Mastitis

I got to 'celebrate' Nathan turning six months old by discovering I had (and still have) mastitis.  Yay.  After dropping down to only pumping twice daily, my one nipple started to really crack and the other started to bleed.  Yay.  Pumping was not pleasant, but I persisted.  This past Thursday I started feeling 'off' during the afternoon, so when Jon came home from school I left him to watch the three kids and went upstairs to nap for an hour before dinner.  Later that evening, I broke out into a fever and went to bed at 9:15pm.  By the next morning (Good Friday) my fever was gone, but I had light-red patch of red on my breast...so I figured it was mastitis.  Off to the clinic I went.  Apparently everyone needs a clinic first thing on a holiday Friday, because when I arrived there 10 minutes before the clinic opened there was already a lineup of about 10 people.  The doctor confirmed my diagnosis and gave me a prescription for antibiotics.

After being on antibiotics for two days I haven't noticed a whole lot of change.  I'm not sick at all (I was only sick that Thursday evening), thank goodness.  I've started pumping three times a day again, to get over this quicker, and within half an hour after my pumping session is over and for the next hour or two my breast feels like it is constantly being poked my needles.  Not pleasant.  I think it helps if I have a heating pad on it after I'm done pumping, so that's what I try to do.

Where do I go from here?  I definitely had cracking/bleeding issues when I was pumping for Matthew and Kayla, but I pushed then because the cost of two babies on formula was not something I wanted to consider.  But I also had an easier time dropping pump sessions for them.  I have no desire to be in discomfort from cracking/bleeding/infections this time around...but I still don't want to necessarily stop pumping yet.  And once you get Mastitis once, you're more susceptible to it.  A tough decision that no one can make for me.  At least we've made it to the six month mark right now!  With the rough start I had with feeding Nathan in the beginning I never would have imagined he would be drinking 99% breastmilk (seriously...he's only had 2oz of formula this past month, I believe)!