On Breastfeeding, Weaning and Eating Solid Food

At 17 months, Miya eats 3 times a day with in between snacks. Her breakfast is usually oatmeal with raisins, for lunch and dinner she has rice with soup of the viand with little meat and veggies. She doesn’t eat that much meat and veggies actually because she doesn’t like chewing really. If she doesn’t like the texture of the food, she spits it out. Well she doesn’t really spit it, more of she puts out her tongue from her mouth together with the food. She snacks on bread, yogurt and fruits. I let her try to eat on her own. She can put a spoon inside her mouth now, I just need to scoop the food in her spoon first :)

My daily supply of breastmilk for her is usually 8-10oz which I express in the office. What I produce for this day, she will drink the next day. If it’s a Friday, then those will be consumed on Monday the following week. She drinks this once in the morning (40z) and then once during lunch time. She asks for another round of milk in the early evening. Before, she waits up for me to get home and then feeds immediately when I get home. But she started getting irritable, so I decided to buy soymilk to supplement her feeding. During the first week, as I’ve mentioned, I bought vanilla-flavored soymilk. I think she didn’t like the smell because she wouldn’t even taste it. The following milk, I bought just the regular soymilk and atleast she would taste it even if for just a little. The very first few times, my yaya would put it in her feeding bottle. But since Miya didn’t like it, the following day our yaya will have a hard time feeding Miya from the bottle with breastmilk because Miya thought it was still non-breastmilk. Eventually, she tried the soymilk little by little because she had no other choice if she wanted milk. She usually points to the ref if she wants milk. So I told yaya to show her that that’s what’s left for her and no more breastmilk. After almost two weeks, she’s been drinking soymilk from a glass. This is her usual 3^rd milk for the day. When I get home, she’s milk-all-you-want LOL!

During the night, she usually wakes up once or twice to feed. Sometimes it’s comfort feeding, she feeds for a few minutes, say 3-5 minutes, and then goes back to sleep. Sometimes she really feeds and I’d be awake by the time she finishes. Around this time I turn off our aircon and turn on the electric fan if I’m cold hehe. When she has colds and she’s not feeling well, she usually feeds round the clock during the night. I don’t get enough sleep because the moment she feels her nose is clogged she wants to feed. And I know she wants to feed because she turns and then usually says something unaudible, sometimes she says “dide”. I tried just tapping her to go back to sleep – sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.

I’m actually relieved she started drinking the soymilk. My milk production has decreased. Before, I can keep up with her daily milk needs. Now, not so anymore. I’m still drinking malunggay capsules and now I’m drinking malunggay tea, too. But it’s still not enough to produce 12oz of milk – her usual intake while I’m away. I’m still pumping milk three times a day in the office. Dropped one pumping session after her first birthday, I think.

I’ve mentioned that there are days when I think I want to wean her and I think I should start weaning her. On the nights that I can't get to sleep because she feeds non-stop, those are the times I wish she'll wean already. I'm screaming in my head "Give back my boobies!" But there are also days when I absolutely love that she still feeds from me. Last night, we went home late because we went to the hospital to visit a friend who just gave birth. When we came home, Miya was asleep already. Fortunately, when I carried her to our bed and laid her down she woke up a little and asked for milk. I remembered the glorious feeling of the milk flowing from my breast. 

Miya breastfeeding at 8 months

I’ll be away on a business trip in September for a few days and I dread thinking of how it would be to be apart from her. Since her birth, we’ve never been apart for more than 24 hours. Nothing’s final on the trip, I’m writing about it here in the hopes that I would jinx it and we won’t push through with it hehe. Our plan is, Joema and I will go on an overnight trip just the two of us, just to test the waters if Miya will be okay to sleep without me. Hoping she’ll last the whole night without drinking milk. Or maybe I should tell my mother to prepare a bottle of milk just in case she wants a bottle during the night. We plan to leave her with my parents. 

I don’t think she’s ready to wean because everytime she sees my boobies she gets kilig hahaha! Which reminds me, my daughter has this weird thing. After feeding, when she sees some milk dripping from my breast she looks at it like she’s gross with it. I tell her that’s the milk she’s drinking and she just shakes her head as if denying it in that small head of hers hahaha.

In the end, I wish there will come a time that both Miya and I will be ready at the same time to wean. I'm sure I'll be sad but like any other journey, our breastfeeding journey will come to an end.   

My Life in Bullets

Wow, it's already July! Where did the days go? Here's what's happening in my (and my family's) life the past few days:

• I attended a seminar on Credit Analysis last week. It was very educational. Not only did I learn a lot that I can apply in my work, the things taught to us can also be applied to my personal life. Always check your cashflow! Ang pambayad sa utang galing sa cash and not from your income! Those are two different things!
• On our last check-up with Miya's pedia, he said in passing that Miya did not gain that much weight. This has actually gotten me worried. I already started to supplement her milk (still breastmilk) with soymilk. After a week of trying it, she's now drinking a glass of soymilk everyday together with her two bottles of breastmilk while I'm away. Yay! The first week she tried soymilk, she didn't like it. We actually bought a vanilla-flavored soymilk. She didn't want to taste it. After smelling the milk, she'll push away the glass. So after a week, I switched to regular flavored soymilk, slowly she tried it. She didn't like it at first but she had no other choice. During early evening, when I'm still not home she will ask milk (didi) from her yaya. I told yaya to show her what's inside our ref and tell Miya that's the only thing we have left. She actually points to our ref if she wants milk while I'm away. Eventually, she learned to drink soymilk from a glass. Yaya was afraid to put it in her bottle because in the first few days she tried it, the following day Miya will not drink from her bottle even if the content is breastmilk and not soymilk. In line with this, I'm thinking of weaning her on and off. I mean, there are days that I think I'm ready to wean her but there are days that I just love breastfeeding her and decide that we should do it when she's ready. I don't know really. 
• Some problems with our current yaya. Not anything regarding Miya but with her money and family problems. I hate it that it's affecting me. She doesn't return to us on the agreed day she will return on her days-off because of her personal problems. Hay! I don't bother my employer with my personal problems so why should I be bothered with my employee's personal problems. Kainez! I've actually asked Miya's first yaya if she's willing to return. She said yes but we agreed on a salary increase. I don't want to jinx it by announcing it. But will you pray with me that this will push through? I've realized I love our first yaya so much. She has set the bar so high for the other yayas who followed her. With her, I'm kampante in every aspect. I promised myself I won't be bothered anymore if Miya sometimes wants to be with her more than with me and if they're super close. I realized, I'm more happy with that that my yaya is really taking care of my daughter and is actually concerned with her and not just look at it like it's just her "job".
• Another Miya update - she's really really talkative now. When we hand her our phone she will put it on her ears and say "Ewow!" with the tone that you use when you say Hello but the other line doesn't hear you. LOL! And she'll do this again and again. The grandparents are so happy because she talks now when we call them. Hay, my little daughter the charmer.
• We're looking into having her checked up by an allergologist. Her atopic dermatitis is acting up again. It's been this way for a few weeks now. The flareups will go away but will come back in another part of her body. If you have noticed, in most of her pictures she's wearing a longsleeve top and pajammas with socks. She's covered all over because we don't want her to scratch. If I can only take all those itchiness away. I pray everyday that she'll get well soon.
• What is up with Vettel??? He has been on pole for the last two qualifying in the last three races but was not able to convert it to a win. Well, atleast in the last race (British GP) he was finally back at the podium - 3rd place. This year is very exciting just like in 2010! I think it will be a competition until the last race. I'm really liking Alonso this year. Might be because I'm following him on Twitter haha! I'm also following Hamilton but Alonso updates more often. It feels like Alonso really updates his fans on Twitter - he tweets when he's on training, after his meeting with his engineers, after practice session, before and after qualifying, before and after a race. I actually get updated on when the next race is from his tweets. I used to print a calendar of the races but now I just rely on his tweets. Unlike Hamilton who only tweets when he wins haha!     

I'll try to blog a more meaningful post next time. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you!