Yeyo's now a veteran at rolling over at 3 months!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Breastfeeding rocks \m/
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| Happy Mothers, Breastfed Babies http://www.llli.org/ |
When we started planning on getting pregnant, Vincent and I have been conditioning ourselves right from the start that we are going to breastfeed our baby. We talked to our doctor that from the nursery, no formula milk shall be given to her. Lucky for us, our hospital, being state-run, doesn't do that and is very strict with mothers on that. So strict, that no feeding bottles are even allowed to be introduced to any baby born there, unless of course for exceptional cases. The hospital has a sterilized milk bank, that should a mom's milk hasn't come on immediately after birth, they will give breast milk in medicine dropper or syringe, NOT teats, to the baby. This was what happened to me. My milk started letting down 3 days after giving birth. Oh how Yeyo wailed in vain for two nights, having suckled on end with nothing coming out from me, making me and Vincent frustrated and sympathetic at the same time to our poor, hungry baby. It's good that we didn't give up.
I remember when I began training Yeyo to bottle-feed, I was so jealous of her feeding bottles! Funny, but it's true. I had to do that though, for when I go back to work, she'll have no problem transitioning and still get her regular feed. We were not able to use the first set of bottles we got for her, as she had problems latching on to those. She's now using soft teats that quite resemble that of the breast. So far so good...and yes, I still get jealous of them. That led me to invoke my first maternal household rule: NO BOTTLE-FEEDING WHEN I AM WITH YEYO. Except when in public, I give her expressed milk in a bottle. But that is very seldom, though. I nurse her whenever I can, especially at night. There is this sense of calm and contentment whenever I cradle her as she voraciously feeds away. The little one sleeps through the night peacefully since the day she was born, and quietly stirs whenever she gets hungry. I only have to take it upon myself (and I have been very good at this) to mind the clock for her diaper change and take her cue (or sometimes wake her up!) on her feeding. She doesn't wake the entire neighborhood up with frantic screaming whenever she wakes up in the wee hours of the night. One of our neighbors once told us that it didn't feel like we have a baby in the compound. Hehehe. Good girl, good girl ;-)
Our investments nowadays go to excellent breast pumps that work. I gather information from breastfeeding advocates on the Internet, I get advice and encouragement from my friends and relatives who have breastfed their kids, and am fortunate to have an employer who is very supportive of my lactation needs. I "disappear" at certain times of the day to express milk for Yeyo's stash the following day. I go to our office clinic to use their fridge to store my milk during the day, and then before heading for home, I get ice cubes for my precious cargo.
Yeyo has been on exclusive breast milk for three months now, and we intend to give her that for as long as we can. We only want to give her the best, and that gives us the peace of mind that we need. It's not an easy thing to do. We get criticized as much as we are praised for having decided to do this. It requires a lot of hard work (expressing milk, storage and feeding times takes a lot of effort) and sacrifice (staying up and about at 3AM to let that milk flow down; 30 minutes lost at work for lactation sessions), but we are determined. We definitely deserve a pat on the back for this!
Hats off to all breastfeeding moms! We all rock! Yeah!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
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