learning a trick or two.

this motherhood journey, sure got loads to learn everyday!

digressing a bit that’s totally unrelated. does anyone realise that the iphone app for livejournal these days still keeps the draft when the entry is posted? i can’t seemed to delete them off! also, it does NOT load the entries that i have created on the computer.. it only registers those that are from the app, regardless of how often i refresh it. and i don’t know if there is any improvement in the app at all because it is soooooo slow to use that i have resorted to using my computer to update instead. hmmm.. it’s forever loading when i open the app and does not matter whether i have (1) reset the application, (2) delete and install the application again. oh wells.

back to the tricks that i learnt lately. just wanted to note them down and share!

i have been attempting to drag the sessions of expressing milk to be longer and less frequent so that i don’t feel like a milk machine. i can’t live with it because it is so inconvenient and quite an arduous task if i even want to have a life at all. imagine.

express milk for 25 minutes. 5 minutes clean up, putting milk into storage. (30 minutes gone)
wash breast pumps and sterilizing takes about 15 mins. bathe, change and get ready to head out takes 30 minutes. prep, pack diaper bag (assuming i have to warm milk up and repack everything) takes about 15 mins (1 hr and 30 mins gone by now).
head out, take train to destination, assuming 45 mins. (2 hrs and 15 mins gone by)

it means i have only 45 mins left to do anything before i need to repeat the cycle or head back home. besides, i have an overflowing freezer right now and its a constant headache on finding more space to store the milk so i am trying to make the supply go down a little so its manageable… the problem is, i keep getting plugged milk ducts and they are oh-so-painful to deal with!

Trick #1 – use the back of an electric toothbrush (or if you don’t have, i think you can use your imagination and use anything that’s vibrating and press it against the plugged milk ducts. it works like wonders and really effective! well, if the milk ducts are plugged for too long, you need to apply a wee bit of pressure and wait till the vibration eases the plugged ducts. it will go away somehow.

other than being the milk machine, i have been washing the milk bottles non stop and also realized that after a while, there is a coat of milk stains (or milk slime) on the nipples/teats that wont go away regardless of how hard i scrub them (i use a small little bristle brush that is small enough to clean the teat but the slime doesnt go away with the scrubbing)… it kinda drives me crazy to know that they are not squeaking clean the way i want them to be.. im using the standard medela teats lately to let jerry get used to all kinds of teats (so that i can swap my bottles around and not washing so often – its drying our my hands a lot) and it is not recommended to turn them inside out.. i have been using a paper kitchen towel to wiping off the milk slime before washing them.. but here’s a more effective way.

Trick #2 – use some salt while scrubbing. the salt beads will clear out the slime but be sure to rinse the teat and ensure that there isn’t any salt leftovers because you don’t want it to go into the baby’s milk just buy a small little sponge brush just for washing the teats. daiso sells them together as a pair with the big bristle brush for bottles and the small sponge one for the teats. 🙂

will add more tips and tricks along the way when the inspiration strikes. for now.. that’s all i can think of!