BREASTFEEDING JOURNEY TO 1 YEAR OLD, PART I

(belum habis citer labor dah bukak citer baru hahah)


ooo and I forgot... yesterday marks the 1 year of fully breastfeeding amir..
after 6 months of exclusively BF la
(yes, aku nak gak ngaku exclusively ...
I choose to ignore the 1 oz of formula that amir drank after 2 days of life.. sebab sungguh negligible..
1oz is nothing compared to all the freakin hard work and effort and time and pain and the thousands of ozs to BF my baby...
so I'm saying exclusively and fully... )



anyways.. as I was saying... it has been 1 full year!...
memula, aku tak kisah pun .. whatever lah...
then aku nak at least the colostrum for my baby....
then lepas aku beli pam spectra.. aku nak at least 2 months fully BF.. so that can get my money's worth buying spectra 3 for RM400..
then aku target 4 mths.. then 6 months.. now dah 1 year...
sebab makin lama, aku makin nampak the benefits of BF..... people can say good things.. but until u experience it yourself, baru motivated...
and I have to say.... the effect of fully breastfeeding has been great (on the baby, not me.. the effect was hell on me)..
setakat ni... only 3 serius case of demam/high temp... (serius as in serius enough for me to bring him to see a dr. lah... not dying serius)
2 of those involves runny nose and sakit tekak batuk...


no constipation.... taik kuar semua lembut..
eventhough he did go for more than 10 days without pooping...
I wasnt worried... but orang semua sebok nak suruh aku bagi prune juice, apple juice, orange juice...
nasib baik aku DEGIL !!!!...
sometimes u need to trust your own instict...
aku tau formula babies mmg prone to constipation...
but exclusively BF babies are known for sometimes taking days between each poop...
just rejoice at not having to change poop diapers jelah...

okeh aku malas nak citer sal kebaikan BF... u can google it
nak citer sal the BF journey

PRE-LABOR

memula aku beli avent isis.. manual
the only pump I knew.. coz tu je yang in mainstream market...
bought it before baby lahir...
coz ade sale hahaha.. and coz dapat bottles/teats and thermal bag...
so kalau pam pam takde hasil (me no milk)...
at least can use the avent bottles and bag..

POSTLABOR

After labor, cuci cuci baby, dr tanye nak breastfeed ke formula..
aku reply "breastfeed kot" ..sambil tengok rafiq... I can go both ways..
(little did I know, this answer was really crutial and quite a turning point)
then nurse bagi baby suruh breastfeed.. tapi amir being amir, degil and pursed his lips tanak susu...
so giveup..... (I didnt know about the WHO(?) mission, to breastfeed newborn within first 30 mins of life)
then masa kat spital, nurses kept bringing the baby to me to be fed...
I was tired...so aku slalu cuba.. and bila susah nak latch .. or terunlatch..
i kept sending the baby back to nursery hahah
I want sleep damnit!
sampai one time.. a nurse indian garang ..bawak baby and cakap baby tak kenyang, susukan...
i told her I just fed him for 1/2 hour.. now no milk..
then die pulas nipple aku... susu keluar.... "tu susu, feed the baby"
damn, garang gileerr.....!
and also setiap pagi (2 pagi je aku kat situ)....lactation nurse datang lawat and gave me tips how to hold..
how to store milk, how to thaw, what not to do ...
(DONT PUT CABBAGE ON YOUR BREAST....I was like, why the heck would I do that?
turns out ramai bagi aku nasihat ni.. even the makcik tukang urut, which makes me even more sure yang segala pantang larang tu sebnanye crap.....)


also... masa discharge hospital, aku tunggu kat waiting room seblah nursery.. rafiq gi bayar...
then ade another chinese couple... pun nak discharge.... nurse tu kasik tin susu, and other sample formulaes...
I was like... free stuff! aku pun nak.... (kiasu-nye)
but diorang tak bagi kat aku.... they gave me medela pureLan cream (big tube)... and breast silicon compress...
(and other free stuff cam pampers etc)...



masa tu aku dissappointed apsal tak bagi aku susu... 1 tin okay...
now I see the committment of SJMC to support breastfeeding... maybe not promoting... they let u make a choice....
but once u decide to BF.. they support it...and stick to it.. by not offering free formulaes ..
eventhough the formula companies would give them samples and money to distribute their products..
coz I know some hospital do still give out free formula to every mother regardless whether they are BF or formula...
and when the hospital do that... then that somewhere down the road... will help menjatuhkan usaha BF tu..
moms will be like.. alamak formula ni rugi tak guna.... lets use it!.. then supply will drop when u introduce formula...
anyways, after that I found out that the medela PureLan tube cost Rm50.. and the compress pun Rm50+...
so I was pacified for not getting free formula....heheheh....


AT HOME

latching was problem...... coz I got 1 inverted nipple... (now not inverted at all!! hhahaha TMI??)...


to be continued...