Breastmilk yes or no?

Why do we breastfeed our babies?

Breastfeeding had been a hot topic nowadays for all the new mummies in Malaysia as more people are properly educated for the benefits of breastfeeding their babies. Perhaps in other countries such as Australia, US, UK and lots more to mention, breastfeeding had been exercised among all mothers since the olden days. Hospital and government work well together to encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies successfully ever since they are born.

During my pregnancy time, I wasn't very sure of what's breastfeeding and it's benefits to my baby. But I've met so many nice ppl around me telling me to breastfeed my baby once she's out from my tummy. That's when I started to do some research and there I'm all into it already. The most unexpected person who support breastfeeding is my dad! He keep telling me to let baby suck once she's out because the colostrum is the best thing a baby can consume. Knowing so much benefits and so much support I have from my families. I then decided I have to breastfeed lil pumpkin till she wean herself!

How to increase?

The most questions ppl asked is "How to increase my milk supply?" My answer to this would be Demand = Supply. The more you feed, the more supply you will produce. So in the first 3 months, try to DL(Direct Latch) your newborn as much as you can. In my case, I hang lil pumpkin onto my boobs almost 24/7 after im done with my confinement. l0lz. yes im just that desperate. Because I opt to stay in a confinement centre and my CL wants me to get fully rested as I had gone under a C-sec. So breastfeeding wasnt very successful during my 1 month of confinement. So being worried I might have no supply after my confinement done, I power DL lil pumpkin to build up my supplies.

 Our shopping day at 1B mall. Lil pumpkin was hungry for her meal and she cant even wait till we go down to the breastfeeding room so I just feed her in a changing room in Men's Department. l0lz!! When it comes to lil pumpkin's tummy, i have no choice but to obliged anything she wanted. Even nursing her in public with a handkerchief before too. >.<

 Many had asked what is my girl's timetable such as how many times she drink each day, how many oz each time, how long does she naps, what time is her play time, what time she wakes up in the morning and so on. Honestly i have no idea how to answer because I follow her cue all the time. sometimes she would wake up 9 in the morning, sometimes 8, sometimes 11. it all depends on her mood. As I am SAHM, I nurse her whenever she wants. so we do not have a timetable when and where to milk or to play. she wakes up nurse and play whenever she feels like it. This is why everyone at home label her as the BIG BOSS of mine. 

Other than keeping up your demand for a consistency of supplies, I found out that there are some milk booster to help around. Same like all other mummies, I hope to have more supplies so that when lil pumpkin's appetite gone bigger as she grow, I still can keep up my pace with her. So all the while I too experiment with all kinds of food that will boost supplies. Here im gonna share my kind of milk boosters. Note that every individual's body react differently to each food so if it works for me, it might not work for you, or even worse, it decreases your supplies. My advice is eat everything moderately before hand and if you find it helps, go on and have a feast of it!

 My number 1 milk booster. Salmon!!! 

2nd on the list. Milk Tea/Cream on top Tea (Nai Gai)

 And also i found out that whenever i ate high calories things like cheesecakes, burgers, fries, steaks, lamb chops, rice and pastas. the more fattening it is, the more supplies i'll get the next pumping session. And whats more better than having to consume all these fattening foods and still losing weight. i ate like a pig. =D

Oh and this Banana Crunch from Starbucks is a bomb!!!! Try it for yourself!!

 My homemade soymilk!

 Drinking soups help alot too. but sadly to be honest, papaya milk soup and papaya bones soup which are popular to boost milk does not work on me.

Most ppl said that drinking lots of water will increase in supply too. I wasn't a water person and from my experience, when I drank a lot if water, I find that my bm become very watery too and even close to transparency in color and feels like a diluted milk. So base on this I thought I wouldn't want to increase my supplies but decrease the nutrients of it. So drinking more water does not help me in producing good quality bm. I would stick to eating well and healthy and the most important is to have very good mood and feel happy all the time. Because happy mummy = more milk = happy baby!! Yes the mood does the job too incase u're wondering. 

How to store?

 As I've mentioned that I am a SAHM but i am too pumping so that when i need to go out for some chores for few hours, lil pumpkin can still drink from the bottles and be taken care by my helper at home.

 My pumping equipment is Spectra Dew 300. Its quite huge and round. If to compare the size to something, I would say its like half of a bowling bowl. But it does serve me good for the whole of my breastfeeding journey.

 

 My stock of frozen breastmilk are getting more each days as lil pumpkin does not want to drink frozen bm. She would only consume those that are chilled and freshly pumped out the most.

Storing system for my bm.
Freshly pumped 3 days in the fridge
3 months in the freezer.
I normally put my bm in the fridge for 3 days for lil pumpkin to consume if I need to go out. after the 3 days passed, milk will be transferred to the freezer to keep till 3 months.

 The cooler box are all my frozen bm and are ready to moved to our new place. xD


What to do with extra bm?

Since lil pumpkin does not drink my frozen bm. So what to do with all the frozen bm? 

 

These are my BM handmade soap. Done by Stephanie Pang from Xtra Precious. 

 

I let lil pumpkin to have her milk bath every sunday. ;) This is how her smooth and fair skin come from. 

When lil pumpkin first attempt on solid, I used her breastmilk to mix around with fruit puree. When she grew older, i used bm to baked muffins/cakes and sometimes I add breastmilk into her recipe too.