Mastitis?

First...I'm fine.  If I did have mastitis I fixed it and I have it no longer.

But I wanted to share my little story.

Almost 14 months nursing and I've had a plugged milk duct twice...that's it...that's as far as my nursing woes go.

UNTIL...

Yesterday afternoon, roughly 3pm I notice a pain in my right boob.  Pain came out of nowhere, hurts like a bitch and there's a hard knot where the pain is.  

Oh great...a plugged duct.  No problem I think to myself, I've had these before, I'll just massage that bad boy out of there. 

Come 5pm I'm starting to feel a little...peculiar.  My stomach feels like it's in my throat, I feel sort of lightheaded and fuzzy...but I power through.

By 6pm I have to call my husband away from his work (he was working at home luckily) to come help me because I HAVE TO LIE DOWN.  I'm feeling REALLY weird.  I'm starting to get the chills and feel very achy, almost like I have the flu.

At 7pm we get the baby down and I'M DONE.  I get on the couch next to the roaring fire and curl up into a ball and I CAN'T STOP SHIVERING.

As soon as I started shivering I JUST KNEW that that damn knot in my boob was the cause of all my discomfort.  I'd been massaging away since 3pm and I'd spent the last 2 hours trying to get the baby to nurse exclusively on that right boob but all to no avail, the knot wasn't budging.

I choked down dinner, shivering so bad it was almost impossible to eat and by 8pm I drew THE HOTTEST BATH I'VE EVER HAD.

Completely random sidenote here...why is it DRAWing a bath?  Why do we say draw?

Anyway...

FINALLY I was warm.  I stayed in there for 20 minutes but as soon as that water started to cool down I was shivering again.

Somehow I made it into bed, got myself dressed with the help of my husband, and buried myself under 3 blankets.  Luckily it was also super warm up there because we'd had a fire going all day.  But I was still freezing.  77 degrees, 3 blankets, my skin feels like it's on fire and I'm absolutely freezing.

Out comes the pump, I'm going to get that knot out of there if it kills me!  So I start pumping away, trying to massage the lump while I pump.

Suddenly there's a popping noise and a splash inside the pump.  DID I JUST UNPLUG MY CLOG?  I didn't imagine it would make such an obvious noise but it very much sounded and looked like I'd just unclogged my duct.

Sure enough about half hour later I can suddenly FEEL how hot it is up in that room.  I start peeling off the layers of clothing, one piece at a time, then slowly one by one each of the blankets come off until I'm so hot that I have to open the window because it's still 77 degrees.

AND THEN about 11pm I start sweating.  The sweating was the sign for me that it was over, the clog with it's accompanying bacteria was gone.

Just like that, as quickly as it started, it was over.  I was fine.  I went to sleep and woke up with nothing more than a slightly sore boob from all the massaging.

So, was that mastitis?  Anyone else had mastitis for a whopping 8 hours?

When in Doubt Post Some Pictures of Your Kid

I'm failing miserably at this one post a week VOW I made.

Our transition from 2 naps to 1 is not going as smoothly as I was led to believe so everyday is a toss up as to whether I have free time during nap #2 because some days IT DOESN'T EXIST.

So, rather than just NOT post like I've been doing these past few months I'm just going to post some piccies!

Here's what Baby Jett's been up to lately.

CLIMBING!

...and crawling through cat doors.

No surface is safe.  And mommy is busy chasing and saving baby from imminent death all day every day.

He's also mastered the throw my body back and screech like a banshee tantrum.

Toddlerhood is awesome.

 

How Long?

So...we made it a year, or 13 months more precisely.

I'm now nursing a toddler.

Somehow this milestone has led everyone to start questioning how long I'm going to continue.  As though people fear that continuing past a year is synonymous with nursing my kid until he's 7.

BTW, what's wrong with nursing my kid until he's 7 if I really wanted to?

My goal was always at least a year, but less than 2.

At this point we're going to 18 months but I'd still like to wean by the time he's 2.  Mostly because I'd like to be on Baby Deux by then...not because I have a strong desire to stop nursing.

I now completely understand why people just keep going...and going.  I have no reason to wean...other than the aforementioned Baby Deux.

It's not cumbersome, tedious, time-consuming or tiring.

It's calming, soothing, relaxing and still my MAGIC WEAPON.

In short, I really love nursing.  It's been an easy enjoyable experience for us and I will be very sad when this relationship comes to an end.

It's not all cupcakes and roses though because while the nursing relationship has changed for the better since those exhausting newborn days...it has also changed for the worse in some ways.

The little bastard has started biting me.

Ok, it's not true biting but the fact that he has teeth is causing me some discomfort.

Sometimes there are teeth marks on my nipple.  As though he's holding on with his teeth.

Again...not biting per se, just holding it in his teeth.

And sometimes when he pulls off he sort of SCRAPES his teeth along my nipple.

OUCH.

He doesn't do it always, but enough.  I can see how if he did it all the time I would be like I'M DONE, NO MORE BOOB FOR YOU!

Luckily he's not doing it enough to make me want to stop...but I can see why women quit cold turkey if their kid starts biting.

Who knows, maybe one day before my aforementioned 18 months he'll bite me and I'll cut him off.

But for now we're still going strong and will continue to do so for roughly the next 6 months to a year.

So, am I in the minority continuing to nurse my toddler?

How long did you/will you go?

Back to Blogging

I've neglected this blog lately.

And I miss it.

I've begun a million different posts.

I shit you not I have 17 half finished posts in my draft folder.

I have so many things I want to discuss with you all, including:

Continuing to breastfeed past a year

What I've been feeding my baby

Baby Allergies - From Dairy to Berries

Eating dairy again

Discipline

Transitioning from 2 Naps to 1

And a guest post for another blogger friend about my road to parenthood

And the list goes on.

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I've posted, Jett is already past 13 months.

So...I'm going to start blogging again.

My goal is one post a week...let's see if I can make it happen.

In the meantime, about 2 weeks after his first birthday Jett officially became a walker instead of a crawler and walking is now his only means of transportation.

Just like that, my baby is gone and I have a toddler.