Blocked Duct/Mastitis

Bitsy and I haven't been able to breastfeed quite the way I had hoped since we got home from the hospital.

From the beginning her jaundice made her too tired to latch for long.

Since her jaundice had already almost kept her in the hospital we had been forced to pump and feed her via a bottle.

But as long as it was/is breast milk I'm still happy.

About day 3 I suffered engorgement, which is VERY common as the milk comes in.

We trucked through that with cabbage leaves and ice packs and lots of pumping.

But Monday afternoon we planned to go to the park with Bitsy and I decided to take a quick shower first.

While I was in the shower I got the chills and no matter how hot I made the water I was still cold.

I came out of the bathroom and told Bud I wasn't feeling well and we decided to cancel our walk.

A little while later I took my temperature.

101.7!

I was in shock.

I took some Tylenol and laid down and within an hour my fever was gone.

I decided that I would sleep on the couch just in case I was sick (I didn't want Bud to get sick) and Bitsy slept next to me in her bouncer that night.

Around 3 a.m. I had the chills again so I took another dose of Tylenol and drifted back to sleep.

Bud went to work and I spent the morning doing my research on what was wrong with me.

Mid-morning the fever returned, 101.3, another dose of Tylenol and within 45 minutes the fever was gone.

Mastitis, according to BabyCenter, is what they call it when tissue of the breast becomes painfully inflamed.  Some, but not all cases may be an infection.  It can be caused by engorgement and/or blocked ducts.  Blocked ducts occur when your body produces milk faster than it is getting taken out and it get's backed up.

I started home treatment based on the above prognosis and pumped every hour or two.

I also started massaging the spot where it felt blocked.

I slept on the couch again Tuesday night despite not having a fever for 12 hours.

Wednesday morning I awoke feeling MUCH better!

In fact I actually felt like doing some things around the house which was a miracle. 

I opted to sleep on the couch again last night just for the ease of it.

It's a relief knowing we are on the road to recovery!

I still feel like there might be a blocked duct, but I'll keep up treating it with massage, moist/warm compressions, and constant expressions.

Now I just have to work hard not to let this happen again.

No one ever tells you how much work breastfeeding can be.

Despite hitting every roadblock on the way, I'm just glad that pumping is providing Bitsy with the milk she needs!

I still have hope that we can get away from the bottle, I just ordered a few nipple shields which have been linked to help with nipple confusion.  

I figure that since she is used to the texture of the bottle now this will help transition her off of it and onto me.  

I've heard the pros and cons of using a nipple shields and I guess I'll just take my chances.

One of the cons people say is that baby can get addicted to the shield and never latch to the breast, but since she isn't really latching now it just seems that her being addicted to a small piece of latex attached to me is better than her being addicted to a piece of latex attached to a bottle.

If anyone has any advice about shields, mastitis, blocked ducts, and or exclusive pumping I'm all ears!

I hope you all had a Blessed Thursday!