Adventures in Breastfeeding, Continued...

I'm not entirely sure if I should still be calling this post "breastfeeding" since I'm exclusively pumping, but since breastfeeding moms tell me that pumping is way harder, I'll go with it. Since I last posted on breastfeeding, things have progressed, but not in the "natural, I am so peaceful here feeding my baby" way. I continue to pump and have about 300 ounces stored, in addition to having his daily milk covered. And I am only pumping three times a day, which is virtually unheard of. After talking to a friend who exclusively pumped for over a year, I got some advice on how to get a large supply and be able to maintain long-term. With the assistance of my mother who cared for Wilson for a week while I pumped EVERY 2 HOURS AROUND THE CLOCK, I built up a large supply. I then tailored it down to every 3 hours, 4 hours, etc. until I finally made it to every 8 hours. I take a Fenugreek supplement three times a day to keep my supply consistent. Not only does it do that well, it also turns you into an IHOP because it makes you smell like maple syrup. Seriously. My dogs want to lick my arms for no apparent reason now. But, I guess that is a good side effect on those days when you can't get a shower because of the baby.

I remember saying to my best friend, "I don't care if he can ever latch, I just want to make enough milk to feed him." Well, be careful what you wish for my friends, because Wilson is 15 weeks old and has yet to latch. We still try. Sometimes he mouths at the breast and laughs at me. Sometimes he really tries, but looks confused. Recently, however, I have decided that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing that he is not nursing, since my freak of a baby is teething at 3 months old. I am well aware of over-achieving, but this is ridiculous! I was a little wary of predicting teething since I thought he was before and it was actually his lovely difficult temperament showing itself, so I didn't really say anything at first. First, I had to get the bibs out because he was drooling like it was an olympic sport that he was practicing. Then, he started rubbing at his cheek, leaving a little red spot of dry skin and several wolverine-fingernail scratches. Then, he got a cold and an ear infection. Then, my husband asked if Wilson had recently encountered a zombie because he was literally biting at anything that came near his face. Toys, blankets, our hands AND the nipple on his bottle. He actually tore a nipple one night and we poured milk all over ourselves (aka liquid gold - cry!). But, I sat there thinking. "Huh. That could be my nipple right now." And I was never happier to be pumping exclusively. 

Until a few days later when I felt a little weird after pumping to look down and find a giant blood blister on my nipple. Now, I wasn't sure what to make of this, except that it kind of hurt and looked bad. So I did the obligatory google search and found that it was a normal thing that happens sometimes in breastfeeding and pumping. I didn't think that it was too bad until the next time I pumped...when it popped. Then and every time I pumped, there was excruciating pain from the unhealed wound and I would literally have to brace myself with tears coming down my cheeks when I first started pumping. Luckily, someone from my Yoga Mommies Face Book group advised to put ice on it before pumping, which made it go from excruciating to NO PAIN. I love that woman. 

The other thing that I was advised to do was to express some breastmilk on it to keep it healing, which also worked wonders. Which brings me to my next thought: have you ever seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding?  The father in it carries around a bottle of Windex and uses it for everything from a rash to a cut to a pimple. Well, I think breastmilk is the new (or old?) Windex. I have used it to heal my own cuts, heal Wilson's dry skin (when combined with calendula lotion), heal an infection in his eyes when he was a newborn, heal his ear infection (combined with garlic drops), prevent Wilson from getting a cold that I had when he was 2 months old and healing his little Wolverine scratches on his face. If this stuff is so amazing, it makes me wonder why we don't bottle it and use it more. Probably because it is freaking gross to think about. One doctor told a mom to drink her own breastmilk when she was sick because of the antibodies would help her get better faster. And that's probably true - but I could never do it. I still haven't tasted it and yet, I wonder why I am willing to drink a large farm animal's titty juice every morning with my cereal?

But anyway, I digress. So after slowly healing, I have noticed that this breast doesn't feel right. It's slightly swollen, feels warmer to the touch, is sore and occasionally feels like it is on fire inside. So, I probably have a clogged duct or mastitis, also side effects from nursing and pumping. When is this supposed to get natural?!?? So after flu-like symptoms all day and having a very sore boob, I dragged myself, my teething baby and my husband to get groceries so we do not starve this next week. When we got home, my husband said "Huh, what is this?" as he held up a piece of my breast pump sitting on the floor. My mouth hung open in shock and horror as I found the connecting pieces (the piece that holds together the flange, the bottle and the pump wires) spread about the floor, incredibly clean and with dog teeth marks all over them. "Seriously?!?!?" I cried as I ran around trying to find the other one and to make sure they did not get to my $500 pump. I apparently, in my teething-induced sleep haze forgot to put the parts on the counter to clean and left them wrapped in a cloth on my nursing bag on the couch. And the little bitches pounced as soon as I left. I hysterically prayed, driving way over the speed limit (without the baby in the car) to Babies'r'us late on Sunday night to get replacement parts, that they would be open and have them in stock.  They did.

So, I'm off to Dr. Smillie's again to treat the mastitis/clogged duct/burst blood blister and see how I can try to get this little teething monkey to maybe latch before he's 18 years old. Hopefully my next update will include someone besides the dogs trying to get to my breastmilk (namely my infant), less infections (for everyone) and more peaceful feelings of natural bonding. But, for now, it's 10 p.m. and time to pump again.