Breast feeding experiences

Most mother's dream is to breastfeed exclusively until she starts working.. It's actually the special bonding time between you and BB. But I wasnt able to latch BB on properly until I went home. My nipples cracked and bled in the hospital. Was really afraid to latch her on when it was feeding time. I managed to get the hang of it when I went back home, but was really too tired to be woken up every 2 hours, even at night, and latch her on for 45mins - 1 hour. It really wasnt easy especially the milk hasnt come in yet plus the stitches below hurts when you move too much..

We introduced the bottle and supplemented with formula so that I can rest more during the confinement (and my nipples as well). I also began to express my milk so that my family can actually give her while im busy or sleeping. As time goes by, she was fully bottle fed and does not want to latch on anymore.

In my opinion, Nipple confusion is not the word to use at all. BB is clever, she is not confused at all, she recognizes my nipple and bottle teats.. Just that she takes a few seconds to know how to suckle. But the thing is, the flow of the bottle teats is much faster (she is really an impatient girl) then my breast, so she doesnt want to latch on anymore. She only took my breast as a snack/appetizer/dessert source, never a main course

Was really quite affected by it initially. I went online to search for ways to latch her back on and came across this forum where all mummies are exclusively bottle feeding from the start due to many reasons..

One of them posted: "Its doesnt matter how you feed, as long as breast milk is given, baby will still benefit from it". I thought it was quite true, so I gave up the idea. I will try to latch her on, but if she screams and rejects, I'll always have a bottle to standby.

So now, BB is already 1.5 mths and growing well.. hehe.. already 5kg and 55cm..

I only realized later that BB is taking alot of milk as the feeds went up almost every day.. She's already taking 120ml per feed now. the milk I expressed wasnt enough for her at all. I desperately search for ways to increase the supply and started to pump diligently.

Initially, I only managed to pump like 10-20ml each time when she was already taking 60ml.. So every 2-3 hours in the day, i will express.. at night, I will set my alarm at about 4 hours. It was super tiring.. I also took fenugreek, got my mum to cook fish and papaya soup (which doesnt work for me by the way, and it made my milk smells fishy.. yucks!).. Finally my hard work paid off.. I can now pump 80- 120ml each time and still trying to increase it until I hit 200ml and maintain it there.. Seeing my little one being able to benefit from my breast milk really makes me happier too =)

My mother in law gave me a fish call "orh he" (direct translation would be black fish) which is call Mullet, really helped me in my milk supply too.. so my mum cooked for me every 2 days. Its quite nice actually because there's alot of meat and quite cheap too.. like $5 for 2 big fishes? haha..