My 10th EBM recipient

Last Sunday was a very busy yet happy day. Morning, had a quick brunch gathering with my 2 ex-colleagues at Wangsa Maju. Then left the place at 12noon coz HubB's cousins would be coming over to our house at 1pm. Main reason for meeting up with the cousin was, cousin's wife read my milk sharing news last week from The Star newspaper. Thereafter, she contacted me and was asking if I still have any surplus for her 3mth old baby. Yes I have! So she had arranged to come over to my house to collect my frozen EBM for his baby. She is still breast feeding her baby now, but she doesn't have enough time to express her milk during daytime. She is a FTHW, so I know how it feels to juggle between house chores and taking care 2 kids at the same time. Though I'm not a FTHW but to handle my kids without my parent's help on the weekend is darn tiring!! I had given her 28 bottles of frozen EBM (each bottle 5oz milk), and with this she is my officially number 10th recipient  =)

Moving on to the next agenda in the evening, we attended another cousin's son's birthday party at Subang. We all had a great time there. YY wasn't cranky at all. Cousin sisters were busy taking turn to carry YY and play with her. That allowed me to have plenty of my own sweet time enjoying my meal there. I don't really have to focus on QQ too coz she was happily running around playing with the birthday boy and other kids.

Here's my favorite shots with YY, with a bling bling party hat on her! See, YY was on my ring sling. I have started to put her on my sling recently and she loves it a lot. I bought this sling from Mama Patch. Actually I've bought their cloth pads way earlier during my pregnancy, wanted to try it out during my confinement lah but then ding dong here and there, I have not collected it from Chinnee (our house are near to each other). So after YY's full moon, I asked Chinnee whether she would allow me to exchange my cloth pads with ring sling. She said OK! =)  My first encounter with it was not successful. Really need lotsa practices to get use to it. I really need a sling and gotto ensure that YY is comfortable sitting on it  coz next month, we will be flying to Kota Kinabalu. Will tag along QQ and YY too. I'm excited and looking forward to a holiday trip, and this will be YY's very first flight. She beats her jie jie coz jie jie only had her first flight when she was 18mth old to Guangzhao, China. I hope, and pray hard that YY will not mess up the short flight coming June 2011. HubB bought the tickets last year when Air Asia offered zero fare promotion. Gotto start planning what to pack and I bet it's gonna be a massive packing job again.

My angry bird!!

Catch me in The Star newspaper today!

Tadaaa!!! I certainly don't anticipate this. Never. But it happens today, that my breast feeding story is featured in The Star newspaper. Check out Star2 pull out section and you'll see a lady clad in pink top on the 2nd page. That's ME ^_^ I read the article at 6.50am this morning and it really makes my day. You may read the article here

It all started when Siok Hui, a senior journalist from The Star newspaper read my milk sharing story in Human Milk 4 Human Babies Malaysia page in Face Book, sent me a message asking whether I would like to be interviewed (in a form of questionnaire) about my milk sharing experience. Without second thought, I said yes. Siok Hui shared with me that she was supposed to publish this write up since April, but due to some circumstances, she has to postpone it until the month of May so that is how I came into the picture now.

I really hope that my milk sharing story is able to create awareness to the public, and to encourage more mommies to BF their babies. I am so overwhelmed by my friends' lil note congratulating me after they have read the article, not because I become a "star" today (1 hit wonder :P) but their positive acknowledgement on what I've done means a lot to me. I would like to thank Teacher Nel again for lending me her entire freezer compartment for me to store my "gold" and also thanks to Gina, the lactating consultant who is now my friend, for giving me infinite support during my very first BF journey with QQ. It wasn't a rough BF journey though but I did called her day and night (yes! at night about 10pm++) whenever I have doubt during my confinement period. She has never failed to reply me on time.

My close up! Glad that YY was smiling to the photographer that day =)

Apart from this happening news, today YY turns 6mth old too. Yay!! My double joy of the day!! YY is still not able to crawl nor sit up right by herself. But when I hold on to both her hands while she is lying down on the mattress, she knows how to push herself up to sitting position, without me pulling her up at all. She's quite wai-sek too. Each time she sees us eating, she'll start to move her lips and starts munching! Munching her gums :P I hope that when we really start her on solid food/puree, she cooperates well with us and give us a fuss free feeding time. Happy 6th month old to you baby!

 

My EBM with freezer burn condition

See the geli looking frozen EBM here. These are mine. At first glance on it, looks like fungus infection ha? This is call freezer burn BM. I've never came across this until a friend of mine posted this issue on The Breastfeeding Advocates Network in Facebook. At that point of time, my frozen EBM were still good, never in this ugly looking condition. But last week, as I was sorting out my stocks to be given to KC, my regular receiver, I was shocked to find this +_+ I didn't give away these affected stocks to other people, coz I can't even accept it myself to feed YY with it.

Date from L - R : 10 March, 10 Feb, 27 Jan 2011

I got to know that freezer burn BM is still Ok for baby. But if we have enough of BM supply, and yet still can't decide whether to feed our baby with it, discarding them would be fine :) I agree, coz no point keeping them and keep asking myself whether to use it of dump it. I have plenty of affected bags in my freezer now. I will just thaw them and offer my dry feet a nice and warm foot spa :P Will do it when I have the extra time lah. Juggling with 2 kids are not easy lah. Wanna find time to go pangsai (poo poo) also very hard!

There are a few factors which can cause our frozen EBM in freezer burn condition. Do check out this link, it has good explanation on how it happens and how to prevent the same.

I've google about it too, and found an article which says it is not safe for baby. I really have no idea who's right and wrong now. So to play safe, I choose not to feed YY with it, nor donate to other babies. The conclusion is, don't keep EBM for too long in the freezer. Too long means more than 1 1/2 month lah, that's what I observe on my affected EBM. Sigh...what a waste.

 

4th SOS call for my EBM

Last Friday at about 10am, I received a message from a mother asking for my EBM. VC needed BM to feed her newborn as she was having very sore nipple, I guess to the extend of bleeding and cracked badly. VC's husband called me to arrange for the collection of my frozen EBM. He told me that for the first 2 days after her wife has delivered their baby, her wife was able to BF baby successfully. But on 3rd day onwards, the soreness began plus the cracks and bleeding. The nurses advised her to rest for a day first before she  could continue to BF her baby again. Unfortunately, her condition didn't seemed to recover thus VC contacted Gina for help. That was how VC got to know me, thru Gina again =) VC was not able to pump out her milk and would like to take my milk to feed her newborn. I told her husband that he may go to my mom's house immediately to collect 5 bottles of my frozen EBM which could last for about 3days. As what Gina has advised earlier, the mother should be producing her own milk thus I may just help her out with 5 bottles as a start.

On Sunday, he called me again that VC was still recuperating but not able to pump out much milk yet. Thus he needed more of my stock So I met him again and given him another 5 bottles of my EBM. Later in the afternoon, VC sms me sharing with me how the soreness developed. She has a friend whom delivered a baby on the same day with her. And her friend was having the same problem that she is facing now. A Paed checked the baby and found out that baby's tongue is rather short, and that has caused the soreness, cracks and bleeding on mommy's nipple. VC said the Paed snipped a bit of the baby's tongue and voila! No more painful BF experience for the mommy! So, VC will bring her baby to the Paed and might go thru the same procedure. Hopefully all went well for VC's baby lah.

On the other hand, I have also donated 15 bottles (each bottle 4.5oz) of my frozen EBM to another mother, AW last Sunday. Her daughter is touching 1yr old soon but her milk supply has dropped tremendously due to her hectic job. From a freezer full of EBM, she's now left with 5 bottles only. She couldn't find time to pump in office and can only nurse her daughter when she's back home. Glad that I can help her out, but not much though.

And with that, my freezer is now left with less than 10 bottles of frozen EBM. But I still have plenty of stocks which I would say "spoil" milk. Will talk about this separately.

3rd SOS call for my EBM, plus a heart wrenching news

It was on 14th April night, after we had our finger licking good birthday celebration with HubB, I've received a call from my cousin sister that a friend of her needed my EBM stock. Her friend, CY called her as she saw my BM offer in Facebook. So happened that CY noticed the mutual friend between the 2 of us is my cousin sister, thus she contacted my cousin in order to look for me. I allowed my cousin to give CY my contact no so that I can liaise with CY directly for the BM collection. It seemed to be a very urgent case too. I've asked my cousin how old is CY's child and she said, "not small kid.can walk can run already wor". Huh?? Already grown up so much, and yet still want to give BM to her son? Wow!

I've spoken to CY that night. Here's our conversation.

CY : Hi, do you have BM stock with you now?

Me : Yes I do. How old is your baby?

CY : 3 days old. They are twins.

Me : Twins? Wow, that's good! (I was a bit confuse too actually, just now cousin said the child is kinda grown up de) May I know why do you need my BM stock ya?

CY : Actually, they are a pair of premie twins. They were born 2 months earlier than the expected due date. But unfortunately, 1 of them couldn't make it. The baby was pronounced dead yesterday. 

Me : OMG!! I'm so sorry to hear that. [wanna cry already =( ]

CY : So now only left 1 baby who's in the incubator with life support. Baby is very small size and very weak too, and refuse to eat (drink milk). Mother's milk has not "arrived" either. Doc said that if continue to feed the baby with formula milk, this might worsen the baby's condition. It is best to provide BM to the baby. My friend called me informing me the condition of her baby. Luckily I found you in Facebook about your BM offer. 

Me : Wait a minute. You mentioned that your friend called you about her baby? Erm, sorry to say I'm a bit confused now, who's baby is that actually? Not yours?

CY : No lah! If I am the parents of the baby, I wouldn't be talking to you so calmly now. I will be crying out loud non-stop! 

** Doink!!! What a miscommunication!**

Me : Ooppss!! Sorry for the misunderstanding. So where's the baby now? and how many bottles you need?

CY : Baby is in Seremban Hospital now. It is so sad to know that initially, the parents was rejected by 2 private hospitals due to the wife's condition (having a pair of premie twins). So in the end they were being referred to the Govt Hospital. Mother's milk has not "arrived" yet, and I don't think a premie can take so much of milk now. I'll take 6 bottles from you first. We are heading down to Seremban tonight to deliver the milk to my friend. 

Me : Ok, no problem. I'll give you the fresh EBM stock dated 13th April. Baby is weak, better give her "fresher" milk. 

Half and hour after our chat (almost 10.30pm), CY arrived at my house and I've handed over to her 6 bottles of my fresh EBM. I am glad that the mother of the premie baby has such a wonderful friend to help her. Though it is not very far to drive from KL to Seremban, but CY and her husband have shown great support to their dearest friend who needed help under this emergency circumstances. It involved life and death. I do not know how much my BM can help the lil baby to survive, but that is the best of help I may render out, at least.

I pray that the lil premie baby is of good health and has strong will to survive! May God bless you.

* An hour after I posted this, I sms to CY, asking about the baby's condition.CY responded that on that night upon arrival at the Seremban GH with my BM supply, the Paed and nurses didn't allow her to store and use it to feed the pre-term baby. Luckily the mother's milk came the next morning, thus she was able to supply her own BM to her lil baby. Well, can't blame the hospital for rejecting my BM. Coming from the hospital's point of view, they were trying to take high precaution treating the pre-term baby. All I can think of is, they do not know the donor of the BM (that's me) and they were worried that if anything goes wrong to the baby, the Paed has to be answerable for it. I think so lah. CY immediately freeze my EBM on the same night. She will return back to me soon, so that I can keep it for my "regular receiver", KC . Yesterday, KC came to return to me the 40 over empty bottles. I had given him another 20 bottles (4.5oz each) + 17 bags (10-12oz each) of frozen EBM. Sad to know that his son is down with flu and has lots of phlegm too. Even the Paed had to let his son to use the nebulizer twice a day to ease his breathing. Get well soon baby.

Geez, I'm feeding QQ with 11-15 teaspoons of SUGARY milk everyday

Sigh....I guess many mommies must have got shocked over the latest TVC about the sugar level content in the growing up milk powder which are available off the shelf. When I first saw that TVC, I told myself that maybe QQ will not be the "victim" coz she's not taking those ordinary milk powder.  Don't know why  my first impression over that TVC was "aaah, COW's milk powder is high of sugar".  QQ's  milk is meant for picky eater and needless to say, price is sky high. So it is not really a pure cow's milk powder. The purplish color tin. Can guess which brand ka? Hehehe.

But later due to my itchy hands, I went to check out the ingredients printed on the tin. And after reading my friend's blog about the same matter, that add on my worrisome so the more I wanted to find out the fact or rather the sugar faith between QQ and the milk powder she's been taking.

Here's the result @_@ Very the scary and disappointing. You may check the sugar level contain for your choice of formula milk brand at this website www.semakgula.com

There were once my dad tried QQ's milk (the leftover from the bottle) and he told me that the taste was superbly sweet. So now it is proven that the milk which QQ has been taking really contains high sugar level. But what can I do ya? Change to the brand which the company declares that it has zero added sugar?  QQ is a picky eater. She's very much underweight (11kg @ 3.5yo) but luckily she catches up pretty well in her pre-school. Only when she started attending pre-school last year, I can see some slight improvement on her appetite. She eats the most while in pre-school. She takes 8oz of milk as breaskfast, then 9.30am snack time and lunch at 12.30pm. Dinner time at home is the most pathetic lah, but she eats more than before lately (with so much of nagging and scolding from us!) For the past 1mth, she's kinda addicted to the milk, where she'll ask for a small bottle of milk (5oz-6oz) before she sleeps. Even if she took quite big amount of dinner, she still asks for her milk.

11-15 teaspoons of added sugar per day for her milk intake is crazy. I forbid all sorts of sweets for QQ - lollipops, gula-gula, chocolates, etc. She only gets to try some on special day, which happens once in a blue moon. My thinking is, she's already a picky eater so why want to let her help herself with these unhealthy food? Yes, she's just a small kid and some told me EVERY kid EATS chocolate/sweets as they grow. NO. I don't grow up with these junk food, same goes to my elder brother and sister. So in my family, none of us fancy sweets/gula-gula, or anything that is sweet. And I thought that giving her this special milk as food supplement is a wise choice. Now think twice.

With my over supply of BM, how I wish that QQ accepts my BM now. Once again, it is proven that breast feeding is the best feeding =)

24 in 45 out

 

24 empty bottles are back, and about 45 bottles of frozen EBM were taken out from Teacher Nel's freezer last Saturday. That was the last batch available in her freezer, all given out to KC. He was happy to sapu all my stocks for his lil baby ;)

Mom's freezer still has about 20 bottles and 20 bags (each bag 10oz-12oz) of frozen EBM. I can still give out the end of Jan 2011 stock. But those stocks dated between 7th Feb to 25th Feb will not be given away coz during that period of time, I was down with flu and cough. To the extend that I need to take antibiotic. Come to think of it now, why in the first place I freeze/keep those extra ounces of EBM while I was on medication? And I'm not giving away, nor feeding YY with it. I've decided to keep feeding YY with fresh EBM and whatever extra ounces will be frozen and to be given out again. For the time being, I can get about 20-25oz of EBM per 12 hour. More than enough to feed YY.

So what am I going to do with those "medicated" frozen EBM?? Down to the drain again I suppose...... +_+

Long overdue jab

Yesterday morning, I took time off from office to bring YY to the pediatric clinic for her jab.  She's weighing at 5.8kg (increased 200gm in a week) and 61cm tall. It was an overdue jab actually. Due to her phlegm attack during CNY, she has to postpone her 2nd month jab until she has recovered from it. She will turn 3 month old this Friday, and she yet to take her 2 month old jab! Erm...there was a miss communication lah. When we first brought her to see Dr. Tan for her phlegm problem, she was supposed to take her jab at that point of time. But Dr. Tan said to wait till she recovers first. I thought that she has to be FULLY recovered in order to take the jab. Last week, we brought YY to see him again as she has already finished her medicine and yet still having phlegm. Only then I realized, the moment we noticed YY had recovered a bit, we may have sent her in for the jab much earlier +_+

So yesterday, she had taken 2 jabs + 1 orally for Rotavirus. The total damage was.......RM551!!! I took the "better" one from Wyeth (13 in 1). And the best part was, they are now having promotion. Funny....injection also got promotion?? Buy 3 get 1 free. Hahaha! So for the 4th jab, I only need to pay Dr. Tan's consultation fee. Anyway, I can claim the medical bills from company, my entitlement is RM2,500/yr :)

When Dr. Tan poked in the first jab on YY's left thigh, she was steady, no crying. Wow, I turned to my mom and said "eh, not pain leh". But when Dr. Tan was about to poke her right thigh, YY screamed! So...it was a delay respond from her lah. She felt the pain actually :P She didn't really cry, just screamed a bit only and was back to normal within 5 seconds =)

In the afternoon, mom told me that she was very cranky and even refused to drink milk. She was very restless and wanted to be carried all the time. From morning till late evening, she didn't show any sign of fever.  When I reached home, I had been taking her temperature every hour, coz Dr. Tan has informed me that she might get fever due to the jabs. At around 8.30pm, I measured her temperature and the reading was 37.4 degree. Another 0.1 degree the thermometer will beep. Seemed like on the way to be feverish liao, so I gave her the fever medicine. The texture was quite thick, so it was not easy to feed her. I poured bit by bit onto a small spoon (got it from Baskin Robbins ice cream) and feed her few times, till she finished the 1.5ml dosage. She was OK when I breastfed her yesterday night, not cranky at all and even smile and laugh happily when I played with her.  Looks like she was looking for my 2 au de naturelle pacifier during my absent =) so she "protest" to her Popo the whole afternoon.

She didn't have fever throughout the night. Mom will keep monitoring her temperature today, hopefully no recurrent of fever lah.

Extra frozen EBM stock give away

2 weeks ago, after I came back from Ipoh for CNY, I have done something which I felt really bad. Mom's freezer is full of my frozen EBM again and I can't sumbat anymore frozen EBM into Teacher Nel's freezer too as hers also fully occupied by my stocks as well. I had thawed more than 25 bottles of frozen EBM  (each bottle 4-5oz) and all went into the drain ;( Before I decided to do this, I've thought of donating them to the needy babies. But I was asking myself, if other mommy offer me their EBM, am I willing to accept it? Honestly, I'll be in dilemma then. Somehow I just find it a bit weird to feed my baby with EBM from an unknown mommy. My concern focus on the cleanliness and worry on the risk of disease/contamination . BUT if I feed baby with formula milk, then it will be like feeding my baby with cow's milk from soooo many unknown cows too! LOL!! I don't have short supply of BM for my baby so let's not crack my head to think whether I can accept or reject other mommy's BM or not lah. All I know is, donating breast milk is just like donating blood to the hospitals/blood banks. No harm doing so.

Even after throwing away so much of my precious EBM, I still need more space. But I was very very reluctant to do it again (throwing away my milk), as it will be such a big waste. So I've decided to just try my luck to offer my frozen EBM stocks to public by posting it at The Breastfeeding Advocates Network page in Facebook. I was thinking there might be some mommies out there who can't meet their baby's demand but only wish to feed baby with breast milk and not to supplement with formula milk. 2 days after my posting on that page, there were 3 mommies responded to my post! Wow!! I was surprised and very happy reading mommies who have feedback that they need my stock. I quickly PM them my mom's add and my mobile no so that we can arrange for collection soonest possible. 

Out of the 3 mommies who had responded to my post, I was only able to keep in touch with 2 as the other one was actually responding on behalf of her friend. From there on, I've discovered something greater. 

 JC was the first to accept my offer. Due to logistic problem, she has asked her brother, KC to collect on behalf. But after discussing with JC via email, apparently KC also needs some of my stocks too. Both of their baby boys are of same age i.e. 3mth old now and the 2 babies are sharing the same date of birth too! How cool is that, bro and sister's son both same DOB =) JC's problem is her baby boy eats more than what she can supply, whereas KC's wife is on a long term medication which makes her unable to feed her baby with her own BM. FYI, the wife has to take steroid, so baby can't be fed with mommy's BM =( I am very glad and happy that KC supports BF very much. Although his wife is not able to do so, he's searching high and low for BM stocks for his son. According to KC, his baby boy was only weighing at 1.8kg at birth, so baby was very much underweight. Just a few days before our meet up, I stumbled upon my ex-college mate's photo in my Facebook. And to my surprised, in my that friend's picture I saw a lady who was seated next to her carrying a baby was tagged with the name JC. Both of them sharing the same surname. Uhhh Oohh....as I investigate further (try to be Agent Scully konon :P) JC and my friend must be sibling. I quickly PM JC about that picture and BINGO! JC is indeed my friend's younger sister!! The world is really really small lah. So now I'm actually supplying my EBM to her nephews. With that, I've become the babies' "nai-ma", ibu susu :P I've given KC a total of 24 bottles of frozen EBM. And BTW, as I'm typing this, KC sms me that his son has no problem taking my EBM =) He has kept aside 12 bottles for JC so he will only use the other half for his son.

Another mommy whom I met yesterday is actually staying very near to my own house in Kajang. But since my stocks are in Kepong, her husband drove all the way to Kepong to collect my stock. I have given her 30++ bags of frozen EBM, ranging from 6-10oz per bag.  Her job requires her to travel quiet often thus not able to have sufficient BM supply to her baby son as needed. 

Now both freezer units are pretty spacious already, leaving behind mid-end Jan 2011 stocks, and now I can start to pump more frequent to fill in the blank :P But I've been sick for almost 2 weeks, currently coughing very badly. So my BM supply has dropped a bit. As long as I continue to nurse YY more and pump every 3hr in the office, hopefully I will be back on track soon.  Also I have not been giving YY any frozen EBM ever since she has those mucus/phlegm in her throat (or lung?? not sure) since last week. She needs more nutrient and antibody to fight against the infection, so I only let her drink fresh EBM. At the same time kinda worry also,  once she has recovered I'll start thawing frozen EBM for her and she might reject the frozen EBM taste after enjoying the fresh milk for so long. Hope not. 

If you are a breastfeeding mom, do join this  and this page on Facebook. There are lots of stories and info shared among the mothers regarding breastfeeding. Eats on Feets Malaysia is a dedicated page meant for mommies who want to share her EBM with others. For those who are looking for BM  offer may also check out that page as they have a list of donors too. I get a message from a lady who's managing this page in Facebook, asking me to post my offer on Eats on Feets' wall. She saw my post in The Breastfeeding Advocates Network =)

Happy Breastfeeding to all gorgeous moo moo mommies!!