Week 34 Baby

Bellababy pump

34 week baby:

May 16: I received the Babybella pump in the mail finally! It took about two weeks to arrive. It felt longer than that since the estimated delivery date was never shared to me until it practically was on the truck to be delivered to me already. So odd.
Baby has now tried chicken too. She’s had eggplant, crab, oranges, and lot of vegetables.
When she was about three months old, she left the Pack and Play and graduated to sleep in the crib. Now she’s graduated again and went back to the Pack and Play. Now though, we put her in the bottom part of it where she can play by herself.
We took her out for a small outing to get some ice cream today. She fell asleep in the car and woke up only once we had gotten the treats (grandma was in the car with her with open windows).
She cried so loudly when she woke up and didn’t know where she was. It was so sunny today too. She seemed disoriented in an unfamiliar place. I guess this is what happens when we have a baby growing up during a pandemic. She’s home all the time in a controlled environment that she isn’t used to new settings at all. Poor baby. We need to take her out more often to safe places and have her realize there is more to this world than the rooms and objects at home.
Have I mentioned how strong she is? She literally kicked me in the waist when she was lying next to me the other day.
After two days getting the Pfizer vaccine, me and DH both felt normal. The sore arms had subsided. I also noticed no difference in my milk supply. Baby has also been fine with taking my milk like usual.
May 19: I finally took the plunge and broke out the new pump to try. I was honestly a bit intimidated by it.. not knowing how it would work and all the new parts I’d have to familiarize myself with. Watching a YouTube video on how to set it up eased my fears and it looked rather simple and similar to my Medela PISA pump.
My mom helped me wash and sanitize the parts first and I fully charged the pump first. It’s sleek with a LCD panel and super light.
I did my morning pump as usual with the Medela on my left and right side with a haakaa. I was too engorged in the morning after 8 hours to fiddle with the new pump.
For the right side, the next 30 mins, I used the new pump. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the flange sat on my right side. It doesn’t even show the measurements for it.. no such 24 mm, for example. The cushiony part was really comfortable too.
I tried the settings and turned up the settings to level 4 to increase the suction. I quicky realized it was too much for my nipple and turned it down. I also went on the Facebook pumping group to locate the best recommended settings that other moms had used. There was a really helpful picture that someone shared showing which settings they toggled through during a 30 minute pumping session.
I was pleasantly surprised that the suction really was strong. My right side emptied so well!!! My left haakaa collected a lot of milk since the right side was suctioned so well too. First impressions were positive.
I learned that the Babybella pump turns off automatically at the 30-minute mark. How interesting. It means it doesn’t recommend longer than 30 minutes pumping but that also means I can’t go longer than that.. which I sometimes do. It turns out to be a great thing though as the suction is strong enough, so 30 minutes should be enough.
After that first pump, I felt so well emptied on my right side!! 🙌🙌
She’s 29 inches this week. She is also officially 8 months old!!!
We checked her car seat and it fits up to 35 lbs but 32 inches. This means we need to shop for a new car seat soon! Because of the pandemic, this little girl barely used her car seat. She’s only used it for her doctor checkups and 2 outings so far..
She’s about 16.3 lbs.
She is sleeping much better at night now. She only gets up 2 or 3 times at night 🙂
We need to work on her falling asleep by herself though and her eating skills. She likes being fed instead of grabbing things to put into her mouth on her own.
She likes putting so many things into her mouth now.
She understands when I say a stern “no!”
Will see if my supply goes up from using the Bellababy pump since it empties me so well. Hope so!
So much for having a routine down pat with my Medela PISA pump and now it’s time for a new routine again. I’m so grateful for this new pump though. I hope it continues to have a strong suction.
Another thing is that the battery life really is poor, as other reviews have stated. It shows 4 bars of battery after a full charge. After an hour of pumping, 2 bars are gone. So I charge it after pumping. Can I keep it charged while pumping? The instruction manual doesn’t clarify and I’m afraid to do that in case the pump can’t withstand that.
She still doesn’t like sitting if she can stand instead..
It’s getting warmer. I put her in a short sleeved onesie and then the sleep sack for her nighttime outfit now.