Breast is best
Fed is best as well.. In my case, I would like to say, breast is best, as that is what I have been giving my baba since day 1.
I’ve read documents that state that breast milk is specially formulated for a baby’s needs… Needs.. Yes my baby needs the best we can give him. And I’m trying…
Breastfeeding journey:
Day 1..oooh he latched (so I thought). And then he didn’t want to suck… No sucking equals no milk… Okay so express we do… Woohooo I get 80ml of colostrum out (apparently not good to pump out because it might give you an oversupply). Johnathan was just to tired to suck, bare in mind… We didn’t know anything was wrong… So here we are, giving him my milkies via a syringe.. Great. We doing well. But Johnathan looks very very tired and I ask the nurse to check his sugar… Eventually they do.. And his sugar is 1.4.. They take him away and then they gave him a few mls of formula.. Okay then that whole night, myself and a nurse try to get baba to latch, no luck? Here comes the syringe.. Eventually he gets a little more energy and he tries to latch… Day 3 and my baby is sort of latching… Nurses say I have flat nipples okay so we get nipple shields. Done. We eventually get home and he is sucking better after a few tricks a very experienced nurse taught me about the sucking reflexes etc.
It is all going well… Mmm and then I get a blocked duct… Eina… The next day… A fever and super painful boobs when baba drinks… That was most probably the 2nd time I cried my eyes out…. It’s sore… But we keep on keeping on.. That was week 4, then we get a cracked nipple and that’s eina too. Breastfeeding isn’t for sissies.. (well it is kinda if you have a sibling, haha lame). So here I am breastfeeding with the nipple shields. I go to a clinic and the nurse there says… No man, your boobs are perfect.. Hehe thanks… I think… Okay get home and try get him to latch without the shields…what a mission… Some say nipple confusion doesn’t exist but I saw that he really didn’t want to drink off me the first couple of times and screamed so hectic… Eventually we both get it right and he is drinking from his Mommy the way nature intended.
I really wanted to breastfeed for as long as I could cope.. For those who have just started your breastfeeding journey. It gets easier… It did for me!!!
I’ve made it now to almost 6 months of breastfeeding… About 4 weeks ago my little champ got a bit of a cold… And well, he refused to drink from me.. So I started pumping out and giving him a bottle. In the early mornings he still drinks from me other than that, he has a bottle of expressed milkies… It actually came at a good time because now we sort of in a routine of pumping… Which by the way sucks… No fun in that.. But I want to do the best I can and give him his milkies that is DESIGNED for him… Amazing how God has created us… So I’m nearing the end of my maternity leave and we are going to try our very best (well, I am going to try.. Baba just drinks and daddy washes some bottles sometimes) to carry on with breast milk for as long as possible…
I have a month to month goal for when I get back to work… Will keep you posted when what happens.
But back to milkies for my baba… I am super proud of myself and I am still so motivated to keep trying to give my boy mommy’s milk for as long as he wants it… Another reason to keep trying … I’ve heard it’s freaken expensive for formula.. And well, we can use the money for Johnathan for other things…
Myself and my husband truly believe that mommy’s milk will help our baby become even more SUPER than super..
Pumping out in the toilet at a wedding… Not fun.. But like a parent will say… “What we do for our kids Hey?”