Confinement Food

Well I was certainly very well-fed and nourished, gained 3kg during confinement!

Had a full thermos flask of red dates longan tea everyday, on some days even two flasks.

The instant packages of herbal soups from ZTP tasted well.

• Day 4: For Uterus Contraction
  • Sheng Hua Soup
• Day 8 -14: Improve Appetite and Nourish Blood
  • Appetite enhancement soup (Si Shen Kai Wei Tang),
  • Revitalising Tonic Soup (Shang deng dun tang),
  • Blood Nourishment Soup (Dang gui yang xue tang)
• Day 15 – 28: Energy and Overall Tonic
  • Kidney Tonic Soup (Du Zhong Bu Yao Tang),
  • Energising Tonic Soup (Shi Quan Da Bu Tang),
  • Women’s Treasure Tonic Soup (Ba Zhen Yang Xue Tang)

Confinement lady asked us to buy more herbs to add on to the dishes – dang gui, huai shan, red dates, wolfberries etc. I’m not exactly the like to nourish myself kind, it was a little overkill for me. From 2 weeks onwards, I had an extra soup to drink at 10pm for extra nourishment.

I actually got tired of coming out to eat because there were so many meals; definitely not used to supper and having mian xian for breakfast – a little too much for me!

In summary, confinement food is just chinese food (threadfin, black chicken, pig liver, pig kidney, white fungus, spinach, black bean, pork ribs, walnuts, fish and papaya soup) and herbal soups. a lot a lot of ginger and sesame oil. plus the occasional salmon. yums. only had pig trotters towards the end, but we kept making confinement lady make it once she started making hehe. didn’t quite like the chicken stewed in DOM.

I learnt that can order Fish & Papaya soup from ISS Catering at Thomson hospital – buy 7 to supply for a week, can freeze. Will try that to boost milk right from the start next time!

Night Duty

For me, the most valuable aspect of the confinement lady is settling the baby – morning baths, diapers, patting the baby to sleep! I missed her so much when I took over the night duty.

It was really tiring cos baby would usually only drink 1 side at 1am, and then wake up to drink the other side at 2am. Almost sleepless throughout till morning. (hencethe point about formula milk at 3am).

Breastfeeding

Confinement lady made sure I have something hot to drink before and after every breastfeeding as she believes the milk needs water to make and hot drinks will make the milk flow better.

Sadly, my milk didn’t kick in fast enough and we had to rush out in the middle of the 5th night to get formula milk 🙁 there after, confinement lady would feed baby formula milk at 3am to make him sleep more, cos she thought I was tired. I think that kinda make my supply build even slower. She would also tell me to unlatch if baby is sleep-sucking, eg after 30minutes or if he is already deep sleep breathing.

To give her credit, she tried to help, giving me hot towels to massage. She encouraged me to watch comedy and stay positive, relax, rest more. I guess she was trying her best too.

I was breaking down by the end of first month, stressing over the lack of milk. I was rather determined to wean off formula milk, and after some persistent direct latch and perhaps fenugreek for a few days, I was off formula milk around week 7!

Alot of sense of achievement seeing the milk pumped out increase from 30ml to 40ml to 60ml to 70ml to 90ml and eventually now, getting 150ml on a 3-4 hour interval. Wow.  And then I had to freeze breastmilk so that we could finish using the formula milk. We stretched it for 6 weeks, and baby was pooing a lot towards the end of that, I got paranoid that the milk is spoilt, had to throw away at the end of 6 weeks of opening that tin. our 3rd tin. Standing by the cheapo Dulac formula milk, and hoping that I don’t have to use it. May my supply maintain even after going back to work. Now have to cross fingers that baby accepts frozen breastmilk. So many things to worry about.

So what worked? direct latching, switch sides – sometimes i end up feeding 4 sides in total, massage before feeding, hot drinks and shower, fenugreek, almond beancurd, salmon, meiji chocolate milk? , oats, milo, apply breastmilk onto nipples to keep them moisturized, breast shields so that nipples are ventilated and don’t rub against shirt, lots of rest, stay happy

What did not work? Stretching pumping hours. I thought my supply dropped a little when I started to pump during office working hours to prep for my return to work, as I would sometimes drag the pump to 4 hours or more. Have to be diligent and self-disciplined to maintain supply! Bought 4 more Autumnz bottles to facilitate the 3 times pumping sessions in office. May I be disciplined.

You know there’s always this message about WHO recommend exclusive breastfeeding for first 6 months in all breastfeeding books and related brochures. It really gives a lot of stress to a new first time mum that she should breastfeed and have enough for a baby. That stress sucks. Nonetheless, I hope to be able to breastfeed baby for a year. Build up momentum to 3 months, maintain 3 -6 months. Can slowly start to decrease after 6 months when baby start solids, and everything – sleep and milk – will get better, for sure.

Bathing, Wind and all that Jazz

Did not bathe for almost the full 30 days, just wipe the body with wet wipes and lemongrass / ginger water that confinement lady prepared. Confinement lady was actually quite ok for me to bathe with the confinement herbal bath packs, but I was the one adamant about not bathing. There was a day I accidentally washed hands with cold water, and my hand went numb. 30 days of suffering so that if I get arthritis in future, nobody can blame my confinement. Really hope I don’t get arthritis; I love rain and cold weather, may it stay that way. Towards the end, we used the water to wipe hair also, then hair dry. On those days, sometimes I would feel a slight headache if hair is not fully dried, and thereafter I made sure I really fully blow dry my hair. Takes almost 30 minutes, ah the things girl need to waste time on.

Wonder if I should still get a confinement lady next time? Really appreciated the night duty help. Maybe get a night time confinement lady, feel that it is too tiring for parents in law to do night duty. Or have to make Alex suffer for a month as confinement daddy. Ah, really takes a village to raise a kid. Mother in law should be able to handle the confinement food, or can order confinement tingkat 🙂 Probably not quite worth the $800 – $1000 for confinement tingkat.

Up next is Baby’s 100 days celebration, and it’s a big milestone I’m looking forward to! If things got better after week 6, then things would be awesome after 100 days!