MacGyver and Sustaining Breastfeeding

I had my gall bladder removed last week. Unfortunately, I underestimated the procedure and thought I could go home after 24 hours. Wrong.

Because of this glitch, I only packed x number of bottles in preparation for the stay at the hospital. I figured I'd pump every 3 or 4 hours and then ask my anesthesiologist when can I resume breastfeeding. From our breastfeeding support group site, mothers were saying that women who underwent Cesarian Section delivery were allowed to breastfeed immediately. Seems logical. But I still had to confirm to ease my worries.

Remember I was pumping every 3-4 hours? Wrong move! Because of the increased time in between sessions, I was getting more milk and filling up my bottles faster than intended. By the time I was about to go to the operating room, I have filled up all the bottles that we brought. Uh oh.

When the anesthesiologist arrived in the Operating Room, I asked him if he was going to give me the same drug as what is used during childbirth. It wasn't. He said to wait for 24 hours before I actually breastfeed.

We waited, pumped and dumped (what a waste of milk, but better safe than sorry). After 24 hours, what to do now that we don't have bottles anymore? We thought that maybe Dad can go back home to get my milk storage bags. Kaya lang, I was really weak after the operation and needed help even with my personal businesses. So dad being away for more than 20 minutes does not seem feasible at that time.

That's when we shifted to MacGyver mode (this is the stuff of the 80s to 90s era hahaha) There was a nearby grocery store where dad bought zip-lock sandwich bags. It was the smallest size that he could find.

Zip-lock sandwich bags?? But these are...

• Not sterilized. May contaminate milk. Damn it, we are no longer sterilizing the bottles that Miko use at home. Pwede na yan.
• Not freezer safe. May rip when placed in freezer. We'll double up the bags. Pwede na yan.
• Not double zipped. May drip. Doble naman ang bags. Pwede na yan.

In the end, it was really pwede na since we had no other alternative. We even had different styles in packing the milk.

Dad was laying out the inner bag flatly inside the other one, then pour the milk into the two bags.

I poured the milk into one bag first, then jimmy the bag into the second one.

And that's how we survived sustaining breastfeeding even with no bottles. We were able to bring home about 900ml of milk for Miko! Thank God!

Want to hear more stories about my lap chole? I'll tell you in the next posts. :) I love you!