Walaupun baru mencapai 2 months of my breastfeeding journey, for somebody like me, it was a great achievement tauu.. Ok lah. Because I love breastfeeding soo much, haruslah membuat this entry.

As you all already knew, I did not manage to breastfeed (BF) Ariana. So this time, for Sofea, awal-awal sudah buat study. Refer to my close friends who are also BF moms dan sambil-sambil tu, follow BF moms FB group The Breastfeeding Advocates Network (TBAN).

When it comes to BF, never ever think that it is easy. Convincing Enchek Kedek to support me in BF was easy peasy. He knew the great benefits of it, sebab tu senang. Hehe.

My preparation upon starting BF.

Breast Pump (BP)
I started with surveying for good and affordable BP. With the money that I received from my boss for SRA, I bought a Spectra M1 pump. Spectra is one of the well known brand jugak. Originated from Korea. Terus imagine oppa-oppa yang mendesign BP ni. Oh ya.. Berat nya adalah ringan (???). Design seperti cengkerang kura-kura dan bunyi masuk dalam kategori senyap, tapi bukan bermaksud tiada bunyi langsung. boleh lah mengepam di ofis tanpa rasa segan silu dengan bunyi yang kuat.

Nursing Pillow
Not necessarily perlu, but, me being me, semuanya pun perlu. hehe. I bought ‘My Brest Friend’ nursing pillow. Memang helpfull lah especially di awal-awal kelahiran baby. Tangan x lenguh. Sambil BF, sambil tengok tv.

Nipple Cream
Dalam banyak-banyak forum, blogs and apa-apa lah yang pasal BF yang saya baca, none of them mention about nipple cream. Pernah nampak berjual di kedai tapi tidak terfikir untuk beli. Like, perlukah? Sebenarnya, sangat perlu. Especially untuk new moms & moms yang baru start BF. Baby di peringkat awal belum berapa pandai latch, so, di sini lah bakal timbul sore nipple, cracked nipple and worst, bleeding! I experienced all three. Google2 tengah malam cara mau cure because, kalau bleeding, macam mana mau feed baby, kan? sakit ohh.. Jam 3 pagi laki terbangun, ambik kesempatan mintak ambikkan aloe vera di luar rumah. Pagi tu, no more luka. Phewww! The next day jugak Enchek Kedek berusaha keluar rumah untuk mission membeli nipple cream.

Feeding Bottle
Beli satu botol ja. Suavinex. Beli asal ada sebab memang plan untuk direct latch (DL).

Sehari selepas bersalin, i used the breast pump to stimulate penghasilan susu. BP triggers my body that it is time for them to produce. Baby pun membantu jugak. Tapi sebab Sofea ada jaundice hari tu, she sleeps more. Paksa2 suruh suck pun, dia tidur ja. By the time I was discharged from hospital, susu badan mulai ada. Sepanjang pregnant hari tu, my friends been sharing infos on milk supply and demand. Jangan risau susu sikit sebab that is based on you baby’s demand. Jangan lah harapkan susu yang mencurah-curah sedangkan perut baby masih sekecil guli seja. Engorge nanti, sakit tuu..

Growth Sputs. Pernah dengar kawan mentioned about it but didnt bother to read about it. Saya ringkaskan, growth spurts ialah fasa di mana demand baby suddenly naik mencanak-canak tidak seperti hari sebelumnya. Fasa ni, kalau kita tidak tahu, we might ended up giving up on BF. Saya pun tidak tahu juga tapi sebab belum mau mengalah, so belum give up. Had growth spurts as early as at 5th days. Baby menyusu every 15 minutes. Setelah non stop bangun-tidur-bangun-tidur, baby settled down at around 3.30 am in the morning! Fuhh!! Enchek Kedek was there, cheering me all the way. Although I know that he is tired, but I also know that he really loves me and that explains all the cheering. You can do it! You can do it! (sambil tutup mata).

Actually, boleh ja make it easier by co-sleeping with you baby. Tapi saya kunun nda mau co-sleep with baby sebab mau kasi baby biasa tidur dalam cot nya sendiri. Apalah yang saya fikir kan. Baby baru 5 hari sudah mau biar baby sendiri-sendiri, sejuk-sejuk sedangkan she was warm and comfy for 40 weeks inside my womb.

At early stage of BF pun, I was easily offended and become defensive whenever orang cakap ‘susu kau sikit, tu lah baby nangis nda kenyang’ or ‘susu kau masih cair, baby belum puas minum”. Happened on my first week jugak tu. Sudahlah kita masih berpantang, penuh dengan emosi, kena cakap begitu. Sabar ja lah because I still believe in the ‘supply and demand’. Never ever pertikaikan kualiti and kuantiti of your breast milk. Semua ini terjadi atas keizinan Allah.

Alhamdulillah, after 2 months, still standing strong and fully breastfeed Sofea. Tapi, kalau sudah 2 months, means…? Start kerja!

Preparation untuk kembali kerja a.k.a Back to work.

Storage Bottles
I used storage bottles instead of storage bags, sebab, bottles boleh pakai up to 6 months, while the storage bags pakai buang. But, of course storage bags save more space in the fridge. Tapi saya tidak kisah semua tu. Storage bottles sangat comel berisi breast milk (BM) dan di susun dalam fridge, so storage bottles it is.

Cooler Bag & Ice pack
I bought Autumnz cooler bag. 2 tier. Atas tempat simpan pump, bawah tempat letak expressed breast milk (EBM). Ice packs pun beli Autumnz. Each pack can lasts up to 12 hours. Ngam-ngam lah my working hours.

I know that in my office ada ‘Mother’s room’. So on my first day, first thing I did after un-blocking my smart card (sebab 60 days cuti, card kena disable), was to look for the room. In my imagination, the room is small, ada fridge, sink & partition kecik-kecik lah. Upon entering the mother’s room, mulut balik-balik sebut ‘waaahhh..!’. Clean room, 5 nursing counter with partitions and 2 power source, big refridgerator, sink with cleaning utensils & bottle steriliser. Betul-betul cukup. Betul-betul puas hati. Betul-betul dapat pumping dengan senang hati.

Ok lah.. Panjang lebar suda. Banyak lagi mau cerita, tapi in next post lah.