Great Start, Bright Future 2009

My insurance agent came down to my place to pass me Yvette’s life policy and at the same time informing me about this seminar. I always look forward to attend seminar relating to my child however, a lot of seminars do not allow us to bring our child along.  This does allow.

Seminar Topics:

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for Children

 Ms. Duan Qian Mei

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Physician,

Bachelor of TCM (Chengdu University of TCM)

Raffles Chinese Medicine

Our Next Generation – How to cater the best for them while managing our own future?

Mr Poh Choon Kia

CFP, FChFP, AIFP (Singapore)

Creativity & Child Development

Grace

Grace Kids Singapore

Date:     12 September 2009

Time:     Morning Session (10.30am to 1.30 pm)

                After Session (2 pm to 5 pm)

Venue:   Grace Kids @ Great World City Level 3

Cost:      S$10 /family (for client)

                S$15/family (for public)

Sign up at: http://www.infinitycare.com.sg/registration

Free Goody Bags worth $200 for each family!

It is brought to you by:

Raffles Medical Group

Nestle

Grace Kids

Professional Investment Advisory Services

It is organised by:

Infinity wealth management

P/S: It is not yet open for registration yet. You got to wait for a few more days for that as advised by my agent.

Managing Finance 1 – How to save on baby?

I made payment for the vaccination, it only cost me S$72 as compare if this vaccine was taken in the normal clinic be it a GP or a PD, it will be costing me S$100 or more than that?

There are lots of way to save without giving our baby sub-standard care. As an accountant by profession now SAHM, I find managing our finance as easy as you remain prudent on your spending and identify area for saving.

Having a baby definitely increases our expenditure. Before Yvette was born, we belong to Double Income, No Kid (Dink) couple; we definitely have more money to spend for ourselves. But now with an additional headcount in our family, and me not working, we just have to live thriftily so as to make do with the amount of bacon we have.

And how can we save?

Milk

By doing breastfeeding, you can really save a lot on formula milk powder. It not only helping you to save now, it will help you to save on future medical bill too. Breastfeeding baby has better immunity system as compare to formula milk baby. Breast milk is the best brain food for baby from age of 0 to 2 years old. And this can never be able substituted by formula baby.

Diaper

Either you can use cloth diaper or you can train our baby for early toileting (as early since birth). I never really agree in early training in baby for toileting (My plan was to start after Yvette turn one) after reading two good books I borrowed from library during our weekly trip. The Diaper Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh and Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer.

I will definitely bring forward the training for my next child (if I do have) when the baby is more than 6 months old. It’s because according to the book, babies usually poop 1 to 5 times per day but this does not apply to Yvette. Yvette pooped after every milk feed. She can poop up to 10 to 12 times per day when she was a baby.

Go Polyclinic for vaccination

The fee for vaccination was really great difference between government clinic and private clinic. I paid S$326.10 for 6-in-1 jab and S$72 for Chicken Pox. MMR is free in Polyclinic. Each consultation is only S$4.50 and I got some medicine for free. The Assessment (done in polyclinic) required by the health book is also free.

Go for GP not PD

This is tricky. Not all GP is good in babies. And we are lucky to find one. He is strongly recommended by my neighour and he is indeed a very caring GP. He is a father of 2; his younger child is a girl is 2-3 months younger than Yvette. Yvette had been seeing him since the PD in Glen E had retired (for about a year since birth). But if you can find one, it will be good. The consultation fee between a GP and PD is great difference.

Go for 2^nd hand  

Rent toy instead of buying. Ask for old clothing or baby items from relatives, friends or forum. Yvette gotten some passes down from my friend but unfortunately, she is the first baby in my family, so we did save much in this.

Buy insurance

This is really a long term investment and a protection when mishaps strike. Accident, hospitalization, maybe life and education. We didn’t buy an education policy for Yvette, as we trust our investment and saving will be able to manage her education. For hospitalization policy, make sure you have a rider for unclaimable portion. For life policy, make sure you have a rider that allows the policy to be continued if any critical illnesses strike on the owner of the policy.

I believe there are more areas we can save on. And let’s continue to prudent over our finance to take on all the economic crisis.

Beco, My good friend!

It’s drizzling in the morning. But it didn’t stop me from getting out of the house with Yvette alone. Her immunisation for chicken pox was supposed to be this Friday but I moved it forward due to LNT does not allows make up class even there is a medical certificate to prove Yvette is not well. (We weren’t told about it when we signed up Yvette for class.)

Anyway, that was history now.

To me, stroller becomes useless when raining. It’s normally not recommendable to keep baby in the stroller using the rain shield. It is really hot and stuffy inside there. This is one of the reason I prefer a carrier rather than a stroller. Another reason gearing me toward carrier was, I moved around more easily when I am using them.

I am a Beco Carrier user personally. I feel this is one of the good carriers I ever used. I started with Sling then I brought a combi carrier from Motherhood forum when I started to find Sling is not so secured for both of us, I started to look out for one. I sold away the carrier I brought from the forum after trying it for 2 months. I found it was not suitable. Not light and not comfortable enough. I brought Beco Carrier even without trying it. (By word of mouth) And I used it for our second KL trip and while I was out alone with Yvette. It is not only light but comfortable. And Yvette always falls asleep in carrier after her class at GUG when we were on our way home.

I did some research on both Ergo and Beco. Ergo is made from a sturdy canvas type material, while Beco is softer brushed twill. I don’t think that there’s really a huge difference between them in terms of comfort, so I would go ahead and get the one that appeals to you most. For a newborn, the Beco and Ergo have infant inserts but infants are still wobbly for a while in them. Just don’t go for those carriers that allow forward facing. It actually hurt the baby’s back.

A carrier is a good substitute for stroller where certain places are hard to move around with a stroller. And you can use it for your (short) holiday without bring your stroller along. And not every county is baby-friendly. You can’t be always carrying your child when the doze off without a carrier and a stroller.

As a full time mother, we carry our child a lot. I feel having a good carrier is essential in our motherhood journey.

P/S: Yvette didn’t really cry after the jab. Fever will come after 4 days to a week. The jab was done on the arm instead on the thigh this round. I thought she will be crying as hard when she was given her last dose of Pneumococcal. They weighted Yvette as well; she put on 200g since the last visit to the polyclinic. Head circumference is 44 cm.

Yvette after the jab