July 27, 2007

Milk Duds

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I've been breastfeeding Jack. You'll also know that Jack likes it, but I have not always been a huge fan of it. It hurt, it was uncomfortable and I was miserable everytime I could tell he was getting hungry. Along with all of that, I felt like my breasts were the size of Rhode Island (which I realize is the smallest of all the states, but is still pretty big when you're comparing them to your breasts). My original goal was to breastfeed for a year, but I was beginning to feel like I wasn't sure that I could make it to two months.

Over the last week I realized that I had become pretty adjusted to it. I was kind of getting the hang of things and found myself looking forward to him getting hungry because in the midst of the busy day, I knew I'd have some one on one time with him. I had 1/2 an e-mail composed and saved in my "Drafts" folder on outlook to a friend of mine who had encouraged me to stick with it. It was just telling her how much better it had become . . . and that was just enough to tempt fate.

I developed a blocked milk duct and a blocked milk pore with a nice little blister over it. I've had numerous blisters before, but this one hurt a whole heck of a lot worse. I won't got into any more details than this other than to say it was (and still is) painful and uncomfortable. Breastfeeding once again has become miserable.

The real kicker is that Jack slept for 8 1/2 HOURS last night! That was a major event for us. It meant that we would have slept 8 1/2 hours last night too if it weren't for the fact that I was constantly rotating between heating packs, hot showers, pumping and warm baths. from about 4 AM on trying to get this blocked duct . . . well, unblocked.

On top of all of this, I've had a really bad cold involving congestion, coughing and a sore throat as well as a fairly painful canker sore. When it rains, it pours.

The funniest part of this whole story (if there can be a funny part) was when Debbie overheard me talking to the camp nurse about these issues. She couldn't figure out what it meant for me to have "blocked Milk Duds" rather than "ducts." At least there's something to laugh about.

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