Week 33 pregnancy update + my crazy breastfeeding essentials

Oh my gosh, I'm a little over 33 weeks pregnant now! that means it's only 4 weeks left to the full term and if little princess decides to come early at 38 weeks, that means I have only 5 more weeks to go! Things are getting more real now! And I can't believe I'm going to give birth to a baby girl end of next month or early December. It's exciting but I feel extremely nervous! I know with baby #2 around, my life is not gonna be the same again. It's a new journey for me, my husband and our soon to be 18 month old son.

I'm not sure how our toddler is going to adjust with his newborn sister. I'm not sure how am I supposed to spend more time with my son when my newborn daughter is around. Newborn baby is a handful, and so is a young toddler! How am I going to divide my love and attention? Will my son get jealous? So many things in my mind I haven't sorted out yet! So many things to worry! How if breastfeeding didn't work again & I have to end up with exclusive pumping, just like I did with my son! How if baby #2 is hard to be taken care of? So many if's! And thinking of all these matters gave me a sleepless night =.='

Another thing is I have only a month to go but it seems like my preparations are not that ready yet. 60% of baby clothes are not washed yet (I blame the rainy weather). I haven't packed my hospital bag and my nursery is not properly set yet. But luckily, I have bought all her stuff!

How come time flies so fast? Or am I too slow?

At 33 weeks pregnant, things are still okay. Since this is my 2nd pregnancy, I exactly know what to expect, so instead of complaining uncomfortable stuff, I just accept, embrace and of course endure it!

My belly is heavier, thus I feel breathless to walk, my legs get cramped easily, my skin gets itchy easily. It's hard to toss around in bed. And I have to pee literally every half an hour! My back is sore from merely just sitting down and do nothing! I feel like an old grandma! Nevertheless I feel really grateful with this pregnancy, it's much more comfortable than pregnancy #1. I remember I suffered terrible painful wrists and knees and my fingers were all numb & unable to type when I was pregnant with my son. I really think this pregnancy is not that bad! I quite enjoy the process! :)

I'm going to share with fellow mommies my crazy breastfeeding essentials. Seriously, you don't have to follow me, I think I over-bought and over-analyzed stuff. But being me, a little perfectionist, I will worry if I think something I haven't done and completed. And also being a little organizing freak, I just can't sleep if I think something is not well prepared! And here I go!

P/S: This is just for your reference and just buy what you think you need, yeah?

Breastfeeding essentials I prepare so far:

1) Medela Breast Pump + Accessories obviously (breast milk bottles, extra parts, cooler bag + ice pack) Cooler bag + Ice pack is for travelling
2) Milk Saver. It's basically like a cup you insert inside your bra to save milk from leaking when you latch your baby. Normally, one boob latched on, another one will leak! So you can use this to store extra milk, rather than leaking & wasting it!
3) Mother's Milk Tea. It works to increase supply
4) Simple Wishes Pumping bra. So you can have enjoyable hands free pumping session!
5) Breast milk storage bags
6) NUK Nipple Wipes. To avoid breast infection!
7) Mothercare Nipple Cream. I love 100% lanolin and the one I don't need to wash off prior feeding
8) Comotomo Baby Bottles. I bought Comotomo bottles because it claims it's closest to mom's breasts

9) Brest Friend Nursing pillow
10) Nursing Cover

11) Momby Feeding Seat. I bought this because when I had EJ, I found it hard to breastfeed from my right side. Not sure, if my right hand was kind of stiff to hold a newborn or what. I found my position was rather awkward, so I bought this to try out! I hope it works to reduce the awkwardness from my right hand side! This apparently is a feeding seat from Korea, designed to feed (breastfeed) a baby with a better body posture than nursing pillow. so, let's see!

12) Medela Supplementary Feeding System. Basically it's when you want to nurse your newborn at early days, but milk hasn't come yet, so you have to supplement with formula milk, but you don't want to use bottle. This is a great product to avoid nipple confusion! I hope this Medela innovative system is easy to use!
13) Medela Softcup Advanced Feeder. It's like a silicon cup feeder with special design, so milk will not spill messily when you need to feed your newborn from a cup. This is also another innovation from Medela to avoid nipple confusion at early days (to avoid nipple confusion, avoid bottles, simple as that!)

P/S: I know I'm crazy buying all these stuff, you may ask me, why did I buy baby bottles when I persist to make breastfeeding work and I have already bought products to avoid nipple confusion? The answer is I want to have more options. If option A & B fails, I still have option C which is bottles (when I try my best & things don't work the way I want it to be, so let's use bottles as my last option)

14) Deep Freezer. To store frozen breast milk if I'm successfully able to build a stash. IF!!!
15) Mini Fridge. You don't need to buy this but I bought because our home fridge is full of stuff like meat, fish & left over foods (sometimes, the smell can be unpleasant). For hygiene reasons, I want my breast milk to be stored separately.

 

Baby bump at 33 weeks ^^

My huge belly (I think) but I was told my belly is not that big for an almost 8.5 month pregnant lady!

I feel bad if someone (a newly pregnant lady) reading this finds it stressful to buy so many breastfeeding stuff. But don't worry! It's really me, over analyzing stuff! Oh well...

P/S: I'm kind of having separation anxiety (I know it's weird!), so I try my best to be around baby EJ as much as I can & try to spend time with him as much as possible before the new arrival comes ^^