After firing our confinement lady during our my first little prince's time, we decided to get a foreign helper this round to help us with our confinement for our 2nd prince.
So how do we plan on doing that? And if you are thinking to hire a helper instead of a confinement lady, this post might just be for you!
It all started from our first kid, and we realised that we preferred to be more hands-on then. Besides our CL weren't really helping us much. She hardly helped with the chores, she only washed the baby's clothes, showered my baby twice a day and cooked horrible horrible food for us to eat. Most of the time, she would be sleeping, laying down, and/or using her phone.
Having my baby as a first-time mom was a precious experience and I was really afraid that my baby will not be well-taken care of. Besides, the CL was too lazy to syringe feed my exclusive breastfed child, and secretly used the Avent bottles which came along with our new steriliser to bottle feed my son.
This? Broke the trust very much.
At the end of our 2nd week, we decided that it is too much to pay for someone who does nothing much for us during the season when the cash could mean so much for us.
SO ........ before you read on.... you must get a helper who has prior experience with taking care of babies, preferably in Singapore. (ex-sg worker) I am not super pro on that, but I kinda did not have much helper selections going on then and we had to make sure a helper comes in time slightly before our delivery. Also, language is important. One of the reasons why this confinement can happen smoothly with a foreign worker, is because our helper is English Language proficient. She has 5 years of SG experience and was helping to take care of the employer's newborn twinneys. So language.... or rather communication is what you and your helper must be able to achieve in the first place.
SO.... in order to buffer or prepped for a shitty helper, this was what we did.
We came out with a sheet of Rules and Regulations. And this was explained by the agent on that spot, on the day we picked her. The helper is given an option and choice to raise her concerns or anything otherwise if she was not agreeable.
We came out with a Monday to Sunday schedule. The Day to Day Tasks she needs to do. If there were anything time sensitive, it will be made known to her as well.
We got our 28 Day Confinement Soup herbs. You can get it really almost with any medical hall. The pre-packed soups comes with instructions of even what kind of meat you should put. It is no-brainer.
We also at the same medical hall got pre-packed Logan, Red Date herbs Confinement drink. Also packed for 28-30days. I tried the pre-packed and find it too sweet for me, hence I adjusted it to be less sweet on my end.
We got the Herbal shower pack. I decided to do only 14days, because during my first confinement, I only did 2 days. I decided to wait out till my wound was healed and do it only after 2weeks later of recovery.
The important thing is the Confinement Dishes. We took from the internet, the list of dishes all other vendors offer. You can choose to order a full month or even 14 days set from any of these confinement food vendors. For me, as a picky eater, I decided to select those dishes which I can accept and got my PA to print our all the recipes, and file them into a confinement folder. The folder consists of meat, fish, vegetables and soup. I also refrain eating too oily, sweet or just literally anything which is too much, hence; cooking from our home was great choice.
I also got my helper to follow my mom's recipe to prep the pig's trotters vinegar for me. I only eat the eggs from. It is a dish which you can keep it boiling for days and it works for me. And I also went to prep a bottle of Ang Zao from an old restaurant for the Ang Zao dishes which my helper can cook.
At the same time, I wanted to cater food for my hubby and my little 22 months who was already eating our table food. So, I also could make sure the food was suitable for all our general taste buds.
If you are not strict on your confinement dishes that it must always be filled with ginger, sesame oil etc... then you can definitely do up the recipe book.
So for our helper, her main tasks is to prep everything related to confinement and also keep the house clean.
So you might be asking, who takes care of my newborn? And my toddler? Us. My hubby and I decided to still pick up the challenge of caring for them. But definitely if you wanna and you are comfortable, you can always arrange your helper to help with baby duties as well.
So... thats all for now and enjoy the confinement of your choice!