latch on – Mother, Inc

pregnancy

Keeping abreast of things

July 29, 2009

Ever since I decided to abandon ship on the breastfeeding directly from the breast, my life has settled down somewhat. Initially, I was intent to succeed at direct breastfeeding, seeing that it had so many benefits. It’s the main reason why I got the co-sleeper, so that I wouldn’t even have to get out of bed at night. Just grab, pop in the boob, feed and go right back to sleep. But Kirsten had other plans. After having tried the bottle during her stay in the hospital, she realized boob-feeding is a lot tougher and every time I tried to latch her on, it would inevitably result in a major screamfest.

Not good for my already frazzled nerves. So I’ve gone the route of expressing, which is the next best thing I suppose. It kinda sucks that I have to spend a good 4 hours of every day with the pump attached, but I’ve somehow mastered the art of typing, feeding, burping and chasing Tru around the house while expressing milk. It’s all a matter of multi-tasking.

The good news is, the milk supply has gone up significantly. From my measly 10ml, I just achieved a record of 140ml at 1am last night. That’s like almost 1 full bottle. Great success.

*Victory dance*

It still fluctuates between 70ml to 140ml, depending on the state of my nerves, but it’s still a marked improvement from my humble beginnings. Although with my insatiable milk machine, there’s still a long way to go before my supply exceeds her ever-increasing demand. Believe it or not, I actually know of someone who can produce 1.7 liters of milk every 24 hours. True story. That totally gives me hope.

I also want to give a shout out to the mothers who’ve been so forthcoming with providing tips on how to improve my milk supply. The blogosphere rocks and I would have probably given up completely if not for all the help I got. There’s even a mom who sent over a lovely nursing cover, which was a godsend. I can now express my milk even with visitors around. For all the designs, check out www.bigbellymama.com

nursing cover from www.bigbellymama.com

On another note, thanks to the breastfeeding, the weight loss has been phenomenal. Just two weeks in, I’ve lost 12kg. Now just another 15 to go.

by Daphne

motherhood

Got Milk!

July 20, 2009

In a series of unrelated events over the past few days, my breastfeeding attempts have taken a whole new turn.

1. THERE IS MILK!

With Kirsten in the hospital for phototherapy treatment for 3 days, I’ve been faithfully drinking the nasty papaya fish soup which smells like a shoal of rotten fish that’s left to decay for a month. At first, everyone thought it was an exaggeration, until I offered $5 to the husband to try it. Suffice to say, the puke-inducing look totally made my day.

I’ve slso been expressing milk every 3 hours (even at night, which is a huge sacrifice). Yesterday, the milk finally decided to come in and even though I’ve only got 5 ml after 30 mins, it was enough reason for me to do a victory dance.

2. Kirsten has become a milk drinking machine.

I don’t know what it is about my kids and food, but they can sure eat a lot. I’ve come to terms with the fact that Tru is insatiable, but I wasn’t prepared that my baby girl would be one cute little eating machine that would beat him hands down.

During the 3 days she was in the hospital, she’s been consuming 100 ml every 3 hours. When Tru was her age, he could barely finish 40 ml. Scary, I know.

3. The first successful latch on

After many tries and a lot of crying, I finally managed to get Kirsten to latch on. I lasted about 15 minutes per side before she got really agitated. Couldn’t really blame her since I’m producing less than 10% of her feeding requirements.

So right now the plan is to feed her directly from the breast for as long as I can and then supplement with formula. At this point, she still needs another 80 ml of formula to fill her little tummy. Hopefully at some point, I’ll be able to completely eliminate the bottle.

One step at a time.

by Daphne