I woke up yesterday after a terrible night with Drew. He did about an hour and 45 minute stretch initially and then was up every 30 minutes to an hour. All. Night. Long. It was exhausting and confusing and just painful. When I finally got up for real that morning, I had terrible pain in my breast. It throbbed without me even moving and I was in tears for a while. I remembered the feeling from when Ben was about 10 months old. I started getting a fever and I officially knew it was mastitis. I called my OB/GYN office and the on-call doctor called me back and called in a prescription thank goodness. But I still had 101/102 fever throughout the day (even on Motrin) and was generally miserable. Luckily the boys had a birthday party to go to and that was great fun, but that meant I was home with a fussy infant by myself and I thought I was going to die. Yes, a bit dramatic, but also a little bit true. So my parents came to help while they were gone.
My fever started to slowly go down throughout the night and by 2:00 am, I was fever free and feeling sooooo much better. Drew did better last night so I did get a few hours of sleep and then Chat took him this morning and I got to get an extra hour or two this morning. Which has been my saving grace on weekends when he does this!
Before I go on, I just have to note how hard motherhood is and how women really take one for the team when it comes to growing our families (of course dads do their part too!). It is hard enough to take care of a newborn plus two older children, but to do it when you physically are struggling feels impossible. I finally was feeling recovered from Drew's birth and getting breastfeeding ironed out and then wham....mastitis. Ouch! I just try to remember the pioneer women who had to do this without a/c and antibiotics. Cheers to them. And I try to remember this won't last forever.
Anyway...I woke up today and felt a million times better. So we kept our plans and headed to my parents for ribs! And maybe to make up for the horrific day yesterday, we got the best picture of the boys and their cousins!
We got just one of the three boys as well. It isn't quite as cute as the one of all five, but still adorable as well! Ben loves holding Drew which has been the great incentive for him to sit still and take a picture :).
And of course we had to get one of Ben taking down some ribs. He ate three and corn on the cob. I am thinking he likes the patriotic holidays where these two items will be served.
And I got a good picture of the boys with their Granddad and Bea! Drew was sleeping and since he is on a fussy streak, we decided to go with the whole "Don't wake a sleeping baby." So he stayed nicely inside snoozing away while the older boys got the photo opp!
So we are back to normal around here and that means tonight could be the norm or it could be like two nights ago which was horrific. Either way, we have a long way to go sleep-wise with Drew. I have been handling it okay up till now, but ready to see a light in that tunnel! Luckily I am physically better which makes things 99% better. That 1% would be if Drew gave us a 4 hour stretch! Here's hoping!
Happy Memorial Day!
P.S. I was pumping at the table a few days ago and Luke walks in and stops dead in his tracks. Then looks at me and starts saying "raccoon...raccoon...raccoon". Any mother who has pumped knows that their pump can start to "talk" to them. Well apparently it also talks to 5-year-olds and it says raccoon!
2 comments:
Your parents look over the moon with their grand babies! Hang in there! You're doing great!!!!!
Oy! What a few days you had there- glad you're feeling better and Drew lets you get some longer stretched of sleep soon! He is filling out and looks so much like the other boys, you can def tell they are brothers! Take care mama :)
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