There I gave you the baby update, now you have to endure the update on the sore nipples. Sorry if this is TMI, but I need to vent and hopefully there won't be any more big cries over this either.
By last weekend I had decided that I needed to go to a LLL meeting to get some help. By Monday, I decided that I couldn't wait until Thursday the 26th (the date of the next meeting in our area) and called the support line. Between my own reading and the advice from the leader, I was pretty sure the cause of the nipple/breast pain was thrush. (Not surprising considering the anti-biotics I got after my surgery.) The plan was to ask my GP for a prescription for an anit-fungal at Cleo's 2 week check up. Then at 9 pm Monday, I came down with a wicked fever and breast pain + fever = mastitis. The doctor confirmed it at Cleo's appointment and now I'm on more anti-biotics (and probiotics too, just in case I don't already have thrush.)
By this morning the fever was milder but my right nipple was so sore and cracked from nursing on that side every 2 hours (to try to clear up the plugged duct) that I was bawling every time Cleo latched on. I couldn't continue like that so I called the LLL again. I am now nursing with a nipple shield and the crack looks a little better. Hopefully I won't have to start pumping and I can get this infection cleared up before the cluster feeding for the 3 week growth spurt starts.
I am so tired of having to fight to have the things I want, like a live baby and being able to breast feed that baby. I swore that after the horrible start to breast feeding I had with D (it took 2 months to heal the cracked nipples and clear up the thrush) that I would be better educated and not have to through that torture again, but here I am again. And with a raging fever and night sweats to add to the fun. I just want something to be easy or go as planned.
Thanks for enduring all that. Here's your reward, a picture of C.S. taken by her adoring big sister:
How beautiful!! So sorry for all the bfing pain :( I worry about that happening to me too (((hugs)))
ReplyDeleteAwe! I had some issues with breastfeeding, it just hurt like hell the first week or two. The lactation consultant at the hospital said he was a breastfeeding champ though. I wore these guards, not a nipple shield but something else that went in my bra, for a while because I couldn't even have anything touch my nipples they were so sensitive. Now we are doing well, except he did give me blister or something a month ago and OUCH! I don't know if it was that or a clogged duct but it's gone now. I hope it gets better for you, it is NO fun!
ReplyDeleteOh, she's sweet!
ReplyDeleteI am SO sorry about the nipple/breast pain. I had moments where I would cry BEFORE B latched, because I knew it was going to hurt. Hope the infection clears up soon, smart of you to be on probiotics.