Breast feeding VS Confinement Lady

This topic is not something new for a mommy who's in the confinement period, together with the newly hired confinement lady (CL) for a period of 1 month. It's not easy to get a CL who's well verse with facts about breast feeding. And I have to deal with 1 now.

My CL is from Ipoh and she's a good cook. She handles my baby with love and care. But when comes to feeding, she's yet another typical CL who just loves to sumbat newborn with lots and LOTS OF MILK!! This is my only complaint of her lah.

Not that she doesn't support me breast feeding YY. She will ensure me to have enough fluid throughout the day coz I will express my breast milk and also breast feed (BF) my baby whenever needed, round the clock. She prepares papaya soup for me to boost my supply. She even encourages me to let my baby sucks more often otherwise baby might reject my boobies if she's on bottle too much. Impressive!! HOWEVER, she made few statements and even materialize it and that really drives me up the wall.

"Oh, baby is hiccuping. MUST feed water"

Before my breast milk supply came, YY was on formula milk. And at that point of time, I did allow her to feed YY a little bit of water. But as soon as YY on full breast milk, I have reminded her not to feed any water, which she fully agreed too. But when YY hiccups a bit, I caught her feeding YY with some plain water. I gently reminded her again not to do so. I told her that all I did was just putting her in sitting position and stroke her back for a while. Within seconds, no more hiccup! So no need water! If hiccup persists, I will just BF her a littl while and it's over.

" She's still wide awake after taking 2oz of BM thru bottle feeding. Must be STILL HUNGRY lah. MUST add more to satisfy her hunger".

Neh....this is the point which boils me to the max. YY is not even a week old, and my CL already tempted to feed her more than 2 oz of BM per feeding. Gosh, I've already talked to her earlier that newborn stomach is very very VERY SMALL. It's better and safer to feed her less, but more frequent rather than sekali gus sumbat her with 3 oz of BM at every feeding. She's just a few days old lah. Why want to pump her with so much of milk at this early stage?? That's very bad! Then my CL will keep saying "yes yes newborn stomach is small, BUT after she wee wee twice, ma empty liao lor". I mau pengsan lah. She doesn't seem to understand me. I use alien language ka?? Sigh.......

The worst case happened 3 days ago. YY used to sleep with CL, but when feeding time CL will let me know so that I can BF my baby in her room. The reason why I didn't co-sleep with YY is due to QQ, as she will be awaken by YY's cry (she doesn't really cry out loud, just 1 or 2 "OooNgar" noise only) in the midnight. When YY cry for milk, QQ will also cry! Kecoh...kecoh. So on that particular night, CL bottle fed YY with 2 oz of EBM at around 12am. I told her that after this feeding, please wake me up for next feeding as I want to direct BF her instead of expressing my BM. She nodded. At 4.30am, I woke up due to engorgement. I was puzzled why my CL didn't wake me up to feed YY. I went into her room and saw 2 empty bottles on the table. I thought that she might have bottle fed her twice separately . Then YY started to make some noise, an indication to feed her lah. While I BF her, I've asked CL why are there 2 empty bottles and now YY still wants milk? Guess what??!! CL said "oh, that was for the 1st feeding actually. At 12am, after I've fed her with 2oz of BM, she was still wide awake and make some noise for about 30mins. She must be still hungry lah, so I gave her another 2oz of BM lor". OMG!! My tiny little YY has been fed with a total of 4oz of BM in 1.5hour!!! How disastrous!!! Again, I repeated to her what I've told her earlier. 4oz of BM is way too much lah aunty!! From then onwards, I've decided to let YY sleep in my room, in a baby cot. I've advised QQ many times not to wake up and join the noisy band whenever YY does so. I said " little mei mei cries a bit coz she doesn't know how to speak yet. Whereas you are a big jie jie and can speak well so you don't have to cry". Ok, she got it! So far so good, she didn't really wake up whenever YY made some noises in the midnight for feeding. Good jie jie =)

Anyhow, my CL is still a nice lady lah. She's not the calculative type of person. She'll cook for my sister and dad whenever they drop by to visit me and YY in the weekend. If you are looking for a CL, I would like to recommend her to you too. Just ensure that you take charge of your newborn when come to feeding, other stuff just leave it to your CL will do.

My baby was delivered on Thanks Giving Day!

Double joy on year 2010 Thanks Giving Day as my 2nd child was delivered on this special day, 25th November 2010, Thursday @ 10.17pm =)

It all begun on that morning, around 9am I started to have some minor contraction every 8-12min. After 1hour monitoring the pain, it stopped. Nothing after that. So.....it was a false alarm. Then at 7pm when I was about to have my dinner at home, I had the contraction pain again. This round, it was a bit more intense compared to the morning session. I really don't feel good at all, and can't even finish my dinner too. Thus by 7.30pm HubB brought me to see Dr. Tan and grabbed my hospital bag + Cryocord Kit along as well. I had the feeling that I will give birth on the same night.

As Dr. Tan checked my dilation progress, he said " Ok, it's about 6cm already! You may be warded now and give birth tonight". WOW!! 6cm already??? It was only 3cm 2 days ago! That means my EDD has been brought forward 8days earlier.

By 8.30pm, I had those heart beat detector patches on my tummy to monitor Lil BB's heart beat and my contraction as well, hand kena pocked with needle for dripping cum induce and water bag broken. The wet feeling with amniotic fluid leaking out slowly....Eeewww....felt so geli and dirty lah :P

At 9pm, I had my contraction pain every 5min. The pain was still bearable, thus I can still smile for the camera and chat with HubB and Dr. Tan as well. Dr. Tan kept reminding me that once I have the urge to berak, that would be the right time to push.

Tik tok tik tok.....an hour has gone and my contraction pain has only increased a bit only, about every 3min once. Still can smile though =) Then Dr. Tan decided to help me out a bit +_+ Gosh, when I heard him said that, I had goose bump leh @_@ It was truly painful when he stretched my cervix so that I can dilate faster. Just after that torturous moment, my cervix has opened up to 8cm and contraction pain has turned greater, up to every 2min once. All I could do was to breath in and out during each pain. This round I had sworn in for No Epidural, and I did it. Not even any local painkiller too. Ahem, a bit proud of myself lah, for being able to go thru the pain without any painkiller aid. But the pain was really indescribable. At 1 moment, I even asked myself why am I going thru this pain again?? Looking for own trouble izzit?? Haha Yeah, I asked for it!

At 10.10pm, behtahan liao.....and I finally felt the urge to berak so I quickly tell the nurses " I think she's coming out!!". Waaa....I can really feel the baby's head at the exit. Dr. Tan immediately put on his gloves and get ready to deliver my baby. I followed Dr. Tan's instruction not to scream my lung out, just use my full force energy to push the baby out. Screaming will drain out my energy. Ok, I had to keep my mouth shut throughout the pushing activity. So hard to keep quiet lah. It took me 2 long push to get her out. My first push was a failure, and I wondered why was it harder that before? Last scan showed that Lil Bb was only around 2.7kg

2nd attempt succeeded and once Lil BB was out, they put her on my arms immediately! I wasn't prepare for it actually! Coz I didn't had the chance to carry Smellybutt the moment I delivered her. So here she is....my Lil BB fresh from my oven, with the faufu-fa look :P

Lucky me as I've managed to get myself a private room with a queen size bed for HubB. Only 1 room left coz there were quite a number of patients there. Mostly already given birth a day before and 1 mommy was in the labour ward next to mine. It was a nice spacious room, cost RM180/night. Pricey? Never mind, it'll be covered in my RM2,500 allowance for maternity =)

Here's my Thanks Giving girl after cleaned-up, nicely wrapped in a fleece blanket like a sushi roll :P To my surprise, her weight at birth was 3.17kg. I've never expect her to reach 3kg. No wonder so hard to push out her head lah....Her size is considered big for me, coz Smellybutt was only weighing 2.3kg at birth! See the difference ka?

My best shot!

I've tried to breast feed her while in hospital but unfortunately, the same old history repeated i.e. my milk team has yet to check in! During Smellybutt time, my breast milk supply only came on day 4 after delivery. Sad....so sad....Anyhow, I still let her suck hoping that she can 'bring in' the supply earlier. But aiyah....true enough that I can only breast feed her on day 4.

So here's the picture of my satisfied consumer :P Btw, she accidentally scratched her tiny nose while in the hospital, quite a deep scar actually. But now subsided a lot already.

"Life is great...." =)

Before I was discharged from the hospital, a Pediatrician has examined her and gave us the green light to bring her back home. Due to my speedy delivery, we don't have to worry about the GBS infection affecting her. He has also guided me to monitor baby's jaundice which might be noticed on day 4. If only her face looks yellowish, it is alright. But if her chest has turn yellowish too, we have to bring her back to hospital for jaundice treatment. Luckily she only had very minor yellowish face on day 4 - 7, thereafter ok liao.

Lil BB has been named as Yi Ying. In Cantonese, the word "Ying" means translucent, shining. We kinda like the meaning of this name. Hope that this name may bring out her inner shine in future! As for Smellybutt, her name is Yi Qing. "Qing" means clear, bright sky. Hmm...from now onwards, I have 2 little Smellybutts!! Maybe I should start referring both of them as QQ and YY here =)

YY's umbilical cord has dried up and dropped off exactly 1 week after birth. That was very fast! During QQ's time, the confinement lady was very rough on her (while cleaning her umbilical cord) thus caused some bleeding =( Poor QQ, it took her another week before it finally drop off.

That's all for my delivery news. It was a quick and smooth delivery and we really thanks Dr. Tan for his great job!

Next post, I'd like to share the beginning of my breast feeding journey together with my brand new Ardo Calypso Dual Breast Pump. And not forgetting my confession towards my confinement lady!! Urrgggghhh!!! +_+