Breast feeding journal ~ chicken feet phase

I am now into week 12 of pumping... Comparing with the first 4 to 6 weeks of breast feeding journey, now is the phase I personally call it the chicken feet phase! Now I m really good at controlling my pumping time. I am doing 3 pumps a day, the longest I have dragged is 10 hours. It was Charlotte birthday celebration so that day I was so afraid of blocked duct. Now that the breast are regulated, when it's hard it won't become rock hard, sorry for being so detail, but pumping mothers would understand what I mean. It's really not easy because I m practically watching out for timing and yield. The good thing is I can control the interval better, meaning I can drag or shorten the timing if the I am not able to pump at the stipulated timing.

Before you continue reading.... Warning as content might get a bit graphical... Descriptively.

My regular pump timing would be 5-6am, 1-2pm, 9-10pm. Averagely my yield is 130 to 150ml on left and 50 to 70 on right. I read online that it's normal for unbalance yield. Clovy is feeding 130ml per feed, so I am supplying her with close to 90% breast milk. I would say with Clovy it really bring me new experience on Breastfeeding. I did not breastfeed Charlotte due to low or no supply. Charlotte is also not a milk drinker.

With my new breast feeding experience, I also thought of more tips to warm up breast milk. My newly discovery.... Instead of warming it via the traditional way of hot water in the mug and change a couple of times.... I warm it via a thermal mug. I found a thermal mug at home which the cover is spoilt, then I slot my thermal flask (for bringing outdoor) and it fit perfectly. When we are outside, I just pour 1 round of hot water to warm the chilled milk.

My next research would be on thermal bag to transport the milk as I am going back to work real soon. Currently I am using the daiso small thermal bag to transport 3 bottles of chilled breast milk to Clovy school. I also put in the 2 small iced cooler which I bought from daiso. The minus point is condensation. It often wet her clothes which is in the same bag... If I carry it separately, I am worried that I might forget to bring out. I am now trying to find a thermal bag which has minimum condensation on the surface.

The part about Breastfeeding is diet is no no in the equation...I don't know if I am in self denial stage or what... I haven lose my Preggy weight.... I just tell myself "it's ok cos I am Breastfeeding" and I eat a lot.... Hahahah ah.... Recently I am crazily into granola. Every morning I do look forward to the pumping session the the wee hours... I will feed baby when she wake up... Sometimes 4 sometimes 5am... Then I will wash up and prep for pumping. A bowl of chilled fresh milk and granola is what I look forward to every morning. Hahahah I used to suffer from constipation when I consumed too much cereal like this... But now I do not have this problem. I guess the loads and lots of water in my diet count. Yes! I eat while pumping... In fact I m typing this blog as I pump. I do not have a hand free set. Basically, I set up a small pumping station in my room consist of very simple stuffs, 1 ikea children child with cushion (the plastic is ok but with a cushion, it's more comfortable), a mat on the floor (cos I do drip and spray when I hand pump towards the end), sometimes I hand expressed in the toilet, and a small side table for my pump, warm water with hankie for cleaning, cereal in milk or water, iPad and handphone! Conclusion? I can do nothing when I m pumping... What I did is use my thigh to support the bottles and the height is just nice when seated on the ikea children chair. I used to pump sitting upright on the bed, but very hard for me to access to my stuffs on the side table as any movement will cause the funnel to leak.

The part of food intake... I only avoid broccoli, other than that I eat anything, everything... From coffee to seafood to wine... Yes, I do take red wine... Quite often because there are so much wedding dinner going on. :p I take a lot of dairy products as well, ice cream and cheese are my favorite. I m not taking any supplement. Let things take it's natural course.....