During my baby’s first year, there really wasn’t that much change in my routine, except during my maternity leave (baby’s first 3 months). Breastmilk pumping-wise, it’s not so boosting because I skipped way too much suggested pumping schedule – especially during nighttime (I prefer sleeping than producing more milk 😛 thank God it’s sufficient until today). I’m an early riser who tend to get lazy at nights, so I always do my best to finish everything in the mornings – that’s why morning is very hectic for me.
0-1 month (confinement) – spent at mom’s
There really wasn’t that much to do, yet so hard to do. The big things to do during this first month are getting myself used to the post-maternity pain, new status as a ‘mom’, and baby’s nighttime feeding. Thanks to mom, I woke up every morning to find laundry (both mine and baby’s) is done, breakfast is ready and mom would have gone to sunbathe my baby in front of the house. I definitely didn’t have to do anything other than breastfeeding my baby. (I also didn’t pump.)
1-3 months – back home, still on maternity leave
Reality hit me really hard, even though thank God (should I be?) COVID-19 pandemic broke in that my husband worked from home during this time, so I didn’t have to be fully alone with baby. Since I was back home, I had to do the house works – I would wake up every morning to breastfeed my baby, do the laundry (baby’s, not mine), prepare for breakfast, bathe baby, then put him to sleep (oh how I miss those newborn days where he would spend most of the days sleeping). During his sleep, I would either browse through online shops/social media to find more about breastfeeding (this is around the time I found asiku.banyak on instagram – sometimes I regret to have found it only after I passed the 1st month) or watch series on Netflix. Sleep-poop-pee-breastfeed-repeat. No difference between daytime and nighttime. I still didn’t pump during this period. 😛
3-6 months – still home, but back to work (from home)
1 week before I was back to work, I decided to rent an electric breast pump (I only had the manual one, which makes noise during meetings, in addition to tired hands) in mamasewa (firsthand renter who finally bought the unit 😛 ). My mother in law would look after my baby during working hours, so I had to pump for supplies. It took only 3-4 weeks until my fridge’s freezer was full, and I rented another freezer in fluvvy freezer (enquired other companies, but only this one had available units). There’s not much difference in my routine – only that my husband and I would take our baby to my mil after I finished bathed him in the morning, I pumped during working hours, no more daytime Netflix, and picked our baby up in the evening.
6-12 months – baby eating solids
I’m never a good cook, but I promised myself to cook for my baby. Unlike breastfeeding, I prepared for this complimentary foods 1 month in advance – most useful source is the famous dokmet. It’s an upside down journey that I write another post dedicated to this eating thing (will be posted soon after this). However, not much change to my routine, except that I have to cook every 2-3 days, depending on my mood (sometimes I do it the night before, sometimes during lunch break, sometimes just on the day), and starting at 8.5 months old, feed my baby every morning. I continue pumping, but not as intense as before.
*Now and then when I feel exhausted, I would complain to my husband, saying that I want to have a helper, to the point where he would just hum to the complaint. LOL. It’s hard and tiring, but I still feel blessed that we’re all healthy and I get to spend more time with my baby. I know that this will not end anytime soon, so I will just enjoy the moment (while complaining to my husband. hahaha).
*My baby is also an early riser like me, so after he started solids, his feeding schedule is like this (schedule is flexible, depending on the time he sleeps and wakes up) (only lunch + snack from 6-8.5 months):
- 5-6 am: about time he wakes up – breastfed right away from 6-8.5 mos
- 7.30 – 8.00 am: breakfast
- 09.00 am: milk + nap
- 11.30 am – 12.00 pm: lunch
- 1 pm: milk + nap
- 3.00 – 3.30 pm: snack (fruit)
- 5.30 – 6.00 pm: dinner
- 7 pm (depending on the time he gets sleepy): milk
Note: I should give him 1 more portion of snack in the morning, but I just couldn’t find the best time to. Will definitely add 1x snack by the time he only naps 1x per day (by the time he’s 1 yo?).