Mix Feeding

After 7 months of being purely breastfed, Mikolo had his 1st taste of formula this week. *sob* I've been having a hard time supplying his feeding needs. Even after being together the whole time during my 2-week holiday vacation, I still wasn't able to increase my breastmilk supply. Sadly, I really had to give in to formula milk.

Although this is the longest I've done (Uno and Matteo were only purely breastfed around 5 or 6 months), I am still sad. The good thing though is Mikolo's transition wasn't difficult. In fact, the nanny said he enjoyed it! His 2 older brothers didn't like the taste of formula at first and it was a struggle, but Mikolo just drank it in one sitting, or sipping rather.

If you need to mix feed your baby (while you're at work or out of the house), here are a few transition tips:

1- squeeze in the formula milk in between breastmilk feedings
2- formula feeding can also come in after all the breastmilk has been consumed
3- use a feeding cup instead of the regular milk bottle with teat
4- whenever you're together, make sure your baby still feeds from you
5- and last but not the least, if your baby is 6 months old and up, mix his mashed fruits/veggies with milk

I hope these tips help.

If you have other tips, please let me know. :)

updating your tax status

i went to bir the other day to finally get my tax status updated. matteo and mikolo are now my dependents and my tax status is now s3. woot! and guess what, it was such a breeze!!!

here are my tips for you when getting your tax status updated:

1. if you had a previous employer, go to their rdo branch so you can transfer your records to your current employer's rdo. don't make the mistake of having to wait at your current company's rdo only to find out you were supposed to do something else first.

2. make sure to get an authorized person to sign your form 2305 on behalf of your current company (usually someone from hr). and make sure your company's details at the bottom part are filled out and updated. you can download the form online if your company does not provide this.

3. prepare 2 copies...always.

4. get the birth certificate/s photocopied and authenticated. most government offices don't require nso copies or original ones. 

5. come in around 4pm. bir closes at 5 and when they see it's near closing time, that's when they start picking up pace. i got my tax status updated in less than an hour.

6. as per our payroll team, wait for september to get your tax status updated. that way your tax returns are higher. unless of course you give birth past that month, then update it right away.

7. if you can pay someone to do this for you, then do it. let him/her take care of all the other documents like sss and pag-ibig so you can just spend time with your baby. if your hubby can do it, that's better. ;)

i hope these tips are helpful for you. do you have other bir tips? :)