The Girls
...or "My Boobs and Me"
...or "A Tale of Two Titties"
Guess what I'm blogging about today? That's right -- Leftie and Rightie. I know, not the most original names, but I think it would just be weird to name them something like "Ethel" and "Mabel" (in large part because I know I'd keep forgetting which was which) and I have to differentiate them somehow.
So, Leftie has always been my favorite. She's a little perkier, a little prettier. DH said I'd give Rightie a complex, but I just couldn't help it. Leftie looks like what I want a boob to look like. But I thought may Rightie would come through with high milk production and show Leftie that it's not all about the pretty. Wrong. From the beginning, Leftie produced just a little bit more than Rightie at every pump. Then 2 weeks in to EPing, Rightie got mastitis. My husband walks in from work one night to see me lying on the couch whispering to the baby sleeping in the bassinet next to me, "Please sleep 'til Daddy gets home. Please sleep 'til Daddy gets home." When he asked what was wrong, I told him I hadn't been feeling well and thought I might have a fever. The thermometer proved me right...104 and rising. A call to the doc got me going on ibuprofen (for the fever) and antibiotics (for the mastitis), and I was right as rain again in a few days.
Except for...Rightie. I pumped through the mastitis, as one is supposed to do. I wasn't getting much from Rightie due to the clogged duct that caused the mastitis, but it was working its way out. Then I discovered that my horns were too small, something the LC never told me about. I ordered a new larger set (not realizing they were available at the local baby superstore - ladies, take this as a lesson from me: if you need something quickly, call around locally and find out if they have it before you order it), but by the time they arrived, I had friction blisters on the tip of my right nipple (not to be confused with blebs). Yeah, you know when you get new shoes and your coworkers decide that's the day to walk halfway across town for lunch and you get that horrible blister on your heel? That blister was on my nipple. The entire tip at one point was filled with that clear fluid.
Of course, you can't pump through that, so I had to (shudder) pop the blister and drain the fluid before each pump and every 10 minutes during the pump (at that time I typically pumped for 30 minutes/session). Rightie was not giving good production during that time, for what I think are obvious reasons, but Leftie was more than making up for it and I was still able to feed the cookie my milk exclusively.
Rightie finally healed up, but never really seemed to recover her former production capability until recently. For some reason, lately she's been just about even with Leftie, and occasionally a little ahead. But Leftie seems to resent this. All of a sudden, I have to do compressions on Leftie 5 or six times a pump (I dropped a pump, so now I pump 6x/day for 45 minutes each instead of 7x/30 min.). I'm still getting good production and emptying, but only with compressions. Darn that Leftie. Hopefully she'll get over it soon and I'll be getting plenty from both.
Today's tip: Make sure your labor and delivery nurse(s) knows and can arrange for a machine to be brought to you -- before you deliver, if possible (you won't use it until after, but it'll be there whenever you decide you're ready. I didn't think to do this and ended up having to wait a full day to get mine.). Also make sure the nursery nurses know you're doing this and will feed the EBM first in the nursery if you're not rooming in (they'll also usually wake you up to pump if you ask nicely). I cannot recommend strongly enough that you not room in. These will be your last nights to sleep for a very long time. Take advantage.
...or "A Tale of Two Titties"
Guess what I'm blogging about today? That's right -- Leftie and Rightie. I know, not the most original names, but I think it would just be weird to name them something like "Ethel" and "Mabel" (in large part because I know I'd keep forgetting which was which) and I have to differentiate them somehow.
So, Leftie has always been my favorite. She's a little perkier, a little prettier. DH said I'd give Rightie a complex, but I just couldn't help it. Leftie looks like what I want a boob to look like. But I thought may Rightie would come through with high milk production and show Leftie that it's not all about the pretty. Wrong. From the beginning, Leftie produced just a little bit more than Rightie at every pump. Then 2 weeks in to EPing, Rightie got mastitis. My husband walks in from work one night to see me lying on the couch whispering to the baby sleeping in the bassinet next to me, "Please sleep 'til Daddy gets home. Please sleep 'til Daddy gets home." When he asked what was wrong, I told him I hadn't been feeling well and thought I might have a fever. The thermometer proved me right...104 and rising. A call to the doc got me going on ibuprofen (for the fever) and antibiotics (for the mastitis), and I was right as rain again in a few days.
Except for...Rightie. I pumped through the mastitis, as one is supposed to do. I wasn't getting much from Rightie due to the clogged duct that caused the mastitis, but it was working its way out. Then I discovered that my horns were too small, something the LC never told me about. I ordered a new larger set (not realizing they were available at the local baby superstore - ladies, take this as a lesson from me: if you need something quickly, call around locally and find out if they have it before you order it), but by the time they arrived, I had friction blisters on the tip of my right nipple (not to be confused with blebs). Yeah, you know when you get new shoes and your coworkers decide that's the day to walk halfway across town for lunch and you get that horrible blister on your heel? That blister was on my nipple. The entire tip at one point was filled with that clear fluid.
Of course, you can't pump through that, so I had to (shudder) pop the blister and drain the fluid before each pump and every 10 minutes during the pump (at that time I typically pumped for 30 minutes/session). Rightie was not giving good production during that time, for what I think are obvious reasons, but Leftie was more than making up for it and I was still able to feed the cookie my milk exclusively.
Rightie finally healed up, but never really seemed to recover her former production capability until recently. For some reason, lately she's been just about even with Leftie, and occasionally a little ahead. But Leftie seems to resent this. All of a sudden, I have to do compressions on Leftie 5 or six times a pump (I dropped a pump, so now I pump 6x/day for 45 minutes each instead of 7x/30 min.). I'm still getting good production and emptying, but only with compressions. Darn that Leftie. Hopefully she'll get over it soon and I'll be getting plenty from both.
Today's tip: Make sure your labor and delivery nurse(s) knows and can arrange for a machine to be brought to you -- before you deliver, if possible (you won't use it until after, but it'll be there whenever you decide you're ready. I didn't think to do this and ended up having to wait a full day to get mine.). Also make sure the nursery nurses know you're doing this and will feed the EBM first in the nursery if you're not rooming in (they'll also usually wake you up to pump if you ask nicely). I cannot recommend strongly enough that you not room in. These will be your last nights to sleep for a very long time. Take advantage.
posted by Laura Y. at
26.7.06
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