Their Milkshake Brings All the Babies to the Farm

Along with many vitamins, an omega 3 fatty acid known as DHA found in fish and walnuts is essential in your pregnancy diet. This is good for the development of your baby's brain, eyes and nervous system and YOU. If your baby is not getting enough DHA, s/he will start sucking the DHA out of you!

I rarely had time to cook a meal that contains enough DHA but I prefer to get my vitamins through food rather than supplements so I found a local dairy farm that carries products that contain DHA.

Avalon Dairy has been around for many years. It is tucked in the Killarney residential neighbourhood on Wales street about a block south of 41st Avenue. It's a real farm but you won't see any cows there.

The product with the DHA is known as Vitala Milk. It comes in a plastic container or the old school glass bottles which are cool looking but doesn't hold very much (you get your deposit back when you return the milk bottles). You can also buy Vitala Milk from IGA, Meinhardt, Thifty Foods, Famous Foods, Drive Organics, and Save-On Foods/ Whole Foods. They also offer a delivery service to houses.

But I enjoy going to Avalon Dairy because I get ice cream, smoke cheddar cheese and other dairy goodness there as well.

Links for Reference

Old posts that may be helpful to new readers.

Milk Storage - Space Saving Tip

Milk Storage - Timelines

Government Paperwork Checklist for Newborns

Ridding of Spit Up Smells

Cloth Diapers - Sample Pack Review

Cloth Diapers - Why We Chose to Use it

What's the Cost to be a Stay-at-Home Mom?

I've been reading a lot of mommy blogs and found that many of them have something in common. They are stay-at-home moms. After reading more of their posts and putting the pieces together, I also noticed that many of them have spouses with a middle range income. I'm quite baffled at how a moms of 2+ children can stay at home.

I am becoming more attracted to the idea of being a stay-at-home mom. However, losing one income is quite a hit for our family. And having one child doesn't not warrant quitting my job and spending all my time with him. However, having multiple children would make more sense to stay home but that also means I would have more mouths to feed with one income.

Unfortunately, our family are not in the position to live on the income of my Ed's alone. We are renting and saving to purchase our own home. But if you live in Vancouver, you would know that housing prices spell out i-n-s-a-n-e.

If there's a way to make this work, I would love to know! Perhaps we should start buying lottery tickets...

Excuse Me While I Stuff My Face

While I was pregnant, there were many things that I couldn't eat. The foods that I couldn't eat, regardless of whether I liked it before or not, became my cravings. I had a lot of caffeine and sugar in the form of starbucks lattes, pop and teas when I wasn't even a coffee drinker before I was expecting.

My favourite foods are raw - blue steak, all sorts of fresh sashimi, rare lamb (according to my previous post, I shouldn't even be eating lamb), ahi tuna, and raw oysters. I was good to not touch any of that for 9 months.

photo taken from RecipeTips

Another weakness of mine are Vietnamese subs, especially ones from Ba Le and Au Petit Cafe. It's not the deli meat that I was concerned about, it was the thin layer of pate that makes it so sinfully good. But that was also what makes it a pregnancy crime to eat.

Pate contains higher levels of the listeria bacteria than other foods. It also contains high levels of animal based form of vitamin A (retinol) since it's made from liver. It's not that the vitamin itself is bad for you but too much of it is.

Simply speaking, you get a fair amount of vitamin A from your daily diet (fruits, veggies, cereals) and your prenatal vitamins. Eating liver will bring your level into the danger zone which is harmful to your baby. Not many ppl care much for liver, but I love fois gras so watching my husband eat a plate of seared fois gras (which reminds me it's time for his cholesterol check up) during our anniversay dinner at Le Crocodile almost brought me to tears.

Since I love fancy and raw foods, and anything with alcohol, I didn't get to eat much because I didn't like what was good for me like potatoes, rice and other pregnancy goodness. Instead, I had a lot of milk... in the form of ice cream.

However, being pregnant gave me a reason to eat like I haven't eaten for weeks. At work. To and from work.

And in the middle of the night.

And again shortly after.

A Time Saving Appliance

I dedicate this post to a mother-to-be friend, Christine. Last weekend, I attended her baby shower with Ed and Kyle. She was the person that I made my diaper cake for.

Halfway through the party, I had to feed Kyle. I took out the bottled milk, found a cup to fill it with hot water but I couldn't find any hot water. I wasn't looking for a kettle, I was looking for an electric thermo pot. But she didn't have one (or maybe I didn't look hard enough). My friend found a kettle-like thingy on the stove and it's been forever since I've used a kettle! My immediate reaction was 'But she's Chinese, how could she not have one!' I ended up warming the milk with running hot water from the sink (not very eco-friendly!).

Most people (I'm afraid I can't say everyone anymore) that grew up in a chinese family would have used an electric thermos pot because I swear it was in every chinese kitchen that I've been to.

However, if you don't have one and have a baby, you may want to consider getting one. It may not be as hot as kettle boiled water but it is definitely hotter than the bottled or direct tap water dispensers. When you are trying to warm milk in the middle of the night, the last thing you want is to wait for the kettle to boil.

I have this one, it is a Panasonic one that holds 3 litres. There are larger capacity pots and 3 'Keep Warm' temperatures with the hottest one being 208ºF (98ºC). 3 litres was enough before Kyle came along as it was primarily used for making coffee and teas but now a larger one would be more convenient as I don't need to refill it every night.

There are other brands that make these pots and you can find them at Forum Home Appliances. They are around $130-$200 depending on capacity and brand. I recommend Zojirushi (w/ an elephant logo), Panasonic and Tiger Brand.

Name Labels for Kids' Clothings

Name Labels is a Canadian company that makes woven labels that can be used to label your kids' clothings. I have bought from them before for identifying my crafts with my company name and was satisfied with their no-frills service. If you are not picky about having a design on the labels and do not mind sewing or ironing the label, I recommend Name Labels because it is cheap. I bought 100 labels for $10 so it comes to 10 cents each. Since it is not a self-adhesive labels, it cannot be used on items where you can't iron or sewn on.

Other companies that makes self-adhesive labels can charge up to 50 cents each because it is coloured or has images printed on it. Those can be used to stick on childrens' cutlery or other articles that can be easily misplaced or mixed up with other kids'.