Eversince I gave birth, I felt like I know I should do the right things as a mom. Bathing her, changing diapers and feeding her-by my breasts.
However, I guess there are just some circumstances which we can't resist... And I tell you my story how I was, still am having hard time to breastfeed my baby.
My baby anaiah was born with a weight of 3.561kg. A newborn which looks like a month old already:)
I knew I wanted to feed her with the best milk could ever be given to babies-breastmilk. Before I gave birth, I prepared myself with this by attending breastfeeding classes, I even bought book about successful breastfeeding. So I just told to myself I know I can do it.
Came I gave birth, I was ecstatic, overwhelmed and tired. And sad thing was I still don't see my milk coming.. I must say i was frustrated.. Depressed with it. Partly because I was thinking this and this so called surroundings will support my advocacy but I felt as if not because I don't have milk yet.
I was crying, stressed and unhappy well aside from no milk, my baby started to drink formula and was drinking thru bottles. And came day 5, I massaged my breast a bit of milk came out. I was in tear of joy and carried my baby, offered my boobs but she didn't want to.. There came my second issue.. My baby has gotten nipple confusion.
I tried to latch her everytime but without success, well she will suck at my breast for about 5-10mins and that's it. And I didn't try to pump those days because I was thinking that hey she is latching. One point I was totally wrong. So I made myself thinking I am about to give up when I started pumping my milk and thru the help of my sisses at n@w I got breastmilk donation and for almost 2months she is into mix
feeding. One of my good friend who donatedbreastmilk to my baby said that one of the galactagogue that worked for her was the brewers
yeast. So by that time I was desperately looking for one. Until my hubby went
back to Manila last august 9 and I asked him to search for a brewers yeast, in the end I still asked my good friend where did she get the yeast so I can ask my
hubby to buy. Then she mentioned it was a cookie from mommy treats. I tell you I
got intrigued and was so interested with it so I google it and found mommy treats
by mommy Paola. The feedback were so positive that I emailed her right away. She responded quickly taken into consideration that she was on vacation that time.
That time she was on vacation and because I was in desperate to have my milk supply increase
Eventually I started to try to pump after 10days of giving birth to my baby, and we were at mix feeding, If I can finish one bag I am sooo happy..
I was able to get some donated bm from a Sis I knew from n@w and she gladly gave me some of her expressed breastmilk:) for 1 week where I was trying to "so called establish" my supply we give the expressed milk to her. After a week, still my pumped milk is not enough.:( so we ended up mix feeding again..
I was praying since my baby doesn't Like to latch then being an exclusive pumping of milk is ok, but my supply didn't increase... until i was informed by one of my friend who donated bmilk for my baby, Kat that it was brewers yeast which actually increased her supply. so I asked, where can we find brewers yeast in the Phils or in SG?? and she said it was a cookies, pastries that she bought in Phils. and that was Mommy treats. right at that time, i checked online and saw very nice feedback about the cookie, so i quickly emailed Mommy Paola behind the mommy treats. unfortunately, she was on vacation and unable to reply. until i got a message from facebook and she gladly advice she can bake the cookies for me when she comes back after 3 days from vacation and i Swear with Mommy treats! though my supply didnt shoot up as opposed to the feedback, my baby eventually latched at me and prefers me over bottle! after 2 months of eating the cookies, drinking galactagogues, malunggay, soups, i was able to store milk for my baby and direct feed her. and whats great is she is now exclusively breastfeeding.
my dream has emerged and to those who are thinking about my supply, doubting it which includes my hubby, i tell you. i dont care as long as i know what is best for my baby!
thank you for my family especially my mom who was really supportive of my advocacy.
i dare to say. breastfeeding is the best gift of nourishment i can give to my baby and hopefully as long as i have my milk, i can give it to her.
-mommy mai
