Breastfeeding again

I always wanted to write down my experience on breastfeeding and sharing this with other new mommy. Hopefully this "story" can help you understand breastfeeding better.

Before I went on labor, I told the nurses in the nursery that I will be fully breastfeeding my baby after she is born. I reminded them that I will need them to cup feed baby while I am not able to fully breastfeed her for the first 2 days. The nurse in the hospital actually refer to me as "mama yang fully nak breastfeed" when they talk to each other.


As I am a very strong supporter of breastfeeding, the only goal that I have in my mind after labor is to ensure I fully breastfeed Valerie. After the tiring labor, I was send back to my room at around 10.30pm and rested for the whole night. The next morning at around 7am, the nurse came to my room, asking if I am going to breastfeed my baby. I told yes of course and waited in the room. To my misunderstanding I thought that the nurse will be bring little Valerie to my room so that I can bf her but instead I will need to go to the nursery. After a very tiring labor and 7 hours of sleep, I still could not really put my feet on the ground. I was alone that morning, hb went back home to sleep because he is not allowed to spend a night in the hospital. The most challenging experience that I have after labor is actually getting down the bed (which is relatively high for me). I forced myself to get off the bed, went to the toilet to changed my cloths before I walked to the nursery to see my little baby.


When I reach the nursery, the nurse carry Valerie to my arms and say, this is your little baby. I could still remember the happiness of holding her. Here is where I started to feed little Valerie but of course, the first 2 days, the milk supply has not come yet. However, I can see the colostrum form and baby is feeding on that. Even breastfeeding schedule is "on demand" which means it depend on when baby is hungry, but the hospital has a few slots for breastfeeding. I am quite surprised that the hospital is encouraging all the mommy's to breastfeed their newborn. Only supplement with formula if requested. So in every 4-5 hours, I will go to the nursery and feed her. I can still remember that on the 2nd day after labor, I started to notice that the milk is actually coming in. On the 3rd day after I came back home, I have engorgement as the milk is changing from colostrum to milk. As my previous experience breastfeeding Emily, the most painful memory that I have is the engorgement pain. I tried many ways to let Valerie to feed but she is more of a sleepy baby and did not really wanted to feed. I tried to use hot compress and massaging to express the milk, but it was not quite successful. On the 4th day, the engorgement pain become more and more painful and I started to have slight fever. Baby Valerie is admitted to the hospital again due to slight jaundice. To reduce the engorgement pain I had to resort to use cabbage and it actually works for me.

After using the cabbage, I manage to express the BM and manage to successfully breastfeed Valerie when she returns home. I have also manage to keep around 20 bottles of EMB frozen for Valerie just in case I need to travel abroad in the next few months.

Today, Valerie is fully breastfeed and even Emily is consuming the extra milk supply that her sister can't finish. I am so glad that this is one of the BEST gift that as a mom I am able to provide.