3 months of breastfeeding

Just about three months ago, I told myself just fully bf baby for 3 months, then start him on formula.

Why I said that?

Because I thought my supply was low. Right from the beginning I direct latch Matty since birth. It started out right at the beginning.The nurse squeeze my breast after giving birth and I saw the wonderful yellow liquid! The brought baby Matty to me and he latched immediately (correct latch too).

He suckle for a damn long time from first night. Whenever he cries I nurse till I am too tired and the nurse will bring him away.  Maybe because I had to take painkiller for my episiotomy, I didn't feel pain from breastfeeding. Second day, my nipples were sore and I was still CONSTANTLY latching baby, even at home.

When he was 3-weeks-old, I was crying almost every. My nipples hurt damn bad. I had milk blisters. My breasts feel soft all the time and I thought Matty wasn't having enough because he was always yelling for my boobs. I ignored his cry, I yelled at my mum and husband to make formula milk all the time. I was badly sleep deprived (probably now too).

My mum is from a generation where formula milk was promoted to be better than breastfeeding. She has very little knowledge on it. Despite her own initial belief that formula milk is the same or maybe better, she supported me in my bf journey. She listened to my explanations and followed my instructions on how to handle breastmilk. She even read up on confinement recipe for breastfeeding mothers before Matty was born. Whenever I want to give up she just told me to go on a bit more since I almost reached a month. My hubby was supportive too and refused to give fm even when I begged him to do so. He waited till I calm down a little and brought the poor crying baby to me and I remember him saying "Matty says 'sorry', he promised to be a good boy and be nice to mummy when he grows up."

My hubby's two grandmas came and when they heard I am breastfeeding they said 人奶很好！

towards the end of October, this was my night output (both breasts combined). I took this picture because this was the first time I can actually see milk in the bottle. Usually just a few drops.

This was my first bag which I put in the freezer. Was so damn happy I took picture of it :)

I still felt I am a low-supply mummy because others are pumping at least 100ml per session. Some can go up to 400ml per session. However, it is not low-supply. I am providing just enough for my baby because I direct-latch him. I did not pump to stimulate more milk but only pump once a day after his last feed at night. Pumping amount is NOT the actual amount you are producing.

Few days ago I pump because we were trying to bottle feed baby. Each pump session about 10-15mins. Still not that impressive 400ml some mummies produced. However, I do not have frequent engorged problems.

After 1 month, I was one of the lucky mummies to have a breastmilk keepsake handmade by Ryo, just need to pay for the materials and courier fee. I also order a customised locket from her.

I received the parcel yesterday with two fabulous boxes.

This is the first keepsake Ryo "experimented" on. Lovely milk swirl charm and jade with gold flakes charm tinted with my breastmilk.

A brushed locket with Matty's name, and the cross to show the faith I put in God to provide the best for my son. It is difficult to tell if Matty is having enough by just direct latching, so I prayed about it.

Here's Matty, growing strong and healthy!

Matty is 2 month-old!

Our dearest son is 2 month old!! Looking at his height he doesn't look new born anymore. He is wearing clothes range from 3 month to 9 month! 

Milestones

Started drooling

Making saliva bubbles

Getting choke on saliva after playing with it

Nom nom his hands or anything near his mouth

Always looking out for mummy

Getting distracted during feeding

Giving rare smiles and rarer laugh ( he is one serious boy!)

Saying "ah goo" and "wooo" and other cooing sounds

Loves looking at the crib mobile

Talking to himself in the mirror

Hates tummy time and refused to lift himself up now

Starting to bring him out, only to places with nice nursing rooms because I still don't dare to feed in public. His grandmummy bought him a blue sweater at Changi Airport. Handsome?

Matthias - gift from God

IIt has been almost 2 months since I gave birth but did not have the time to update in my blog. 

I had a smooth and painless labour (I had epidural at 2cm) on 7th Oct. Baby's head was big but he managed to get out somehow. I just let the Nurses and Doctors do what they need to do and follow instructions. I did not prepare myself much for labour. I took two naps. Was woken up the second time to know that I can start pushing as I was 10cm dilated! Even when I was pushing I could not feel anything but somehow I managed to use the correct muscle to push.

My gynae is Dr Tan YG from Raffles Hospital. I didn't suffer any pain from the episiotomy, his stitching skill is really good. I am very whiny and have Low tolerance of pain so I am glad the healing process from birth have been rather painless. The Nurses are very friendly and they are supportive of breastfeeding of course. Love how they make husbands bathe the babies! Giving thumbs up for birth experience at Raffles Hospital.

My confinement went by smoothly, with my mum helping me out. I miss her cooking during pregnancy, so I have no complains on my confinement except I will never order confinement tingkat again. I prefer my mum's cooking. 

Did I lose weight after giving birth? Only lost half, 6 kg to go to reach pre pregnancy weight. Under my mum's care she doesn't allow me to eat normal portion; I have to eat giant meals. My mil also prepare soup for me, how to lose weight with all the good food? However my tummy was almost flat (just flabby) by the first week. I did not do any post-natal massage because no money. Breastfeeding helps me to burn off those extra fats. Matty is an aggressive drinker too. Still, I need to exercise soon to get rid of the flabby part left.

Breastfeeding - need to blog about this next time. Shed so much tears over it. Haha! Don't worry, my post natal blue is over.

Oh, I wasn't prepared to spent so much shopping online during confinement. Baby can nurse up to more than an hour hence the excessive usage of mobile phone to shop. In my Defence, I bought things I needed for nursing! Not for myself!

I think my baby is growing too fast. I don't mind rewinding back to the time I first heard his cry and having him in my arms for the first time. I haven't sleep for more than 4 hours since giving birth. Mostly one hour naps or less. However I enjoyed every moment with my boy.

"Waiting for Matty" photoshoot

Have been thinking about taking maternoty photoshoot for a long time. After searching when is the best time to take outdoor photoshoot, found out ladies find it comfortable doing it between 27 weeks to 32 weeks (when tummy is reasonably big enough, yet not that tiring to move around).

A brief account of my pregnancy experience: I was feeling terrible for the first two trimesters, vomiting my way till the 28th week. A lot of whining, crying and horrible puking stories. The name "Matthias" popped into my dream at week 6 and I did not even know the gender then! He is a precious gift from God indeed, and we decided to go with this name.

At 30 weeks + 6days, we did our photoshoot with Zhi Xun as our photographer (Zoo proposal pictures). I was kind of worried he would reject a last minute assignment, or perhaps felt that I was "over-prepared" and "over-requested". Fortunately, he was pretty enthusiastic about it and even gave suggestions where to go based on what I have in mind.

We were blessed with a beautiful sunny morning. We went to Lower Pierce Reservoir where we took a few casual prewedding pictures about 2 years ago. Then, we went to the nearby Springleaf Nature Park to take some shots. Both parks were really small but we had so much fun using the props and thinking of poses, the photoshoot took slightly more than 2 hours.

Baby was a good boy that morning and did not give me any painful kicks or punches. I think he was enjoying his morning nap while was walking around the park. Or maybe he was enjoying the outdoor:)

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. - James 1:17

Our first BFP

I have a happy news to share:

We are going to have a baby!!

After one year of no period I thought I will need to wait longer to try for a baby. So there was no symptom in the first couple of weeks. I was on two rounds of different antibiotics due to a minor eyelid surgery and a UTI that follows after. I was clueless I am having something growing inside me.

After having no period for a year, everyone asked me how I knew I was pregnant at week 4. It started with  dream early in the morning- I was looking at a pregnancy kit with a faint line. When I went to work, my boss said I was glowing. Later that late afternoon, a student pretending to be a doctor told me there is a baby inside me. At night, I broke a bottle of red wine. After linking all these events together, my husband asked me to take the test and viola! A positive line!

Let's ukulele!

Bought a concert ukulele last month. The first week was extremely painful for my poor three fingers. I chose a ukulele so I can bring to class for music lessons.

I am a slow learner. Managed to play a decent G now. Here are a few simple pop songs I picked to learn first:
The Show
When you're gone (aka cups)
Love story
What a Wonderful World

Ukutab.com is a wonderful website to learn. They organised songs by difficulty level and the tabs follow as you scroll down so I do not need to keep referring to the top on finger placement.

Kids song are a lot more difficult than pop song because they are short and fast. I am trying Santa Claus is coming to Town now.

I brought my ukulele to class and they were thrilled! I taught them how to strum and play C. Their poor fingers were in pain after the lesson. They tried to pull my ukulele apart, being curious about the strings and knobs and all.

Hopefully I can be good enough to play songs for my students one day.

October birthdays

Celebrated two October babies in the Sin family today. Ended up having slight diarrhea because i had too much dessert.

A picture of the Sin family:)