Day 55
Simon surprised us last night by sleeping 5 hours straight! This is the longest duration he has ever slept continuously. We didn’t know if we should wake him up to eat. We ended up deciding against it and just let him sleep. Before falling asleep, he nursed for a long time (probably about 2 hours) and we ended up having to give him a bottle of expressed breast milk before he was content enough to fall asleep. I slept while he slept but woke up before him to pump. I’m making some progress on the breast milk production but it is still not where I want it.
Once again Simon caught me by surprise while I was changing his diaper. Apparently he peed while I wasn’t looking and although it did not hit him in the head (I had a Kleenex covering him), it leaked onto his shirt so he needed a change of clothes. Check out his cute little animal paw socks!
Rowr! Mom’s Little Tiger!
Thank you Auntie Betty for the jumpsuit and thank you Auntie Virginia and Uncle Dan for the paw socks.
hey jen! good job on keeping up this blog! i wanted to do the same but just haven’t gotten around to it. couldn’t find the time or the energy til now since boys are finally sleeping longer and keeping themselves entertained longer. wanted to give you some tips on the breastmilk. Like you said, make sure you pump after every feeding. I think pumping every 2 hours is good. Every hour is too often and you need to give your body a break. Stay hydrated! Drink lots! and definitely get as much sleep as you can. if you’re stressed and not getting enough sleep, you won’t produce. I also read that drinking beer helps b/c of the yeast. I hate beer but I eat tian jiu liang (ron should know what that is) nearly every morning cuz min’s mom told me to. i boil a cup of water, after it reaches boiling point, turn off the heat, throw in an egg that i like to stir up like egg flower and then a tsp of sugar and 2-3 scoops of tian jiu rice and 2-3 tbs of just the tian jiu ‘jiuce’. that’s it! don’t worry about the alcohol content. it’s not much. but if it concerns you just wait about 60-90 min before breastfeeding or pumping to give the alcohol some time to leave your system. My MIL makes me soup from pork bones and adds barley and melon and large dates and tofu skin or tofu knots. She says it’s supposed to help. If you don’t have someone who can make that for you, just make sure you get plenty of protein and try drinking soup (preferably made with pork bones) with some barley.
I read this article recently about breast milk and it’s pretty interesting, check it out: http://www.whattoexpect.com/blogs/mylittlemonkeys/breast-milk-its-some-pretty-amazing-stuff.aspx
A friend of mine told me that she uses a hot water bottle compress and puts it on her chest when she pumps or nurses. She says she noticed that it makes her milk flow much faster. You can also try massaging or squeezing your breasts while pumping and definitely do that while in the shower. Just a light massage (don’t hurt yourself!) is all you need. The heat from the water helps to get the circulation going. Make sure you’re not pumping with a bra on for now and make sure your bra isn’t constricting you in anyway. I’ve had my share of mastitis and it sucked!
I think that you shouldn’t nurse for 2 hours long because it’s not good for your nipples. I’ve noticed that when I run out while nursing, I immediately drink something, at the very least a lot of water, and a minute or so later, more milk comes!
Hi Sabrina, thank you for the advice! I’m impressed that you’re able to breastfeed two boys! I’m not sure if I could have handled that (although my secret wish was to have twins…)
Things are starting to slowly get better. I’ve been drinking the nursing tea, started fenugreek capsules, drinking water, drinking soy milk (for protein), and finally got some rest last night. I had to take a break from the constant nursing so just woke up every 2 hours to pump and had Ron feed Simon with the fresh milk whenever he woke up hungry. I was able to pump enough without having to break into the frozen milk supply so at least I know Simon isn’t starving. I’ve noticed that a hot compressed used to work for me too so it’s probably a good idea that I get back into the habit.
We would really like to drop by for a visit sometime. I love looking at the photos that you and Min post to Facebook. I am looking forward to meeting your boys in person 🙂
Hi Jenn,
So I thought that when you replied, I would get a notification via email or something and obviously that didn’t happen and didn’t realize til now that you had responded to me! aiya! Sorry about that =P
We’re looking forward to your party and meeting Simon very soon! We’re thinking about finally throwing a party for the twins too so hopefully I can figure something out soon too =)