Breastfeeding Room #WhenInCebu

For a breastfeeding mother like me, seeing a place like this is like I am in Worderland. A happy place really. I have been breastfeeding since I became a mom in 2012 non-stop until with S. So you can imagine my struggles in finding a place to unload gold milk and settling into clinics, covered areas or worst is restrooms. Picture tour?! 

Lets... 

It took me a while to enter in this automatic door. 

 

Isn't it nice? clean? and great?!

And even matchy-matchy with my bf tools. 

 

 I just felt bad that when I got home, the gold milk are spoiled because of late flights and bad traffic in Manila. 

G,

New Discovery : Simba Mother's Touch Bottle Nipple

True that when you became a mother, your search for best quality and sulit products will never end.

We all know that most of the times, if you want the best, you have to pay more. So since D is a breastfeed baby, I hunt for the bottle nipple that feels like that of the mother to avoid confusions. And you will agree to me that these products costs for P500+++. Oh well, we would still get that for our little one. And I have nothing against these products, they have the right to be pricey anyway. 

But just recently, I discoved an alternative to D's bottle nipples. 

Only for P99 each pesosesoses!!!

                             D's old nipple.                                   Simba nipple. 

They are almost the same, the texture and the anti colic mechanism. 

 And D's verdict?! Haha hindi niya namalayan nagpalit kami, except that the hole is smaller. 

Fellow bfpinays, go try it! 

G, 

D's Midnight Snack

Since D is a breastfeed baby, from Day1 until now that he's 26 month, he still feeds at night. Yes, we co-sleep and one of the benefits of breastfeeding and co-sleeping that I usually boast with my friends is that hindi ako napupuyat gumising sa gabi! I don't need to get up in bed just to make milk, well aside from nights na may sakit si baby D. Nursing D made me relaxed and also comforts him at night. So, sarap ng tulog namin, hehe. 

But since his 2nd birthday that I decided to wean him slowly, that I stopped expressing milk during workdays, and following the law of demand and supply, I know after 3 months my milk supply is slowly dwindle, so malapit na maubos. 

Thus, for the last two nights ganito and eksena while sarap ng tulog ko.... 

D: mommy, owenge (mommy orange juice)

Me: deadma (I thought he's just sleep talking again)

D: mommy, owenge (in a louder voice)

Me: sleep muna baby, 

D: (cries loud!)

Me: (no choice but to get up and get orange juice)

And he even ask for Yakult. PG lang ang peg ng anak ko?! e 2AM pa lang?

After D finished his juice and yakult, he went to me and said "Vely gud mommy, Lab you" and hugged me tight. My heart melted and I felt a little guilt since i got irritated at first, imagine?! waking up at the wee hours just to get a juice?! But, yes a power hug will make-up for that. 

Bye Buddy!

I totally don't know what to feel this morning when I left the house without my ever reliable milk expressing breast pump. I feel happy that finally I don't need to endure the tiring milk expressing session with my ever trusted manual pump during breaks, no need to "moment time", no interruption in between my work, no worrying about unfrozen ice-packs, no hassle of carrying the insulated bag and most of all I can now go home late without the worry that my freshly expressed milk getting spoiled.  So after 2 years, I can now go back to my daily routine, but I will surely miss my milking buddy, really served me well. 

So this is the feeling? Like all other working breast feeding mothers feel during the transition in weaning, bittersweet. But as I mentioned in my earlier post about weaning D, I already decided to do it with justifiable reasons. Although he's not yet completely weaned, we are getting there slowly. This week, he didn't ask for "dede" during daytime. Even if asked if he wanted "dede" or "milo" he will choose "milo", very good boy! he understood that he already turned 2 years old and as we agreed "no more dede na, milo nalang and juice". But he still nurse the whole night, so I decided to stop expressing milk in during work to reserve it during nighttime, no one drinks my expressed milk anyway. So this is it, baby D is now a little boy. hay... 

Dear Buddy, 

Thank you for making my breast feeding journey successful. You served me well, and as I bid goodbye to you now, hopefully we will be together with baby no.2! lol. You may not be as user friendly as others do, but you are the best buddy for me. You made our life easy by helping me provide D with the liquid gold even if we are in Davao, Baguio, Sofitel, Manila Hotel, Dipolog and Aklan. You are one of the accomplish why D grew-up healthy and active. Together we provided D with the best nourishment he needed. Thank you very much for helping me provide D the best thing that a mother can do, breastmilk. 

'Till we tandem again buddy, 

G, 

On Weaning D

Over the holidays, when we meet our relatives they have the same comments for D:

"Anlaki mo na D, awat na" 
"D, dapat no more dede ka na" 
"Lagyan mo ng sili yan para maawat na, para kumain ng kanin, tataba yan!"

And I am also conditioning D, I talk to him and I always say;

"D, kapag 2 years old ka na no more dede okay? drink nalang milk, milo, eat hotdog, rice, gulay, okay?"

sometimes D will say "Okay!" sometimes he will say "Ayaw!"

And now 11days before his birthday, I am bittersweet in weaning him. I mentioned before that I will try to nurse D as long as he wants. And I still want to, but there are some valid reasons why I am considering weaning him this early. 

He's not weaning into solids. When D turned 1 year old, he's 10 kilos, and now that he's turning 2 years old, he's still 10 kilos. I not worried though, kasi he's very active and healthy naman. Our pedia said he's not malnourished, he's healthy so nothing to worry about since he's breastfeed naman. The problem is that ayaw niya kumain ng rice whenever I am around because of "dede". We all know that even breastmilk is the best milk, there are nutrients that a growing (and hyper child) needed that mommy's milk cannot provide. 

He's getting so dependent with me. For reasons that I want D to grow up independent. I love how D calls mommy everytime he needed me for dede. I love how we snuggle and hug at night, especially ngaun na malamig. I love how I can kiss D everytime he nurses at hand lang. Pero I want my little boy to grow as a tough man. I have to let go. 

Sigmund Freud, Psychosexual Development. This is an offshoot of my weekend classes. Malaki ang bilib ko sa theory ni pareng freud na yan. He says that each stages of development needs to be resolved, otherwise child will be fixated. D is still in the ORAL stage, and the main challenge is weaning. I don't want the effect of fixation in ORAL for baby D. Being talkative and overly vocal is not the trait suited for a man. 

Tiredness. Yeah. Katamaran. For two years, I am expressing milk 5 days a week and minimum of 3 times a day using a manual pump. I know I once said that I will never get tired for baby D, but come on! I think I did the best for 2 years for baby D, who is know a little boy. I want my life back. I want my body back. And daddy R wanted my body back also chos! Kidding aside, I wanted a normal life again before having baby number 2. Ayayay!

So there, I think I have enough reasons for weaning D. I already justified the reasons, but I am still having second thoughts. I will miss baby D's clinginess. And I am also afraid baka lumayo ang loob sa akin ni baby when we stop nursing since I am a working mom and I will travel a lot this year. I don't want that. But I want D to grow up. Dilemma. 

What will I do?!

Baby D at 20 months!

Babies really grow-up fast! Four months from now, baby D will be celebrating his 2nd year birthday, yay! will I start planning for his 2nd year birthday? hay... I miss baby D's baby smell, well, I always miss his maasim smell everyday. Work, school and everyday traffic steals my bonding time with my bebeko. Guilty momma in me is missing a lot of his milestones. 

Baby D is so malambing, sometimes yayakap siya, minsan naman sasabunutan ako. 

Baby D's first time sa bookstore. Nakakaloka he wants to get all the books, at itapon sa floor. 

He steals my ponytail and used it as his necklace. 

Me: D where's the frog? (we have animals drawing at our walls)

D: went around the room and get coco (our crocodile) haha

At for Nth time, tinapon na naman niya phone ko, so I asked him to face the wall. Kaso nagpose sa wall naman siya. 

He wants dede, kaso I said kinuha na ng cat ung dede niya kasi bigboy na siya, so he hugged me to get his dede back. 

Someones is enjoying barney for the nth time! at nakataas pa talaga ang paa. 

Chocolates?

Like daddy like baby. I love you both!

And ohhh... baby no more. He can now eat on his own. Literally, I wanna cry when I saw him eating alone. He's now getting independent. Good boy, my Big Boy. 

And for weeks, I'm looking for his powder. As in muntik na akong bumili ng bago. And when I'm looking for his panjama, tada! tinago pala niya!

Baby D's language development is also growing fast! He can now say a lot of things aside from mommy, daddy, lolo, lola and bola. 

- Ti-ta ( Tita A)

- Totoy (turtle)

- Oy (horse)

- Bike

- Dyong (Deion)

- Po-po (Upo)

- Po (Polbo)

- Popo (pororo)

- Baba (Buksan)

- Tatay, Nanay (I dont know if alam na niya ibig sabihin)

- Gah (Lolo E)

- Yna (Lola L)

- Os (Tita A)

- Ga (Mommy G)

- Dah (duck)

- Shus (Shoes)

- Papay (tinapay)

- Eiiw (if ikikiss siya ng daddy niya)

- Jus (juice)

- Gulay

- Fishsh 

He can also may pasikat na!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Me: D anu sabi ng Dog?

D: Dogie? Aw, Aw

Me: Anu sabi ng Cat?

D: Meow

Me: ng Bird?

D: Twit, twit

Me: ng Goat?

D: Meehh

Me: ng Cow?

D: Moooh

Me: ng Chicken? 

D: Tikitik (dapat tiktilaok yan)

Me: ng Frog?

D: Kokok

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Me: D, Let's count.. 

D: tu, tu, re, fah (with matching hand gestures pa yan)

- - - - - - - - - - - -

• He's also masunurin, you can ask him to turn-off the TV, electricfan and lights. 
• Kapag nag-ring ung CP ko automatic kukunin niya un agad and will say "daddy,daddy"
• He's still into throwing things! specially cellphones. 
• He knew how to kiss na! pero selected moments lang. 
• He's into watching numbers video and alphabet videos

Un lang, he's weight is stunted. Since 13 months he's 10kgs. na, and his weight ranges from 10-10.5-11kgs. only. Panu he's so malikot and active. And I read somewhere that breasfeed babies are really lean. I wanna ditch the growth charts na nga sana, kaso he's pedia discussed the possibility of Primary Complex, and the idea itself is super scary for me. Hay wag naman sana, kaso he's not gaining weigth nga and he has history of frequent coughs. Praying.. praying...

Dear Baby D, 

You will always be my baby forever anak. I love you so much. And mommy will do anything to shield you. 

Mommy, 

Sweet Travels: Ati-Atihan Festival Hostel, Kalibo Aklan

One of the best beach in the world is Boracay. The sun, sand and scenery is the best. We all know that Boracay is located at Kalibo, Aklan and put to much emphasis on the beach itself that we fail to see that the whole province of Kalibo has so much in store for us. So the opportunity of work and travel in Kalibo is something that I look forward to this September. 

And someone wants to come. Hay #workingmomblues. But he's so cute, when I was packing my things, pinagkakasya din niya sarili niya sa bag ko.

We stayed and conducted the seminar at Ati-Ahihan Festival Hostel in the heart of Kalibo, Aklan. I love that everything is near in the hotel. We went to the market ng naglalakad lang! The hotel staffs are also friendly and accommodating. They serve good food and they also owned Bread&Butter bread house so may instant pasalubong center na din!

Posted at their lobby is the humble and inspirational beginings of the grandfather of the owner. 

And as the hotel named. There are lots of ati-atihan mask in the area. 

Colorful. I just missed to take a picture inside. #shyblogger lang. 

Lovely chadelier at the second floor where rooms are located. 

Facade at the second floor. Very homey ang peg. 

The hotel is just 2 years old. It used to be a bookstore, then renovated into a hotel and conference center. It's nice to know that there  are budding hotels in Kalibo where you can have conferences aside from Boracay. Read: Lahat ng participants nasa venue lang kasi walang beach. 

Lemme tour you to their room. 

mini dinning. 

Dresser. I love the flowers. 

Fresh and Clean CR with seperate shower area. 

Comfy bed. 

And what's a travelling momma without my  breastfeeding/expressing gears?

Insulated Bag. This can fit 8-16 bags of milk, and still fresh and chilled until I got home. 

Tip: I don't freeze my milk during local trips, usually 6-8days naman ang milk refrigirated lang. And freshly expressed milk is much better than frozen ones. 

So I just used icepacks to transport my fresh milks. The coldness usually last 4-7 hours.

So land travel to airport=1hour

waiting at the airport=2hours

plane travel=1 hour

travel from airport to home=2hours

Un lang, I keep on praying so flights will be on time.

My pumping gear. 

Sealed in airtight container. 

Milk bags. 

Pumps' spare parts. 

I learned my lesson na, its so hassle when you are in a trip then suddenly your pump bagged down. So painful and panira din ng plans. 

Yun lang, since the hotel is relatively new, the rooms are not provided with refrigirators yet. But the staffs are accommodating naman, and they offered kitchen ref to store my BM's, but the OC in me opted to throw my GoldMilk nalang.

 

Inside the room, they have the recommended places in Kalibo that you may visit. It's just unfortunate that our event ends at 5:30pm so there is not much time to roam around. And the establishments in the city proper closes at 5pm. Parang office hours lang!

But, But! We had a chance to see their plaza.

I told our coordinator nga, that this what I miss, and I'm dreaming that baby D will have a place to go to like this, hindi puro malls. A place where baby D can run and run and play free. #dreamingforabetterenvironemnt

We also visited their church. 

Huge and beautiful church. I made my wish. 

During my 2days stay in Kalibo Aklan, I feel that the province has much more to offer other than the Boracay beach. Maybe the local government or the private sector in the province can propose city tours in Kalibo before heading to Boracay, hindi yung dinadaanan lang ang Kalibo going to Boracay. The city has much more to offer. The environment, people, delicacies and historical places are worth visiting. 

All is well.