Getting Baby Milk Warmer

There are two types of milk for baby:
- Breast Milk
- Formula Milk (e.g. Cow Milk/Soya Milk)

For formula milk, a warmer is not required because we will use warm/hot water to dissolve the formula milk and subsequently feed baby.

However we need to heat up breast milk because we usually store breast milk in the fridge or freezer. We have been informed by lactation consultant that breast milk lasting duration are:
Freezer - 3 months
Fridge - 3 days
Room Temperature - 4 hours

We started off in using the hot water to warm up the baby bottle but it's a too much hassle because:
- The breast milk sometimes end up cold as it's not heat up properly
- The breast milk sometimes end up too hot
- At times, we run out of hot water and have to wait for a while for the hot water

Finally one day went to Jaya Jusco and check out the variety of milk warmer devices, and I have finally decided to get Little Bean brand because:
- Cheaper than other brand as Little Bean Home & Car Bottle Warmer cost RM 90
- Have features which can warm up milk using home electricity or car battery charger

- Have a feature to turn off automatically once the water inside the warmer has reached the desired temperature
- Have a feature to turn on automatically once the water gets cold
- Have a "cap" to prevent water to evaporate out quickly

Guide in Making Red Date Teas

Red date teas has been a mandatory drink during Chinese confinement period for health reason. And red dates is considered the healthiest fruit on earth. My mum guided me on how to make a simple red date tea for my wife and my wife like the taste. Below are the guide in making a simple red date teas.

We bought the ingredient 1 month before my wife is about to deliver and chose Eu Yan Sang because of the trusted brand. Furthermore, Eu Yan Sang has ensure there is no sulphur in the red dates. If there are sulphur, the red date taste will be bitter.

Ingredient

Black Date 200 gm = RM 6	Red Date 500 gm = RM 28	Dry Longan 500 gm = RM 35
Wolfberry Fruit 500 gm = RM 40	Codonopsis Root 1 packet = RM 60	Chinese Yam 1 packet = RM 10.80

Recipe A
Step 1: Take 7 red dates and 7 black dates out.

Step 2: Take out the seeds in the red dates and black dates
At below picture, the right side is the seeds that has been removed using the kitchen knife.
Warning: The black date's seed is difficult to remove and remove with caution especially using kitchen knife to remove the seeds.

Step 3: Put the ingredient into the slow cooker and put 2 liter of water

Step 4: Start the slow cooker to get red date tea
High settings take 2 hours to boil the red date tea
Low settings take an overnight to boil the red date tea
Once the water start boiling, then the red date tea is ready.

Step 5: Done...

Recipe B
My wife start to drink recipe B after day 5 delivery, and drank once every 2 days.
The step to make the tea are the same as per Recipe A, but the ingredient are:
Red Date x 5
Black Date x 8
Dry Longan x 5

Recipe C
My wife start to drink recipe C after day 7 delivery, and drank once every day.
The step to make the tea are the same as per Recipe A, but the ingredient are:
Red Date x 5
Black Date x 9
Chinese Yam x 14
Wolfberry x 7
Cordonopsis Root x 1


Recipe D
My wife start to drink recipe D after day 10 delivery and drank everyday.
The step to make the tea are the same as per Recipe A, but the ingredient are:
Red Date x 8
Black Date x 8
Dry Longan x 8
Wolfberry x 10
Cordonopsis Root x 1


Note:
1) In my case, I'll filter the ingredient and pour the 2 liter of red date tea to a flask and boil another round 2 liter red date tea. Once my wife finish the red date tea in the flask, then I'll filter the ingredient and pour the another set to the flask and continue to boil another round of 2 liter red date tea. With this mechanism, my wife will have a continuous supply of red date tea.
2) Add more longan to have sweet taste
3) To clean Cordonopsis Root, we can use used tooth brush to brush off the dirt.


Warning:
There is a high possibility to get constipation if put too much red date.

Resources:
http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2012/03/red-dates-the-healthiest-fruit-on-earth/

Guide in Getting Baby Names

Searching for English Name
Nowadays there are tons of website that can help to suggest baby names for parents. Here are the site that contains all the list of website that can help to suggest baby names for parents:
http://www.dmoz.org/Home/Family/Pregnancy/Baby_Names

However there are still a lot of website in the dmoz directory. To shortlist, there is a good review on the baby name websites:
http://www.babynameclusters.com/d/review_of_baby_name_websites

After going through many websites, below is the best website because it contains many variety of names and country's top list names too.
http://www.behindthename.com/


Searching for Chinese Name
In the internet, there are tons of website that suggest some pin-yin names and there is a possibility that the kids may find his/her "twin" names in the class when the kids goes to school. The reason is because some parents look for the best suggestion from the website and if two or more parent uses the same name for the kids, then we'll going to have lots of "twin" name in the classes.

Here are the steps which my wife and I went through to find our baby names as both of us cannot read and write Mandarin.
Requirement:
- To find Chinese baby name that comprise of the format: Surname + 1st Character + 2nd Character
- Comply to a Chinese believe on the strokes rules
Step 1: Ask ourself what meaning we want to associate to baby and derive the English words out.
Tools - http://dictionary.reference.com
We can refer to Synonyms section in the dictionary website as to get more variety words that associates to the words we want to associate with our baby.
Example:

Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com using word "Strong"

Step 2: Use Google Translator to Get 1 or 2 Chinese Character
If parent select one Chinese Character from the list, then have to go to Step 1 again to choose the 2nd Chinese Character.
Tools - http://translate.google.com
Example: 

Translation of the word Brilliant to Chinese Wordings

Step 3: Listen to the Chinese Character
Once we had gathered 2 Chinese Characters, then we'll combine the surname to listen to the pronunciation tone whether name sounds like a boy's name or girl's name.
Tool - http://translate.google.com
Example:

Copy the Chinese Character, Paste to Google Translate and Listen to the Pronunciation

Once we are OK with the baby name, then next task is to align the baby name with the Chinese Character Strokes Rules. In this example, we will use the name 李连杰 (Li Lian Jie).
Step 4a: Get the Number of Strokes in a Chinese Character
Tool - http://www.nciku.com
Example: 
李 - 7 Strokes
连 - 10 Strokes
杰 - 8 Strokes

Search the Chinese Character, then click "Stroke Order" to find the total strokes

Step 4b: Check with Stroke Rules #1
The total strokes for the baby name should equal to: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25, 29, 31, 32, 33, 37, 39, 45, 47, 48, 52, 63, 65, 67, 68, 73 or 81.
Example:
The total strokes for 李连杰 is 25 strokes (7 + 10 + 8) and matched to the good number of total strokes.

Step 4c: Check with Stroke Rule #2
If the Chinese Character stroke is in even number, then it's call Yin.
If the Chinese Character stroke is in odd number, then it's call Yang.
The Chinese Name for the baby must be balanced in terms of the following pattern:
- Yang Yang Yin
- Yin Yin Yang
- Yang Yin Yin
- Yin Yang Yang
Example:
李 - 7 Strokes => Yang (Odd Number)
连 - 10 Strokes => Yin (Even Number)
杰 - 8 Strokes => Yin (Even Number)
The name pattern are Yang Yin Yin and comply to the Stroke Pattern rules.

Step 5: Ask feedback from friends and relative especially those that knows Mandarin as to check out whether there is any weird/odd meaning associate to the baby name. It's best to gather 3-5 names so that there are contingency name in case some names are not suitable due to some reasons.

Warning: 
This steps takes a lot of time but the process of going through the name are fun. However there are sifu in Klang Valley that provides services in helping parent to choose baby name.


Here are some additional tools:
1) To find Chinese Character based on pronunciation sound / Pin Yin
http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html?p=
Note: After click the Pin Yin, we need to identify which characters that we're looking for

2) The book title "Best Chinese Name" (ISBN : 981-3068-30-2) was very helpful.
Here are the preview of the book content:
http://books.google.com.my/books?id=4g-P9R0Kg0cC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Resources:
http://mandarin.about.com/od/chinesenames/a/number_strokes.htm

Drinks to Avoid During Pregnancy

After going through much research, below are the overview of drinks to avoid while going through pregnancy:
Avoid Unpasteurized Drink
Risk: Unpasteurized drink contain Listeria bacteria that may cause miscarriage or harm the fetus

Unpasteurized Milk

Avoid Alcohol Drink
Risk: Once start drinking, a person may continue drinking and it's very dangerous to the fetus. Alcohol have a risk to cause fetus with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) meaning difficulty in learning and many other problems.

No More than 150 mg per Day for Caffeine Beverage
Risk: To avoid miscarriage.
To find out more drinks on caffeine content, feel free to visit http://www.energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-database
A rough guide: 6 oz = 200 ml

Starbucks Grande Coffee (16oz) 400 mg	Dr Pepper (12 oz) 37 mg	7-11 Big Gulp Diet Coke (32 oz) 124 mg	Green Tea (6oz) 40 mg
Oolong Tea (6oz) 55 mg	Black Tea (6oz) 110 mg

In some culture, here are the list of "cooling" drink to avoid especially during 1st trimester pregnancy:
- Coconut Juice
- Pineapple Juice
- Watermelon Juice

Resources:
http://www.webmd.com/baby/features/drinking-alcohol-during-pregnancy
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/caffeine.html
http://www.thefragrantleaf.com/caffeine.html

Full Moon Gift Pack

A full moon ceremony is held to celebrate baby's first month of life according to Chinese custom. Usually eggs dyed in red  and red tortoise cake (ang ku kueh) with other food are given to relatives and friends as part of the celebrations.

In modern world, relatives, friends and colleagues give red packet that contains money or present for baby. In return, the parents would give in the following method:
1) Organize buffet catering for friends and family at a location
2) Get full moon food package and distribute to friends and family
3) Get gift voucher and distribute to friends and family
The KFC, Pizza Hut, RasaMas gift voucher can be bought at http://myonlinevoucher.com.my

Below are the list of food vendor in Klang Valley (Malaysia) that offer full moon package:

Restaurant	Delivery?	Catering?	Cheapest Gift Pack with Chicken (Preferably curry chicken)	Contacts
Ayamas	Y	Y		http://www.kedaiayamas.com.my/delivery/fullmoon.html Contact: 1300-88-2323
Chicken Rice Shop	Y	Call to Confirm		http://www.thechickenriceshop.com Click here for the fullmoon menu Contact: Please refer to the Chicken Rice Shop in the website
Delight's Full Moon	Y	Call to Confirm		http://www.delightsfullmoon.com Contact: KL/Klang: 012-223 3516 / 016-369 2773 PJ/Subang: 017-329 9077 Puchong: 016-285 4708 Kepong: 017-510 0366 Cheras: 016-220 1805
H & H	Y	Y	Buy 10, Free 1	http://www.hnhcatering.com/fullmoon.htm Contact: 03-7880 2606
Kenny Roger	Y	Y		http://www.krr.com.my/v3/catering.php?category=baby-full-moon Contact: 03-2119 9888
Lian Bee	Call to Confirm	Call to Confirm		http://www.lianbee.com/products/special-occasion/fullmoon/fullmoon-sets Contacts: 03-3290 3399
New Trendy	Y	Y		http://fullmoongiftpack.com.my Contact: 03-6277 0167 / 03-6275 1062
Nyonya Restaurant	Y	Y		http://www.nyonya-restaurant.com/full-moon.html Contact: 03-78759709
Nyonya Village	Y	Y		http://www.nyonyavillage.com/fullmoon.html Contact: 03-7956 5293
Uniq	Y	Y	Buy 20, Free 1 (Delivery) Buy 10, Free 1 (Own Collection)	http://www.uniqfullmoon.com.my Contact: 03-8070 0686
U-Ton	Call to Confirm	Call to Confirm		http://www.u-ton.com Contact: 03-9019 5626 / 016-626 5383