breastfeeding, lists you should paste on your fridge, not feeling so supermom, side effects of motherhood

Bobbly Bobblehead

So Truett and Kirsten both go to preschool in the morning and it’s great because by the time they’re done at noon, they come home with a bunch of new skills, tales of their adventures and little nuggets of academic knowledge they’ve gained that day. Like Tru came home last week and declared that he now knows how to clean his own bottom after pooping. I think he tried to clean the toilet bowl as well because I peered in to find half a roll of toilet paper stuffed into it but on the bright side, I’m sure his bottom was extremely clean after going through that much paper.

But then now that they’re in school, they also come home with other stuff like germs, viruses and bacteria. Lots and lots of them. To be precise, about 50 kids worth of them. Which would be fine if we didn’t have a baby in the house but you see, there’s just one problem. The baby is in the house, yo!

Within the first 3 months of baby Finn’s life, he’s already been ill 4 times. And that’s after factoring in a diet of my super-immunity-building breast milk.

The past 2 nights, baby Finn was fluish again and the virus was causing his sleep pattern to regress. He woke up every 2 hours for a feed and each time, he’d flail and struggle to breathe while latched on with his death grip for almost 40 minutes.

In other words, he was pretty much attached to my boob the entire night. Times two.

In my sleep-deprived stupor, I noticed several things.

1. Lying down is the best position to breastfeed. It is also the single most hated feeding postion for baby Finn. He’s all like “THIS IS NO WAY TO DRINK MY MILK AND I WILL NOT STAND IT.” Instead, he likes to be cradled in my arms while I’m sitting upright because he’s a tyrant and a slavedriver.

2. Falling asleep while breastfeeding is very bad. For boobs. The husband can keep his head perfectly straight while sleeping upright but I unfortunately do not possess that particular ability. Once I doze off, my head rolls around like a bobblehead doll and one time, it rolled to the back, causing my boob to be yanked backwards. Instead of letting go of his grip, baby Finn bit down even harder and let’s just say that the yanking + biting combination = a very effective deterrence to falling asleep.

3. Marathon breastfeeding through the night makes me very hungry. And sitting there in the dark gives me a lot of time to think about food. After the 5am feed, I had the most massive craving for a bacon sandwich so I raided my fridge only to find some milk & cereal. Which was nowhere near as good but when you’re starving at 5am, it’s pretty darn tasty.

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8 Comments

  • Reply beanbean November 30, 2012 at 2:29 am

    Ah, I still remember being forced to sit up to nurse. Noey was like that too and never seemed to be able to drink properly when I was lying down. Fun times. You most definitely deserve a bacon sandwich.

    • Reply Daphne December 1, 2012 at 7:05 pm

      I guess I’m thankful that I managed to get him to nurse at all so yay! It’s an improvement from the last two kids at least.. Hopefully #4 (if it happens) will let me lie down to nurse.

  • Reply Ai Sakura November 30, 2012 at 12:19 pm

    Oh dear hope Baby Finn gets well soon!
    Ai Sakura´s last post ..Preschool Nursery 1 Second Parent-Teacher Conference

    • Reply Daphne December 1, 2012 at 7:06 pm

      He’s finally turning the corner but still waking up many times through the night sighhh. I’ll have to sleep train him again once he’s well.

  • Reply Wendy November 30, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    hi, how do u know if Finn is sick too? as in u mention he flail and struggle to breathe while latched on. can you advise me how to know if baby is not well beside having fever n flu? thank u :)

    • Reply Daphne December 1, 2012 at 7:26 pm

      We usually look for symptoms like fever, runny nose, cough, breathing difficulty, loss of appetite or lethargy. Or if he seems to be in pain, we’ll bring him in to the doctor for a check just to be safe.

  • Reply Justine December 2, 2012 at 7:07 am

    Hi Daphne,

    I hope baby Finn is on the way to recovery! It really SUCKS when the kids inevitably pass their school bugs to baby! Baby JX recently had a slow recovery from brochitis 1 week ago. Usual culprit was his brother who started having brochitis. Poor baby JX was cranky with chesty cough, blocked nose for 2 weeks plus and all I could do was nurse him all day long besides letting the meds do their job. His brochitis was so bad that I even had to give him a nebulizer every 6hrly day and night. And this regime was times 2 as kor kor JH needed nebulizer as well..

    Appetite was poor was JH and I also had to get adventurous with feeding positions. At one point even resort to letting him sit on my lap chest to chest and latch on so he is not so breathless. Even if he falls asleep eventually I had to prop up higher in a recline position to help him breathe better.. I end up letting him sleep in a bouncer chair..
    It was frustrating to see my kids falling sick and I got upset and start to doubt the effectiveness of my bm.. But one of my friend just encouraged me by saying he could have it worse if I didn’t breastfeed..

    You hang in there and keep yourself healthy too! The worse thing a mother can do is falling sick herself too! As for these crazy nursing marathon I jus tell myself at least my boobs can offer him the comforts he needs and his constant sucking will keep my supply steady!

    Speaking of which kor kor JH is sick again after being sick-free for a week plus.. He’s having high fever and URTI again.. Hope it doesn’t develops into brochitis.. And this time.. I’m aiming for baby JH not to get it too!!

  • Reply SengkangBabies December 2, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    No worries for Finn as he is putting his immune system to good use :)
    We can safely conclude that without Mummy’s nutrition, the frequency will be higher.

    I got the Bobbly symptom at 2am last time haha. (from milk bottle)
    SengkangBabies´s last post ..Tanglin Mall is snowing

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