Last Breastfeeding Day (9th May 2010)

I stopped Breastfeeding.
It was one long 11 months journey.
May have persevered all the way to 12mths.
However, silly illines struck me and I had to stop because I am on medication.
What a waste right, just short of one month to complete a nice 12 mths record.
Well, but I am glad I had persevered that long....at least for my last child!
Tried my best and its considered an achievement for myself! *pat my own shoulder*

Juggling BF

Time flies. Kayleen is going to be 6months soon which means I have bf her for a good 6months! Wow! Didnt imagine myself to breeze thru it. Honestly, bf is very tiring. Very deprived of sleep. Like right now, Im waiting to pump before I sleep. I feel guilty whenever I missed my 'pumping' time cos that means I will have less bm for Kayleen. For example, I shld have 30ml for every hr..if Im pumping at 5hrs interval, I should have 150ml but sometimes I get so busy, I get to pump like 2 or 3 hrs after my usual schedule, I probably will end up with 30-50ml bm lesser.


Therefore, travelling is a headache for me cos I usually want to hurry home to express the bm. Even our recent trip to Labis (Malaysia), we skipped the idea of going to Malacca bcos I was worried that it will affect my bm expressing schedule. We havent tried going anywhere beyond our house except inlaws' place yet so I really duno how to handle expressing bm if we go KL? The thought of bringing all the pumping barang and the washing, sterilising etc at a foreign place is enought to turn me off...

Hmmm.... so when will I be going for my holiday again?

Conquering BF

I am now doing partial (50%) bf for Kayleen. Bf really takes alot of time and effort and SLEEP! LOL

She is currently having EBM during the day and FM during the night. I managed to express about 4-5 bottles of EBM (@100ml) a day. I am now expressing at 3 to 4hrly interval, sometimes 2hrly...whenever I am free. I hope to be able to express more in the coming days otherwise wont be able to catch up with her growth spurt....and hopefully she will be fully bf eventually!

I must persevere! Mood: super duper tired and wearout

On breastfeeding again

I am still a little bewildered on BF. Alot of people I spoke to told me to feed baby on demand and then naturally the supply will come. But....how to BF on demand when we have to consume ginger and alochol stuff during confinement? The last time when I went for prenatal classes, the nurse mentioned that either you BF before you ate these "special food" or wait 2 hrs later to BF the baby. For very simple reason, ginger will probably increase the "seriousness" of jaundice (as we all know all babies no matter what will surely get jaundice in the initial period) and taking alochol will affect the quality of the breastmilk as the alochol will pass on to the baby when you BF (which is harmful to the baby).

If feeding on demand is the key to BF successfully then I really have a big problem here. How am I going to BF on demand when at the same time I have to consume food that will affect the well-being of my dear child? Sighhh.....

Milkmaid Tea

I suppose not many people heard of EarthMama & AngelBaby. I first heard about the products from my sis-in-law. She specifically recommended milkmaid tea to me on our visit to her when Matthew was borned. She has heard about the product from those mummies' forum and decided to buy some from Babyloft to try out. She only uses it for the inital period when the supply is low and after that the milk just come so she doesnt have to rely on it anymore. According to her, she used 2 bottles of the milkmaid tea. It seems to work very well for her and I am really tempted to try on Kaden especially when my first attempt with Trenyce didnt work out.

I havent checked with Dr Goh on the ingredients of the tea yet so I am waiting for the coming appointment to clarify with him before purchasing it. Though my sis-in-law did check with her gynae back in Malaysia and was assured everything was fine, which it was indeed the case judging by how well both Matthew and her is doing now. I am still a little concerned because I found shops in Singapore selling EarthMama & AngelBaby products in KK hospital and United Square shopping ctr but they just dont carry this specific product which really leave me wondering why....so for curiousity reason, I will check with Dr Goh first before purchasing the product...

This is the milkmaid tea.

Breastfeeding

I didn’t succeed in BF Trenyce previously. Though I managed to do partial BF for the first 3 mths but by the 2nd mth, the supply was getting pathetic. I didn’t nurse her directly as I chose to pump the milk most of the time, thinking it will be the same. But it wasn’t. The lesser she was nursed, the lower the milk supply will be as the milk ducts are not stimulated as often as it should be.

I was actually quite upset initially because I have been reading so much on BF before Trenyce arrived and I knew the many benefits that BF can give my kids. My main aim is not to save money on formulas or slimming programs but more so on providing the best for my kids. I was veryvery sad, and getting worried, when Trenyce refused to latch on so hubby told me to pump the milk instead. That’s when I began my BF journey, pumping faithfully every 2 hrs…but as the day passes, the milk supply gets lesser and lesser. At the peak, I only managed to get 4 ounces of BM per day and at its low, just 1 ounce. So you can imagine how discouraged I am.

I really envy those who manage to do it successfully. For example, my sis-in-law and Shoppingmum.. My sis-in-law managed to nurse her two sons for at least 6 mths whereas Shoppingmum did it much longer. Yes I can turn to my sis-in-law for help on BF but she is not in Spore so its really difficult for me to get help from her. If only she's in S'pore huh……….

I guess there are a lot of reasons on the failure. Perhaps I didn’t know the techniques of latching her properly and so she got frustrated and fussed a lot whenever I tried to nurse her. Perhaps because I didn’t get help early. Perhaps because I am lack of support from people who actually nurse their kids as most people surrounded me didn’t nurse their kids and in a way, they didn’t "pressurize" themselves to do so. Perhaps and perhaps….there's just too many perhaps.

I am determine to succeed in BF this time as this is also probably the last time I am able to do so for my kid. For the moment, hubby and myself are quite contented with our 2 kids thuogh we would very much like to have 4 kids, so unless "accident" occurs otherwise this will jolly well be my last pregnancy. One colleague told me that one of the ways to make BF possible is to invest in good breastpumps (as everyone knows its not cheap!) so you will heartpain the money and die die make BF possible! Hahaha…..But I guess by not buying things that are "formula-friendly" i.e. milk bottle, formula milk…etc will also help to "push" myself harder to make BF succeed cos you wouldn’t want your baby to starve right?

So, perhaps I should do some shopping to get prepared for BF:
- Breastpumps (Shoppingmum pointed this web in her blog, click here)
- Nursing pillow
- Nursing Bras
- Nursing clothes
- Cooler bags
- Cool pads or ice bricks for milk storage
- Cups/bottles to store the breast milk
- Nipple cream

Of course, not forgetting that we must get the latch on technique correct. Thanks to Shoppingmum, she pointed breastfeeding.com in her blog. It gives very detailed latch-on steps.