Mummy Matters: CONFINEMENT - Food and Drinks

Before Eva was born, we establish the agreement on bathing i.e the general rules of bathing in herbal water. Which turns out to be alright! (Read: http://and-so-mummy-says.blogspot.sg/2014/02/mummy-matters-confinement-bathing.html?m=1) 

Another aspect of issue definitely is about the food and drinks which is another big dread!! I mean which new mummy needs to be controlled on food and drinks in addition to no bathing!!! I always thought these must be the source of all the postnatal blues...

But seeing my MIL putting in her every effort to make my confinement the best within my comfort zone, I guess one month is just fine...

But you have to be aware of your body conditions and constitution, avoid following the rules blindly. Your body cues are just as important. Check with your gynae when in doubt.

My body constitution is 虚热 prior to pregnancy and that means I cannot take too much tonic else will be too heaty, neither can I take very cooling stuffs like ling yang as it makes my body weak.

No oil, no sugar!
My MIL says cannot cook my food with the usual cooking oil nor sugar. I can only eat food cooked in sesame oil and rock sugar. But hehe she did allow me to take soy sauce. I dont know why or how it works but I know it does feel heaty to be eating all the sesame oil cooked food and definitely expensive. Oh and my MIL actually deep fried some pork chop (i.e pork fillet coated with dry bread crumbs) and fried fries in sesame oil. Nice. Its somewhat added flavour to the otherwise bland food. Either bland or gingery. Nice of her to brainstorm on a delicious menu.

Ginger, Ginger, Ginger!
Number 1 ingredient for confinement food!! Which is absolutely NOT Suitable for me. Do you believe that I gotten through confinement without almost No ginger? My MIL did naturally want to add ginger into all my food and we did communicate beforehand that she will add big pieces to stir fry or steam with fish etc which I am fine. I just didnt want to chew on any ginger slices. Few days after back from hospital, she added ginger into the actually pretty nice red date longan tea which makes it one of the worst drink ever. And i think it made my stomach sick. Either its pure tiredness from lack of sleep and pain or its the ginger. My MIL concluded its the ginger as she noticed I started feeling sick after the ginger. Amd so she stopped adding. Eva also came down with jaundice after 3rd day and we had to bring her to polyclinic checks on wkly basis to monitor the level. Doc advised to stop all confinement foods (much to my joy!) as it is believed that ingredients used actually may cause jaundice in babies esp that I am breastfeeding. Needless to say, it was the best reason to avoid ginger.

No Cold drinks or food
This is pretty obvious as body supposedly is now very cool (liang) so we gave to take warm food. This area I respect since generally we shouldnt be taking in so much cold stuffs. During that period which was the hottest months, it seems tempting to drink cold drinks and stuffs but somehow I enjoyed the hot red date longan tea and warm plain water. Of course I did enjoy room temperature water too when weather was real real hot. But I could feel some coldness running down throat to stomach!
Even fruits, you ought to take them out of fridge and let them return to room temperature before taking them. It is also believed that we shouldnt take oranges and similar citrus fruits else will have phlegm.

No plain water, Only red date longan tea!
OMG! This is one that I cannot accept. I am like a 水桶 (water pail) and I love plain water as much as my darling teh O. So I cannot drink teh O is bad enough and now telling me that I cannot drink plain water? Ok..so I was sweating like a pig everyday even when dressed in tee and shorts as weather is real hot and when dressing Eva up in closed room, I normally finished sweating like I just showered. I dont usually sweat that much and so yes after losing so much water, I just have got to replenish. Needed the fluid for milk production too right? So I did drink when MIL not noticing or when she is out to market. Hehe. I drink warm ones though.
It was said that one of her sis who didnt listen to her and drink loads of plain water, ends up with water swelled face. Haha but for me, it felt contrary. Maybe because I took it in small portions and didnt not gulp it down. And a confession! I did drink a cup of teh O occasionally during the last stage of the confinement. Haha  =P

DOM!
I was prepared to take DOM since its always part of the gifts. I thought just a shot is fine and I did take Yomeishu before at reduced dosage and I felt it did help. So on the 2nd day back from hospital after my bath, MIL poured a shot glass for me. I held my breath and gulp it down. Boy! It's spicy! I mean spicy as in you know when alcohol content is high. The next moment my face flushed and my head throbbed. My world spinned and my eyes swell. That night I had to take a nap early before my night shift with Eva. It was a bad bad horrible few hrs waiting for the effect to pass. I was worried that I may just hyperventilate. MIL got a real scare and decided not to let me have it anymore.  Its once again also to my happiness. Hehe.

Fish & Green Papaya Soup!
I drank this famous soup twice! Okay it tasted alright but seriously drink it while its hot. Haha when its cooled. Omg! The fishy smell.. hmmm.. overpowering.. but when hot, it did taste like a light yet flavourful soup. I dont know if it did help me with the milk production but I guess its nutritious enough. MIL didnt continue giving to me as she finds that my milk was sufficient and she dint want me to engorge too much. Very sweet of her and I appreciate her thoughts!

Milk &Yoghurt!
I thought these were pretty good stuffs to take but couldnt as I cannot take cold stuffs and it really weird to me to take room temp milk or yoghurt. And I only take HL milk hence not taking any mummy milk which can be made warm.  I only started Yakult after confinement.

Neutral food!
Somehow there are certain ingredients that we shouldnt be taking and not quite known to us. It includes certain kind of fish which means not all kind of fish ball or fishcake can be eaten. Certain type of noodles also cannot. Seems like only the older generation will know and even my MIL sometimes check with the hawkers who also helped their daughters or DIL with confinement.

No Sap food eg Yam or Mango
This is what my mum told me to! It is said that taking such food will cause vaginal itch esp when we still have a recovering wound. That sounds scientific enough for me to accept haha though that means I had to miss out on the yam basket in Eva Baby shower buffet. MIL will only discharge me from confinement 40days after birth. So Eva had a early celebration to make it a weekend.

I went through the 40days with some limitations and some no choice. But all in all, I survived! I really appreciate my MIL efforts and I also could feel the effects of it especially through the 1st 2 weeks. After 3rd week, I started to feel normal again and that is also when I started wanting to sneak food and drinks. Haha I even sneak cold Ribena into my thermal flask once!

And I want to emphasize that body cues are important! I asked TCM once who told me that it depends on individual body constitution on whether confinement food will have adverse effect anot but mostly would be fine with them as body will be cold after giving birth and regardless how much heaty food they eat, its fine. Well I am that special one!! I had ulcers after a few days!! Ulcers is when i am heaty so yeah I am not suitable for the full confinement menu. Thank goodness I didnt order those tingkat!

Above are just some of the stuffs I came across and I am definitely one lucky woman already. Comment below if you had ridiculous experience or great experience to share.

Cheers!

Mummy Matters: CONFINEMENT - Bathing

Confinement is one of (if not, the ONLY one) dreaded aspect of pregnancy and motherhood that really turns me off everytime I think about it before pregnancy and throughout pregnancy.

I tried to communicate with my MIL which turns out to be really important and good! I have to say thankfully my MIL is someone who is willing to communicate and takes initiative to ask. In addition, my wonderful mummy also communicate with her to share about my likings and not as she is worried if I would be able to adapt, eat well and recover quickly.

So one of the top hated DON'Ts for confinement is BATH!

But as we all know, modern mums seriously don't wanna care!! and I think modern mums are unlike mums of 10 years ago who are still pretty obedient and willing to follow the rules. haha and for your good info, May 2013 was one of the hottest month of that year and I totally would die if not allowed to bathe and if also made to cover from top to toe. I will die, seriously die... ... 

Anyway I was actually told by one of the Malay masseur that the reason for this confinement tradition of no bathing comes from the fact that in the past, toilets were located out of the house and so new mummies would be proned to catching cold by going out to shower. BUT now we have our toilet not only in the house but right in the room! haha 

So how did it go for me? After going through it, I realised that there is indeed good cause for the restrictions and all. I think it is all about compromising and making good sense of what is essential and what can be forgo. 

As you all may already have known and heard about all the bathing in herbal water? Yups, that was what I did as well!

My MIL was very nice and she took the effort to get friends to buy herbal packs from Malaysia for me. It was a total of 30packs. She will boil it every night or very early morning to keep this pot of concentrate aside. Then she will add hot water via the highest temp on the instant heater to a basin and add the herbal concentrate in. So I was allowed to wash my hair and bathe EVERYDAY!! I was even allowed to use the usual shower gel and shampoo. *Envy me* 

I guess it was the best compromise I could ever get! But some ground rules which she set and I think are pretty beneficial and perhaps are really the core of the issue!  

1. Always bathe before sunset 
> This was pretty tough and upsetting at times because sometimes all I want is to go for a nap when Eva naps but I have to take the opportunity to get my bath!! I could jolly well miss the timing and miss my chance of bathing. So is between sleep or bath. After sunset, temperature start to drop. 

2. Always close all the windows and fans in proximity of bathroom
> This was easy since all along I have always been scared of cold and the last thing I want is to have cold air running up my back! Especially so when I am using scoop of waters instead of direct shower head. 

3. Always drink some warm drink before and after bath
> This also helps to warm up the body especially the core. For those of you who are okay with alcohol, taking some DOM / Yomeishu will be good too. I cannot take alcohol. Tried taking like only 10ml of DOM, I felt totally sick soon after. Maybe I drank it too fast. My face flushed, eyes turn red too and I felt giddy and sleepy. That was the 1st and the last. haha 

4. Always ensure that water is real warm (actually hot) when going to bathe
> This was tough too as I dont like cold water, neither is my skin accustomed to hot water! Well, water that is too warm makes my eczema flare. But well, I try to do it slightly more warm but not hot. 

5. Always blow dry hair immediately after bath (after drinking some warm drink)
> This I follow as wet hair can really make you sick when the wind blows! I had one occasion with damp hair, one side drying it with hair dryer, on the other side I set the fan on for ventilation, resulting in a bad night of feeling like I came down with a bad cold and body aches. It went away pretty quickly after keeping myself warm. 

With all the above, haha basically you get to bathe but not without sweating it out all over again soon after the bath. Haha I can only say "be grateful!". 

I do not know how does the herbal water works BUT I did hear about people mentioning to bathe in water that has been boiled before. My mum always prepare cool boiled water ready for her to wash her hands or any stuffs when necessary. A friend did her own confinement and she only ensure to bathe in hot water and sort of similar ground rules above. All turn out fine even though they did not use herbal water. 

So I guess the whole principle behind it is to ensure that you are kept warm and not at risk of catching a cold! So to fellow mummies who really wish to bathe, you might want to consider the above method; daddies might want to share the info with your own mummies as well so they can give your wife a break on that. 

For me, so far so good 8 months after confinement. =)