Heya mommies.. i m finally done with my crazy week.. worked till 10 every night and had to be in office before 8am. so bloody tired. Hope everybody is well!!
Re: bra and cup size
I still wear my normal bras.. with underwire.. no issues with the bras.. for my previous pregnancy, i also wore my usual bras still i gave birth and managed to bf-ed for 14 mths. but once i started bf-ing my cupsize increased. aft i stopped, i was still bigger than before. haha.. so dun worry abt ur boobs. size doesn't correlate to milk production.
Re: pumps
I use PISA.. served me well as i pumped exclusively. it was my best buy EVER!! imagine i saved abt 14 mths of milk powder! that was about $3920! the thing abt milk powder is you don't see the cost.. when u look back and calculate, the amt can be staggering. so pls don't gripe abt the cost, esp if u die die wanna bf. get the best and maximise the use of it.
I won't recommend Ameda. I have personally helped abt 6-8 frens breastfeed successfully for at least 6 mths (meaning i was on call for them 24/7). almost all of them that succeeded longer than 6 mths used Medela. I personally have 3 frens using Ameda and out of these 3, 2 of them had their Ameda sets broke down on them. One Ameda set broke down within a mth. One thing bad abt Ameda is that it is very hard to get spare parts. Medela is sold everywhere. when u are bf-ing, esp in the initial mths, this is very crucial cos u might need new valves, bottles, tubings and funnels. with Medela pumps u get spares everywhere. the only gal who succeeded bf-ing using Ameda pump was becos she latched full time at home and pumped twice a day only. so her milk supply was a lot and also let down comes easily for her. if u are gonna do exclusive pumping, then Medela gives u better letdown stimulation then Ameda.
So a general breakdown of pumps and feedback from my frens:
1) Medela PISA - strong suction but bulky
2) Medela Freestyle - apparently suction not as strong as PISA but still good enough. very portable
3) Ameda - doesn't really stimulate letdown (unless u are the type with easy letdown), hard to get spare parts and seems to break down more often.
4) Avent - bad motors. breakdowns are common - backflow of milk/ liquid into motors.
Fifi, yeah PISA can take normal AA batteries but i dun use them. suction not as strong as direct plug in.
Re: pump cleaning
I got a lock lock box to store my funnels. will wash with baby liquid detergent then pour boiling water over it. Will close the lid (with hot water inside) and wait till it cool before i pour and reseal the lock lock box, ready to use for my next pump. easy and cheap. haha..
Since we are on the topic of breastfeeding, do read this:
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Health/Story/A1Story20120112-321480.html
there are couple of tips which will aid you if you wanna bf. Try to latch ur baby as soon as u can after birth (that's one of the reason why i dun recommend GA c-sec unless necessary), skin to skin contact with baby. FEED on demand and lastly (to me its the most impt) do NOT feed formula. Hope it works for u guys!