Breastfeeding Journey 101

For those who knew me during my breastfeeding journey with Mikael, you might have known how difficult the beginning of the journey was.

I thought this would be a good sharing place for those who might encounter the same experience!

1. Nipple blisters / cracked

Yucks! Imagine the blisters on your feet? Now it's at your nipple and you'd have your baby nursing from it - oh my goodness! I'd be in full breathe-in, breathe-out "prep mode" everytime before nursing.

My advice? Get the nipple butter and use it before the breastfeeding session - especially the first few weeks when the baby is born! Why? Because it's your first time your nipple would be in use haha - so it sort of probably need some adjustment time!

In addition to that, Mikael had tongue tie. So if that did not solve the problem, get your baby's tongue checked!

2. Baby sucking

Well, according to the advices of the professionals, the blisters actually came from baby not sucking correctly. Both my babies caused blisters in the first few weeks. And I believe more so because the nipple is dry and that my baby's mouth is small. (We made a comparison between my baby's and Sara's and Sara's baby definitely opened a lot wider than mine)

I know most professionals would say the baby's mouth doesn't matter because they would still open wide. But I truly think this caused it.

So during nursing Afrael, I still had nipple blisters. Mikael's nipple blisters lasted for a whole year! This time around, I'm not letting the same thing happen! So what did I do:

1 - Stopped nursing and marmet : I did this for three days. My nipple looked sort of healed so I decided to try nursing - it bled again. So I stopped nursing again and marmet again. This time around I marmet for about 3-4 days.

2 - When the nipple looks sort of healed, I started pumping. This lasted for about a week. So my total recovery time was almost 10 days.

Then I decided to try nursing again with nipple cream - yeay! Mission successful! And this, of course would not have been possible without my husband's help. He'd be taking care of the baby's feeding time during these 2 weeks.

And by 4 weeks, the baby's mouth is a lot bigger and can definitely sulk better.

Rule of thumb on how frequent to pump? 3 hours or 2 baby feeding times = 1 pump. I basically look at how much the baby needs and try not to overpump.

3. During Mikael, I had so much pain after each breastfeeding session - it felt like a poking pain deep inside the breast. And it lasted for about 30 minutes! It was definitely 30 minutes of hell!

This started back when I had so much milk and I would wet the bed with my milk. I used a milk collector to sleep to not wet the bed. Boy was I wrong. This has caused fungal infection that infected my milk duct. The journey to be diagnosed was another long journey itself.

Usually, for fungal infections, there would be some sort of fungal-like symptoms on the breast / baby's tongue. None of us had the symptoms - the only symptom I had was the deep poking pain. I met specialists - I met lactation consultants. The specialist advice? If it brings you so much pain, just stop. At this point, it's my bonding time with Mikael and Mikael is a high-demand baby. He would cry out of nowhere and would only stop when nursed. So I really don't want to stop nursing. I had a few appointments with the lactation consultant where I'd cry each time - because of the pain.

After 3 visits, the lactation consultant decided to treat as fungal even when there's no other symptoms that shows it's fungal. This has saved my breastfeeding journey. After 2 weeks, I was finally pain-free! Imagine the feeling I had. 

4. Pumping 

I bought tommee-tippee pump and did not do much research when I decided to pump. This was absolutely wrong.

I had no idea what didn't fit but my 30-minutes session with tommee-tippee would only produce about 2 oz of milk with so much still left in my breast.

Remember I said I had nipple blisters? This made it super painful.

So rule of thumb? Go to an exclusive breastpump shop. If you're in Malaysia, the most famous one would be pump-on-the-go. This is actually hard if you plan on buying the pump before you have milk since you would have no idea what to check. So there would definitely be a little back and forth here. You might need the pump during your first few days if - your baby is premature and could not nurse / your baby needs to stay in the NICU for any reason. My advice? If this is your first baby, maybe try learning marmet. There's a way to marmet that's a lot more efficient - I did it wrongly during Mikael so I was in pain during the marmet session. My lactation consultant taught me the right way. When I marmet for Afrael, it's definitely less pain.

Or if you want to pump, buy Spectra (since this is hospital grade). For me, I absolutely love mine - Malish. It's super soft - and why some doesn't recommend since it does not empty their breast. Malish definitely empties mine.

Why I chose Malish?

1 - Super soft suction - I've compared with Tommee-tippee and my sister's Spectra.

2 - It's not battery operated but it requires USB. I have a love-hate relationship with battery operated since I would forget to recharge / buy new batteries and it might die when I need it. USB is a lot more easier for me with powerbanks all around. It's easier for me to be on-the-go and not have anything else to worry about.

3 - I however do not use the Malish's cup. I use Spectra's Handsfree cup.

I used to have to take about 5 to 6 30-minutes session with tommee-tippee. But with Malish, it took me 3 sessions of 20-30 minutes and I got at least 6-8oz if not more, and I could do it anywhere - even in a meeting!

So there you go, fast and easy.

I took about a year to resolve my breastfeeding / pumping challenges with Mikael. But alhamdulillah with Afrael, it's a lot faster and easier.

Let me close this with pictures of my little sweethearts:

Afrael @ 2 months, 7.7kg

Mikael @ 2 months, ~6kg

If you have any questions, just ask! If I've experienced it, I'll let you know. If not, I'll share with you the right resources.