happy events

this weekend was pretty hectic. Cin got married yesterday and Naima turned 7 months the day before. we have photos galore but still haven't uploaded them. cin's wedding was a happy event. food was yummy, the weather was perfect (even if wunderground predicted an 80% chance of thunderstorms) and everyone got to march at the church! N was also well-behaved. she was supposed to be a flower girl but she was sleeping in the car during the bridal march. since she can't walk yet and stan didn't want to be carrying her along the aisle, we opted not to wake her up. she got to show her smiles at the reception. cin's dress was very nice. a mix of lace and some pleated accents. her color motif was blue red and gold. mine was blue and yellow (we really love blue!). the designer, hallie vy, also did my matron of honor dress. cin had wanted my dress to be designed like lindsay lohan's marchesa dress. my only requirement was that it be easy to take off in case N wanted to feed. Hallie fixed the straps and put in hooks so when I had to feed N, i didn't have to take the whole top off. I'm happy with hallie's execution - the hooks weren't obvious and i was able to put it to use because N fed at the hotel and at the reception! next up - this weekend's events: naima's baptism and mia's (stan's sister) wedding. phew!
ALL PHOTOS BY STANLEY ONG

Yay for the Polypropylene Kit!

I've been using a Lansinoh double electric pump since I gave up my hospital-grade pump. A lot of my friends and relatives had been recommending Medela. But I didn't think that I would be able to pump this long. Besides, Medela pumps were so expensive. I do have a Medela - but it's just a Swing (single electric pump). Meanwhile, the hospital-grade pump I used was an Ameda Elite. The hospital where Naima was confined for jaundice, gave me several sets of flanges. So when I was shopping for a personal use pump, I thought of getting an Ameda Purely Yours (PY). After much research, I discovered that the Lansinoh pump was also made by Hollister (makers of Ameda pumps) and was much cheaper than PY! Plus the Lansinoh pump used the same flanges as the PY.

With the BPA brouhaha, I became worried because the flanges I am using are made of polycarbonate plastic. But I didn't want to purchase another pump which was BPA-free (that will be more than 10K!). Happily, Hollister has started producing bpa-free kits ;) Surprisingly though, this kit is not available in Ameda's online store. It is available at other internet resellers. I've ordered one and if it works as well as the original set, then I'll need to order some more to replace my 2 other set of flanges Maybe I should've just brought a Medela pump in the first place. haaay!

Lactation Cookies

Running out of milk for N has always been my biggest fear. So I've been taking various supplements to make sure that I never run out. I've take malunggay supplements and malunggay tea and drank lots of malunggay soup! I've also drank malunggay tea. I'm eating oatmeal and tablea chocolate every morning.

Here's something I tried which is really good. In fact, S likes it too. What makes this recipe special are the following ingredients: oatmeal, flaxseed meal and brewer's yeast which are said to increase milk production. It's actually just your basic chocolate chip oatmeal cookie with a few additions. I got this recipe from the Kellymom forum. Some moms replace the chocolate chips with butterscotch chips or heath bar pieces, etc.

We cut down the sugar because it was really sweet. This recipe makes a huge batch of cookies. And the *weird* ingredients are all available at healthy options! I even found thick-cut oatmeal there.

* 1 cup butter or marg
* 1 cup sugar - cut down to 1/2 cup
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 4 tablespoons water
* 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 cups oats, thick cut if you can get them
* 1 cup or more chocolate chips (i used hershey's semi-sweet)
* 2-4 tablespoons of brewers yeast (i used 3 tablespoons)

Preheat oven at 180 degrees C.
Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes.
Cream (beat well) margarine and sugar.
Add eggs one at a time, mix well.
Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the margarine mix. Beat until blended.
Sift together dry ingredients, except oats and chips. Add to margarine mixture.
Stir in oats then chips. Scoop or drop onto baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment or silpat.
The dough is a little crumbly, so it helps to use a scoop.
Bake 8-12 minutes, depending on size of cookies. 8 mins if you like chewy and longer if you like crisp.