Breastfeeding: personal commitment to my baby

I have been on my breastfeeding journey for more than five months now. It was a personal choice to do this. My husband has always been asking me when I was still pregnant if I was sure about it. He said we can afford to feed our Baby Princessita with formula, so there's no need to stress about breastfeeding. I appreciate that there was no pushing to utilize formula, nor to breastfeed from anybody else. My husband and my family left the decision making to me. I did my own research and contacted some Mommy friends who are on the same journey. I asked them the things I should do to get myself ready, and how to sustain my supply.

Well, I may not be abundantly blessed with milk supply, (abundantly - meaning I have a fridge full of milk stash), but I can confidently say that I have enough supply for my Baby Princessita. This is very obvious on her chunky built now. I don't have any back up stash as I am directly feeding my baby. Since last month when my supply decreased during my period, I stopped pumping as I wasn't getting any nor was my baby happy about the amount she was getting during that week. She was actually crying every time she was feeding, maybe because she was not getting enough. And I swear there was no breast engorgement the whole time. Panic was what I felt, so I consulted the internet and found out that it is normal to decrease supply while having a period and when you're on the pill - (guilty for both! I actually gave up the pill and told my husband to be very "disciplined".)

As of now, my baby and me are happy about my milk supply. And I hope not to experience the same last month.

Breastfeeding especially here in the kingdom is a commitment. Women should always be in their Abaya, so feeding in public is a dilemma. People are very conservative here, and Men are 'different" (so they say!). So it is not easy to just pop out your breast every time your baby cries. So basically, what I normally do is any of the following, whichever works at that very moment:

• make sure that Baby Princessita is full before we leave home.
• or I feed her on the way to our destination while still in the car.
• bring my nursing cover, and look for a restaurant that has an almost secluded location.
• or worse, feed her in the female toilet. Well not necessarily in the cubicle, but in that area. Thank goodness the toilet areas are usually big and far from the common walkways (where there are men and conservative others). Normalized breastfeeding is still uncommon to most countries, and I am sure it's gonna take a long while to happen here.
• before, I used to bring pumped milk and put them in bottles, however, now she is rejecting the bottle. She doesn't feed on it but just plays with it. Oh it's crazy!
• If all else fail, we go back to our car and feed her there.

But I have made it work for more than 5 months now. I have never been this proud about myself! When people commend how healthy my baby is, you should see my proud smile! :)

Until when am I willing to breastfeed her? Well, it's all up to my Baby Princessita! :)

My chunky Baby Princessita!