Info: Management of Breastmilk

There are several reasons why breastfeeding mothers need to express their milk:

1. They are working moms who are away from their babies during the day

2. The babies sleep soundly through the night (like mine) so the breasts get full in the night

3. The babies can’t latch on properly (tongue-tied, inverted nipples etc) so they get breastmilk in the bottle

4. To increase or maintain breastmilk production rate – ideally we should empty both breasts after each feeding

5. To relieve breast engorgement

We can express breastmilk by hand (the marmet method), using manual or battery/electricity operated breastpump. I never got the gist of hand-expressing, so I chose to use a breastpump instead. During the first few months when the production rate was still low I used a manual breastpump, then during the peak period of breastmilk production I used an electric breastpump which gave more milk at a faster time. Working moms often chose double pump that can express both breasts at one go, very useful if you have limited time to express at the office. There are also pumps with massage feature to induce the let-down reflex. Nowadays there are myriad of options regarding breastpump types and brands, you’ll need to do a thorough research before deciding to purchase one. Or you can just receive one as a gift and stick with it, like I did.

The Third Month – feeling alive again

One of the first thing we did once Jojo hit his three month mark was taking him for a swim – well, a float really. Theoritically even newborns can swim, but we clueless parents just didn’t have the guts to take him swimming when his neck wasn’t fully functioning yet. It’s quite scary to hold him with his huge head falling from side to side, let alone drop him in the water. But once he could hold his head up, we put him into a swimming tube and watch him float. We filled the tube in the morning and let it under the sun to warm up the water before Jojo took a dip in the afternoon. First he could only last for about 15 minutes, but gradually he was able to stay longer and longer. He was really a water baby, so in his element while floating!  Before long we were able to take him swimming in the normal outdoor swimming pool, and enjoyed each swimming session together.

Jojo was a happy little baby, always smiling and making gurgling sounds. He started to see better, recognized our faces and made more movement with his hands and feet. The loose newborn skin was starting to be filled in with flesh and the spots on his face started to fade away, leaving clean soft chubby cheeks. His hair hasn’t grown at all since we shaved him a month ago, so he still had a bald head with uneven spots of hair which the unprofessional barber aka daddy had failed to shave off.