A recent email to a friend

Have not had any time to write new entries so here's an excerpt from one of the more recent emails I've written just to update my blog a bit.

Hi H,

I know exactly what u mean about your daily achievements revolving around how much you yield from your pumping sessions. Mine have been even less successful than yours but with the night pumping sessions in between feeds, I somehow miraculously have just enough to meet her daily needs when I'm at work. Granted, I do supplement on the odd day when she's unusually hungry or if I'm out longer than expected and didn't prepare an extra bottle of EBM.

Knowing that she's growing from consuming only mostly my milk, it's just so worth the effort. However my supply appears to have plateaued so I'm not sure how long more I can continue to exclusively breastfeed. I'm trying to stock up my freezer but can only put aside an extra bottle or two per week.

I've tried every natural breastmilk-supply remedy that I've heard of including consuming turmeric juice, baby shark, steamed fish, papaya soup, fenugreek, milkmaid tea, groundnut soup & blackbean soup, peanut butter, milk and oats but I can't say for sure if any of them really work. At the moment I boil papaya soup with elephants' ears, ginger, fish and groundnuts twice weekly and also just started drinking an infusion of fenugreek & fennel a few times daily. If there's any improvement at all, I'm not even sure if it's real or merely psychological.

Oh yes, a friend of mine says she finds eating lots of celery & having sex boosts her supply plenty but i've not tried that myself (where she found the time & energy for that is beyond me). I also read somewhere that dried oyster soup does the trick (boil it like ikan bilis soup). The Malays believe that pegaga (alfalfa?) juice also works.

I'm sure you know that you should not stop the nighttime feeds in order for your breastmilk supply to continue and also to nurse exclusively during the weekends right? Have you also tried breast massage before nursing or pumping & lying while feeding at night so as to get more rest? The latter doesn't work for me though. I still prefer sitting up to nurse as I have to burp Nat after each feeding or she'll regurgitate.

At the end of the day, if you've tried all the above & your supply is still dwindling, be proud that you've succeeded in giving your son the best for almost 6 mths. That's what I keep telling myself & it's a lot more than most mothers can admit to doing. I presume you'll be starting him on semi-solids soon?

Exclusive breastfeeding is no easy feat and there are also hazards that come with it as I recently found out. You see, I've been having this chronic pain in my right wrist for almost 6 weeks and 3 weeks ago, it turned up on my left wrist too. It turns out that I have de Quervain's tendonitis, a syndrome akin to carpal tunnel and not uncommon in breastfeeding mothers. It's an inflammation of the tendon that causes pain when I flex my wrist and extend my thumb and especially hurts when I carry Nat by picking her up under her arms. The change in our hormones during pregnancy cause us to have lax muscles so that's why there's a tendency for mothers to have it if we carry our newborns too much.

I kept putting off going to see the doctor in hopes that either the pain would go away (read that it sometimes does) or I would get used to it but the tendons just got more aggravated. The pain was so debilitating that I couldn't write properly, grasp things or unhook my bra without wincing. Then it dawned upon me that Natalie was not getting any lighter and if I was to pay for treatment, I might as well seek it now. I finally went to an orthopaedic today and got a jab in each of the wrists. Hurt like hell (nothing compared to the doctor's bill though) but the pain has subsided somewhat. Also have to wear a splint on both hands and rest them a lot for at least 6 weeks.

Nat also has mild eczema and i was so sad when the doc told me coz i also have eczema and can emphathise with her. That was one of the reasons i was so dead set on breastfeeding and after all that trying, she still got it. She only has it on her face for now but I'm afraid it will affect other parts of her body too. Sometimes she uses her mitten-ed hands to scrub her face and it becomes reddish. The doc gave me some cream but i'm not using it as it contains steroids. i've been using steroid creams and they thin the skin. Much too strong for a baby. Trying out some eczema remedy products from buds baby (a local company. check out http://www.budsbaby.com/. however, the eczema products are new so not on the site yet) as they contain mild and natural ingredients. So far the moisturiser works well to keep the patches hydrated so she doesn't itch so much. If u want, I can buy and send to you for you to try. Hope your son's eczema heals soon. Take care!