Soon after Rianne's birth, she was put close to me and was feeding on mummy's milk for the first time. It felt incredible as Rianne suckled gently with her eyes closed, knowing that she is safe and warm, cuddled up in mama's arms. There was no pain when her little mouth latched onto my breasts, in fact, I feel wonderful..
However, I knew I wasn't producing milk quite enough in this early stage, so Rianne still need to take formula milk at the same time. But I didn't want to give up.. at least not so soon. The lactation nurses in KK Hospital were a helpful bunch, and with the hospital so strongly promoting breastfeeding; it was easy to pick up the techniques.
Mummy had videoed Rianne's breastfeeding time, and I have watched it in awe (of myself, of course!) several times already. My friends J, E, and Z who had visited me in the hospital saw me breastfeeding Rianne so 'non-discreetly', hahahaha!! I guess that's one of the maternal instincts I unknowingly developed..
With Rianne not by my side now, I have to 'express' (a nicer-sounding word than 'milking', 'squeezing' right?) milk regularly so that the milk production would not hence stop. Encouragement and tips from my best friend X, plus my determination to give Rianne the best food, marked my first step in milk expressing.
I do not want to sound like I'm an expert here, but actually I am quite pleased with how I managed to hand express (just droplets), and then express even easily with the use of a manual hand pump. Though the output wasn't a great amount, I am still happy.
The valuable colostrum, which is rich in antibodies to help babies fight against infection.
Mothers-to-be, I have never expected myself to be able to go through childbirth; nor have I imagined myself to be breastfeeding a baby. But all this happened, because I told myself "I can if I try, and if I can't, at least I tried.."
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