Pain, Pain, Go Away

Please do not come back another day. At my 6am pump today, I looked down and suddenly realized that Rightie had only produced about half her normal volume for that time slot (Side note: you may have noticed that I tend to avoid mentioning ounces. This is on purpose. I think a lot of women fall into the trap of comparing their production to someone else's, and you just can't. Every woman and every baby is different. The amount I produce would not be enough for a lot of babies. For mine, it's a little bit more each day than she needs. Now back to our regularly scheduled yammering.). I felt around and sure enough, there was a little clog. Unfortunately, I was very near the end of my pump, so I rubbed a little Vicks on and extended the pump by about 10 minutes. It didn't clear up the clog completely, but I didn't really expect it to, and Leftie was starting to get a little sore so I went ahead and disconnected.

When I got to work, my first pump was clearly not going well, so I rubbed on more Vicks and continued to massage the clog throughout the pump. I got less than half the normal yield for that pump. So after lunch (we have a staff meeting every other Friday, so I couldn't go sooner), I popped down to the drugstore downstairs -- I cannot tell you how much I love working in Manhattan -- and bought some of those air-activated heating pads. Now by this time, I was really engorged and starting to be in pain. Having had mastitis once, I'm not looking forward to having it again. So I popped a pad on and decided to give it a while to do its thing. 30 minutes later (50 minutes ago), I started pumping (with the pad still on). The heat seems to be helping -- I'm getting about the normal amount for this time slot or maybe even a bit more -- but there's still a huge clog (yeah, it grew since this morning).

{7 hours and 3 pumps later...}

This clog is not kidding around. This clog means business. I'm applying heat, Vicks, and pressure, and still I have an extremely tender lump the size of a quail egg in my breast. I am absolutely terrified that I'm going to blister my nipple again. I've gone to a two hour pumping schedule now, with pumping time reduced to 30 minutes. This is at least helping to keep the pressure off the clog. However, lately Leftie hasn't been letting down really until about 45 minutes into a pump, so I'm scared I'm going to get a clog on that side. Not too scared yet, as Leftie hasn't been filling up all that much today, but it's in my mind as a distinct possibility. The good news, I suppose, is that milk is getting through. Also good news is that I choose well when I was picking my baby's daddy -- he's going to take baby duty all night so I can concentrate on getting this taking care of.

No tip today -- I'll make up for it next time, promise.