(EeLin) Shopping List for Confinement - For the New Mum

This post is for sis in law, Ee Lin (hope I got the spelling right ;p) who just gave birth to a little baby on 1st Jan. Congratulations! And for any other new mums who find it useful, I'm gonna give a few posts about the things that I did when I was in confinement. I also did some earlier posts on Post Natal and Confinement - just check out my Label Cloud to see if they can help you too.

This one here is about the shopping list for confinement - for the new mum. I'll write another for the new baby. This was what I did. It may or may not be exactly what you really want but I would say that it wouldn't run far.

For the Mummy:

• Sarong and loose T-shirts -- for comfort. And the Chinese believe that ladies after child birth cannot be exposed to wind...it's up to you to believe. I'm quite banana and only believe 'pantangs' selectively, much to some older folks annoyance, hehe :)
• Disposable panties (optional) - in case of heavy flows and it is expected
• Socks - same reason above. The feet must be warm, they say
• Jumper/Jacket/Pashminas -- again same reason
• Sanitary pads -- here, I'd advise that you go for the cheap adhesive ones like Inoko that costs about RM5 for pack of 3. You need the softness and the padding. IF you go for the regular winged, thin and plastic ones, you'll hurt down there (for those who did natural births). Since its cheap, you can double it up. In fact, the padding makes it less painful.
• Rock Salt and plastic basin.. this is for the wound. Get a basin that you can sit on. Just before you bath, put a spoon of rock salt in the basin and fill it up to 1/3 with warm water. There is no need to get all the rock salt to melt. It'll take forever. Just sit in the basin (careful, water will spill over) for about 5 mins and then bath.
• Dettol Shower Gel. My gynae's recommendation. He didn't believe the pantang stuff about not bathing. In fact, hygiene is more important here. Bath with Dettol Shower Gel that has disinfectant ingredients
• 'Tumbuk' ('jung hump' in cantonese) to crush the ginger and kunyit. This is a must.
• Double boil pot and/or slow cooker - to cook your herbs and medicine.
• Some Dome and brandy in the house - your confinement lady will know what to do.
• Chinese medicine and herbs - ask your confinement lady what she wants
• Flask for red dates water. Again, here Chinese believe that you cannot drink any water but red dates water for xx days. Don't ask me what I did. As I said, I'm not exactly a very good 'follower'.
• Lots of pails -- Chinese again. They say new mums can only wash hands and face and bath in cooked water. Not heated shower also. Something along the lines of 'masuk angin'. I pity my confinement lady. She actually boiled pails and pails of water. Some left to cool for cold cooked water and some hot to mix in. And then, there will be lots of soiled clothes. If your hubby pantang, you have to separate your 'dirty' clothes from his.
• Massage lotion - I recommend Atika brand for Ginger and Lemon extract. This is a Malay product which you can get it from Malay stalls or shops selling Malay products. Very good!
• Bengkung wrap for the urut (the long long cloth to wrap your tummy and thigh). You can ask around. Not sure where to get as I borrowed mine. Ee Lin, I passed you mine already.
• Girdle. If you want to slim down fast, wear the girdle as often as you can.
• Breast pads. You will leak when you lactate!
• Breast pump - best borrow. Too expensive
• Bed plastic lining (optional). In case, you leak and dirty your linen
• Chinese Wine and Sesame oil. I'm sure this go without saying.
• and lastly, have enough pots and pans for the confinement lady to cook for you.

While you are at it, rest well. You have the perfect reason to laze out and you need to. When I had Ryan, I didn't rest enough and was picky with food. Took me 6 months to revert to my 'before' stamina and health level. When I had Raymund, I was good and ate whatever was on the table. I rested a lot with noon naps and so on. I was pink with health within a month.

Another thing to fast recovery, eat a lot and don't think about dieting at this stage. You need a lot of food, good food if you breast feed and for recovery. Not just that, eat what the confinement lady makes for you. Don't be picky. They know what they are doing.. at least most of them do. Rest well and leave the little one to the confinement lady. Remember, once the confinement lady leaves at the end of 1 month, the baby is all yours to take care. Believe me, you wouldn't have enough rest then.

The next post will talk about the baby. Not today. I gotta sleep already. Tomorrow is another ordeal with Raymund and new his kindy.