One of the things you do learn soon after the delivery of your baby is how to latch your baby so you can start breastfeeding. This is often a precarious time for a new mother as it really affects her confidence. A successful latch is key to ensuring the baby is able to feed of his mother. Most mothers rarely get it right the first time as the breasts are slowly shaping up to start producing the necessary milk required for the baby’s nutritional needs.
Wifey had a difficult time in the beginning trying to breast-feed. She wasn’t producing enough and as such Cashew needed to be bottled fed. This continued on even after we left home. As wifey’s breast supply was still at its infancy, we had to go out to the supermarket to get some baby formula to meet Cashew’s needs. I remember going with my father in law to Fair Price in Kallang (or Katong) to get the baby formula. The first reaction that came to my mind as we found the baby formula section was – woah! this is expensive milk!
Eventually we got a small tin as we didn’t plan on using too much formula milk for Cashew. After a few days, wifey became more and more determined to breastfeed and her perseverance eventually paid off as she was able to successfully breast feed her baby boy. I felt proud of my wife – her determination and grit to just try her best worked and it was inspiring for me to see how my wife continued to work at it until Cashew could successfully breast feed.
This would also mark the start of her 30-day confinement period – a gruelling time for any mother to go through. There were days where it was really tough on wifey, especially after I had moved back to our place to prepare for work – I would continue to work for the next 3 weeks before taking my second round of paternity leave.
Going back to work was also hard for me – not seeing my family took a toll on my life – both mentally and spiritually. I found myself feeling lonely at nights and struggling with myself to stay mentally strong. I would throw myself at work which proved to be a decent distraction but the nights were tough, especially returning home to a quiet house. I had missed my wife badly during this period.
Nevertheless this was also a great learning period for both of us – for wifey, the benefits were pretty obvious as she had to learn how to deal with.a baby. Some nights were good, other nights could be better. For me, it was about taking care of the house and seeing to the dog independently. It wasn’t all that difficult and eventually I got the hang of it.
Towards the end, we were counting down the days and time till we could once again be reunited. 8 days, 5 days, 3 days and eventually the day came for her to move back, which was probably one of the happiest days in my life. Seeing her comfortable with cashew gave me assurance that I could learn from her on how to be an awesome dad as throughout her confinement period my visits were restricted and I didn’t get much time to hold him. In fact I was so focused and excited to having back my family I event told my consultants to not contact me for a good 4 days as I wanted to have ample time with my son this time around and just focus on learning how to take care of him.
