Winter:Breastfeeding

With the year-end holidays coming up, many of us might be heading to the northern hemispheres and into colder weather. Some may just be going a little up north, where a jacket alone would suffice, while some may be going even further up north where a couple more layers may be needed, and possibly even thermal scarves and a thick winter coat as you head towards subzero snowy regions. How can we handle a breastfeeding baby without freezing our bellies off? The trick is to layer. The very basic is as shown in this photo:

1. Wear a Bra that can be easily pulled down to nurse. Any of the leisure bras would probably be suitable.

2. Wear a nursing tank top, such as:
- Jean Tank
- Stappy Bra Tank
- Heidi Cross-wrap Tank
- Sandie Tank

3. Layer a long-sleeve nursing top over:
- Cindy Long-Sleeve
- Deana Scrunch Long-Sleeve

4. If the weather is going to be very cold, you can also layer another sweater or a fleece high-neck top before having a jacket on. The sweater or fleece-top would be fairly stretchable so that you can easily lift it up and access your layered nursing tops for breastfeeding, as shown in the photo above. It'd be good to have high-necked top as you might find it tough to have to handle dangling scarves with a baby to manage as well.

Oh, and for me, I usually sling my baby first, before I wear my jacket. Here's some photos of one of our breastfeeding mothers and her baby in wintery Scandinavia.

Baby's in there!

Your Faves

YOUR FAVOURITE NURSING STYLES
-------------------------------
Along the way as nursing moms, we'll find some styles suit our style of nursing and our lifestyle the best. For this baby, I've grown to love the empire-waistline style the best.

Many of you saw me wearing the neat Anna Cross-Wrap top at the last Saturday Showroom Opening. It's sleek and colours are fresh, and just keeps me looking great. Needless to say, that top sure sold that day. Get yourself one too!

Anna Top:
[http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/annatrim.html]

My other everyday favourites are the Liana Short-sleeves and the Selina, apart from the Cindy. And my most recent favourite is the Sharon Top. I reach for these over & over again every morning as I prepare to get dressed for my full day of dashing in/out with our 4 children. It is a busy day, and I do need a get-up that keeps me looking well put-together!

My faves:
[http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/liana-SS-Top.html]
[http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/sharon.html]
[http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/selina.html]

Which are your favourites?

Raw

Hai, with the more frequent night nursing bc of the extra wakefulness due to the chickenpox, my nipples & the skin around are quite raw with JR's teeth scrapping frequently on it. *sigh*

My skin must've grown much thinner over the years with age!!! Must step up intake of vitamin C to aid healing. In the meantime, I am trying what I did years ago.

Express a little milk to clean skin and then wipe dry, put Lansinoh, and cover with the Hydrogel disc bc these help to keep the lansinoh cream neatly on without dirtying my bra and further promotes the moist-wound healing process.

Health Benefits

Breastfeeding has health benefits for moms: Study

Women who breastfed were less likely when they were older to have developed high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

Hand expression

Hand expression and breast massage combined with breast pumping does a better job of stimulating milk production than breast pumping alone.

Click below link for article
Hands On Pumping Pumps Up Milk Production

IQ & Breastfeeding

Breastfed babies seem more likely to do well at high school and to go on to attend college than infants raised on a bottle, according to a new U.S. study.

Read more *Here*.
Study links breastfeeding to high grades, college entry

Minute of Peace

With the holidays on, schedules get somewhat topsy-turvy. The past week hasn't been way bad, but as usual, there's the time-balancing that is so tricky. I've tried to get up early despite the disturbed nights, just so I can get some work done in the office. Yup so tiring. Each of the 3 older kids seem to have their own schedule of school/practice/play. Then tried to steal a few minutes for myself just after paying my road-tax ... a little peace without the sounds of one baby saying "merk!!" and the others fighting or just being plain rowdy .... by the park! (duh, the carkpark, you mean?!)

Oh well, a little caffeine is ok!

Ha-Chooooooo

Ati-shoo!!!!! Flu? Thankfully No. Just a wave of dust, I guess?

With the recent swine flu pandemic scare, it's hearty to know that at least this alerts us to keeping clean at all times. It was surprising for me to read that more people die from the seasonal flu than what we are seeing from the unknown swine flu. 600 a year!!! in Singapore!

The best bet to keep up a baby's immunity is still...to breastfeed, breastfeed, and frequently. This is exactly what the CDC advises - initiation of total breastfeeding, continued breastfeeding if mother falls ill. And not to forget the 1st line of defence - clean hands. Now, how to stop people from touching baby when we are outside? Grrrrrrrrrrr.......

BF lowers Heart Risks

Risk lowered by 10% if the mother breastfeeds beyond 1 year!

Article:
Breastfeeding lowers heart risks for mother: study
http://news.sg.msn.com/lifestyle/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3206941

Does this mean 10% for each year? Haha - can hope right? That means my risk could even be lowered by 50 to 60%!!!!

High Chair

Out for dinner. Was so happy that he sat on the high chair for awhile so I could eat dinner without holding him. Phew!

The fish-head curry was sooooo yummy! And I can almost swear that it's good for milk supply! *haha* My theory though, is that, babies LOVE varied tastes. Whatever we eat would flavour our breastmilk too. And so far, I've noticed that our babies just love it when I've had a strongly flavoured meal, like curry for instance. And well, demand=supply. So...you get the picture!

Expresso

I'd used the Ameda Pump with my older kids --- many years ago. LOL.

This time around, since I didn't anticipate pumping frequently, I didn't turn to this first. I wanted a really small handy pump. I decided to try out several pumps.

First I used the Avent Isis manual. It worked, but somehow, if I didn't angle the funnels properly, the suction would not be good. *sigh*. And the Avent UNO electric pump? Too noisy - so scary. I then got the Medela Swing, a really handy pump, since I have had good experiences with the Medela Mini-Electric and the Medela PIS. What I found lacking with the Medela Swing though, was that it didn't have any option to vary the speed. And when I increased the suction power, the pump motor just got noisier & noisier, like it was very *strained* to work at that higher level.

Finally, I resorted to the Ameda once again. I use it with batteries only, not the electric outlet plug. Nevertheless, even with the lower power strength of batteries, it worked as I remember it - wonderfully!

For the price, the Ameda is really superb for it's efficiency!

Happy CNY 09!

Dong Dong Dong Chiang! The New CNY is Here! As can be seen, baby is having fun soaking in the festive spirit of his very 1st CNY! He tried to reach & eat every HongBao that he got! Haha!



I tried on several of the CNY tops that I had reserved and brought home for myself, and finally decided that I looked the sleekest in the most oriental Sophia Blouse.


It was truly discreet nursing in this blouse. I didn't even use the sling the whole day!

And I nursed baby in church, and when visiting relatives in their homes. No problemo. Whew!

Only tiring bit was...baby disliked all the strange homes & people, so stuck to me like glue, excited but somewhat fussy bc he was tired from being so "kapoh". It was exhausting for me!

The 2nd day of CNY was once again a replay of the 1st. Baby was again a little koala, but at least he nursed and slept while we were out visiting. He didn't allow anyone else to carry him though. Not his father, not his siblings. Only Mommy would do. ;(

I wore the Ruby Wrap for the 2nd day.

The Liana

The Liana is my absolute favourite nursing top of the moment. ;-)

It has scrunches at the bust so that even when I wear the most convenient-to-nurse-in Cami-style bras, I won't look flat-chested. The bounded neckline is mom-friendly as my baby who likes to grab at my necklines won't manage to pull the neckline down with him and expose me (urgh!). The nursing opening is also just right for nursing in a baby pouch or sling.

And... the short-sleeved version has sleeves just at the right length for more modest coverage of my newly postpartum arms, being flattering instead. Just what a new mom like me needs to look good!

I used to wear the sleeveless version with great confidence. Maybe in a few more months then!

Unlike my younger self, I think I need a little longer for all the post-baby fat to melt away. *sigh*, but in the meantime, I couldn't resist grabbing the new colours of the short-sleeved Liana that just came in stock this week! Oh, and I could take them in the smaller S size already. So happy. ;-)

Liana Scrunch Top: Short-Sleeve & Sleeveless. New colours are in for the Short-Sleeved Liana in a Purple-Blue & a really refreshing bright pink.

Bleb

My nipple had a sharp painful spot. I noticed it was a hard and very white spot, somewhat like a huge whitehead. Really *ouch*. I'd heard about milk blebs(you can see a photo on that webpage), but never had one before.

I didn't quite want to try the awfully scary treatments I'd read about. Decided I'd monitor the situation a little and try to get baby to soften and suck away the little clog, just by nursing frequently at that spot.

The spot seemed to soften after a day. Whew! By the 3rd day, thankfully, it disappeared. It worked! Baby solved it - once again.

No EBM

Hai, the little boy just refuses to have his milky any other way but direct. He'd rather wait for me than have any form of substitute. When he was real little, he took the Avent bottles but didn't quite manage to suck well.


I saw that NUK had new teats that could fit wide-necked bottles (yeah, they do fit the Avent!), so tried them out. Our elder 2 children took their milk with NUK teats, and didn't like any other teats, so I thought it might be worth trying. Oh well, no go. The baby just didn't like those either.


We also tried giving the baby his milk by using a syringe. But the cheeky little one spits out the milk instead, making the caregiver all "drenched" in milk instead. *haha*. As a "last resort", I got these Avent Spouts that are easily used with Avent Bottles. I realised that with these new "no-spill" spouts, the poor baby still needed to suck at it to get any liquid out from the bottle. So I removed the valve below the spout attachment (and yes again - the valves are easily removable). This way, the milk can just flow out of the spout without baby needing to suck. Once again, baby launched his protest by spitting out the expressed milk.

Ah...I think I'll just save my liquid gold and not waste my time expressing milk, lah. Will just either bring baby out with me or just not leave baby for too long away from me. Just for a couple more months.....

Transitional Pleats

One of my fave tops while pregnant. I wore this until I *popped*! (and no, I'm not talking about my belly button. ;-P)

It was a really comfortable top, skimming and showing off my preggy form. And really great immediately postpartum. Friendly for breastfeeding.

Now available in-store. Just look for the Hayley Pleated Top.


Another fave top is the Tania Babydoll. This fits my bustline nicely and flows out to hug my belly neatly when I was preggy. Postpartum, it is a really comfy top that does not look like a maternity item.

Camera-Action!

It was one of the loooooooooongest photoshoots I've ever done. Little JR refused to be put down, and only wanted me.

(Model wearing Rachel Scrunch Top)

So I had to carry Baby JR while styling the models, ironing, and organising the clothes and taking the photos. Had to balance somewhat with baby on me.

He nursed......


.....and he slept, & he played. Cheeky fella...

And I was super-exhausted after the photoshoot!

Charity Dinner

Was performing with the Strings Group in school. I have done this many times before, but this time, it was quite a task as I had to work the practices with the Group around Baby JR's schedule.

And on the night of the performance, we had to bring the little baby along. I planned the whole day's schedule so that hopefully baby would not be too cranky at night. It was somewhat "risky" to bring him out at that time of the night since it was his bedtime.

We did a run through (rehearsal) with the String Boys while there, and then I tried to give JR a good feed before the Dinner started (and hence the performances).

The boys looked really spiffy that evening, all dressed to the nines in their tuxedoes. To have a breastfeeding-friendly outfit, I just wore my black Jean Tank Top inside my buttoned coat & black long pants. That was quite dressy enough. And I could breastfeed baby easily too, as can be seen from the photo!

Going to Church

As it is every Sunday, we go to Church.

It does tend to be a fairly stressful outing for me as I would always be worrying that the baby might kick up a fuss and cry during service. This is often every new parents' concern. Many new mothers would worry as to whether it is alright to nurse in church too (yeah, it is ok!).

If baby is sleeping and shows any sign of waking, I'd quickly try to nurse him before he starts to cry. On the other hand, if baby is awake and looking around when the service is going on, I'd look out for signs that he is getting tired and needs to nurse to sleep. That's me keeping alert so as not to have baby & me creating a scene in church - baby fussing with his cries and me fussing with trying to latch him on to nurse and quieten him down. Oh well, and there are times when the rocking, swaying, or nursing does not work and baby still wails ..... I'd have no choice but to spend a good part of the service outside pacifying baby JR.

Today, baby was fairly manageable. He was sleeping, waking only to nurse. Whew! (Nursing in my trusty Selina Top and a beautiful silk sling).

Sleeptime Marathon

A coincidence, but he's obviously communicating that it's bedtime!

As with every evening, baby does his Marathon Nursing sessions each night before he finally gets down to rest for the night. For those new mothers, do note, it IS normal for a baby to nurse very frequently and even seemingly non-stop in the evening hours. They are essentially tanking up their little tummies as they ready themselves for a longer stretch of night-sleep.

As the non-stop nursing leaves me rather much an invalid for that part of the day, I would plan not to do much for those few hours.

To cope, I would eat dinner early, bathe quickly and change after an early evening walk with baby and be ready to simply "veg-out" in front of the TV in my bedroom by 7+pm. I would also prepare 2 mugs/tumblers of drink on my bedside table to keep myself hydrated. Then I would just watch TV programmes or read while he nurses. He would usually finally get to deep sleep by 9pm or so. Some nights, it does get quite neverending and last until 10 or even 11pm! Do prepared for this and plan to basically do nothing much but relax at this time of the night when you have a newborn or young baby.

When would a baby outgrown the evening marathon nursing pattern? Seriously, I don't remember. *haha* It will eventually!