This post is a continuation of my earlier post about the various trials and tribulations I’ve experienced while breastfeeding. Since I had so much to write, I thought it would be best to  write several posts instead of one giant one.

In Part 1, I talked about latching, long feeds, and painful feedings. Part 2 continues with further adventures….

Mastitis

Just when I felt like I was getting comfortable with breastfeeding, one afternoon when Baby Boy was about a month old, my left breast suddenly started to hurt a lot. This was accompanied by fever and chills and a general flu like feeling, as well as some redness on the side of my breast. I went to see my doctor the next day who confirmed that I had mastitis, and prescribed antibiotics for ten days. The antibiotics worked quickly, and the fever and pain subsided the next day, though I felt quite weak and tired for a few days.

Mastitis: the Sequel

About a week after I finished the antibiotics, I woke up one morning, and my left breast felt like it was on fire. I couldn’t concentrate on anything but the pain, and the entire bottom half of my breast was bright red as if I had a sunburn. Since it was a Saturday, I went to a walk-in clinic, and got prescribed another round of antibiotics. Once again, the antibiotics seemed to work quickly. On Sunday, I felt much better, however Monday night, my right breast got sore, and the fever was back.

While before, my fever had quickly subsided with tylenol, this time, even after taking 2 extra strength tylenols, my fever kept rising over the course of several hours from 38.5C (101.3F) all the way to 39.7C (103.5F). It finally broke, which was a huge relief. It came back briefly the next day, but never got as high, and responded well to the tylenol. While I really should have gone back to the doctor at this point, we were heading up to my inlaws’ cottage Wednesday morning, and I couldn’t get an appointment with my doctor before we left, so I decided that things looked to be under control, and carried on.

A few days later, my left breast was again quite sore one evening, but I didn’t have a fever, and after a few hours, the pain passed. Then, when I was almost done the ten day round of antibiotics, I started to feel feverish and searing pain returned to my breast. I went to see the urgent care doctor that evening. He was quite concerned that the fever and infection were back despite the antibiotics, and he prescribed a strong dose of another antibiotic, indicating that if this one did not work within a few days then the next step would be IV antibiotics at the hospital (yikes!).

Thankfully the antibiotic was effective and I started to feel better. The antibiotic itself was quite rough on my system though, and I had noticeable stomach irritation, as well as bad heartburn. After about 8 days, I developed a rash which started on my forearms, then quickly spread to my legs and the rest of my body. It started out as small red bumps, turning to big red blotches (especially where my skin rubbed against itself). It was a little itchy, but more than that it burned. I went back to my doctor who confirmed my suspicions that I was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. After a few days of taking over the counter allergy medication and spreading calamine lotion all over myself, with little to no change in the rash, I moved to Plan B and took the steroid that my Dr. had prescribed, which finally got the rash to subside.

Hopefully that is the last I see of mastitis, not the least because I don’t know what my treatment options would be next time around.

Supply (and Demand)

Throughout the ups and downs, I have comforted myself with the thought that unlike many people I know I am lucky to have enough supply. However around the time of the mastitis saga, even my normally dependable supply let me down, resulting in a significant level of formula supplementation for the first time (upto that time, I had only done one formula feeding on the day after my milk first came in). After a few days,  my supply went back to normal and I went back to exclusively breastfeeding/pumping for Baby Boy’s dietary needs.

Baby Boy and I then enjoyed a golden month of breastfeeding. Things were not perfect: I was still feeding him primarily on the right side; and my few halfhearted attempts at figuring out how to position him for feeding in public were epic fails (I finally decided that until he’s at a point where he can be satisfied with shorter feeds, being able to feed in public is not a priority for me). Since my supply was back up, I did not have to worry about supplementing with formula, and I often had a bottle or two for future feeds ready to go in the fridge.

I should mention here that Baby Boy is a good eater. From about 1.5 to 2.5 months, Baby Boy would consume 150ml (5oz)  at a time during his bottle feeds. By this time, I had determined that 20 minutes was the optimal pumping time for me, resulting in a typical yield of 150ml to 220ml (7.4oz). At 2.5 months we noticed that often Baby Boy was still drinking pretty hard at the end of the bottle, and the odd time that we gave him a bit extra he took it no problem. So we increased his bottle feeds to 180ml (6oz) to 200ml (6.8oz) at a time. The increased demand put some pressure on me, but for the most part I was still able to pump enough for his bottle feeds.

Then, in the first week of October when Baby Boy was 3.5 months old, the pumping suddenly went to hell. After several days of record yields (3 days in a row where I had a pumping session that yielded over 300ml or 10.1oz), I was suddenly unable to get more than 100ml (3.4oz). On the day after I had a pump session that yielded 330ml (11.2oz) – a record for me – I had a pump that yielded only 40ml (1.4oz).  I then had a stretch of about five and half days where most sessions yielded between 70ml (2.4oz) and 90ml (3oz) and I barely got anything above 100ml.

I found this turn of events really distressing because I had no idea what caused it. I was pumping with the same frequency as before, and I could not identify anything that had changed in my routine. I started to wonder if maybe my pump had lost some of its suction, so I did all of the maintenance and cleaning that was recommended, with no discernible result. Since I could not pump enough at a time for even half a bottle, we ended up using a lot of formula to make up the difference. I continued to breastfeed, hoping that Baby Boy could get enough milk on his own, but worrying that this was not the case.

I finally decided to rent a pump from the hospital (which I had originally done when Baby Boy was first born) to see if I could get more milk than from my pump, but right before I was to call to rent the pump, I suddenly had a pump session that yielded 240ml (8oz). And just like that, I was back to yields of 150ml to 220ml.

I’m now back to good pumping yields and relatively hassle free feeding. I’m hoping that (once again!) the worst is behind me and that the breastfeeding experience will be overwhelmingly positive from here on in. I do have more to say on the topic of breastfeeding, and now that I have summarized what my experience has been to date, I will finally write the breastfeeding post that I originally intended to write. Stay tuned!