Welcome to the New Piggy Family: Saving for a 'drought'

Friday, June 25, 2010

Saving for a 'drought' - EBM

Never thought that there will come a day when I can donate my frozen EBM but I did. A Jan08 mummy friend (Yating)'s 7 month old boy was allergic to both cow milk (aka formula milk) and soy milk. The poor boy developed hives, swelling and severe vomiting so she sent out an appeal for BM donation as she had cut down on BF after he turned 6 months old and could not match his demand for BM.

Many people have asked me why do I bother to pump since I'm a SAHM instead of just latch on. But, I still remember my low SS days from RaeAnne's time very clearly, no matter how many types of supplement I took and how long I pumped at office, I could only squeeze out 125ml of milk which was not enough for RaeAnne at 5 months. My ex colleague also my pumping buddy was nice to donate EBM to me occasionally but my ILs was so freaked out that I didn't dare to take from her again. Cos so 'zhao1 ta4' her 'yi4 fan4 xin1 yi4'.

So, until now, I never dared to be complacent and waste my BM and will pump very regularly in the beginning, at least 4-5 times a day after latch on. I slowly reduced to 2 pumps a day only when I started to take care of RaeAnne in the day instead of sending her to MIL's house (so I have less time to pump) and also because I ran out of freezer space. I have been squirrelling my BM for months in case of a 'drought' if my BM SS drops or if Raelynn's DD suddenly increase during growth spurts. Even bought a separate chest freezer to store my EBM.

This is also why I was very angry with Filamie recently when she did not freeze a bottle of BM from 19 June and I only saw the bottle of milk on 23 June. 4 days old milk in the fridge section so I didn't dare to give it to RaeAnne or Raelynn anymore. Had no choice but to give Raelynn a milk bath. Very heart pain though Raelynn seems to be enjoying it. Maybe it's because BF is not easy for me due to the blocked duct history. Frankly, I didn't go through all pain and troubles of blocked duct plus spending money to see LC so many times for such frivolous/extravagant use of my EBM. Luckily Raelynn looked quite happy with her milk bath so I felt a bit better. :P

We are still giving RaeAnne early Mar 09 EBM to mix into her FM (120ml each time), 3 months old milk is usually the limit. But mine are coming to 4 months old, stretching it a little cos I got a separate chest freezer so EBM can store for 3-6 months. Now the dd is picking up a little cos I'm also using the stored EBM to mix into Raelynn's rice cereals. But if there is another baby who needs the EBM more, I don't mind donating. Sure my gal and baby are still drinking it but they can do with less EBM esp RaeAnne. Plus Yating doesn't mind my 'old' milk cos she is also giving her son EBM from March. Yating has kindly donated milk to a mummy with triplets herself. So kindness begets kindness. I donated 17 bags of FEBM to her in the end. Hehe, does it make me Baby Sylvan's Nai3 Ma2 then?

Here's the blog and pics of Baby Sylvan http://yeoongfamily.blogspot.com/. Hope he grows up healthy and overcomes the allergy soon. :)

Just for the record, photos of my EBM. Haha.

The 17 milk bags of FEBM that I donated to Yating. Put them in my Mitsubishi family fridge freezer for easy retrieval.

The remaining packs in the Faralla chest freezer which had 4 pull out drawers. Regret didn't take a photo at the height of my pumping career. All the drawers were full and I had to use up 1 shelf of my Mitsubishi fridge then.