Stopping

Yes, I am so sad to announce that I am stopping breastfeeding K. As with C, I had an abundant milk supply this time round. However, I also had more blocked ducts and infection than when I was breastfeeding C. I  do not understand why either but after many rounds of infection and bruised nipples, I have decided to stop pumping.

I love the feeling of being able to feed K with mother's milk and I do think that it is healthier and probably do wonders for my kids but the challenges of breastfeeding is proving to be overwhelming this time. Also, I am much busier this time round than the last. It really is very challenging when you have to carry your pump to hospitals and frequently need to find a place to pump and subsequently worrying that the milk will go bad if you do not get to a fridge in time. Yes, my in laws have been having a bout of illness and injuries lately thus I really have to be out and about all the time. In addition to that, I have had to travel out of the country a couple of times which doubles the above challenges.

Other than that, with all the infections going on, there had been many times when I had to throw away milk because I was taking anti-biotics and I was not going to feed anti-biotic laced milk  to K. It was heart breaking to see all that milk go down the drain literally. And so, I have made the painful decision to stop breastfeeding. I am not sure if RH knows that it is difficult for me to make this decision. Because I think that sometimes he feels I really can't wait for the time to stop breastfeeding.

New Phase Next Year

C is going to Primary One next year. It is a brand new phase for him. He is definitely no toddler now. We would have to start paying for buffet and child fares for a lot of things. People will not be giving him special treatments and allowances for being a toddler but he will be treated as a school going child. No more skipping school for last minute getaways. I will be entering the new phase together with him. Learning new syllabus, stressing over results and undone homework.

I have already had a taste of the stress during primary school registration. Why do they make it so complicated in Singapore anyways? I started studying the primary school registration system a year before C's registration started. Studying about the different phases that we are eligible for and later on studying which schools are we narrowing our choices on. Several discussions with RH later, we finally settle on Poi Ching Primary School. Our considerations for primary schools were:

1. Proximity to our home

2. Christian School

3. Secondary School Affliations

4. Mixed gender schools (so that I do not have to go through the stress another time with K)

5. Remotely good standing school in terms of ranking

Poi Ching obviously was not able to fulfill all our criterias but I do thank God for eventually leading us to this choice and on hindsight, it was a good choice with all the changes in primary school registration and all.

Our initial choice was Anglo Chinese Primary which we were eligible for in Phase 2B. Although it was far from our home and was not a mixed gender school, it scored highly for the other 3 criterias. Alas, it was not meant to be when the rulings changed to say that all Singaporean children will have absolute priority over PR children in all phases.

Then it was a toss up between Poi Ching and Ngee Ann primary. Poi Ching fulfilled criteria 4 and 5 and somewhat criteria 1. Ngee Ann fulfilled criteria 1, 3, 4 and 5 and thus was closest to our "ideal" school. However, we were eligible to apply for Poi Ching in Phase 2B through affiliations with Futsing Association while we were only eligible to register for Ngee Ann in Phase 2C which means that there are less vacancies in the school. In the end, we decided to register C for Poi Ching which we were fairly confident we would get in and then try for Ngee Ann in Phase 2C IF there were vacancies left. Thus, the two weeks of registration phases commenced and I would check the MOE website daily to see updates of vacancies in the various Primary Schools.

Unfortunately or rather by God's planning, Ngee Ann was already full in Phase 2C so we stuck with Poi Ching. Now, I just have to get Caleb prepared and excited to be in Primary One. I think I might also have to prepare myself. I heard that Poi Ching has very high Chinese language standards and Caleb is still very poor in his Hanyu Pinyin. 

Lastly, here is a picture of Poi Ching and their uniform which I promised Caleb to google.