Breastfeeding older baby

Baby has come very far from a tiny infant who kept sleeping to a big baby who can loudly declares his displeasure and happiness.

After coming so far on my breastfeeding journey, I now realised that there's an extremely big difference between breastfeeding an infant and breastfeeding an older baby!

1. The first big difference is of course when he's an infant, he's super sleepy, and rarely cries for milk until he's very hungry and that's almost 4 hours since the last feeding! Now, he's very active and can shout, kick, protest and clammer towards me whenever he wants milk. He drinks every now and then, which is around 3 hours apart but I didn't record the time exactly.
2. When he's an infant, he's ok with me feeding him outside and covering him with a nursing cover while I chat with my friends. Now, he will attempt to pull down the cover every time I use it, so I have to use the nursing room whenever I need to feed him. But the good thing is, he is now older so he is more predictable. Every 3 hours feeding is every 3 hour feeding. When he's an infant, he could ask for milk anytime and screamed and cried loudly without any warning.
3. When he's an infant, and we brought him out shopping or for walk, when he's in a strange situation and felt nervous, he would require nursing for comfort and would scream and cry at the top of his voice, making us super embarassed in public. Now, he's very interested in everything around him and would not feel intimidated so easily. So I only need to nurse him when he's hungry.
4. When he's an infant, I had over supply problem which means my milk supply is much more than his demand. The effect is that I feel engorged easily and when let down comes, they sprayed out lots of milk at high speed. Poor baby would pull out of my nipple when the let down happened and cried, refusing to nurse. I coaxed him back to nursing and ensured my helpers and relatives that no, I didn't torture baby, and yes baby still wants milk, please don't take him away, its just that my baby couldn't cope with the fast milk flow yet. My mother in law likes to say "He don't want milk, don't force him." and took him away. I didn't let her and continued to nurse. It's very painful for me too. Baby seemed so upset and my breasts kept spraying milk... those were the painful days! Everything's wet with milk whenever during a feeding. Now, baby can nurse very well and my supply had gotten used to his demand, so the over supply problem is no more.

I enjoy breastfeeding my baby. I enjoy the bonding and the feeling that he needed me and wanted me. Nursing him to sleep at night, too, is the best as he doesn't need to wake up crying for milk and nobody has to wake up to feed me. Whenever I see him grizzling and making the err err err sound in the middle of the night, I just have to turn around, and nurse him while lying down and fall back to sleep together with him. Yup, he shares the bed with hubby and I, our nice big family bed. He's naughty and he likes to show his mischievous face whenever he's planning on some naughty deeds like climbing up while holding the window ledge to see the LRT drive past, and crawling into the bathroom to play with the drain cover, and many other naughty deeds!

Upcoming baby fairs

Baby Expo
20 July - 22 July (Fri-Sun)
Venue: Expo Hall 4B

Parents World
31 Aug - 2 Sep (Fri-Sun)
Venue: Expo Hall 5A

Will update if I know of more baby fairs. So far, no more baby fairs at Expo after September for year 2012.

Baby's First Year Big Day woes!

Baby is 8 months old! Which means in 4 month's time, he'll be celebrating his One year old birthday! Oh no! How do we celebrate it? Where should we celebrate it?

I'm thinking doing the following stuff for his Big Day:

• Show baby's Photo Album - Documenting baby's growing up journey from birth. Thinking of using Snapfish.
• Baby and Family photography package - We can take this when he's 11 month old and then display it during the party. A friend uses StudioPlay and the result is marvelous. Hopefully we can get a good deal of similar package at a baby fair. Speaking of baby fair, I'm going to update ongoing baby fairs at Expo here! I'm also going to get family T shirt customized for the photo shoot. My friend recommended Pixiethreads.
• Birthday party venue - Thinking of using a relative's condominium function room. Still sourcing for good venues.
• Games and toys - thinking of renting or bringing along some toys for baby to play while the adults are enjoying the food.
• Decorations - thinking of a decoration theme for baby. Maybe monkeys? We kind of like monkeys. Haha. And we'll have a nice display banner with baby's name and possibly picture.
• Buffet - We'll need this if we invite all our relatives and some of our friends. If its a close-family-only small celebration, we'll only need cake.
• Beautiful First year cake for baby - Mummies on forum suggest Pine Garden... will look around for good cakes.
• Choosing items that gives us a glimpse into his future - I don't know whether you have heard of this 抓周.  One year old is the time when baby is asked to select an item from among many items spread in front of him and the item he selects will give us an idea what he will be when he grows up. I'm not sure of the accuracy of this but it'll be fun!

So many stuff to think of and to prepare!