She said it was either very atypical mastitis, or an infection from a human bite. I am on FOUR medications. Ick!
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Showing posts with label breastfeeding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breastfeeding. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Vampire Baby
My OB (who I adore) got me in yesterday. He treated my bouts of mastitis, but he looked at the weird red streaking and said, "I have never seen that! Let me grab the determatologist."
She said it was either very atypical mastitis, or an infection from a human bite. I am on FOUR medications. Ick!
She said it was either very atypical mastitis, or an infection from a human bite. I am on FOUR medications. Ick!
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Nursing Saga
When Maddie was born, my milk coming in (and then leaving) were incredibly emotional experiences. I so wanted to feed my baby with that, and it broke my heart when it went away, as if my body were forgetting her. Because of all of this, I knew without a doubt that I was going to be incredibly determined to breastfeed with Alice. I was going to start off with small goals (3 months, then 6 months, etc.), and try to attain each separately.
We started off incredibly rough. A lost over 10% of her body weight in the hospital, and they almost didn’t let us leave on the last day. My milk finally came in, and we were allowed to leave. All went well for a week or two, and then things went south. She was losing weight, my ni.pples were bloody and cracked, so they wanted us to supplement with formula. I got mastitis (103 degree fever and all), and my supply dropped a ton. I started seeing a lactation consultant, and we found that Alice’s tongue was too short and her palate too high – she wasn’t able to properly nurse. I started pumping almost exclusively but still nursing her on occasion, and we did that for several months. Due to my PCOS, the supply issues were very difficult to deal with, but I was able to fix them with a TON of work and dedication – she’s only probably ever had about ten bottles of formula. Around four months, she was big enough that we were able to switch to nursing while I was home, and things went well. I had one more bout of mastitis and about nine clogged ducts, a blood blister and one case of thrush, but it’s been much improved. I’ve been incredibly proud that The Pickle turned 8 months yesterday, and despite having just about every problem possible, we have battled through this to do what I felt was best for her.
Then she bit me.
To be accurate, she’s been biting for a while off and on, mostly when she’s ready to switch sides or is bored. This one on Saturday was awful, though. She just had the first bit of her first tooth poke through a week and a half ago, and so she bit me hard enough that I bled. And bled. I bled when she nursed. I bled when I pumped. Finally I got it to stop bleeding by Sunday morning, and have been putting Bacitra.cin and lanolin on it after every nursing session. However, during last night’s nursing sessions, the pain got a ton worse. It felt like I was getting stabbed – I have had radiation and several surgeries, but THIS was horrible. It kept me up a good portion of the night, and it’s incredibly sore all of the time – I found a little bit of white on it this morning. I have a call in to my OB/GYN, because I’m pretty sure that it’s infected.
I don’t, don’t, don’t want to wean her, but this is awful. Any words of advice? I’m just getting ready to clock in to work, but would appreciate any words of wisdom anyone may have! It was (and still is) my intention to nurse her until a year, and then to mix nursing with whole milk.
We started off incredibly rough. A lost over 10% of her body weight in the hospital, and they almost didn’t let us leave on the last day. My milk finally came in, and we were allowed to leave. All went well for a week or two, and then things went south. She was losing weight, my ni.pples were bloody and cracked, so they wanted us to supplement with formula. I got mastitis (103 degree fever and all), and my supply dropped a ton. I started seeing a lactation consultant, and we found that Alice’s tongue was too short and her palate too high – she wasn’t able to properly nurse. I started pumping almost exclusively but still nursing her on occasion, and we did that for several months. Due to my PCOS, the supply issues were very difficult to deal with, but I was able to fix them with a TON of work and dedication – she’s only probably ever had about ten bottles of formula. Around four months, she was big enough that we were able to switch to nursing while I was home, and things went well. I had one more bout of mastitis and about nine clogged ducts, a blood blister and one case of thrush, but it’s been much improved. I’ve been incredibly proud that The Pickle turned 8 months yesterday, and despite having just about every problem possible, we have battled through this to do what I felt was best for her.
Then she bit me.
To be accurate, she’s been biting for a while off and on, mostly when she’s ready to switch sides or is bored. This one on Saturday was awful, though. She just had the first bit of her first tooth poke through a week and a half ago, and so she bit me hard enough that I bled. And bled. I bled when she nursed. I bled when I pumped. Finally I got it to stop bleeding by Sunday morning, and have been putting Bacitra.cin and lanolin on it after every nursing session. However, during last night’s nursing sessions, the pain got a ton worse. It felt like I was getting stabbed – I have had radiation and several surgeries, but THIS was horrible. It kept me up a good portion of the night, and it’s incredibly sore all of the time – I found a little bit of white on it this morning. I have a call in to my OB/GYN, because I’m pretty sure that it’s infected.
I don’t, don’t, don’t want to wean her, but this is awful. Any words of advice? I’m just getting ready to clock in to work, but would appreciate any words of wisdom anyone may have! It was (and still is) my intention to nurse her until a year, and then to mix nursing with whole milk.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
On the Horns of a Dilemma
I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I've been trying to spend every minute I can with Alice.
Right now I'm on the horns of a dilemma. For two weeks, nursing was going amazing. She was gaining weight like a champ, I had plenty of milk, etc. Unfortunately, nobody had told me that I needed to pump out whatever she wasn't eating... so, I developed a horrible case of mastitis last weekend. Chills, fever of 102, aches, redness, swelling, etc. I had to make several trips to Urgent Care, but saw my OB on Monday - he put me on a new drug, and also on something to try and increase my milk production. This is necessary because Alice went from 8 lbs on Friday (before mastitis set in) to 7 lbs 12.5 oz on Monday (after it was in swing). Her pediatrician started us supplementing with formula.
The Reg.lan alone isn't working to increase production, so we're doing the Lactation Consultant Services thing at the hospital. She has me feeding Alice on the non-affected breast every two to three hours. Then, I need to pump the right breast (at least through tomorrow). Then, I have to supplement her with either formula or expressed milk. On a schedule of every two to three hours, this process takes up at least an hour (especially when you throw in cleaning pump parts and bottles, etc.).
I so want to breastfeed. I want to go back to how I was last week when I had plenty of milk, and could just nurse my baby and go. I want to have that closeness with her looking in my eyes, and me singing to her as she eats. Right now, it doesn't feel like the process we're doing is working, and I'm not a very patient person. I am just at a loss as to what to do - I want to give my baby the best, but I am working on absolutely no sleep, and am just frazzled. I don't want to go to formula, but what is the best solution? Do I just keep doing this short-term, and try and figure it out?
That was horrible - I hope it doesn't sound at all like I'm not 100% grateful for her. I just want to do the best for this little miracle - I love to hold her and spend time with her, and this all is cutting into that. (And I only have four more weeks of maternity leave left.) I just want to do what is best for this little girl who is so wanted and loved, and to be able to give her as much of my attention and affection as I can. Any advice from anyone would be awesome.
Right now I'm on the horns of a dilemma. For two weeks, nursing was going amazing. She was gaining weight like a champ, I had plenty of milk, etc. Unfortunately, nobody had told me that I needed to pump out whatever she wasn't eating... so, I developed a horrible case of mastitis last weekend. Chills, fever of 102, aches, redness, swelling, etc. I had to make several trips to Urgent Care, but saw my OB on Monday - he put me on a new drug, and also on something to try and increase my milk production. This is necessary because Alice went from 8 lbs on Friday (before mastitis set in) to 7 lbs 12.5 oz on Monday (after it was in swing). Her pediatrician started us supplementing with formula.
The Reg.lan alone isn't working to increase production, so we're doing the Lactation Consultant Services thing at the hospital. She has me feeding Alice on the non-affected breast every two to three hours. Then, I need to pump the right breast (at least through tomorrow). Then, I have to supplement her with either formula or expressed milk. On a schedule of every two to three hours, this process takes up at least an hour (especially when you throw in cleaning pump parts and bottles, etc.).
I so want to breastfeed. I want to go back to how I was last week when I had plenty of milk, and could just nurse my baby and go. I want to have that closeness with her looking in my eyes, and me singing to her as she eats. Right now, it doesn't feel like the process we're doing is working, and I'm not a very patient person. I am just at a loss as to what to do - I want to give my baby the best, but I am working on absolutely no sleep, and am just frazzled. I don't want to go to formula, but what is the best solution? Do I just keep doing this short-term, and try and figure it out?
That was horrible - I hope it doesn't sound at all like I'm not 100% grateful for her. I just want to do the best for this little miracle - I love to hold her and spend time with her, and this all is cutting into that. (And I only have four more weeks of maternity leave left.) I just want to do what is best for this little girl who is so wanted and loved, and to be able to give her as much of my attention and affection as I can. Any advice from anyone would be awesome.
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