The baby was not fat, but not skinny either, he was above average. His mother assured Miao Fengqin that her grandson would certainly start eating in his first month. After all, the living conditions were good, and Miao Fengqin had given them plenty of chicken eggs, white flour, and rice. The day after the baby was born, Feng Qingxue instructed Lu Jiang to send over twenty to thirty more eggs, two bags of brown sugar, and a bag of millet.
But everything did not go as she predicted.
Wang Jiao was heavier than any pig, but her breast milk was pitifully scarce, insufficient for the baby.
Zhang Yuejin slaughtered a pig and brought back a pair of pig trotters. With some aged yellow soybeans and peanuts, he made a small pot of soup. Wang Jiao drank it all in one meal, but the breastmilk the next morning was only enough for Goudan’s one meal.
Goudan is Zhang Yuejin’s son. His proper name, given by Wang Zhengguo, is Zhang Heng - ’Heng’ as in perseverance.
The bag of milk powder they had prepared in advance was quickly consumed. Now what?
Zhang Yuejin was so worried that he almost tore off his eyebrows.
"I must not be eating well, that’s why I don’t have enough breast milk." Wrapped in a quilt, Wang Jiao lay in bed. "That day you brought me the pig trotters, I had milk the next day after eating them at night. But now that I see no meat, the milk is gone."
Zhang Yuejin gave a bitter smile, "I only get four ounces of pork a month."
To care for Wang Jiao after childbirth, he had gone to great lengths to get three pounds of meat, sugar tickets, and egg tickets from colleagues and friends, saving them for her postpartum period. But she had exhausted it all, devouring meat at every meal!
Now, Wang Jiao eats five meals a day, and each of the two meals must include a bowl of noodles and four eggs, or four eggs in a bowl of brown sugar tea.
The other three meals were just coarse grains and plain food like the rest.
Three pounds of meat in a month, it was not enough for Wang Jiao even to pick her teeth with.
Yuejin’s mother gritted her teeth, "We still have two old hens at home, waiting for your wife’s postpartum period. You go out and kill one first, divide it into two halves, and cook it into a pot, making it tender for your wife."
Wang Jiao had been eyeing those two old hens even during her pregnancy, but she was not willing to kill them.
Wang Jiao suddenly started smiling, "Yes, yes, yes, the old hen needs to be stewed for an entire day to be bitten apart. Yuejin, hurry up and kill it, start cooking it early. While stewing, add some hazelnut mushrooms that Xiaoxue got from Lu Jiang’s Northeast comrade."
"I’ll go now, I’ll go now." As Zhang Yuejin said this, he couldn’t help but add, "But Goudan can’t wait for the milk to come in!"
His mother advised, "Your wife’s cousin is well-nurtured. Look at how her child Xibao has grown, and I’ve never heard her mention weaning Xibao. You go... wait, I’ll go and ask her to feed Goudan a meal. You stay home and cook the chicken. You should send a bowl to Xiaoxue. Goudan can’t starve."
Isn’t he crying now? Without breast milk and milk powder, he could only be fed a little rice soup.
Zhang Yuejin felt a bit embarrassed, "Are you sure it will work?"
"I’ll go ask." His mother said, isn’t asking the only way to know the answer?
Though everybody’s life has notably improved compared to two years ago, aren’t half of meals still vegetables and grains? Everyone saves food for emergencies, and the result of scrimping is that there are few breastfeeding mothers who have enough milk. Many children have no milk after birth, and being able to drink some rice or millet porridge is already a luxury.