The Wonders of Online Shopping as a Stay-At-Home Mummy

As a newly minted Stay-At-Home Mummy, my past 9 months journey to motherhood has been an exciting and challenging one. I would say support from HIM has been the most important element to my daily survival against the unknown (including alot of unsolicited advice from alot of people)!

There are moments when I would just burst out in a rage but HE would just dodge all these 'bullets' and continue on with his parental duties (changing the little one for bed, tending to the night feeds, doing the baby laundry etc). Most importantly, his willingness to keep the little one entertained while I attend to my duties as an Exclusively Pumping mummy.

Both iHerb and Qoo10 have became my favourite online shopping haunts. So far, I have tried hard to resist the lures of Taobao although there are so many items in my cart waiting to be checked out. I love online shopping as I can shop anywhere anytime (when expressing out milk... when the little one is finally napping... when pooing... oops!), make payment using HIS credit card (whenever I can justify the purchase) and wait for delivery.  Don't have to squeeze with the crowd while baby-wearing the little one plus carrying a humongous diaper bag.

Every ding-dong of the doorbell makes me so excited (except when it wakes up the little one from her nap)!

Here are some of my favourite buys from iHerb:

1) Baby Puffs

- Her favourite snacks are the Happy Yogis ones (the round one in the image below). The star-shaped one is from Plum Organics and the doughnut-shaped one is from Happy Puffs.

- We usually prepack a mixture of these snacks before we head out even on short trips as they are practically our life savers. 

Grumpy little one on car trips, pop one into her mouth...

Fussy little one when we are eating, pop one into her mouth...    

- These snacks helps in training the little one's pincer grasp which is an important part of the fine motor skills development. It is also very entertaining to see how 'determined' and yet how 'frustrated' the little one gets in her eagerness to consume these snacks.

- We have tried tasting these snacks and both the Plum Organics and Happy Puffs ones are quite tasteless. The Happy Yogis ones are really yummy!   

2) Munchkin stuff

- Bought their Formula Dispenser and Small Snacks Container Combo, Snack Catchers and Soft-tip Safety Baby Spoons. So much cheaper than the ones sold in Singapore.

3) Essential oils

- There are quite a number of people using Young Living essential oils but so far, I am quite happy with my hoard of 'budget pricing' essential oils. 

- I diffused a mixture of Eucalyptus and Lavender essential oils when the little one was down with high fever and phlegmy cough. It seems to help in improving the quality of her sleep.

Source: healthyfoodsandmore.com

** For 1st time customers on iHerb.com, you can use this discount code VTN247 to enjoy $10 off your first iHerb order of $40 or more! **

As for Qoo10, we are constantly on the lookout if our favourite Jeju wet wipes (800 pcs for less than S$20 with free delivery) and Bosomi cotton diapers (less than S$0.30/pc of M size diaper) happened to be on sale. For our little one with slightly sensitive skin, these 2 items are working out well so far.

Each piece of wet wipe is slightly bigger than palm size and it is wet enough to clean off messy poo. There is also no weird smell as compared to the Pigeon wet wipes which we have 'downgraded' to wiping our hamster cages. 

As for the Bosomi diapers, they are quite absorbent and the back of the diapers is high enough to contain any explosive poo. Even though the absorbent layer is made of cotton, each piece of diaper is quite thin, comparable to the thickness of a Merries diaper. We alternate this diaper together with the Merries ones.    

DIY sensory toys for babies - Part 1

Now that B is almost 6 months old, she is much more alert to her surroundings and are always interested in the activities that we are engaged in.

I had previously DIY 2 toys for her, ie: toilet roll shaker (filled with millet) and glitter glue sensory bottle.

The current DIY toy in progress would be a lava lamp. I could still remember the red/green lava lamp my Mom bought for me eons ago. I had great fun playing with it,especially during moments when I need to sort through my thoughts.

I didn't want to spend money to buy blue dye (food dye etc) to create the 'blue' lava lamp that I had in mind as I am pretty sure I would never use the dye again especially while cooking.

*who would be interested in blue coloured food? Perhaps only for rainbow cakes*

My solution is to 'break apart' 2 of my blue magic pens and soak the ink filled cotton-like tubings into a bottle of water. Within 10 mins, I have my blue coloured water!

Playmat

Now that the little one is almost 2 months old, I have been deliberating if it is time to get a playmat.

Her kicks are so strong that she can easily shift her position from the bottom of the changing mat to the top of the changing mat.

Her neck is also less floppy these days.

Rather worried about the time where she starts to flip / crawl...

Started off looking at Parklon bumper playmat / LG Prime playmat / Dwinguler playmat and was pretty 'amazed' by the prices.

No doubt the quality is there but I just need some time to convince myself...

*stingy mother *

Source: http://www.blogshopcity.com

While surfing the net, I came across this classical looking playmat with just a few primary colours.

The screenshot below does not really do it justice!

Actual colours should be much more vibrant. 

Source: http://www.qoo10.sg/

After considering the following factors, I decided to go ahead with the purchase!

1) Playmat is made in Korea

2) Much thicker (4 cm) than Parklon bumper playmat / LG Prime playmat / Dwinguler playmat (maximum thickness of 1.5 cm)

3) Prefer a playmat that can be folded for keeping rather than having to roll it up

4) Love the simple design

5) Easy to clean as compare to other playmats with uneven surfaces/tiny grooves

6) Much cheaper (S$110+) compared to other playmats (S$200+)

7) Dimensions of 1400 mm by 2000 mm is just nice for the future play area in the baby room/living room

Looking forward to receiving the duplo 4 pcs folding mat and more tummy time ahead!

Updated: Pleased with the mat and it has served its purpose well. We have used it as a 'fence', mattress, playmat etc. Well cushioned but a tad hard for a full night sleep. Would recommend that you place an additional 'softer' topper on top of it.

Waterproof Mattress Protector (Inclusive of Sides)

Personally, I find it very important to protect my mattress especially since I spent a bomb on it. 

As my EDD/confinement approaches, my mind tends to run wild especially with the interrupted sleep (baby pressing down on bladder/too hot etc) these days. So many things on my To-Do list. I guess it is how our body prepares us for the upcoming responsibilities as a new mother.

In the past, I used to get normal mattress protectors with elastic bands (see below) which basically protects the top surface of the mattress where most 'accidents' take place.

Source: www.relax-matt.com

Now, I worry about 'accidents' on 'bigger' scale which somehow affect the sides of the mattress, eg: water bag burst when I am sleeping or the baby peeing when co-sleeping with us. Decided to get full protection for the mattress which is mattress protectors with waterproof protective layer even on the 4 sides (see below).

Source:www.waterproofmattressprotectorsingapore.com 

   Spent a few days combing through forums like singaporemotherhood.com and online websites like qoo10.sg. So far, the cheapest seller I have found is mellelow. Another seller that I shortlisted was dealmart which included a free pillow protector with min purchase of a single sized mattress protector but prices were slightly higher than mellelow.

Prices of mellelow are listed below:

Single (91 x 191 x 38 cm) : S$24.90

Queen (152 x 191 x 38 cm) : S$31.90

King (182 x 198 x 38 cm) : S$38.90

For instance, the Queen sized mattress protector with full protection costs around S$40 on singaporemotherhood.com (inclusive of normal postage). No doubt, there might be differences in the top layer material (terry/microfiber/bamboo/cotton) but this was not high on my concern list as I would be placing another layer of bedsheets on top of the mattress protector.