End of a Journey ???? Breast Milk Vs Formula

My Breastfeeding Journey seems to be coming to a close... My Milk Supply has dropped to a mere 10ml per pump.. And I only Pump twice a day. I was hoping to be able to breastfeed my Lil Nigel till he's 1.. SighS.. I never thought my milk supply will drop so much when I start work. I'm trying my best to stimulate my milk production but nothing seems to work. I'm getting Malunggay pills to take from Mums' Fairy. Seems to be really helpful for increasing supply.. Hope it works..

Nigel been on Full Breast milk till he's 4 mths. After that he was on partial. Thanks to my friends Ting and Joo, especially Ting. Nigel manage to be on BM till he's 4 and a half months. Problems started after he start to go on Formula. First was the diarrhoea.. Then he caught a cold recently.. Plus he's been having diarrhoea still on and off. He might have some bad reaction to Formula. So decided to get either get Organic Formula or Goats' Milk to try. Decided to start him on Goats' milk yesterday. Diarrhoea has stopped !!! One Problem solved at least. Breastfeeding really help a lot to fight off illness. I can see the immediate difference just 2 days after he got started in full Formula. He started getting sick. He also start to get fatter and more flabby. Not so tone anymore. Cos Proteins in Formula is harder to digest... Breast milk is still the best source of Food.

I really hope government will help to allow breast feeding mum more break time to express their milk. Like for my case, sometimes I have no time at all.... Mums in Retail Line really suffer a lot.. I NEED A NEW JOB !!

Nigel can flip !! End of Breastfeeding days ??

Nigel will be 5 months old tomorrow. Time really flies. Since last week, he has learnt to flip !! He was too desperate. He really want really badly to grab the little musical bear. SO he did a flip right in front of me and Shawn. I was really shocked !! Also, he's always trying to sit up now. I think soon he will be able to sit without support. He's been missing swimming for 2 weeks already due to his diarrhoea, my swimming tub is spoilt and of cos Hua Xia at Punggol Plaza has closed down. I need a new swimming tub for him !! Any Donations ????

Sad Sad News. It seems my breastfeeding days are coming to an end.. My milk supply drop so much since I started work a month again. I'm trying my best to increase my milk supply by letting him suckle and pumping more often. But doesn't seem to work. So tried taking more fish and rice milk, it went up by 20ml. But I don't harbour much hope. SighS. Regret those days where I complain about my oversupply of milk. Retribution ??

I love breastfeeding on the whole despite the pain and inconvenience of it all. I love the bonding and feeling. Nigel looks so cute when he suckles. Plus of cos the health benefits. I really hate the thought of letting Nigel go on full Formula. The babies on FM seems to be bigger and fatter which I do feel it's unhealthy. But whatever it is, I shall hope for the best. Maybe a miracle will happen.. Looking at my entries for the past week, it seems depressing. Sighs. I should try to focus on something more positive. No choice, for Nigel's sake.. I have to hang on no matter how unhappy, tired, depressed I am with my Job and current situation. Guan Xi bless me !!

Sadz, Sick and Sianz.... IPHONE madness

18 Sep 09, Friday.. Hazy, Rainy

As the title says, I'm Sadz, Sick and Sianz.. Sadz Cos I had actually gone 24 hrs without seeing my Lil Nigel Boy. I last saw him at 10am on the 17th of Sep, work till late as usual. He was asleep by the time I was off work, so my Mum ask me to go back to rest since I had to go on course this morning at 9am. I had to work extra one hour today due to lack of staff so can onli go off around 545 pm. Went home to bathe and saw him at about 630pm. SobS.. Plus I'm Sick.. Flu and a major headache ! So bad tat my teeth are aching too. Tomoloz had to work from 1030am to God Knows what time !! Most likely 12mn or later.. Damn IPHONE !! I hate IPHONE !! All the irritating IPHONE customers !! Why are Singaporeans so damn crazy ? It's only a handphone !! Can't they juz wait. NO need to come, bang table and demand and demand. Singaporeans are the worst sort of customers !! Do they even use a third of the functions? They juz wan to follow trend lor. And they dun mind q-ing for one hour or more !! Really madness. I have better things to do lor. I have never ever do things like tat even before I join this industry. It's onli after I join retail that I realise how ugly Singaporeans can be. And how wrong is our society becoming. Govt pamper us too much.
SighZ. I really need a new job. This job is getting on my nerves. I'm totally sick and tired of putting up a face in front of those irritating people when wat i really feel like doing is giving them a tight slap. I have better things to do than entertaining them lor. They are keeping me apart from my son lor. Shawn try to comfort me, ask me to think about the money IPHONE is bringing in.. But I totally have no mood to sell anything lor. Have money but no Life lor. Plus I believe most of the customer actually treat us retail line people like Dirt. I do have many nice customer that brighten up my day and customers who like to look for me. But it's really hard for me to look on the bright side when Nigel is not around or I'm too tired to look after him. I'm always feel really drain and tired when I reach home. I have been the one taking care of Nigel mostly. Shawn do try to help but he's still not good with Nigel and he prefer to sleep. I have been making do with 3 hours of broken sleep or less. I think my engine is breaking down thus I'm so sick now... Wonder if I should take MC tomoloz. But I dun wan to.. I juz started work on the 29th of August (and complain so much already)..
I'm so stress up and tired that my milk supply has drop drastically. Like today, I pump only 120ml at 7am, till now at 945pm, I have not express my milk at all. Thank heavens for Friends like Ting who donate her milk to Nigel. I hope I can breastfeed Nigel till he's 1 year old. But it seems unlikely now. This make me hate my Job even more. Really Sadz, Sick and Sianz..

Yummy !!

Nigel is on solids for a week or so... So far so good. Still experimenting with the different types and brands still. My Mum been feeding him with samples from Dr Teoh. For me, I'm have been feeding Nigel with fruits.

On Ting's recommendation, I have been getting Earth's Best for Nigel. Onli has 3 favours for 4 months old Babies, Sweet Potato, Pears and Apples. Nigel loves Apples.

I have also gotten Nuby's New silicon bottle. Beside using it for feeding milk, it comes with many different adaptors. One of it is a silicon "spoon". As the bottle is soft, I can squeeze out the food onto the spoon. As the spoon is soft, it's easy for Nigel to use too. He love it. He gets excited when he see the bottle as he knows it's FEEDING TIME !!

DoWn DoWn DoWn... Woes of a Working Mum.

Me and my Rocker

(Taken on 1.08.09)

I'm so Handsome !!

(Taken on 03.08.09)




This is so Digusting !!

I have been trying to reduce my milk supply since will be starting work on 29/08/09. So far, it worked. The amount I express out drop by half, the interval also increase to 6 hrs. I'm sad and happy. Happy cos it will be easier to express out at work. Sad cos soon Nigel have to be on partial Breastmilk, have to use Formula liaoz. Sighz.. Definitely will miss my Lil boy. Plus ending off work so latez, I guess there will be days where Nigel don't get to see me at all. Really feel sad thinking about it. Haiz..

Also thinking how I'm going to cope with him. Shawn do try to help but he's not good at quite a lot of stuff. He can't bathe him even though before Nigel was born, Shawn volunteered to bathe Nigel. Shawn has a big problem carrying Nigel, he can't carry Nigel upright thus he can't burp Nigel either !! Plus Shawn is a big scatterbrain, till now, he dun noe wat to pack when we bring Nigel out !! Sighz.

Breastfeeding Woes

Breastfeeding is really a pain.. The Funnels for my Electric Ameda had cracked. Both Funnels !! I had to use manual pump since Friday. Luckily I had gotten a new manual Pump from Lansinoh at $45. It was on 50% discount at mothercare. It's really tiring to pump. So ended up I didn't clear the milk most of the time. Now ended up with Lumps Galore !! My Funnels juz arrived yesterday. I was too tired and too sore to pump too long. So now, it's really painful and swollen !! SobS.. Breastfeeding is really tiring.. Wonder how long I can keep it up. Plus I'm starting work in 29 Aug.. Wonder how ?? SighS..

1130pm

Been Pumping every 3 to 4 hrs and more than 45 mins each time. Tried massaging, using Cold Cabbage, hot packs, hot showers.. still lumpy. But a lot better. There is even a patch of blue black on my top right. My Nipples is so sore and red. SobS.. It's pretty disheartening. Really make me wan to give up breastfeeding at times.

Lumpy ..

Breastfeeding is really a pain. I have been trying to stretch my expressing to 6 hrs. It was ok till 4 days ago. I kept having big painful lumps. It was really painful trying to get rid of the lumps. I also ended up with very sore nipples. In the end, I had to express my milk every 3 to 4 hrs. Plus I'm using mytollyjoy manual pump as it's less painful for my nipples but it's uber tiring.. Now my nipples are better, so i alternate between the manual and my dual electric. Also when the let down comes, it's uber painful now also.. SobS...Too much milk also a big problem.. SighS. As Ting says, we are like being punish for breastfeeding our Lil Ones... Why Why Why ?

BreastFeeding.. A Pain !! More Storage Solutions ..

BreastFeeding is really a Pain. Been at it for 4 weeks already. Time cosuming as I have to Pump every 3 to 6 hrs depending, each time still 1 hr as the milk flow from my left breast is really slow. Yesterday was the most painful as I have blocked ducts for both side. Luckily managed to unblock the ducts. Thinking of hiring Mdm Rokiah for breast massage like what Ting did. 1 hour per pump is really slow plus my nipple is really sore. But What to do, for Nigel's health. Another downside, have to restrict on the food I'm taking, sOooOO Sadz.

I pop by Motherhood fair at expo yesterday with my Sis, Pam and Ting. Gotten lots of stuff. Best thing I have gotten is Milk Tray. Just freeze the breast milk like ice cubes and store it in ziplock bags. Save $$ and space. 2 trays for $19.90. But before that, I have gotten 3 boxes of Blue Egg milk bags at $8 for 25 pcs per box. Both items are BPA free !!

Breastfeeding.. My thoughts at 3 weeks.

31st May 09, Sunday, Will the weather get any Better ?? So Darn Hot !

Breast Feeding.. So far so good. Good for Baby, damn tiring for mummy.

I was one of the lucky ones who had supply the moment Nigel was born. I suckled him 1 hr after he was born. Like many others, It was pretty little. Poor Nigel looked really hungry to me but the nurses kept assuring me that Nigel was fine. Newborn can go without milk for a few days. But as a mum, of cos my heart aches. I wanted to give him formula but the nurses didn't want to. As a result, he didn't pass out much poo, which resulted in his jaundice problem. Luckily for me, My dearest buddy, Ting pass me 2 packets of her precious BM and a tin of NanHa. So Nigel had supply of BM when he's home from the hospital.

Now, my milk has gone up a lot! The first week, I had only about 50 to 60 ml per pump at every 3 hrs. Now maximum, I can pump almost 500ml in the morning, 300ml to 400ml at noon and nights. I pump about 3 times a day every 6 hours. Duration is unfortunately, 1 hour !! YA !! One Long Hour! My frens, Joo and Ting took only half an hour !! My milk flow from my left breast is pretty slow. I hope the milk flow will increase as time goes by.

These 3 days, maybe due to stress and fatigue, my supply suddenly dropped a lot. Once I got only 120ml. But today was good. It went up again too about 400ml in the morning.

Storage of Breast milk is another issue. I prefer to freeze BM in glass bottles or BPA free bottles. But due to space, I might have to think about milkbags. I'm using them now due to lack of bottles too. I just gotten another 3 storage bottles from Pigeon which are BPA free can store 150ml. For milkbags, Ting had helped me to get Blue Bird, 25pcs for $6.80 but not BPA free. But since my mum prefers milkbags so I will pass my milkbags to store at her place. She will be taking care of Nigel when I'm back at work so need to store some milk there too.

Another Big issue is how I'm going to continue with breastfeeding when I'm back at work.. My break is only one hour. I will have 2, 12hr shifts. So let's say if I start work at 1030, I had to wake up early to pump, at work my lunch will be at 3pm which I need at least half hour to pump, then have to wait till I'm back home at almost 1130am or later to pump. In between, there's a 8 to 10 hrs gap which I can't pump. So how ?? Sighz.. Still trying to figure it out. Government should have laws to protect us breastfeeding mums too !! Hahaha !!

Bottles Crisis !!

I'm Spending most of my time being a Moo Moo CoW nowsdays. Doing nothing but pumping Milk or Suckling Nigel. I have been Pumping about 3 to 4 times a day, every 6 hours, each time roughly about 45 mins to 1 hour. I have too much milk now.. Each time I can pump about 300ml. At first I though I had too many bottles.. Now, I do not have enough !! In the freezer currently, I have 14 Glass Bottles (which I have gotten from NUH) each storing about 120ml each. I have 3 Dr Browns, storing about 300ml each. In the Fridge, I have 5 bottles storing 120ml each. What a Pain !!