I am currently breast feeding my second child who is now nine months old.
I’ve never had any problems with breast feeding before, apart from actually getting
the hang of it at the beginning with my first child.
Since then it has been smooth sailing, until a few days ago…
I am usually up at least 2-3 times during the night with my son for feeds.
Since he’s eating more and more solids I suppose he was just so full and comfy,
he decided to sleep all throughout the night. My boobs were not happy campers!
Needless to say, by morning my boobs were huge, hard, lumpy and screaming to be
drained! If you’ve ever breast fed, you’ll know the feeling.
Having a three year old toddler running around and wanting to sit with me whilst I feed
isn’t an ideal situation to be in. That’s just the way it goes at my house.
I try to keep her entertained with various things, drawing, playdoh, tv, leggo, toys, etc,
I guess she feels a little left out and just wants to sit with us. So every few sucks or so
my son spins his head around to see whatever my daughter is doing, because
apparently everything she says or does is so interesting and funny to him.
It is sweet, they adore each other, but having him niplash me every 30 seconds
sucks! (Pun intended!)
Getting slightly off track there, where was I?
Oh right, waking up with uncomfortably full breasts!
I tried to feed him as much as he would take but apparently my boobs were not
satisfied and a few days ago the left one started to get really sore! So sore in fact that it
felt as though I’d been punched, hard fair the side of my tit. 🙁
The following day I started to feel off. I was lethargic, more than the usual for someone
with low blood pressure and a lagging pulse rate. My first thought was, holy shit, I better not
be bloody pregnant again! Luckily, after some quick Googling my mind was put to ease,
when I realised I most likely had Mastitis. By the end of the day I felt really run down. The same
kind of feeling you get when you feel like you’re getting the flu. Only no runny nose, cough or
sneezing, etc. Just the, I feel like crap, have a heavy, pounding head and want to lie down kind of feeling. My temperature had also risen to 39.7 degrees.
The following day I decided to call up my Dr. for an appointment.
By this time my boob had an oval shaped red, very tender and hard lumpy area on one side.
Apologies for the odd picture, I didn’t want to show my whole boob online. But hopefully you can see what I’m talking about.
After a quick examination, my Dr. confirmed I did indeed have Mastitis and told
me not to hesitate and to come and see her straight away next time and not to
wait a few days. I had no idea it was such a serious thing. Apparently it can make you quite
sick very fast if not treated quickly and worse case scenario you could be admitted to hospital
to have the infection taken care of.
So I’ve been prescribed some antibiotics called Distaph 500 which I am currently taking
every six hours which should help clear it all up within a few days. I think they’re making me drowsy, so upping the caffeine intake even more than usual!
Thank goodness no other nasty side effects!
I was in two minds about weather or not I should write about this.
I don’t often do a lot of personal posts. I thought my blog is lacking some mummy
kind of posts though, and with being a 24/7 mum and it being probably the biggest part of my life, it is also my most
passionate. So why not share my experiences with others who may find it interesting or
helpful. This was just my experience. Each one of course is different and should be treated that
way. All I can say is, if you think you may be getting Mastitis, don’t wait, just get it checked
out as soon as you can. It isn’t worth getting sick over when it can be cleared up so simply
and quickly with just a few pills rather than having to be admitted to hospital if you ignore it.
Have you ever suffered from Mastitis or something similar?
