It’s been a dreadful past one week. A little bit better than the first few days I started to wean baby Clarisse from breastfeeding, but still I’m having a tough time making her sleep.
It’s 9pm now. Baby Clarisse hit the sack at 8pm sharp. She started to cry incessantly after 5 minutes, roll all over the bed and just refused to sleep. It took more than 45 minutes of crying and struggling until she’s too exhausted to do anything but to close her eyes and sleep. If I were to give nurse her, it would probably take no more than 15 minutes for her to doze off completely.
The past 2 weeks has been very exhausting. Why? Weaning my baby Clarisse from breast-feeding. She would get up once or twice nightly crying to be fed but will not consume anything else except breast milk. Forcing her to drink formula has been fruitless. It made her resent the very sight of a bottle even more. In fact, the moment baby Clarisse sees me with a tin of milk powder, she’d start to pout and make noises.
Pregnant women demand adequate amount of the right vitamins and minerals before, during and after pregnancy. Consuming enough vitamins and following a nutritional diet is also very important to enable your body to keep up with the demands of breastfeeding. Below are some common types of vitamins likely to be prescribed to you by your doctor.
FOLIC ACID
Also referred to as folate, folic acid is one of the very first and widely prescribed supplement to pregnant woman. It is also given to women who intend to conceive and should be taken one month before conception until the end of first trimester of pregnancy. In fact, I was adviced to start taking folic acid when I wanted to start conceiving. A whole six months before I managed to conceive baby Clarisse.
Baby Clarisse had problems with constipation last week. Her stool was very hard and dry she cried when passing motion. There are two things which led to this I suspect. First of all, since I’m breastfeeding her, it could be that I’ve been avoiding fruits and vegetables when I had a cough last week. That could’ve caused my breastmilk to contain less fibre. Secondly, two days before baby Clarisse’s had constipation, I switched from Bellamy’s Oats Cereal to another brand. For several months, I’ve fed her Bellamy’s Oats Cereal every morning. So I quickly bought a box of Bellamy’s Oats Cereal and fed her in the evening. The next morning, her stool was back to normal.
Having seen the immediate effect of lack of fibre, I’ve got to make sure she gets her daily dose of fibre to promote healthy bowel movements.
Three weeks ago, some rashes started to show on my baby Clarisse’s cheeks and around the mouth. I took her to see her paediatrician. She told me it is milk rash and prescribed a mild steroid cream hydrocortisone for baby Clarisse. However, I declined the prescription as I do not wish to apply anything that has steroids on her skin especially near her mouth. Wouldn’t want her accidently swallow some steroids, no matter how miniscule the amount. Therefore, we went home without any prescription medicine.
A few days earlier, my neighbour suggested Hazeline snow (the original one). She applied it to her baby’s face milk rash and found it to be an effective remedy. I don’t know how effective is it because I haven’t try it out.
What I did try is this. It’s an advice from a good friend of mine. I regularly wiped my baby’s face with chinese tea and within days, my baby’s milk rash/salive rash subsided. Much better than using steroids if you ask me.
I’d brew a cup of chinese tea every moring and use it to wipe her face after feeding session or when there’s saliva around her mouth. It might take several days for the rashes to fade away.
For new mothers who breastfeed their babies, here is a video clip giving out some tips on breastfeeding by 2 expects. I found it quite useful for beginner mothers who wish to give their babies a healthy start in life through breastfeeding.
When my baby Clarisse was 3 months old, her breastfeeding antics started to annoy me. Baby Clarisse would latch on, suck for a moment, turn around and look the other way. She would repeat this annoying action - nurse for a few seconds, pull away and either smile at me or check out whoever is talking in the room. Or get distracted by the slightest hint of sound or stray of lights from the TV. I warned my husband or whoever is in the room not to talk whenever I nurse baby Clarisse.
It is most frustrating when she fool arounds when my breast milk starts to let-down. My breast milk would drop onto her shirt and face. Her shirt would end up drenched in milk and I’d have to wipe her face afterwards.
Being able to stay home and breastfeed my baby since the day she was born is one aspect of my life I’m most grateful for. Baby Clarisse has been feeding on demand for the past 6 months. It makes me feel good, as a mother, for being there whenever she needs me and knowing that I’m giving my baby the best that she deserves. The best nutrition and the love and care she feels.
Things got off to a rough start. I confess I gave formula after breastfeeding sessions to make sure my baby is getting enough milk for the first month and a half. I just didn’t feel confident in myself that I’m providing enough breast milk for her.
The benefits of breastfeeding is so huge and the latest study found that breast milk will impact baby’s IQ. I will never regret breastfeeding my baby. She is 6 months old now and I’m still breastfeeding her. It’s a bit inconvenient at times, but I think it’s worthwhile.
It was weird, my baby Clarisse just decided to stop drinking formula milk one particular afternoon when she’s around 6 weeks old. Before that, she would willingly consume a bottle of formula milk and breast milk but on that day, she started to cry and refused after drinking only 1/2 oz.
Initially, I thought nothing of it. Maybe she’s just being fussy. I kept trying to persuade her to drink her bottle of formula milk. She would drink a sip, turn her head away and start crying uncontrollably if I continue forcing the bottle at her. We tried everything but the kitchen sink, baby Clarisse just won’t give in. She just won’t drink her formula milk. I put the bottle of formula milk away. She seems perfectly alright when I breast feed her afterwards.
