February 6

Eli and I had doctor visits again this morning - Eli for a weight check, and me for a recheck of my mastitis.

Eli rocked his appointment, clocking in at 5 lb, 6.5 oz. That's an ounce shy of his birth weight, and up 3.5 ounces from Monday. Pretty impressive, given that he's only been able to nurse on one side!

I, however, did not rock my appointment. My mastitis hasn't gotten worse, but it has only improved veeeery slightly. I'm still in a considerable amount of pain, and the infection is not as severe, but has spread to cover more area. My doc prescribed a new antibiotic (that's #4 now) and an antibiotic ointment. She had me express some milk for a culture, to determine exactly which bacteria is inhabiting my breast. And she sent me to the local hospital for an ultrasound of my breast, to determine whether we were looking at merely clogged milk ducts, or an abscess. 

Luckily, the  radiologist was able to give me results right away: no abscess. So at least I don't have to suffer through the process of having the thing drained. Instead, I have to deal with the pain and infection until the antibiotics do their job. Eli was a champ and slept in his car seat through the whole thing, even though I had to wait more than an hour for my ultrasound. 

Four hours later, we finally made it home. Eli and I were both exhausted, and we collapsed into bed.

This sweet boy spent his whole afternoon sleeping and eating, but I only got to rest for about 30 minutes.

I'm continuing to pump milk from the side with mastitis, and Chris feeds that milk to Eli in a bottle after I've finished feeding him on my good side. Our doctor prescribed a method of bottle feeding that will hopefully keep Eli from preferring a bottle to the breast, and Chris has mastered it. 

Side note: I love that Chris is snuggling Eli, wearing his Jimi Hendrix shirt, because it reminds me of this picture of Chris snuggling brand-new baby Caleb, five and a half years ago.

Whats especially funny is that in this picture, Caleb 8 days old, and Eli is 9 days old today. I love that Jimi has a tradition of photo bombing our family pictures!