The second last one on the last row is the one that irritates me currently: “People’s opinions about when to wean”.

Week 49 postpartum thoughts and observations:

• Aug 28:  The other day, I was in the playpen and I asked her, “Did you read today yet?” she crawled across the floor and found the “Not a Box” book and handed it to me. I then read it to her two times in a row. She absolutely loves that book and squeals when I say the “rabbit” in Cantonese. She bounces on her heels when I’m reading the first couple of pages too. She is showing more and more signs of awareness!
• DH said she started putting objects into the wooden box. Nice. She’s an expert at removing items from a box or shelf, so it’s the next stage of putting items back 🙂
• She has been eating more congee daily. It fills her up and so she has gotten up once a night a few nights recently. She also is now 18 lbs. Yay!!
• She still loves using the wooden walker to walk.
• I heard her practising saying “ba ba” and imitating us a few times. She’s still babbling a lot.
• She is so curious and likes to look around when in the stroller.
• Aug 30: She loves handing over a pair of sunglasses to us to wear. She likes the remote controller to play with too.
• Felt a bit bothered when someone asked me today, “So you’re going to stop giving breastmilk soon, right?” 😡😡😡😡😡 WTF. Okay, firstly, how I feed my child is none of your business and secondly, why would you even pose the question like that? Something like “When do you plan on weaning?” would have been more neutral and appropriate. Breastmilk is better than formula — all the doctors and professionals know this; even the formula cans say “breastmilk is best for babies”. So screw you and your limiting beliefs on how my child should be fed. Fed is best, but as long as I’m able to provide breastmilk still, of course I’m going to squeeze out every last drop. Hate it when ignorant women make comments like these.
• I’m proud that my body can supply my growing child with breastmilk 11 months and counting. Even if I did have an intention of stopping some time soon, hearing a comment like that fires me up and actually makes me want to keep going — just so your eye twitches 🖕🏼.
• Better questions to ask a breastfeeding mama: “When do you plan to stop breastfeeding/pumping?”, “I recall you said you wanted to stop pumping when she’s 1 year old. Is that still true?”, or “Are you pumping still?”
• ANY of the above would have been more appropriate and polite than “So you’re going to stop pumping soon, right?” 😡😡😡😡👎👎👎👎👎👎👎✊🏼  What are you insinuating with that question even? What’s so wrong with me pumping breastmilk for my infant?!
• Sept 1: She can put objects back into a storage bin/container.
• She is eating more!
• Whenever we pass by the turtle tank, she waves at the turtles without being prompted. So cute.
• She has a preference for certain things but doesn’t know how to vocalize herself yet.
• She understands so much more than I give her credit for. Perhaps this is why parents always treat their child like a baby. The child just never grows out of the baby perception by the parent.
• She has been pooping two or three times daily lately for the past week. So much output!
• She likes to watch people at the park when we push her in the stroller.
• When DH is holding her at the dinner table and I say to her “Yu yu seit yu”, she knows to turn towards me to feed her some fish.
• Have I mentioned how pumping 3 times a day is so manageable? Once in the morning when I wake up, once between 1 and 3pm, and then lastly before I sleep at night. Three times is fine. Four times pumping a day is draining and extra tiring. Output is about 350ml daily now. It’s dropping!
• Now that my breastmilk supply is decreasing, she’s intaking more formula. We finished a tub of formula in the past 3 weeks. So fast!! Time to scour fb marketplace for new tubs of discounted formula again. 😀 Also size 3 or 4 diapers too.
• Looking forward to the 1 year wellness visit to see what the pediatrician says about switching to cow’s milk soon. This means formula drinking may soon be a thing of the past!
• She crawls so quickly now!!!
• She can cruise along furniture.
• Omg and she climbed up to the bed and on small boxes this week. She needs assistance but she can do it.
• When I hold her, she likes to hang onto me like a koala. Her legs wrap around my hips so snugly and sometimes her little hand is holding my chest too.
• Sometimes I forget what I want to jot down, so I’ll repeat things I’ve written down already — hence the repeated notes.
• She loves pointing at things with her fingers — been doing this since last week.
• Got a wooden animal farm puzzle for her (only $2 on fb marketplace!) and she is learning to take out the wooden piece out from the puzzle. I repeated the animal names for her in Cantonese and she tried to repeat “lamb” just so slightly.
• Only pumping about 80 to 120 to 140ml each session now. It means I don’t even need to use the extra Medela yellow lidded bottle anymore. Most of it all goes straight to the Dr. Brown bottle for her to drink.
• Her hair is getting longer. This week for some reason, I noticed her small thin hairs falling out and onto the play mat where I found them.