This is an update of the previous post on breastfeeding... Yes! I survived latching baby M for 2 months. And the truth is it is addictive and tiring at the same time.
Having pumped exclusively for N since birth, latching is such a breeze now and best part is I do not need to wash and sterilise bottles and pump parts or heat up EBM or freeze up extra EBM. Going out is also easier, just baby and me - the walking milk bottle.
The road to 2 months hasn't been easy as I began doubting if I was headed the right direction after baby M started to nurse with clicking sounds (read wrong/shallow latches), green poo (read took too much hind milk) and feeding almost every single hour. Unlike a bottle with measurements, nursing is totally unscientific. My biggest question: must baby latch 15 mins in order to get a full feed?
Based on my experience:
Nursing with clicking sound- it usually happens at the start of feed where there is more milk. Apparently, suction is broken (therefore the clicking sound) as baby needs to swallow a large amount of milk. Anyway it is easily solved when I tell M, why drink got so noisy one. Usually after 2-3 more suckles, the noise stops (makes me wonder if M did it on purpose)
Green poo poo - a result of taking too much fore milk. It happened during the full month celebration when M nursed for less than 5 mins each time. As I switched sides, she did not get to the hindmilk...
Frequent feedings - this remains unexplained as baby M has her sleepy spells. She would nurse for less than 5 mins and KO. After 1 hr, she cries again for milk!!! She "sleeps on the job" especially during the 9-10am feed. I have found the solution - a good bath does the trick. ;)
With all these, I called on my LC again. I needed a professional to tell me that I was doing right. I got it and since then I mever looked back.
With another 3 to 4 weeks before I return to work, I made hubby intro M the bottle and pump after the 10.30 feed... My yield for both sides after M nurses on one side is 140ml, but the next day I only managed 125ml! That got me pretty upset and worried as I was wondering if I will have enough for her after I return to work. A quick calculation shows that yes I do have enough as long as I pump 3 hourly.
Comparing with my previous breastfeeding journey, I have been storing very little packets of milk in my freezer. Anyway here are some pics of my frozen milk (check out how the colours changes from transition milk to regular breastmilk) and the seperated 3 tiers after the EBM is left in the chiller. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment