mommy matters – Page 76

A stressful week for the whole family

Ayex has been sick for a week now. Ok let me correct that. She’s not sick 100% of the week. It’s on and off. We went to the hospital for the nth time and saw 4 different pediatricians. Whew!

Saturday: We went to Trinoma for a family weekend. When we got tired of looking around, we went to Chowking (as requested by MIL) to had a merienda. MIL ordered sweet and sour mixed rice, which she offered to Ayex. Then she throw up. She propbably didn’t like the taste or it’s hot or something. We went home, tired.

Sunday: We went to church in the morning. In the afternoon, we went to Cherry Foodarama to buy some groceries. Ayex must be hungry because she kept on giving me the pack of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies. I opened it and started feeding her. After doing the grocery we went to Circle C because I need to look around. On our way home, Ayex throw up in the car. We didn’t fed her anymore with solids that night. The usual, she slept while breastfeeding. She only stopped when she coughed and she throw up again. I told Mon it’s probably that she’s too full or she’s not swallowing what’s in her mouth.

Monday: Ayex has fever. I immediately texted my boss to tell him I will not be reporting because I need to bring Ayex to the hospital. We went to Capitol Medical Center (CMC). Ayex was seen by Dra. Sy, a reliever of Dra. Fernando. She said it might be bacterial and that fever may be because she’s dehydrated. We were advised to give her paracetamol, motillium and ORS. If the fever persist, we’ll have her urinalysis and CBC (on the 3rd day only).

Tuesday: Ayex has no more fever. Mon said, just to be sure, let’s have her urinalysis. We went to Humana, a Medicard laboratory near Trinoma. We we’re there for hours because it’s hard to take Ayex’s urine using the wee bag. We finally succeeded. When the result was out, we had it interpretted by a resident pedia. She said all is normal. The pedia said it could be tonsilitis and advised us to give Ayex antibiotics. I told Mon not to buy the medicine yet since we will be back to Dra. Sy the next day.

Wednesday: No more fever. We went to CMC for a follow up check up. We told Dra. Sy that we haven’t bought the antibiotics. She said it’s ok and there’s no need for it since Ayex is already well. She also advised us to have Ayex’s flu vaccine. We ere also advised to change Ayex formula to Pediasure.

Thursday and Friday: Ayex is back to her normal self. She has mild cough that was easily cured by Oregano.

Saturday: We woke up in the middle of the night and found Ayex sleeping on the floor with Mon. We don’t know if she fell or what because she didn’t cry at all. In fact, she’s asleep. By 9am, I felt that she’s quite hot again. She was given a lukewarm bathe. We monitored her tempature until it reach 40 degrees celsius at 2pm. We rushed her to CMC’s emergency room. The pedia who saw her told us it might be her teeth. Ayex has two premolars peeking out from her upper gum, left and right, one each side. The doctor also said her lower gum is swollen, an indication that teeth may soon be appearing. We were advised to continue paracetamol and give Ayex xylogel.

Sunday: Ayex is perfectly fine. No fever, no cough.

Monday: It was a holiday here in Philippines. It is hot. I saw some rashes in Ayex’s face and arm but didn’t thought it could be something. I thought it must be the heat. Still no fever, no cough.

Tuesday: Mon and I are starting to get ready for work when I heard my FIL say “Wag na ilabas yang bata. Tigdas na yan.” I didn’t know what to feel. I called my boss and told him the situation. We went to the hospital again. For the nth time in a span of 1 week.

Passion for Breastfeeding

Today, I took my morning off because I wasn’t able to sleep because Ayex started crying at 1AM. She refused to be put to bed. She would cry when the milk would not let down fast. She would sleep for half an hour and wake up crying again. To cut the story short, I got a headache and decided to work for a half day only.

My patience was put to test today but I won’t elaborate that here. When I came to the office, my teammates already started with our meeting that was supposed to be at 2PM. I was able to join them and raised my concerns and other insights. I can’t fully remember now why one Earth we went to the topic of breastfeeding. All I can remember is that, we were waiting for Atom to give his updates when I suddenly asked Quiel, our manager, if he knew anything about the on-going contruction in our floor. (We used occupy half of the floor only and now, we’re leasing the whole of it.) He said he can check his emails and asked why. So I told him what I’ve been thinking of lately. I told him that maybe, he can ask our HR to setup an room that will be dedicated to breastfeeding mothers. Yes, a nursing area. I told Quiel that it can be small, just to accommodate 3 comfortable chairs and probably an electric fan if an aircon is too much. I told him that I’m concerned because I’m leaning toward CHILD-LEAD WEANING. Yes, as long as Ayex wants to BF, I will.

Some time last week, I came home from work with one bottle of breast milk that is not yet full. So I told Mon not to put it in the fridge yet because I’m going to pump milk after I fed Ayex. We (Mon and I) managed to express milk from the left breast while Ayex is still feeding on the right. We started talking about manual and automatic pump, how to increase milk production, how helpful breastfeeding is, how I’m trying to encourage people I know to breastfeed, how happy I am with my manual pump and so on. I found myself talking on and on and on about the topic. I simply have this love for breastfeeding that I didn’t noticed Mon was already asleep, not to mention snoring.

I’ve been telling people I know that the decision to breastfeed should start even before they give birth. This allows them to be prepared physically, mentally and emotionally. That for a mom who is determined to give the best milk to her baby, a great amount of patience, perseverance, and sacrifice is necessary. Because there is no such breast without milk. Breastfeeding follows th law of supply and demand. The more moms make their baby latch, the more milk their breasts will produce.

I miss those late night outs with friends. Whatever it is that I’m doing while at the office should be stopped at least every 3 hours so I can express milk. I carry my parapernalia aka pump and bottles everywhere I go including outings and worries how can I keep all the BM cold to stay fresh. I still wake up during the wee hours of the night to feed Ayex. But heck! I’ve been BF her for almost 15 months and I’ve experienced most if not all of breastfeeding’s benefits! And I’m determined to go for child-lead weaning.

All these started when I decided I will breastfeed Ayex and started reading that tiny “How to breastfeed” booklet over and over again until I gave birth.

I’ll slowly pick up the lost pieces…

before I completely lost them.

I’m in this roller coaster of emotions. I myself can’t fully explain it. All I know is I’m missing something. Something big. Something very very important to me.

My physical and spiritual self is beginning to exhaust. I’m not complaining. I’m just letting it out. This is my way of picking it up. The pieces that I need and are important to me. I will not give up. I will not lose this battle — called life.