Breastfeeding - summary

Two of my best friends, Eny & Jessica have given birth to beautiful baby girls recently. I've been encouraging them them to breastfeed fully. This reminds me that many of us new mothers have had a lot of difficulties adjusting to this aspect of motherhood.

I haven't blog much about my breast feeding experiences. It's because it has become something so natural that I have never thought of writing it down. I can't remember all the details in between, but I thought I should jot down some thoughts before it ends.

The first few months of learning to breastfeed was really difficult. I felt as if his appetite was more than I could provide. I was forever pumping to increase my milk supply. Sean was a grazer during the day, which meant he drank little but often. There was very little sleep for me because he drank most of his milk at night. Even now, he still needs to nurse at night.

I pumped and nurse until my wrists were in constant agony. That's the problem with using a manual pump. The AVENT manual is great at getting the most of the milk out, but it strains on the wrists. I was often awaken by sharp pains. At 7 months, I decided, my wrists couldn't take any more. So I stopped pumping and started nursing exclusively. Luckily at that time, Sean had started his solids.

I used to find it hard to breastfeed in public. So I used to bring expressed breast milk when we went out. I still find it difficult to breastfeed in public, but we manage with breastfeeding in the car on our way to and fro places. It took a while to adjust to nursing exclusively, but I was just happy that my wrists were no longer stressed by the constant pumping. It took 3-4 months before the wrists were no longer in pain.

I had thought of weaning when he was 1 year old. But we were doing so well and he was so healthy. Sean was rarely sick. Including his current cough, he has only been sick 3 or 4 times. And each time, it was because someone in the house is sick and passed it to him.

When he was 18 months, I thought of weaning him again because he was starting to treat my breasts too casually. =P When he wants "nee-nee", he would attempt to pull my clothes down or up to get it. I tried here and there to introduce him to different formula or fresh milk. Unfortunately, he doesn't like them. The only time we can get any milk into him is when he is distracted with TV, a book or toys. Even then, he had to be spoon fed. He never knowingly drinks any other milk on his own accord.

In the end, I decided to let him wean himself off.