Mummy | Dr Donna Chow

Home Bake Birthday Cake

05/05/2020 by Dr Donna Chow 2 Comments

I haven't posted for a while. Not since Ah Bee's 10th birthday celebration - on which we ordered a custom birthday cake for him. For the past 4 weeks, there seems to be a renewed interest in home baking as a lot of us (myself included) have more free time on our hands. Therefore, I will be sharing my simple cake recipe for baking a birthday cake at home. It is by no means the most delicious chocolate cake but it is worthy a try if you are running short of time and need a simple beginner cake recipe. I have roped in my little chef for this cake project. He was rather excited donning a chef hat Click to read more

Ah Bee turns ten

04/09/2019 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

In the blink of an eye, Ah Bee is now officially 10 years old. If you have owned a dog, you would probably know that one year of a dog's life is almost equivalent to 7 years of human's life. That would mean that our dear Bee, whom we have raised since he was a three month old puppy, is now a grandfather of 70 years. He has spent most of his life waiting for us to go home, play with him and take him out for walks. It isn't easy to be him. He can't find his friends when he misses them, he can't make decisions for himself and his whole life revolves around nobody but us. So, to celebrate his Click to read more

Mindon celebrates One

24/07/2019 by Dr Donna Chow 3 Comments

It took me a while to post an update. For the past few months, I have been busy decluttering the house, caring for the little ones and coping with a job change. Glad that I have finally found some time to post an event which happened quite some time back - Mindon's first birthday celebration! As mentioned three years back in my earlier post on Kandon's first birthday, one year old parties are often a major celebration for most mummies, myself included. I hope to make it as memorable as possible for Mindon even though he may not recall much of what has taken place on this day. Photos will be a Click to read more

Lactation cookies recipe

27/04/2018 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

My cookie monster waited to chomp down the cookies

It is common for breastfeeding mums to eat lactation cookies to boost their milk supply. These cookies are often available for sale by other home bakers who made them for a profit or mass produced and commercially packaged such as this. I am never a cookie fan myself. But hearing all the positive reviews for boosting milk supply with these, I decided to order from a well established online store to try it for effectiveness. The cookies were tasty, albeit expensive. A 600 g pack costs me $42 thereabouts and only lasts me for a good 10 days - I ate 4 to 5 small cookies during my lunch break. If Click to read more

My second breastfeeding journey

23/04/2018 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

My trusty Spectra S1 and Boppy nursing pillow

When my first son was born, my milk supply was extremely low and I struggled to pump breast milk for him. Breast feeding does not come naturally to me. Not everyone is blessed with abundant breast milk supply and has surplus milk to store in the freezer. As a friend puts in aptly; God has created man (and woman) unequally for a reason. He blesses us with different abilities so that each of us can achieve different things in life. As a first time mum, I have always assumed that latching a baby is a natural instinct, and pumping breast milk is fairly straight forward. I attended antenatal Click to read more

Bringing baby to Taiwan

03/11/2017 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

Recently, we brought our baby, now an active toddler, to Taiwan in early September. The trip was a last minute decision to fill in an excursion for his school holiday, and also an outing with him alone before baby arrives next year. Before the trip, I had several bouts of complications from my current pregnancy and almost had to cancel the air tickets. Luckily in the end, we did make the trip and it proved to be the most memorable one for us! Since our boy is officially 2 and a half years old, it is time to get a seat for him on our flight to Taipei. He was exceptionally cheerful and Click to read more

Shopping for a new baby: 10 lessons from a second-time mum

21/10/2017 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

As a first time mum 3 years ago, I was completely overwhelmed with shopping for baby #1. I sourced for checklists online and bought "almost" everything I could find. And I was so worried about missing out anything. But now, with #2, I have become more chilled and relaxed about shopping, especially when my first trimester was rather complicated. I started looking around the baby stuff only in the second trimester, around 24 weeks, when I was more certain that things would be looking brighter. This time round, I am also more cautious about the "over-buying" phenomenon and strategise on my Click to read more

Growing up too fast

21/07/2017 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

It has been a while since I last update an entry here. For the past 2 months, I have taken a short break from blogging and been trying to finish up work which I procrastinated for a while - that includes backing up photos and sorting out all the videos I have taken over the years. Since all the imaging is now in digital format - it becomes critical to sort and store them into sensible order on hard disks and computers. It becomes a painful task to delete off extra photos because they look so similar, and yet they are different in those very subtle ways. As I pore through the photos, I Click to read more

Baking a rainbow chiffon cake for my two year old

31/05/2017 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

Time really flies. Just last year, I have been busy organising a one year old birthday party for my boy. I still recall with vivid memories of me spending many late nights trying to create his giant rosette cupcake for his one year old cake smash. But as you may have known, buttercream cakes aren't the most healthy option for children - and adults alike. And to save myself the trouble of the hassle of whipping up more buttercream, I have decided I am not going to do any cream cakes for this year. Fondant cakes are my other alternative. They are like pieces of art and cost quite a bit to order Click to read more

Is Taobao Ezbuy Prime for you?

11/03/2017 by Dr Donna Chow 2 Comments

Are you paying too much for your online shopping?

If you are a habitual online shopper, you would have come across Taobao - the largest and most comprehensive e-commerce platform in China. Many Singaporeans shop on Taobao and ship in their purchases either using the 4 main Taobao international parcel forwarding services (4PX, DPEX, DEX and PRouter) or through Ezbuy Ship-for-me / Prime (formerly known as 65daigou). A brief overview of these two services: (1) Taobao International Parcel Forwarding (TIPF) is the method which I have used most often. You download the Taobao App onto your mobile or access the Taobao website on your desktop. With Click to read more