lt's mostly every mothers dream to give the best to their child and it usually starts with feeding. We all now are aware of how good mothers milk is to our baby. During our generation mostly we've been fed by powdered milk which actually is quite hard for newborns to digest but still most of us grew perfectly healthy, so it's really up to the mother on how she prefers to feed her newborn. For me I've been leaking milk even before Maliq was born and since I do have milk to give, I'm trying my very best too fully breastfeed him and honestly, it's a challenge. Read more to know...
I never thought breastfeeding could be such a challenge. As a first time mother, of course, there is a lot I needed to learn and experience. The first time I fed my baby it felt so weird, and after a while, it started hurting. Why? Because I spent almost a week at the hospital and I didn't clear my breast which caused it to swell badly. Once I got discharged, thank goodness Pigeon's Breast Pump was already waiting for me. I was a bit confused at first on how to install and use it but then I got the hang of it.
You might be thinking that I should have a lot of milk since my breast were swollen and I produced milk even before my baby was born but the truth is the most I could get out of pumping is 1oz. The first 3 weeks breastfeeding was the most terrible for me. It hurt a lot especially direct feeding. My nipples were sore and my breasts seemed like it's stretched all the time. I can't find the words to describe the pain but it kinda affected me to direct feed my baby. Pigeon's Pro pump was a great help during that time. With its soft pumping and 2 different kinds of stimulation modes, I managed to still give milk to my baby during those bad days even though by a bottle. Honestly, I almost gave up but since pumping was able to help I kept on going. It was only for a few days that I fed him by a bottle and then I went to direct feed again because I needed expressed milk to be stored and here comes another problem.
The amount of milk I express don't seem enough to be stored and I have to make sure the supply is enough before I get back to work. Every time I pump the maximum I could get is 1oz even with the baby latching on the other side (which usually stimulates more milk to be produced). Without him, I usually get less and that is when I started freaking out again.
If you are not yet aware, the amount of milk produced by your body will usually follow the age of your baby and also the demand and supply system. So as long as your baby is producing enough wet diapers and poo-poos, it means that you are already producing enough milk for your baby so you don't have to worry about your baby not getting enough milk. To be honest I was worried also but I am determined to exclusively breastfeed my baby at least 6 months so I started doing some reading on this and asked opinions from other people. Turns out, all you need is knowledge to know what you need to do.
1. Don't freak out, keep in mind that there is always enough milk for your baby ( Stay positive)
2. Massage your breast most of the time to avoid blocked ducts. (Use 2 fingers and gently massage from top to the nipple anti-clockwise)
3. Direct feed your baby
4. Make sure baby is properly latched
5. Pump within every 1-3 hours to stimulate milk to be produced
6. Make sure breasts are empty every time to send signal to the brain to produce more milk (demand & supply)
With all that in mind, I managed to produce a bit of stock from the last couple of weeks even though there isn't still much progress in the amount of milk I could express in a pumping session. The most I could get now is 1.5oz but not every time. I'm still trying my best by finding my milk booster and power pumping once a day. For one day combined I'll normally be able to get at least 6oz to be frozen and stored.
Thanks to Pigeon's Breast Pump Pro I was able and still able to express milk easily without pain. Here are the reasons why this pump has been a great help to me;
It has 2 different stimulation modes which work amazingly. I usually use these 2 modes the most since I could see most milk produced using these modes. These modes are only set for the first 2 minutes and after that, it'll change to the normal mode where you can adjust the power and speed. Another great function as well especially when you're having a letdown and milk flow is a lot, the speed and power function can help suck more milk and faster. Since the milk I express isn't that much I rarely use these modes but I really wish i can.
What I love most about this pump is that it has a timer which is very useful especially during my power pumping sessions. So I know how many minutes I've pumped which is very important. Usually I'll get carried away with my phone (since it gets boring doing nothing and waiting for milk to flow out) and I forget how many minutes I've pumped already. You know power pumping has its own time for pumping and resting and without the timer, I'm completely lost.
Other than that, it has minimal parts so it doesn't take much effort to wash and use. I make sure that I wash it with Pigeons Foaming Cleanser which is so worth to buy. It comes in a big bottle which pumps out foam rather than liquid, so it's very saving even after using it loads of times. The best thing is that it kills 99% germs and the liquid is edible so you don't have to worry about chemicals, it completely safe for the baby. Even though it smells a bit weird, it helps you to get a very clean item fast and easy. Sometimes I don't even use a sponge since it's already in foam form. Every time I use my pump I'll make sure I'll clean every part which means having to open all the parts. After dried I'll put it back together to be used for the next session. Since it doesn't have small parts that my fingers can't go through, cleaning and drying have been so easy and it soothes me that I have a clean pump for my next pumping session.
Besides that, make sure to sterilize your bottle and breastfeeding pump once a day to make sure you kill all those harmful bacterias. You can either heat them up manually by using hot water and a pot or you can just use a sterilizer like I do.
It's pumping bottle is actually the same as their storage bottles which makes it easier, you'll just need to put the storage cap on once milk is expressed. They also provide a cap for bottle feeding in the box, which means this pump could also be a milk bottle instantly after a pumping session.
Other than that, I love how pigeon takes into consideration that not all people have the same breast size so they have 2 pump heads offered in the box, large and regular. Pump heads are actually important and could affect the amount of milk you can express. So make sure what breast size is yours.
Overall the pump is just satisfying to use, it's also very cute with its pebble shape and great that the wire is long too. This pump could also run on batteries but I haven't tried it out. The most important thing is that the pumping sound produced is minimal which allows you to hear the sound of milk dripping. I love that sound. Lol... Somehow it's like a calming sound for me.
Again thanks to this pump I'm able to express milk without much pain even though the amount is not much but I'm still thankful. I'm still trying out different methods to increase my supply since my baby seems to be drinking most of the time. They say the more the baby latches, the more milk is produced. What I do now is combined the milk I express per day and then freeze it at the end of the day. Better something than nothing right? I sure hope my milk doesn't drop more once I start working again, I've heard and read a lot of experience like that.
Right now I'm still gonna put a positive mind to it. I'll just continue pumping.
To boost up my spirit, I received this super cool cooler bag from Pigeon as well. I totally love how simple and neat the design is. This fridge to go cooler bag from Pigeon could keep expressed milk chilled up to 6 hours, just enough time to commute back from one place to another. It will also be extremely helpful once I start working again.
The bag contains 2 coolers which are to be freezed and then stored in 2 pockets at the sides of the bag. I've used it already when I wanted to go back to my mums house with my frozen expressed milk. I managed to put in 6 bags and 1 storage bottle in this bag which is quite a lot. Once I start working, my baby will be at my mums and I may not be able to direct feed him every day. So its very crucial that I'm able to supply good milk to him and since I won't be at home to easily store milk, having this bag will be really helpful.
That's all for now, I again thank Pigeon for helping to make my breastfeeding journey less hard. I can't imagine how I'll cope without having these products to help me. It was already tough at the beginning but thinking it will be harder if I hadn't had help. It has only been 2 months, I hope my breastfeeding journey improves soon.
Get Pigeon products at these participating retailers: Parkson, Isetan, Lazada, Shopee and Motherhood.
Till then peeps
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