Shopping For Mummy!

These days, with a combination of maternity leave and the circuit breaker (CB) measures, Sunshine, myself and Baby C can only stay home most of the time. However, with a new baby, there seemed to be endless things to buy, from essential items such as diapers and wet wipes to other less important items such as… (actually, all the items I bought were essential items. Why would I buy frivolous items right, Sunshine? =p) I usually consolidate and buy my items from Qoo10 or if I cannot find it on Qoo10, I would try Lazada. Sharing the list of the items I bought from Qoo10 for your reference (I had earlier shared some of these items in my other posts and I am reposting them here for easier reference as well).

Maternity Items

Breast Pump and Accessories

I bought my breast pump, the Spectra S1+ from this seller and my review for my purchase can be found in my earlier post. Pump-wise, as I have not used any other breast pump before, I am unable to compare the Spectra S1+ pump to other pumps. However, I feel that the Spectra S1+ had been able to meet my needs of pumping effectively – I am able to clear my breasts most of the time except for the few occasions when I had engorgement. I also like its battery life as one charge overnight is able to last me throughout the day for my pumps.

For my pumping accessories such as flanges and valves, I bought them from Ms Mom. On my third day post delivery, I started to experience breast engorgement. The masseur I engaged for breast massage explained that the standard Spectra flanges I was using were inappropriate for me and suggested the appropriate flange sizes. It took me two rounds of adjustment to finally get the correct flange sizes for my nipples. When my order for the flanges was still being processed and I realised I needed a change in the flange size, the seller was not only kind enough to exchange it, she even came all the way to my place to exchange it for me as she knew I had bad engorgement and needed to use the correct flange size to pump efficiently and clear my breasts! Omg! This surprised me greatly. She did not have to do that but she went out of her way to ensure I got the correct flanges.

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I was not keen on getting a good breast pump initially as I was afraid that I would not have sufficient breast milk to make my purchase worthwhile. While I eventually did invest in a good pump, I did not purchase much accessories for fear of waste. Hence, I only had the two Spectra bottles which came with my purchase of my breast pump. When I realised I needed more bottles for pumping and storing as well as breastmilk storage bags for freezing even (!), I bought them from these sellers: AsterBaby and YouHaveABaby.sg. I also bought my breast milk collector from the latter seller. I bought Autumnz wide neck bottles which are compatible to Spectra S1+ so I can pump directly into them, as well as their cute breast milk storage bags. I absolutely adore the designs on their bags! However, having used some of the free breast milk storage bags which I got, I found Autumnz bags to be a little too stiff for my liking. I realised I prefer Bambino and Tommee Tippee bags and would get them after I finish my current Autumnz bags.

Maternity and Nursing Essentials

After I got sent up to the maternity ward after my delivery in KKH, the ward nurse passed me a box of cooling maternity pads. According to her, these cooling pads not only can help to relieve some pain in my vaginal area, it could also help to reduce any swelling. Hence, while I did not feel much pain, she advised me to still wear these pads for the initial few days post-delivery to reduce the swelling. After I was discharged, Sunshine bought these pads for my use throughout my confinement period (I did not use these cooling pads all day as they were expensive and as mentioned, I generally did not feel any pain below other than some occasional aching feeling. Rather, I would use at least one cooling pad each day to reduce any swelling which I might have but cannot see). I bought Belvea Instant Cold Perineal Pads and Sofy Cooling Fresh. I used the former more when I was first discharged as it is much thicker and provides a better cooling feeling. According to my other mummy friends, they received this brand of cooling pads when they delivered at Mt Alvernia. As my episiotomy wound gradually healed, I switched to the latter (Sofy Cooling Fresh) as I no longer required my pads to be very cooling and as it was cheaper and less cumbersome as compared to the former (Belvea pads cost $6 a piece! However, this was still cheaper than the ones used in KKH, where it costed $37 for a box of three pads!). The seller for Belvea pads gave some moisturising cream samples, which were safe for babies’ usage. Yay to free samples!

I bought my nursing bras from Maternity Express (design 3) and I am very happy with my purchase. Initially, I bought two different designs and after it was delivered, I realised I did not like one of the cutting of the bras and requested for an exchange. Seller was prompt and efficient in advising me on the exchange process, as well as providing me a refund (the design I did not like costed more than the one I exchanged to and seller refunded me the difference). These nursing bras are very comfortable and they provided adequate support.

I did not buy any hands-free bra initially because I was thinking that I could just hold my own bottles during pumping and did not see the need to get this. However, after pumping for a week, I realised the importance of hands-free nursing bras! In addition to freeing up my hands for me to do my own stuffs (even if it was just a simple surfing of the net on my phone), the hands-free bras also allowed me to rest my arms instead of having to push my bottles tightly against my breasts to prevent any leakage of milk. One of my mummy friends recommended HAPPY MOMS (design 3 as well). This seller was very thoughtful to give me a free bra extender and included a generic thank you note in my purchase. I subsequently realised that actually, I could have bought the same hands-free bras from where I got my normal nursing bras as the hands-free bras sold by that seller looked the same as the one I bought. Damn! I should have bought these two together and save on some shipping fees.

Supplements

As shared in one of my earlier posts, I drank Brand’s Essence of Chicken and Bird’s Nest. I bought these as they were being sold at a much cheaper price than retail during their time sales/ promotional periods. You can monitor their prices if you are interested to get them.