My breastfeeding journey

Ever since I got pregnant, I was really determined to breastfeed my baby. I believe every mom wants the best for their babies. However, I only had very minimal information about breastfeeding.What i heard about was mostly the advantage of offering breast milk to the baby and not the way to breastfeed the baby as I think way to breastfeed is quite important so that when baby arrive, we will be less kelam kabut :')

Fortunately my breastfeeding journey was a pretty smooth one. I only encountered clogged duct for once and it was a minor one. Some mommies, even went thru mastitis, very bad engorgement and etc which I think it is very painful.

My milk supply was moderate and just enough for my baby. She is exclusively breastfeed since day 2 of life.The first night was terrible cos my supply was so low and she can hardly get milk even though I latch her for hours. She was crying so badly for milk and I was so guilty for not able to provide her milk. I don't even have a back up formula milk for her cos I was so confident that I can provide her milk but I was wrong. What a bad mom am I. Perhaps, it is also because that I don't have any formula milk that makes me even eager to provide her breast milk and thus the positive mindset to breastfeed. 90% of Mindset and 10% of technique give you a successful breastfeeding journey. This is what the nurse told me.

I started to pump during week 3 and bottle feed her as taught by the nurse. I pumped every 3-4 hours with only 5oz both sides. I did not invest on medela, but instead I bought a hospital grade Spectra which serve me quite well and the price is 3 times lower. But anyhow, my baby stop bottle feed when she was 2 months old. It was because I gave her frozen milk once and that's it. She doesn't want to bottle feed anymore. Cos frozen milk tend to have a strong metallic smell, and my baby just want "fresh from the oven milk". Well, so I just let her latch and pump after every feed to store.

My milk during her fullmoon. 

     

This was the amount i got after eating cod fish. It is a very expensive milk booster.

Overall, I'm a just enough supply mum which I feel really grateful. She is now 19 months old and will surely get milk whenever she wants. I tried pump but there is no milk, but that doesn't mean I have no milk. So, never give up when u don't get any from the pump. The best pump is still your baby. :)

This is my storage as of 31/10/2017. I stop storing when bb is 6 months.
Even you have milk to store, but bb don't drink, is pointless. So, just enough mom is good enough.

Talking bout milk booster, only few times i see the effect which is after eating cheese cake and cod fish. But it only works a few times. Now, even if i eat how much cod fish, milk is not gonna increase anymore.
Maybe because it had self regulated the amount of milk your baby needs.
In my opinion, direct latch mom doesn't need milk booster. You surely have milk whenever your little one latch. Whereas, exclusively pumping mom might need it, cos if we don't get milk when pumping, and baby not gonna suck, it is a big headache.

Now, my little one eats her main meal and breastfeeding is twice a day. So, my milk supply drop tremendously. I'm gonna let it be and slowly wean her off. This breastfeeding thing is very tiring, no joke. But the benefits your baby gets is really worth it. I usually do not feed my little one medicine if she has cough or flu (without fever). I will breastfeed her and it will recover by herself. One thing i felt very amazing with breastfeeding is that when people in the house all fall sick, she is the only little one who does not. All in all, I'm very happy to been able to successfully bf my firstborn for this long.
Sometimes, I wonder where all this determination come from.

On the other hand, I would like to say, don't bother how much of milk you can supply to your baby. Just give whatever you have. No need to stress yourself when you have not enough supply. If not enough, just give formula milk. Formula milk is not poison, your baby will grow up too. Don't need to think that you are a bad mom if you don't breastfeed your bb (usually mom will think like that la).
The day you give birth to your bb, u are already a good mom/brave mom/wonderful mom!

Till then..

Love,
the author.