The Tree of Life: Breastfeeding, Brelfies and whatchamacallits!

Several months ago, "brelfies" -selfies taken by breastfeeding moms- with #TreeOfLife became a buzz on the social media.

The aim of this hashtag is to "normalize" breastfeeding. I do not want to say normalize since breastfeeding is the most natural thing a mother and baby could share, but apparently there are people who still see otherwise.

Though for me it was more on documenting my breastfeeding journey than just jumping on into the hype, I also did mine and the post went like this:

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I am lucky to be blessed with abundant milk supply and a very great support system.

Hubby @kennyroy have been very there all throughout my journey and never ceases to lend me a helping hand.

Moreover, when I had to go back to work 2 months after, I had a very supportive boss who did not mind me disappearing 2x a day when I had to express milk. Well actually, UAE law really allows mothers to have an hour extra feeding break for 18 months. Since I had hit him with the rule book, he basically did not have any choice.

I am a breastfeeding advocate

Well, at least to my friends and relatives whom I can easily influence. For as much as I can, I share whatever little things I learned both from experience and from reading.

There are many benefits to breasfeeding - healthwise for both baby and mommy, and economical for the family.

So no matter how hard and time consuming it was to express milk, I did it for one solid year with my third baby.

My investment was only the $125 breast pump which I was able to use whilst breastfeeding my 2nd (for 10 months) and 3rd (1year) babies. Imagine how much we have saved for not buying milk for more than a year!

My trusted milk expressing paraphernalia:

Since I pumped in the office 2x a day - ideally pump at the same time everyday as this will allow your body to get atuned to the timing and in turn let you produce more milk, I kept the funnel part in an airtight plastic food container and put it in our office fridge. This way I did not have to wash at every pump. Smart (errr, lazy!) eh?! LOL

For my baby to surely have his daily supply of breastmilk while I was at work, I had to produce 3 bottles of 5oz each. That would be sufficient until we see each other again at 5pm.

These were kept inside our pantry fridge. Don't worry, I try to be discreet and put my produce inside an insulated bag! Haha.

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To transport my milk and to keep it's quality, I make sure that I have my ice pack frozen all the time

Here's my trusted insulated bag and ice pack:

Breastmilk is best for babies up to two years (and beyond?)

Yes. My youngest is still breastfeeding. Although now I think more for comfort than really"feeding". He is now 21 months and I actually want to wean him from breast already. He eats a lot of solid foods and can now drink formula milk from the glass. He also bottle feeds. So I think he just wants to exploit me when he breastfeeds. Imagine, you come home from work in the evening and your little one who you know just ate, just hops on your lap and pulls your shirt?! Exploitation right?!
(How can I think that?! Bad mommee! Lol)

I actually did try to do some antics to shooo him away from me, like put coffee on myself so he'd not like the taste. It worked for some time but since we co-sleep and it is really more convenient to breastfeed than get up and prepare milk in the middle of the night, it failed.

Mommies, any thoughts?!

This is the first time that I really have to "wean" my baby since the first 2 were "forcibly weaned" so I would really love to hear your suggestions on how we can do this. I would like to think that he will no longer need to grab me any time he wants when he turns 2 in November so I would like to start the process early on.

Are you breastfeeding and would like to try the #TreeOfLife brelfie?!

Follow this link to find out how:

https://www.popsugar.com/moms/How-Make-Tree-Life-Breastfeeding-Photo-42870000

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All images are mine, captured with my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and edited with PicsArt app

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