I guess I would term myself to be a fairly active participant in the Dec 2008 Singapore Motherhood Forum thread. Other than sharing experiences, the thread serves as a wonderful platform to vent your furstrations and of course to make friends! It's definetely a good way to get to know more friends who are going through the same stages of life changing experiences as myself.

Before I gave birth to my little one, we already had a meeting at Marche Restaurant at Vivo City.  So here we were again, this time meeting up with our babes outside our tummy... All lined up on the mattresses! It was suppose to be the biggst gathering with the most number of babies. Yet, I missed out the opportunity to take photos of all the babies who attended...

(From left: Zach, my ger ger, summer, Bryan, Jake Travis)

 (From left: Ambrose, my ger ger, Emma)

(From left: Olivia, Ambrose, Summer, Geraine, Kasia, Brennon)

I went back to work on Tuesday last week. Cleared about 1 GB worth of emails plus administrative stuff and I am finally settling down to work. Home alone with baby and working are such different activities altogether... I do miss to a certain extend being at home with baby.

Most of my colleagues have not gotten over the fact that I am thinner than before I was pregnant. My current weight is about 2 to 3kgs less than my pre-pregnancy weight. Some comments include "You make me feel so jealous" and "You are so thin now" (coupled with squishing of my arms). Other comments include "You look better now" (this makes me blush and I always think if it's really true. I think I look older and more haggard after childbirth) or the ultimate "You look shorter!" (Geez... I guess thinner also makes me look smaller? It makes me want to get someone to measure my height).

One thing is for sure: I cannot wear most of my office tops (I splurged about $300+ buying 9 pcs of office clothing before I went back to work). And to make things worse, my feet seem to have expanded. The 2 pairs of working heels which I got when I was in my early pregnancy are too tight (Cinderalla can't fit her glass slippers! *Opps*)

Since I had so much fun sharing my experience on the birth process and breastfeeding. I shall put up here some of the essentials that are required before you welcome your newborn!

Bathing & Comfort Essentials

Bath Tub - Blue colour from Ikea (Although the tub is big for my cramp HDB toilet, my little girl has great fun streching and kicking in the miserable amount of water used to bathe her. )

Bath Liquid - For newborns, you will need to use a non-rinse formula (I used Kodomo initially before my itchy hands gave in. I bought 2 bottles of GAIA body wash for baby. The orange + lavendar + canomile smell is great and it's organic). One or two drips from the bottle is enough whether I am using Kodomo or GAIA.

Baby Shampoo - This is not needed. I think it's too harsh for a newborn's scalp. I only used it once (one drip) because I thought my baby's hair smells oily...

Wash Cloth - I like to use the little thin hanky that I bring to school last time. It's not heavy, not too thick and I can easily reach and wash the baby's creases. This is especially so since my little one has hard-to-wash creases on her neck!

Baby Lotion/Oil - J&J Baby Oil is a must have. It's good not only for baby massage (the "I LOVE U" tummy massage). Can use the oil to moisturise the whole of baby's face and body. During the intial days/weeks, baby's skin will peel... So putting the oil before sleeping will moisturise her skin. During the first one month, I also used J&J Nighttime lotion (with canomile and lavender) on baby. I guess it makes her sleep well.

Barrier Cream - My little girl gets diaper rash on her bum and the worse was I could see the skin split. *Ouch!* I tried various brands including AVENT baby bottom balm, Drapolene, Pureen. Apparently, she can only use Pureen. Both Avent and Drapolene did not work for her. In fact, her diaper rash got worse (expensive doesn't mean good!)! I know a lot of mothers swear by Desitin Creamy so given the chance I would like to buy a tube to try too!

Ruyi Oil - This is a must buy/must use/must have. The appropriate use of the Ruyi Oil will bring comfort to your baby. I do not recommend that you drown your baby with Ruyi Oil or wear it on her like perfume! As newborn skin is very sensitive, too much of Ruyi Oil will burn her skin. After her bath, I use a little on her belly button and a little to rub the tailbone area (i.e. the straight line near her anus). This removes air and warms her tummy. I rave this because if she is cranky due to a stomach upset, this is the life saver (just put a drop on ur palm, rub ur hands together and place them over your baby's tummy!)

Pacifier - This is one hot arguable topic! Some parents swear by it while some think that it's totally bad. From the start, I belonged to the "Baby does not need a pacifier. And I will not give her" camp. But after my confinement lady left, I decided to give my little one the pacifier. I used it to train her to wait for milk (i.e. instead of 2hrly slowly streched it to 3hrly). I also used it in the middle of the night to train her to wake up closer to 5-7am for milk after the 1st month. In essence, the pacifier also takes away her sucky tendencies. And of course, I rather she takes the pacifier than her hands. Surely I can wean a pacifier easier than her fist/fingers!

Feeding Essentials

This portion gets a bit arguable as you weigh pros and cons. What you prefer and how much money you have to splurge...

Milk Bottle/Teats: The BPA free thing has gotten into everyone's mind. For me, I was only interested in the type of teats they offer. From the start, I was convinced in getting NUK (because it's suppose to prevent nipple confusion). I got glass bottles from NUK so the BPA free was totally not a concern for me. Luckily, my little princess likes NUK teats from the very start. So I was lucky... Sidelining, some mothers in the forum swear by NUK. They say babies who fuss on the bottles usually accept NUK teats. 

Steam bottle steriliser: When I told my colleagues I bought one, they all told me this "WASTE MONEY!". My heart sank then, thinking that I did not spend my money wisely. They told me that I could just use one of my cooking pot to boil the bottles, teats, etc for 6 minutes instead. But now that I am pumping milk exclusively and the amount of bottles I recycle everyday, I am glad to have the steriliser. My cooking pot can never fit 8 medela bottles, caps, milk bottles, teats, etc. My choice - Pigeon Rapid Steriliser (easy to maintain and its not expensive)

Food/Milk Warmer: At some point in time, working mothers will need this to warm the expressed breast milk. Once again, my colleagues annouced that I had "waste money" again. To some extend, it may be true. If you have an airpot, you can survive without the warmer. Just grab a cup, poor the boiling water, sink the bottle into the boiling water for minutes and voila- you get warmed breast milk. My MIL does not have an airpot, so she needs the warmer.

Do not ask me why I have 2 warmers but I do own 2. One is the Avent Express warmer (warms milk in under 5 mins using steam) and Pigeon Food Warmer (with a green knob). Each has it's pros and cons. The Avent one wins hands down if you have an impatient hungry baby while the Pigeon one ensures your milk is not overheated and stays warm while you wait for your sleepy baby to wake up for milk. Pigeon is surely not a good choice if your baby wants everything at the snap of your fingers!

Hmmm... what else is there? I must think and update this post when I find that I have missed something out! Till then... Sorry for the long post!

After the birth of a child, what else would make a mother fret more? Perhaps, if I had not insisted on giving breast milk to my baby, I would not have been so stressed up. Perhaps a good reason why most mothers rather give formula milk to babies (I grew up drinking formula milk and I seem to grow up alright...).

Day 1 (Day of delivery): There was nothing - not even colostrum!

Day 2 (Following day of delivery): Still nothing!!! Was the milk factory even going to begin the production? 

I was beginning to fret and feel pity for the little one when she started to cry.

Day 3 (Discharge from hospital, Day 1 at home): If colostrum is yellow and curd-ish, the milk factory decided not to produce them! Instead, what was produced were some gooey - transparent looking (texture like honey) stuff. And I only saw after the parentcraft midwife inspected the milk factory.

I tried latching the baby and failed. All I could hear was my dad repeatedly saying "Why is baby crying? She did not get to drink anything? She must be hungry! Poor thing!!!!" from the living room. Anyway, I cried over dinner - 1st for not having even the miserable colostrum. 2nd- my CL and parents insisted on giving baby formula milk by the bottle and not by cup. (Note: Hubby was not around to stop my CL and parents, so I felt like I was being outnumbered in what I thought was best for me and baby.)  

Day 4: Finally, the thick and yellow milk flows.

I remember only a miserable 20ml for quite a few pumps from now onwards. The nightmare of operating the milk factory every 3 hrs including wee hrs of the morning started. However, this resulted in a all time high milk supply of 240ml per pumping session.

Day 10: Not able to take the operating hours (that were set by myself in the first place) of the milk factory, I only pumped the milk after more than 7 hrs of sleep...

Day 15: I went down with fever of 39.4 degrees and a headache. I felt pins and needles all over the milk factory and I was shivering from an invincible coldness. Even with the thick blanket, I was all curled up trying to get warmth. I only remember drifting in and out of sleep involuntarily. Each pump session yield was 50ml.

Day 18: Supply was still miserable and the milk factory workers seem to have gone on strike! (i.e. the milk ducts that were providing the milk seem to have stopped working) Went to TMC parentcraft and learnt that the milk factory was congested (i.e. materials were there but there was little yield). After much negotiation (damn painful massage), the milk factory workers decided to resume work. Each pump session yields about 120ml to 150ml.

Day 22 (Today): Managed to latch baby for a short while to feed (after the latch, she still need to drink expressed breast milk from bottle). I guess I will try to latch her as much as possible and see if I can get her to latch for a full feed.

In essence, maintaining and running the milk factory is not an easy job. It is however true that perseverance and lots of sacrifice on the mother's end and encouragement from your partner are essential for the milk factory to run smoothly. While this milk factory is still in its infant stage, it would not have made it this far without my hubby's encouragement. Then again, why do cows seem to have lesser problems than the human milk factory?