Confinement Days: Day 2 - Day 5

The consecutive days of my confinement were full of unhappiness and stories... I started to see the true colors of the confinement lady and here are my observations:

1. Behaviour & Attitude

• Very stubborn auntie - when you confront her on something or you don't agree she nagged and show "the face" to us, then continue with the behaviour which we don't like.
• Complain queen - She complained this and that, and everything that we have, we do and compare with her ex-confinement houses she went. She complain my house's environment very dusty, and ask my hubby to buy ionizer. I asked my hubby to ignore her...and she everyday repeated the same request/complain. So annoying lady! And then she complained our fridge not good la...too cold till the vegetables frozen and dead. It's her who didn't know how to use the fridge. Our fridge is the modern style whereby the freezer is at the bottom and the veggie compartment is on top. My hubby already tell me so many times..and she always put those green vegetables in the freezer...of cos the vegetables frozen to dead. And she complained our fridge too small...whereby she did not need to use all the space as she only cooked for me and my hubby.
• Like to waste people money - This auntie always keep asking my hubby to buy this and that...a bunch of things which do not need. I always remind my hubby not to listen to her as I alone can't finish so much food and he didn't need to buy a lot vegetable and meat to store in the fridge. There are so many vegetables in the fridge and she still asked my hubby to buy some more. In just 5 days we have spent RM500. He also asked my hubby to buy other household items which are not necessities.
• Very rough lady - She is not gentle at all in handling baby and even do housework. She made a lot of loud noise in the early morning at 6am mopping the floor and washing clothes. It's so noisy that she can wake the baby, my hubby and me...(the whole household). The way she carry and handle my baby is not gentle and with care also...so unhappy yet can't do anything.

2. Housekeeping

• Not clean and hygiene - Even though she swept and cleaned the house everyday, the house was still full of dust and plenty of oil stains. And the oil stains in the house were caused by her cooking. When she cooked, she turn the fire to the max, and created a bunch of smoke and oil spills around the house (wall, ceiling and floor). I sure need to get some cleaning maids to help me clean the whole house spick and span. And when she cooked, she messed up and drity the whole kitchen. All my plates, utensils and kitchen top were so oily and uncleaned.

3. Baby Care

• Inexperience with baby - She did not know how to handle baby. When baby cries, she let the baby cries and scold the baby for crying and making noise. And the worst part was she bathe the baby immediately when the baby woke up. Of course the baby would cry as the room temperature is different from the body temperature right after awake. My baby ended up always crying loudly during bath time because of the ignorance of the lady. I so pity my baby girl. And she did not properly clean her, and she only bathed her once a day. I complaint and asked her to bath her twice a day for proper cleaniness but she ignore my words and only bathed her once.
• Lazy auntie - At night she did not really care about my baby. When my baby cried for hunger, she just popped the pacifier into her mouth to suck and she went back to bed. This happened on the first night. I heard my baby crying then suddenly stopped, so I went over to the room to spot check and found my baby sucking profusely on the pacifier and the lady is soundly asleep. Immediately, I kidnapped her back to my room and she slept with me at night since then. How ignorant can someone be to treat a hunger baby.
• Don't encourage breastfeeding - The lady did not understand about breastfeeding at all. And she always complaint that my milk was not enough and should top up with formula but I ignored her. She should respect my choice and I told her my milk was enough for my daughther. Once the baby was full, she would fall asleep, and that's what my baby did, and she somehow doubtful still. Thank God I did not store any formula milk in the house.

4. Cooking

• Cooking not good - The auntie cooking style and taste were horrible especially in boiling soup. Bland and not good at all. I still think my mum's soup is the best of all. And her cooking style was full of spices, ginger and chinese alcohol which I did not like too.
• Cook too much - She cooked a lot everyday even for lunch which was only for me. And she always served me a big mountain of rice which seemed like feeding a pig. She always cooked too much until waste of food. She also waste the veggie which we bought by using them all up at once in her cooking. Very bad chef in arrangement of food menu.

Looking into these observations, my hubby was also unhappy about the lady. We had intention to fire her but we thought of giving her a week more to monitor her progress....until something happened... To find out stay tune for the next story....

Confinement Days - Day 1

For my 2nd child birth, I had hired a confinement lady to take care of me and my baby girl. It's my first time having a stranger to stay with me and take care of us both. Frankly speaking, I was doubtful and nervous on how things will work out at first. The people I know would know that I am not those typical traditional Chinese who follows the old customs and I am really afraid of all those typical Chinese auntie who will tell me this cannot and that must do...bla bla bla...

So on Monday afternoon, once I reached home, the auntie from Ipoh came to my house. She is about 50++ of age and she is a bit traditional type of auntie...I think it's difficult and rare to get a modern and more "open-minded" auntie to do confinement. Oh well, the first thing she blurted out to me was "You cannot drink water at all...It's a NO NO NO thing". And I was astonished as what kind of people will survive without drinking water...even warm water is not allowed. She claimed that drinking water will cause me to have swollen legs and water retention in my body. What absurd is that...So, i just kept quiet and sneakily fill up my drinking bottle with warm water everyday and keep it in my room. I can't not drink water at all as I am breastfeeding and the auntie cooks all the heaty food for me...I'm afraid later my baby cannot past motion and my body will be too heaty. The auntie only allows me to drink red dates water and hot milo...pity me...

The other thing is that I can't touch tap water at all...She told me that I cannot touch water as later when I'm old, my hands will be shaky due to "wind". So, if I need to wash hand or clean myself, I can only use boiled water with warm temperature. Even water heater water is also banned as it's related to unboiled water. Phew...so many "pantang".

So first day, not much of talking between her and me...I was not used to her and her style. I kept quiet and observe her treating my baby. And i found that she is not a very patient lady with baby. Not much caring and understanding the baby. The worse is that she did not really understand about breastfeeding and when my baby starts sucking, she will imply that my baby wants pacifier. I was like "No way, i do not want my baby to suck pacifier...she is breastfeeding so when there is sign of her sucking, meaning she wants milk from the mummy, not pacifier."

And at first she supposed to sleep with my baby and carry her to me whenever she needs milk. But when I heard my baby crying in the next room, she did not bring her in. She just gave her pacifier and let her suck, and she went back to sleep....Luckily I went over to the room to spot check (I couldn't sleep the first night as I worried about my baby). As soon as I saw my baby left sucking the pacifier while semi-sleeping, I kidnapped her back to my room and let her sleep with me. After I breastfed her, she was soundly asleep and there is no need of pacifier at all... So from that night onwards, I told my confinement lady that my baby will sleep with me at night and I will take care of her on my own. This way I can make sure my baby gets enough milk and able to sleep soundly...and not getting her in hunger with just sucking pacifier...