Surviving

There is one tv programmed that I truly love right now, ‘Surviving Motherhood”. Its on EVE chanel…cant remember when because I have it recorded every series.

Anyway, how should I describe it? Every week a group of mom, who have never met, come together and discuss motherhood issues. Mind you it is about everything…including “sex vs sleep”..ahaha…you know how open orang puteh are!

What I truly love about this program is that it is so spontaneous. And the issues they are discussing are real!

Besides getting advice from other mom on the program, they also give us advice from the experts. So there, it’s not totally bogus…

Come to think of it, moms do need friends. They need mommy friends. Moms worry about everything all the time. So they need friends who can actually rationalized them, all the freaking time! HAHA…

I am lucky to have this one group of friends, we have never met in real life (some of them actually manage to meet…but not me…huwaaaa)…anyway, we first ‘met’ in babycenter then someone suggest that we form a whatsapp group…so we did…at that time we are just entering our 3^rd trimester…and now here were are…our babies are crawling and climbing around! :)

They are my savior….we talk about our babies all the freaking time and we talk about everything else some other time….we talk about everything! Haha…luckily it is not a public group.

So my advice to you is, get friends…make friends…make friends with the same interest…

Right now I am looking for a group of breastfeeding mothers…heuheuheu….so I can complain n whine without being judged! :P

Cuz I am lucky ducky

So he is teething….for about a week or two! Ngeh ngeh ngeh…..moms, please be jealous of me! hehe…just kidding.

But I am lucky….his cranky phase is over before we know it….or is it just us? Is it because my husband n me is just too excited for him to even realized he is crankier than he usually is?!

Babies cry…that’s my motto…sometimes they cry because of no apparent reason… well…moms cry too….hew hew hew…

Talking about that…I am desperate to get my energy back! My extra energy…forget about being supermom! I am barely awake by 9 pm… well to be fair, I do get up at 4 or 5 just to pump…despite my sleep being interrupted few times by the little hand… 

but how did other moms do it?! How can they have the energy or the time to do anything else but taking care of their baby and go to work?!

Omg….i need helpppppp!!!

Baby Food

Food may cause constipation

Banana

Applesauce

Cereals

Breads

Pasta

White potatoes

Food to relieve constipation

Apricots

Spinach

The P’s fruit

Prunes

Peaches

Plums

Pears

Cruciferous vegetable

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Legumes (big NO NO for G6pdies

Beans

Peas

Lentils

Root Vegetables

Sweet potatoes

Raw beets

Carrot

The POWER of POWER-pumping

Ok….so power-pumping is what you should do when your milk-flow drop.

When power pumping, you will pump for 20mins, rest 10mins, pump again 10 mins then rest again, then pump again for 10mins. Means in total you need about 50-1hr. Well there is no definite time actually. Some pump for about 10 mins, rest 10 and repeat till 1 hour. (That’s what I did).

Why power-pump? Power-pump, in addition to drinking enough water and eating sensibly, can actually boost your milk-production. What it is supposed to do is actually sending signals to the brain that the baby needs more milk (through the suction)…hence the body will produce more milk. Forget the expensive milk-booster…this one is a definite success…just remember to eat and drink enough water.

I guess a much disciplined mom will do this at the same time every day. As for me, I power pump anytime I can. It was such a success to me that I guess I am addicted to it. It is tiring…mind you…sitting there for 1 hour…but the result is so convincing. Give it few days for the milk to come in…some said 3 days…some maybe less or more. Persevere..insya allah you will get the reward.  :)

Tips

Where should I even start?

Since the little one came to my life, I barely had time for anything else besides loving him… :P

But it is true…I am smitten! I am in love all over again. Woke up every day and see their faces…I am falling head over heels.

Good news good news… he is still fully breastfeed. Since I have started working, this is a new challenge to me. Maintaining a good supply is almost impossible. Just almost…but it is still possible. 

All it need is extra support and extra rest (which I can hardly get any lately).

People asked me how I managed to exclusively breastfeed him till now…I can’t give you any tips without saying I have been blessed with a very supportive husband and a very patient child. Even when there is no or little milk-flow, all my little guy did was whine…and all I can do is coax him and try again later. 

Nope…my baby is not baby-michelin…but he is not underweight either…and for that I am grateful. 

And nope…my fridge isn’t full with ebm. I expressed the milk today for his use tomorrow.  I keep in it the chiller instead of freezer. I am one of this paranoid mom who believes that chilled ebm is far better than frozen one, with one condition, u must use it within 2-3 days. 

When I am at home, I rarely give him bottle. Direct-latch is always better. Plus it helps with the minimal ebm I have. 

So there…that is all the tips I can tell you. When the milk-production is low, I choose to sleep and power-pump when I have enough rest. When I am at home, I choose direct-latch over bottle-feed. I tried to eat proper food and drink enough water (if not more).

It is hard…it is tiring. I can’t remember the last time I left home without my little guy (except when I left for work)…I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night cuz lately he woke up several time for night-feed. I can’t remember the last time I truly had a long shower… & I can’t remember the last time I stop thinking about him. J being a mom is absolutely tiring….absolutely over-whelming…absolutely time-consuming…but yet I have never feel more alive! ;)