Why?
I've to face with reality. Somehow, my thyroid problem seems to relapse after every birth. It happened after I gave birth to Cherylin. Now, it happened again. I had known months ago that the problem has relapsed. I kept postponing my scheduled blood test, until mid Apr, before my Europe trip. As expected, my blood test results were negative. Doctor advised to start medication. I checked if there's medicine safe for breastfeeding. The doctor checked and found none. He checked with two of his colleagues. Both of them said the medicine will go into the breastmilk. Hence, doctor advised me to stop breastfeeding. Afterall, baby is already more than a year.
Ok, told doctor I'll start taking medicine after my trip (course don't wanna introduce changes to Shawn during a holiday, and it's so much more convenient to breastfeed him then to bring milk bottles, milk powder, etc.
How?
1st week (11 May to 17 May)
When i first tried to avoid latching Shawn, he cried till very cham. So much so that i bu ren xin to reject him. So for the initial first week, especially weekend, I still bf him like 80% of the time. I kept saying Shawn is like a drug addict having withdrawal symptons when he's not breastfed. He will cry in the middle of the night. So all of us suffered.I had to adjust the number of times i pump too. Objective is to reduce the supply gradually (err... don't want to take medicine to stop though it's the fastest way). For the first few days after I go back to work from holiday, I stretched the time to pump to 10pm (gotta tolerate the engorgement, so had to hand expressed a little while at work). Morning gotta pump once too. But for each pump, I avoided clearing everything. So, there's some 'improvements'. My supply used to be around 1 to 1.2 litre a day. This week, it's reduced to abt 600ml by end of the week.
2nd week (18 May to 24 May)
Shawn seemed to adapt better when I don't breastfeed him even on weekends. He'll ask for milk and when I told him "Mummy heat up milk for you, ok?". He'll nod his head. I tried giving him formula milk but was unsuccessful (i have some enfagrow sample - oh, me deciding to give btw enfa or gain IQ, which is better huh?). Weekend as usual, bf Shawn as usual (hee...like derailing right? :P)
Pumping at work had also improved a little. Am not so engorged at end of the day. But still need to pump at night for first 2 nites. By mid week or so, can stretched till the next morning. Supply is about 300ml.
3rd week (25 May to 31 May)
This week, I tried to give Shawn formula milk again on weekend. When he asked for milk, i took the satchet of milk and told him "mummy make milk for you, ok?". He nodded his head again. After I've prepared the milk, I passed him the bottle. He took a sip, removed the the teat from him mouth, looked at me and shook his head. Haha.. rejected again. I tried another time, adding the ebm to the fm, he tooked it. Okie, means must 'camouflage' and slowly get him transited to formula milk.
Now able to just pump once in the morning. Supply reduced to about 200ml liao. Sob, my stock of ebm is depleting soon. Now got lots of empty milk bottles which I have headache over what to do with those.
4th week (1 Jun to 5 Jun)
This is the 4th week trying to wean Shawn off breastmilk. Today, 5th day of the week, I yield only 14oml (this is roughly the qty i get. yesterday slightly more at 180ml). Only feel slight heaviness on one side. Really going to be end of my bfg job liao.
Yesterday (4 Jun) at mum's place, Shawn was crying for milk. As she needed to warm up the milk, Shawn had to wait for a while. He cried and kept asking for milk. Good that he didn't come to milk and insist that I bf him. So this is a good sign.
At this rate things are going, I should be a dry cow by next week bah.... then I'll start taking my medication...
My thoughts
I wonder why the relapse occurs each time after the birth of my child. Could it be due to the hormonal change, coupled with caffeine? If so, I'm thankful that I was 'auto averse' to caffeine during both my pregnancies. Otherwise, it would be a difficult pregnancy for me as I read from the internet that patients who are pregnant need to be monitored constantly.
I had earlier asked my gp what will happen if I do not take medication for my condition. Dr Lawrence said that the worst case scenario will be heart failure. Heart failure? I asked him. But Dr Lawrence told me that it won't happen. Because the patient will feel so unwell that medication assistance would have been sought before anything happen. So, I need to be less obstinate and get myself cured. Hopefully, forever and ever and no more relapse in future. :)
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