. Do not have to bring out though, just put at home and let it cook. It's also useful for outings, like recently the zoo outing we had. Dinos get to eat their favourite pork and carrot porridge while we adults eat the overpriced café food.

4). Tupperwares

I actually love buying Tupperware containers even before having children. But when Dinos came along, it's even more essentially to have these air tight containers at hand.

Now that they Dinos are taking porridge, besides giving them meat I also need to add in vegetables in their diet. I usually give spinach, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkins just to name a few.

Spinach is the most difficult to store since the leaves would turn limply after days in fridge and the Dino (only 1 at home during weekday) don't eat as fast. I came up with the idea of plucking the leaves out and storing in Tupperware's freezer mate series and then putting in the vegetable compartment.

The leaves are still healthy looking even after a week.

So now I store my meat and veggies in the tupperwares to maintain it's freshness. Also I can go marketing once a week to top up the

Part of my Tupperware slash

5). Bean Sprout Pillow

I got them a bean sprout pillow each even before they are born. Got it at the market near my mum's house and the auntie can still customised the pillow cases.

This is especially useful when they were new born as we would placed the pillow over them while they sleep on the cot and it would prevent them from getting startled from the noises since our block is right beside the road.

As they grow bigger, I realised this acts as their comfort item too as when they are inconsolable they would calm down when they start smelling the pillow. We called it "Smelly smelly" in Mandarin.

Since birth we've changed 3 different sizes for them and it never fails to amaze me how the Dinos outgrow them within a span of a year.

6). Daiso storage bag

This is useful when we go out since I always pack their clothing in 1 separate bag and diapers, wipes and cream in another.

If we only required a diaper change, we can just take 1 of the bag to the changing room. Better than to bring the whole bag in and start fumbling for the required items.