Sorry for the late post; Mom, I hope you didn't stay up all night waiting for it and worrying when it didn't come! The mentor mom at our MOPS table invited all of the moms at our table to her house for dinner, so Eli and I spent a lovely evening talking, laughing, and eating with friends. Or rather, I spent the evening talking, laughing, and eating with one hand because Eli wanted to be held and nurse most of the evening. Poor child. Anyway, I got home late and was too tired to blog. But it was an eventful day.
Do you remember how I posted the other day that Eli was finally figuring out how to nurse normally? Well. I jinxed myself. Yesterday afternoon I began feeling some unusual soreness. By today, it had spread to both sides, and was constant, not just during nursing. At first I thought it might be mastitis again, but then I decided it was probably thrush, which is a yeast infection of the breasts. At 8:45 this morning I sent a note to my doctor; when I hadn't heard back by 9:45, I called the office to make an appointment. I knew I felt "off" enough that I needed to be seen, whether it was thrush or a really bad latch. I needed help. I wasn't miserable, but I was definitely uncomfortable and wanted to nip the situation in the bud.
In the meantime, Daisy went to preschool, came home, and she and Lily enjoyed lunch al fresco.
It was really cute: Daisy pulled one of the chairs up to the picnic table, and ate her lunch sitting in the chair and resting her feet on the table's bench. As soon as Lily saw that, she worked with all her might to bring a chair of her own over to the table, then asked me to help her so that she could sit like Daisy. These girls are hilarious.
I put them both down for naps, and just as I got Lily to sleep, Chris came home from work. My doctor was only able to get me in at 2:30, so Chris had to leave work to stay with the girls so I could be seen. I am so thankful that he values my health and my ability to breastfeed our children as much as I do!
While we waited for the doctor, I weighed Eli.
7 lbs, 15.5 oz
People, we are calling that 8 pounds, and I am so happy! I do think it's hilarious that Eli is 6 weeks old and still weighs less than Lily did when she was born, but still. I'm thrilled.
I met with the doctor, and she determined that it was mastitis, again, and likely caused by the same bacteria I had last time. Luckily, I am in the very early stages. Also luckily, my doc thought to culture my milk last time, to determine what specific bacteria was causing my infection. The culture takes a while to come back, so we just got the results on Monday. But the beautiful thing is that, because of the culture, she knew exactly which antibiotic to use to fight the mastitis.
You see, it turned out that my mastitis was caused by a drug-resistant bacteria. You know, one of the major reasons I'm terrified of antibiotics, and one of the reasons I wanted a home birth? Yep. That was what caused my mastitis. My bacteria was resistant to nearly every antibiotic, including the one I used to eventually clear up the infection. That's why it took so long for me to get better. (Well, that and the fact that I had a really severe case. My doctor, who is a breastfeeding specialist, said it was one of the top five worst cases of mastitis she had ever seen. Surprisingly, that made me feel much better. I wasn't imagining how awful it was; it really was awful!)
So even though my mastitis was resistant to almost everything, my doctor was able to find one antibiotic that would work. Even better, I already had some in my cabinet from the last bout! It was one of the drugs I was initially prescribed, but discontinued because it wasn't appropriate when I was nursing a baby as young as Eli was at the time. But now that he's reached the ripe old age of 6 weeks, it is appropriate. So I rushed home and popped my first dose; I began feeling better within hours. Praise the Lord!
Then I made dinner for my family and headed off for dinner with my friends. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of Eli all day long. So when I got home from dinner sometime after 10 pm, I snapped this picture of Eli, who had been in the car for 45 minutes and was hungry and tired:
I know, sweet baby. I know you nursed all evening, but you still want to nurse some more. Mama will feed you right now!
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