Friday, July 09, 2010

[07-09-2010] Be back from my maternity leave...



Officially I'm back! I took three month maternity leave from April. I had a lot of experiences during my pregnancy and after labor with my baby son, Kai. I've talked with so many moms, and realize there is something I can do thru my blog and thru my business.

I always try to update my blog at every day on a dot, but it's so hard! But I think I should restart. Tomorrow is my son's three months birthday, and since I saw the movie, Julie and Julia, few months ago, it is so important to keep doing the things you set!

Endurance makes you stronger. =継続は力なり(Keizoku ha Chikara Nari)

By the way, I've been experiencing how babies grow fast. As a director of my kids wear line, Sunshine Darlin', I really need to work on the designs more practical for parents and also need to be cute :) Study, Study, Study!
( I'm trying to release new collection during this year.)

Anyway, here is my first topics for my blog -

Breastfeeding : Luckily I have enough milk that my son doesn't need to drink formula, so economically it's super helpful. People say formula and breast milk aren't the same, but I was grown up with 50/50 according to my mom, and I'm doing just fine. But I have few friends who gave only breast milk for first one year, and they are super healthy, and even other kids are catching cold, they don't catch. That's awesome, huh?

Well my first week after my labor was pretty tough because I wasn't used to it, and my son also. So I had a lactation consultant in my hospital, but I also visited Japanese lactation consultant as soon as I'm back to my house.

She, Megumi, is RN, and also a lactation consultant. She used to work in Japan as a nurse over 20 years, and she learned Japanese breast massage for moms. So her consultation is mixed of American and Japanese! This massage basically SAVED me.

Here is the basic idea of famous Japanese breastfeeding method, OKETANI.

Basically if you are in Japanese hospital, you can get this breast massage while you are staying pretty much every day from your nurses! (According to my mom and other friends)

Here you really have to deal with everything by yourself, and I know it's painful in the beginning. But once you get used to it, and now I'm pretty enjoying, and really really CHEAP!

I bought one package of travel formula once, and a gallon water. I also received formula can sample from Enfamil, and also got 8 of 2oz ready-to bottles from my hospital. I don't even finish any of them at all! If I go out, and someone has to take care of baby, I usually pump for few days. For training purpose, I gave him formula few times, but luckily he doesn't mind to drink it. Occasionally babies don't drink bottles milk if you keep only giving breast milk. Some babies notice "TASTE", some just don't like 'FAKE NIPPLE". My son's case is that he can drink as long as we use NUK nipples. It's very interesting!

Dealing with his fussiness is sometimes hard, but being with a baby is very fascinated. I've been no make-up pretty much for last three months, so my skin is now so young! (Recently many of my friends told me that I became so young.) I think it's also because of my labor experience, but also of breast feeding. My blood circulation should be really good.

If you are going to have a baby, please try to breast feed once, and if you are in trouble, talk with lactation consultants! If you are in LA, I'm happy to refer to my consultant.

Now I'm start to work on myself to be a Glam Mom!

Sunshine Darlin'
website

4 comments:

Soochung Lee said...

Hello,
I happened to hit your website while I was searching for Oketani method. I'm Korean and Oketani is very popular in Korea. I visited Korea several weeks ago but I couldn't try to get the massage because they said I cannot get the massage until after 38th weeks. I'm 37 wks pregnant with my second baby now. I failed breastfeeding for my first one and I really want to breastfeed my second one.
Can you let me know the contact info of your Japanese lactation consultant? My email is sclnyou@hotmail.com

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Yukie-san,

初めまして、こんにちわ。突然ですが、乳腺炎になりかけの時に日本で桶谷式のマッサージを受けとっても助けられました。LA在住なのでぜひLAでも受けたいと思っています。LAで桶谷式のマッサージしているメグミさんの連絡先を教えて頂けますか?よろしくお願いします。みか (mgnomad @ hotmail.com) 

Unknown said...

I would love your referral for oketani massage in LA! Thank you :)

Unknown said...

mgnomadさん。あいにくメグミさん、すでに日本に帰国されているんです。後任の方がLAでマッサージをされているはずです。日系のOBGYに聞いてみたら、教えて下さるかもしれません。お役に立てずごめんなさい!