Malaysia Newborn & Baby, Toddler & Children, Maternity & Family Photographer - Asther Lau Photography » Poll

Poll: The Many Types of Mommy-hood

Asther — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:19:00 +0000

It’s been ages since my last poll post. So today, am taking some time to post one after much thought about my life as a mother. I guess, to some extent, the way I lead my mommy-hood is much influenced by how I was raised by my own mother. She was a fulltime housewife and took care of my younger brother & I, all by herself while my late father brings in the money for the family.

I remembered spending most of my childhood time with her being in our home. Taking good care of our food & drinks, ensuring we have our naps in the afternoon, and constantly saving up what little money we have so we can buy new clothes during festive seasons such as Chinese New Year & Christmas. I remembered how she taught me how to write, and how she constantly supported my interest in reading.

At one stage in my childhood life, I had head lice problem from school. She’ll spend every afternoon after lunch to comb my hair & look for the eggs. She never gave up until she found a solution to rid all of those pesky lice. From “washing” my hair with diesel oil, to washing my hair EVERYDAY. She finally brought me to the hair salon to have my hair permed, in hope that the perming chemicals will kill them all! I ended up having a disastrous hairstyle at the age of 10 but yeah… the lice were gone for good!

Our everyday life is filled with activities. Be it helping out with house chores, or studying, or playing. She managed our time so well.

And that’s how I hope to do the same for my own child. Hence, my decision to be a SAHM (stay at home mother) rather than pursuing a career in the corporate world. I’m very lucky that I am able to turn my photography hobby into a home-based business. Well… home-based at least for now. At least I still can bring in some bucks to boost the family’s living quality. Most importantly, more savings for our little girl’s future.

I want to be with my little girl while she grows. I saw her first crawl, her first baby steps. And am looking forward to experience her first of everything. Every night before I sleep, I silently thank the Lord for giving me such an opportunity to do so. And I still have my own mother around & being able to help with caring for my little girl while I build my business.

I know not many mommies out there are as lucky as I am. Ever since I started my photography business, I’ve met so many mommies who have shared with me about their mommy-hood. Each has their own way of handling their life as a mother, a wife & earning a living for the family.

Below is a poll of which I hope my dear mommy readers can contribute & share with us. It is meant to let every mother that visits my blog know that they are NOT alone in their struggles of balancing the many roles in our lives. So feel free to share your experiences in the comment section as well as “vote” below. This is a multiple choice poll.

We are going away for a short family trip this weekend to celebrate both my mum’s birthday as well as darling Francis’ first Father’s Day. I’m taking time off to be with my family, hence, I won’t be able to check my emails until Monday. My editing frenzy will also cease until we return and I’ll start at a much slower pace as my mum will be returning home to Kuching for a short break. I’ll be on full-time mommy duties until my mum’s back with us. But this doesn’t mean I’m neglecting my clients, ya!

Here’s wishing you a blessed weekend and a very Happy Father’s Day to all daddies in the world!

Two dedicated daddies with their daughters. *heart*

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ALP’s Birthday Contest – Voting Begins!

Asther — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:55:52 +0000

Voting is now closed & will be announcing the winner soon! But you already know that!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of postings lately. Had been really busy with several deadlines before I went for my eye epi-lasik surgery on recent Monday. Since the surgery, I’ve been resting my eyes for a few days to encourage the healing process. It’s now Day 5 and I just had the protective contact lens removed few hours ago. My vision is still blurry at times and extremely sensitive to light source, and YES, writing this post is actually quite a challenge at the moment.

Now back to the Asther Lau Photography’s Birthday Specials Contest!

This contest nearly turned into a flop, really! Cos there was no entry what-so-ever for many days at the initial stage. Finally, upon the closing of deadline, we finally received three (yup… ONLY THREE) submissions for the contest. Hahaha… I was originally pretty disappointed with the response but upon talking it out with a fellow friend (who’s also a judge for this contest), we came to a few conclusions.

1. My blog readers/fans (in majority) do not like to write!

2. We intend to continue the contest to honor those who’ve submitted their entries because they’ve sacrificed their time & effort to write their own entry. Since the title for this year’s contest is “To Sacrifice, To Love”, these contestants have sacrificed for the love of ALP’s work! So ALP want to thank them with some love back! Hehehe…

3. Since there are only three contestants,, each WILL WIN something from ALP as promised.

Okay… enough chitty-chatter about. Here’s the second stage of the contest whereby we’ll need YOUR vote to decide on who’s the ultimate winner for ALP’s FREE photo session. The person who gets the highest number of votes will be announced as the winner for the FREE photo session with ALP after voting is closed on the 26th March 2010. FYI, this date is my birthday together with my little girl, Haley. The remaining two contestants will automatically win ALP’s e-voucher worth RM100 each.

Here are the links to the three submissions. Would you be kind enough to go over & read them and then cast in your vote, please?

Entry by Irene Lim-Jesuthasan

Entry by Michael Cheo

Entry by Stephen Wong

VOTE HERE!

Thank you so much for your vote & do stay tuned for the winner announcement on our birthday! Meanwhile, I’ll try to post more cutie pictures in between the voting period.

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Poll: Your Baby & Teething

Asther — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:04:16 +0000

Our little Haley has finally gotten her new little teeth! We’re thankful that she didn’t suffer from fever or anything serious except diarrhea for 2 days. During that period, she couldn’t hold down too much solids as well so we had to feed her smaller amounts more frequently. She’d throw up after taking half of the quantity of which we normally fed her, but other than that, she’s still a happy & active little girl.

So today is another poll day regarding teething in infants/babies. Let’s see what’s the most common symptoms of teething and what other weird symptoms that might have happened to your babies. Let’s share again, mommies & daddies!

More info on teething babies:

@ Teething Tots , @ Teething-Teeth.Com , @ emedicinehealth

As for today’s Project 365, this is what I first captured…

"Cheeky Face!"

… when I asked my lil’ girl to show her little teeth. I was making this “eeeee” sound for her and she took it as me asking her to make a cheeky face expression!

And finally…

"Pearly Whites!"

… a photo showing off her two new pearly whites!

That is all for today. ALP is in a midst of planning out a birthday giveaway surprise to ALP fans & blog readers sometime soon so do come back or stay tuned!

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Poll: Your Baby & The Knock on the Head

Asther — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:50:20 +0000

Our Little Haley had had a fall recently & hit the back of her head hard onto the tiled floor. And as expected, she cried real hard so we carried & held her to calm her down. I was trying to look for abnormal behavior or signs which may be symptoms of a bad concussion but she looked okay to me despite the red & heavily teared face. This happened when she’s about to go to bed. We gave her the night feed as usual and she drank them all. She however required us to carry her until she fell asleep that night.

She slept for half an hour before waking up crying, so we had to console her by carrying her again. She managed to fall asleep finally, but will not let my mum out of her sight, so mum had to lie down next to her until she fell deep asleep. I found a bump behind her head & didn’t dare to rub on it for fear of causing more pain to her.

Later on, darling hubby asked if we rubbed gently on the affected area immediately after the fall. His reasoning was that it’ll help by diminishing the rise of the bump. I was surprised by this new discovery hence this blog post today. So here’s calling out to mommies & daddies out there to share your experience which may be similar to ours here.

Here’s another poll to make it easier to share. Please do no hesitate to share more detail in the comment box below cos we (the other mommies & daddies out there) may find your information very useful indeed! Thank you!

Here are a few links which I find very informative regarding handling with head injury & such on babies.

The Royal Children Hospital, Melbourne

AskDrSears.Com

BabyCenter.Com

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Poll: Your Baby & Neonatal Jaundice

Asther — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:34:51 +0000

Hello my dearest readers!

I have been taking care of my lil’ Haley for the past week all by myself since my own mother took a 3-week holiday for some travel & personal time. Throughout this whole week, I have been a fulltime mother, a part-time photographer and (sad to say) a part-time wife to my hubby & a part-time friend to my friends out there.

Haley has just turned 7-month old and has already mastered her crawling skill recently. She is an explorer, crawling here & there and very recently, even trying to climb over obstacles all by herself! She has even learnt on how to stand up on her two little feet by pulling herself up by the sofa & other tall things that she can get to. Sigh… this has indeed kept me on my toes, even during the night as Haley still wakes up crying at times for no apparent reason. Maybe it’s a nightmare, I just do not know. Ah well…

This post will be a little different and I’m planning to make it a frequent-like, aiming to help us mothers (and fathers & helpers alike) when it comes to understanding our babies/toddlers/children. I am encouraging participation from you readers out there in order to make this post more interesting. This is a poll post whereby contribution to answers will help us gather more information & also help us understand on each topic I will be posting on from time to time. I will be applying polls to photography related topics in the near future as well, so stay tuned!

So let’s proceed to this week’s poll topic – Neonatal Jaundice.

My Little Haley was diagnosed with a mild case of neonatal jaundice 2 days after birth. We were in the process of establishing breastfeeding skill & pattern, waiting anxiously for my milk to come so my pool little Haley will have more to feed her ever growing hunger. Doctor had a blood test done and we were told that it was a mild case, hence there’s nothing we should do except maybe feed her water & increase breastfeeding frequency.

Okay… now something funny happened during her period of recovery. My mother decided to put Haley under the morning sun to help her recover faster so she & my mother-in-law brought Haley down to the swimmin pool area every morning for the “sun-ning” hour of 8 a.m. for about half hour. Then one fine day, my mother decided that the half-hour “sun-ning” is not enough, so she put my little Haley next to our balcony which lets in plenty of sun for the rest of the morning. I was still healing from my C-Section so I normally sleep in till near noon time. When I woke up & saw my baby was turning red like a lobster, I told my mom to stop doing that to my poor little girl. And yup! My Haley had had a tan at the tender age of less than a week old thanx to her dotting grandma!

Go on now… click away & leave a comment if you can.

Thank you heaps!