Hi I would like to advice AGAINST this CL if u happened to be referred.
Her name is ZhenZhu (Pearl), unbelievably inexperienced & no integrity.
I called Fong Jie as recommended in SMH forum. As she is booked then, she refers another CL called Xiao Cui to me. When I am about to give her the $300 deposit, she told me she may not make it since I may deliver early base on the #1 experience. And on the spot refer me to her friend who tagged along.
Zhenzhu mentioned she had 7 yrs of experiences, care for her 4 children & do confinement for her sis etc. Xiao Cui asked me not to worry, as all of them had the same professionism from the same hometown (Kota Tinggi- JB).
Though not very please to be re-divert to another CL but i dont have a choice as too near my due date. So I requested to take a snapshot of her passport after paying the deposit.
So the nightmare began... I called her when i had delivered which was 3 wks earlier my due date. She mentioned that she can come only 5 days later as she was still in last few days of another confinement and she needed to go home to stamp her passport & attended a relative's wedding...
Then when she arrived finally after i struggle to tend to my #1 & the newborn for several days.
Luckily, mum managed to give great help but as my grandfather happened to pass away, she needed to attend his funeral & many other stuff.
ON COOKING...
Always hiding in the kitchen, cutting, packing, boiling etc. After 2 hours+ in kitchen, I dont see a sumptious meal. It is the usual confinement food, undercooked or overcooked! The expensive 'mei rou' (the lean part of the pork belly) become tough & chewy;
A large drumstick can be uncooked near bone area when boiled for nearly 2hr+ ??;
Pork stomach soup can be bland when boiled with 1kg of good quality ribs;
Green vegetable can be so overcooked that I can hardly bite & can hardly find the leafy part when served!
And the worst part is that the meaty part is always missing - like chicken breast, fleshy part of pork knuckle, or portion of the fish just don match the amount that my mum had bought!
I am a person who dont cooked often but not an amateur cook, so at least I can figure out how big a portion of half the chicken or an egg or a piece of meat...
The mee-suah is so soughy that I questioned her if she hardly cooked for all the confinement that she had done!
I had mentioed that she can eat with us, my husband & daughter and when my parents are around but she kept saying that she dont eat much and will eat our left-over food. I guess she was already full when cooking, so all the juicy part of the soup/ dishes were stomached. My MIL is also surprised that we cant find much meaty part in the black-vinegar pork knuckle that she brought over as she had added extra meat for me! So now we know where they had gone!
She put so much longan, ginger, dangsheng & don-know what ginseng tonic in the red-date tea that I am over-heaty, milk supply reduced and my baby developed heat rashes all over face, back and body!
My mum observed it's the red-date tea and immediately after instructing her to increase the red-date portion & omit the ginseng & ginger, my milk supply comes back my baby rashes were all gone!
ON BABY CARE...
She didnt know how to test the water temperature for baby bath! Dip her 2 arms (up to the upper arms level) constantly in the tub to check the temperature... I keep hinting her that she is washing her arms and my baby is bathing in her rinsing water, still cant get what I mean!
I had to show her to test my wrist or my elbow... I thought this is the most basic thing that a CL had to know! Faintzz
I also need to constantly remind her to wash her hands when tending to the baby esp after cooking!
Every morning, I had to remind her to BATHE my baby, as I were doing my post-natal massage before noon. And if anyone put moisturizer from butt then up to the face, that will be her!
My mum caught her wrapping my baby in her blanket in the middle of the night, likely trying not to let him make noise. She didnt know the correct method to swaddle the baby with the cloth nappy so he will not wriggle & risk to cover his face...
As I am fully breastfeeding, I usu have the milk pumped out in glass bottles in the fridge for her to do the night feed. For the 1st few night, she finished feeding 3 bottles (70- 100ml) without knowing what is the capacity of the content, simply heat up & feed when baby whined. When questioned how much my baby drinked, she didnt know & cant even tell how many Millimeters as she knew Ounces! I gave her a board to record down the amt of every night feed!
She even asked if I want to keep the left-over milk that my baby cant finish. Her previous client (keep mentioning that she is a Universiy-graduate) had instructed her to do that as it would be a waste of breastmilk!
I am like rolling my eyes & warned her never to do that to my baby!
For some days, she is not able to get up/ overslept, I thought could be due to the late night feeds etc... Only after she left, I realised that half a bottle of Martell is gone and nobody in my household drinks!!!
My newborn only had 1 small cabinet shelf of clothing, and she can mixed up with my #1's or cant group the similiar type like socks together etc...
She wetted the baby's socks several times when washing the baby's butt during diaper change. I cant imagine if that happened overnight when my baby had to sleep with wet socks!
My baby is relative easy to care as he mainly sleeps through the day in his cot without much carrying/ rocking after his feeds and he latched for all his day feeds. She can spend her time in the kitchen, only came out if not for the baby occasional cries...
She cleaned the house only when my husband is around - to show him she is working hard??
I complained to my husband on the 1st week that I think that she is really incompetent! On 2nd thoughts, as she got a mild temper, we can keep her as a helper as my mum can only help on some occasions.
I really blew my top, when she served the fish cooked in wine when my 2 yr+ old daughter is eating with us. She asked why children cant take wine??? No wonder, when she took alcohol when she was pregnant, got scolding from her sis... OMG, this woman got no common sense too!
Then when she bought some herbal capsule supplement (with my husband) from the TCM shop, I queried about the functions, she asked me to read the instruction manual myself as she is illiterate!!! Her family is so poor that she only attended school till Pri Sch. So whatever she knew is only HEARSAY...
On the 2nd week, I really cant put up with her for taking no initiative, no common sense, no organising skills, no general knowledge, not to speak of child-caring knowledge!
That morning as I had the soughy mee suah with wine so I asked her to do bottle feed. She simply grabbed a bottle from fridge without washing her hands and dipped it in hot boiling water! I had reminded her the 1st few days that it should be warm water so the nutrients in the breastmilk will not be killed/ boiled!
She was telling me how strong are her 4 children as she also breastfed them... right! During her confinement month only!
I demanded her to tell me truthfully that how long she had worked, 7 years or 7 months? She then told me only for 2yrs. Her friend will take the $300 as a recommending fee, as she is pretty new in the industry so she took only $1.7K. Asked her to pack and leave with immediate effect after my #1 had left for school and leaving my new born with my parents in the room.
I confronted Xiao Cui in Msia, on the phone with a good hr+ dressing down. She indicated that it was Fong Jie who collected some "telephone fees" from her etc... She had no complaints from other clients when she recommended ZhenZhu to them...
My mum found some small packages/ boxes of meaty parts tuck in deep corners of the fridge which i believed it was for her own comsumption when fixing the meals. I am not stingy to give her good food but really cannot tolerate such underhand method!
This is my 2nd experience with a Msia confinement lady. Although the 1st one recommended by my friend is pretty stubborn in insisting to feed water to baby when hiccupping etc, she is rather efficient and organised in handling the baby.
For those who are really looking out for a CL, pls don just look at the price.
My sis also sacked her CL after a week (though highly recommended by her friend) for sneaking food, stealing the rice wine and lack of child caring knowledge (imagine she cleaned the baby girl's butt from back to front)...
Even recommended by your friends/ relatives/ Forum (preferably someone who had used her service before), remember to do an inteview on not just the no. of years of working experiences but whether updated on the caring methods, and if willing to exchange pointers in child-care, since we spent the effort & time to attend antenatal classes on contemporary methods. Simply cant use the same old grandma's methods to care for our children now in my personal opinion!
Good Luck & Take care all Mummies!