Mastitis

Well 5 weeks into my breastfeeding journey I have developed a breast infection.

The night before I had any symptoms R woke up every 4 hours for a feed (prior to this he had lengthened his feeding gaps to 5 or 6 hours). This meant that the next night my breasts produced a lot more milk and got very full when he went back to only waking every 6 hours.

My left breast was so full it started leaking milk and was big and uncomfortable. I ended up sleeping on that side and in the morning it was very painful.

The pain did not ease when R emptied it and in fact anywhere below the nipple that I touched or that was pressed against would hurt. It didn't improve during the day so I made an appointment to see a doctor and was prescribed antibiotics (cephalexin).

They had started working by the next morning but seem to have affected R badly ... causing him tummy upsets and large and explosive poos.

I have been eating yogurt to see if that will help my digestive system but it doesn't seem to be helping R.

Last night he woke every 3 to 4 hours for a feed and today his longest sleep was 2 hours ... leaving me hardly any time for lunch and no other jobs unless I was prepared to do them while he screamed.

Every time I put him down for a sleep he would wake up and yell and nothing except picking him up and breastfeeding him would calm him.

Uni is on afternoon shift at the moment so I had to pick up kt from school and look after her and feed her and read her stories etc as well as try and keep R calm.

Kt was actually a good helper ... and has calmed him down herself several times.

She is a really terrific big sister and I am relaxing a little more knowing that she knows to be gentle and is caring and affectionate and interested in her baby brother.

He really loves her too!

The other morning when he woke up we both went in to greet him in preparation for bringing him along to school with us.

He looked up at Kt and gave her the biggest grin! It lasted for ages and his mouth was wide open and he was looking right into her eyes!!!

Just lovely.

I got a few big smiles just for me, later on in the day too but Kt's was the biggest!!!

I should really be trying to sleep now, but I need to "talk" about my day.

I am not sure how he will go tonight but I am mentally preparing myself to just hold him all night if necessary.

Tomorrow is our 6 week check up ... mine to see if everything has healed and is generally back to normal after the birth and R to check he is growing and make sure his heart is fine and there are no other problems.

Up until this week I would have fairly confidently have said I was handling things pretty well ... but very little time to myself and interrupted sleep and clothes and ironing and mess piling up and uni having just started afternoon shift (leaving me to look after kt from school pick up time right through to bed time) have pushed me close to the edge.

I still have another 3 days on antibiotics so hopefully this will not last for the whole of that time.

Kt starts holidays from tomorrow as well so everything is happening at once... and uni has had to spend more time at work for the past 2 weeks and also during the upcoming school holidays while another shift is on their annual holidays.

Feeling better now that I have written it all down.

Blogging is very cathartic.