Pumping Queen
This is how the phone conversation went: “I pumped in the morning, in the afternoon, between meetings and between sleeps!” as a colleague at work asked how I can exclusively breastfeed Benjamin and still do a day job?!
Having a great support network helps immensely (good helpers to wash endless dirty bottles, understanding colleagues to schedule meetings around pumping and my great husband who pats me on the shoulder whenever I am about to give up!), and the fact that my best friend (the Avent Manual Pump) during these breastfeeding months is the savior to continue the wish to breastfeed until Benjamin starts eating solid.
But breastfeeding is probably the HARDEST act/commitment in this whole baby business. It does not matter how people convince you that the birthing bit is hard – not compared to having your breasts on loan for 6 months or longer. The breasts (and your body) for that matter don’t belong to you. They belonged to Benjamin which needs plenty of sucking (so engorgement / mastitis doesn’t take place), a lot of pumping (to ensure that the supply is there) and a new set of customized shirts (as nothing fits around the breast or the waist because you can’t be on a diet). In fact, I walk around every day thinking how to produce more milk (alongside with building a Data Center as a work project!). I take naps to produce more milk, I eat five times a day to produce more milk… everything revolves around making milk – a true cow. I have never asked a cow, but I reckon it’s probably easier for a cow, because she doesn’t have a day-job!
And this is the reason why we are NOT having a third child. I am just too old to go through another round of lending the breasts as if they were someone’s property. Mind you, I know I am doing this totally out of my own will (for the sake of Benjamin’s health and his future IQ) but it does not make it a more pleasant experience.
The human mind tends to forget how hard things get in the first 9 months of a newborn baby! So this blog is to remind me to read it when Benjamin turns two and I get clucky about having a third child! DON’T DO IT!!!
In the meantime, I’m off for another pumping session before having some 4 hours sleep… at least Benjamin bubba is taking full benefits of the golden milk (at four months, he is now 90th percentile in weight at 7.4 kg and 75th percentile in height 66 cm!!!) Even his pediatrician said “Wow, Benjamin you’ve grown in the last two months!!!” And as a mom, that’s all it takes, even if it means being a cow…
Enjoy our photos from the hot summer here in Shanghai,
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| Our Boy’s album – August 2010 |
p.s. poh poh and gung gung were here for two weeks to meet Benjamin and hung out with Michael… It was a lovely visit as Michael got to spend time with his great sixth aunt!
