Surat cinta dari baby ini gw copast dari sebuah milis yang
rajin banget gw ikutin.. En ini menguatkan gw bahwa gw akan kasih ASI Ekslusif
buat baby gw nanti.. InsyaAllah.
Dear Mommy,
Thank you so much for breastfeeding me! You probably already
know that your milk is designed especially for me, and is better than anything
else you could feed me.
I know that right now, you feel like your friends who aren’t
breastfeeding their babies seem to have an easier time of things. Those other
babies sleep soundly and longer between feedings, they drink so much, and they
don’t fuss to eat all the time like I do! I can tell you’re getting a little
bit frustrated, and I hear all the advice you’re getting … my grandma says you
weren’t breastfed and you turned out just fine, my daddy says he feels like he
can’t do anything to soothe me, and that lady with the cold hands that you call
“doctor” gave you a can of something that she says will help me grow faster.
You’re tired and frustrated because taking care of me just seems too hard, but
please mommy, before you give up this yummy breastfeeding thing, let me explain
some of my behavior to you. It might help you feel better.
First, if you and I were separated after I was born, for any
reason (maybe it was hospital protocol that I be left under a warmer, maybe you
were recovering from surgery), I’ve got some catching up to do, because I
probably lost more weight than my friends who got to stay close to their
mommies. It’s OK … I’m really good at letting you know when I need some more
calories, but it’s important that you let me breastfeed lots and lots, even if
my grandma says “he just ate!!” In my first few days, the nurses at the
hospital might tell you I’m hungry and your body can’t make enough milk for me
… but mommy, that colostrum from your breasts is some awesome stuff! It’s
packed with protein, which binds to any bilirubin in my body (elevated
bilirubin causes jaundice in more than half of newborns) so I can poop it on
out. It’s also a great laxative, which makes it easy for me to get all that
black, tarry meconium out of me and we can move on to the seedy, yellow-brown
poops that are much easier to clean off my sweet tushie. Now, the colostrum is
really thick and sticky, and I’m so small and still figuring out how to move my
tongue, and we’re both still trying to get comfortable together, so it might
take me 20 minutes or longer to suck out just ONE TEASPOON (5-7 mL) of that
liquid gold.
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| Fotonya Minjem dari sini yah |
But it’s OK, mommy!
You know, there is really nowhere I’d rather be than in your arms, hearing your
sweet voice and smelling you — even though you haven’t had a shower since before
I was born, you’re just delicious to me. And something else you should know
about me … even though I have a really cute “Buddha belly” that looks all
chubby, the capacity of my stomach on the day I’m born is just 5-7 milliliters
– that’s the size of a small marble! You’re the smartest woman in my whole
world, so I know you see the connection here! The amount of colostrum in your
breast is exactly the capacity of my tummy! My stomach walls on my first day of
life are very rigid and won’t stretch; this is why, if anyone tries to feed me
with a bottle, I’m going to spit most of it back up again, even though I
eagerly suck at it. See, mommy, I only have two ways to send and receive
information from my brand-new world – I can cry, and I can suck. I can’t see
much, and all these sounds are so much louder than when I was inside you, and I
can use my hands to help me orient myself on your breast, but crying and
sucking are pretty much how I make sense of everything.
I know it seems really confusing, mommy, that I would want
to suck and suck and suck even though my tummy is full. When I suck, lots of
great things happen for both of us. I keep my own digestion moving by
triggering the involuntary digestive muscles in peristalsis – moving the
contents of my stomach along because I’m still moving my mouth and tongue,
which are the beginning of my digestive tract. When you let me do all this
suckling at your breast, I can very easily regulate how I suck, depending on
why I’m sucking at any given moment. You can probably feel when I’m suckling
nutritively and swallowing lots of milk, and when I’m kind of relaxed about it,
feeding sort of like I’m savoring a bowl of ice cream … you know how sometimes,
you scrape just a tiny bit onto your spoon, because you want it to last a long
time? To me, you’re better than ice cream! But on a bottle, it’s impossible for
me to suck and not get whatever’s in there, and that’s confusing to me, so I
might keep sucking because that’s what my instinct is telling me to do, or I
might realize my tummy hurts (because even on day 10, my stomach capacity is
only a ping pong ball) and I’ll cry and cry because all I really know is crying
and sucking!
A word about these instincts I feel … I really can’t help
it, mommy, that I want to suckle so much. It’s just how I came out, and there
doesn’t seem to be much that I can do about it. Please believe me, I’m not
trying to trick you! In a few weeks, this need lets up a tiny bit, but for now,
suckling is my M.O. But, do you want to know something really cool? I’m not the
only one who benefits! When I suckle at your breast in these early days, your
body actually activates prolactin receptors! Isn’t that amazing? In my first
two weeks, the higher I make your prolactin levels go (my suckling triggers a
prolactin surge in your body), the more of these receptors get activated in
your breasts, and the higher your potential milk production will be for as long
as you choose to breastfeed me. That’s one reason your lactation consultant
tells you to wait on introducing that bottle or that binky– this prolactin
receptor thing only happens for the first 10-14 days. After that, the prolatcin
surges when I breastfeed are much smaller, so the more receptors there are to
gobble up what prolactin is there, the more easily you’ll make all the milk I
need.
Besides prolactin, there’s oxytocin, another hormone I
activate when I am at your breast. Oxytocin is part of what makes you so
addicted to me! It’s “the love hormone” and it helps you feel relaxed and
content when we’re breastfeeding. Go ahead, mommy, exhale and relax! It’s OK!
Oxytocin release is triggered by nipple stimulation, not necessarily milk
removal (though when things are going well, my stimulation of your nipples
usually means I’m removing milk!). Now, I know this might sound a little
awkward coming from your baby, but I need you to know something about oxytocin.
There are only three events in your life that trigger oxytocin release: nipple
stimulation (like when I’m breastfeeding), labor (the oxytocin released during
childbirth stimulates uterine contractions, which is why nipple stimulation
might be suggested when labor stalls, and also explains why sometimes, after
you breastfeed me, you feel an increased expulsion of lochia and maybe some
cramping), and … orgasm!! Isn’t neat that the same hormone plays a part in
making me, birthing me, and feeding me, and it’s a hormone that makes you feel
GOOD to do all three?
Mommy, I know you are trying your very best for me and
you’ve been worried about whether your body can satisfy my appetite. I know
you’re used to being able to measure everything, and your breasts don’t have
markers on them to tell you how much milk I got. Maybe you used a breast pump,
and that confirmed your worries that there isn’t much milk there – but mommy,
please understand that a good pump can mimic me, but your body wasn’t designed
to have all these wonderful hormone surges for a cold piece of plastic with a
noisy vacuum motor. You know that feeling you get when you hold my warmth and
weight, smell how delicious I am, and nom nom nom on my fat cheeks? That
feeling helps you make milk! That feeling is part of the whole system that was
designed to make you need to be close to me, just as much as I need to be close
to you. And mommy, I know you’re very busy, and important, and there’s so much
you used to do before I came, and I know right now, it feels like you’ll never
do those things again, and our house is getting messy, and maybe that scares
you. But please know, every moment you spend holding me, every time you gaze
lovingly at me, and every hour you spend breastfeeding me in these early days
is so important to me, because you’re all I know. I love daddy and grandma and
all of our friends, but I’m designed to be happiest and least stressed when I’m
with you. Can you wear me in a sling or soft carrier after I’m milk-drunk? I
really like listening to your heart beating while I sleep, and you are warm and
soft and smell so good. That space between your breasts is perfectly sized for
my head, and there’s nothing I like better than the feel of your skin against
mine. Well, maybe there is something I like better … I love it when you sleep
next to me after we’ve been breastfeeding. Oh, mommy, when you nurse me while
lying down, you relax and your milk flows so nicely, and I feel like you’re so
happy to be with me, and I’m very special to you because you don’t have to run
off and do something else as soon as I’ve let your breast go.
And mommy, I have a promise to make to you. I can’t say for
sure when it will happen, but there will come a day when I need you a little
bit less intensely. My feedings will get more organized, my weight gain will
stabilize, and sometimes, I’ll even like when my daddy or grandma or other
loving person holds me. But today, I need you. You’ll always be my number one,
even after we’re done breastfeeding, but I will learn, like you did, to defer
my needs and to trust others to meet them once you and I get a good thing
going. Thank you so much for all you’ve done for me so far. Until you start
giving me an allowance. Ihope my good health, sweet smiles, coos, and giggles
will sustain you!
Love,
Baby
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