Postpardum Troubles

It's been a while since my last post. I haven't exactly been "busy", but I just haven't had a ton of time to do a post. When Will finally decides he wants to sleep, I find I have a lot of other things that I want to do, and my blog just got put off for a while.

Will at 3 weeks old

There have been a few...problems that I didn't expect since Will was born. I expected sleepless nights, trying to adjust, and devoting practically every minute to our little guy. What I did NOT expect was how often I would need to see the doctor afterwards. Geeze! I used to NEVER go to the doctors; I avoided it at all costs. Well, mostly because I didn't want to pay doctor bills. Anyways, here is a quick update on some of the interesting and unexpected things going on.

1. I briefly mentioned how much of a struggle breastfeeding was for me. At the hospital, Will was having some major troubles and we talked to several lactation specialists to help us solve the problem. I wont go into all the details, but basically it was so difficult I couldn't even nurse unless Lance was there helping me. Then once we got home, it seemed like Will wasn't getting enough, so we decided to supplement a bottle with formula for a few days until my milk came in. Finally when my milk came in, we did a full good day of breastfeeding and I was feeling good about the situation. The following day, I was so sore, it hurt if anything even touched me. Then when I tried pumping, the milk came out red from blood. Yeah, that hurt A LOT! So again, back to the bottle for a few days.

2. Then finally, about 2 weeks ago another problem emerged. While Lance was at a movie, I suddenly got really cold. I was laying on the couch with Will, but I was so cold I wouldn't even get up to get more blankets or turn on the heat. I didn't feel good and pretty much sat there and cried for about 2 hours. I finally called the doctors when Lance got home and they had me come in. My temperature was 104 degrees and I was told I had mastitis. Basically it is an infection of the breast. So I was given lortab and an antibiotic to take for 2 weeks. That night, I took Will over to Lance's parents and they watched him while I took a 3 hour nap. It definitely helped and made a HUGE difference. So thank you to them. For the next several days, I alternated from having extreme chills to extreme hot flashes. It was not a fun few days.

3. So I have been taking lots of medications to try to help me get over this mastitis. I have about 3 days left of the two week course. Yesterday, I started noticing on my legs that I had these small, red bumps. They kind of looked like razor burn, or the small bumps you sometimes get right after shaving. Then as the day progressed, I noticed them on the backs of my arms and then getting more on my legs. We decided to watch it for a day and they decide what to do if it didn't change. When I woke up this morning, the rash had gotten much worse. I have thousands of red bumps on my legs and now they are covering my arms, shoulders, stomach, back, neck...you name it. And then they started to itch. And I have the hardest time resisting the urge to itch. Normally I would just ignore it and not do anything, but having a new baby makes me much more cautious. So I went to instacare. It was decided that I was allergic to the antibiotic that I had been taking. I was really surprised because I have never been allergic to anything in my life. We decided not to take any benadril because anti-histamines may dry up one's milk supply. So I ended up getting a steroid shot in my hip. Then they gave me a prescription for steroid pills to take for the next seven days.

Below is a picture of what my thigh looked like this morning.

There is just a few exciting things that I have been going through. As much as it sucks, I'd way rather it be me with the problems than Will. Lance has been so extremely helpful. I am so grateful. I have been so extremely exhausted and many times not feeling well over the past 2 weeks. He often forces me to go to sleep while he stays up with Will. He is such a good dad and such a good husband.