Since my last post, Lydia has started to announce what I think is her night-time fatigue by screaming inconsolably starting around 9 pm and continuing off and on until around midnight. It's great fun... We've had 3 nights of this since Thursday, and 2 nights without, and I can't figure out what is happening differently on these days. Thursday Don and I ran around like chickens with our heads cut off trying desperately to find something that would soothe her. One of us would rock or walk or try to feed her while the other paged through Dr. Sears or searched online. Perhaps she's discovered another way to absorb our complete attention (as if she didn't have it before; it would be difficult to find 2 more doting parents :)) One aspect of these crying fits is that she acts hungry but refuses to eat for long. Instead she takes one or two sucks before starting to scream, arch her back, and claw and push off of my chest. This led to the development of a painful clogged milk duct on my left breast.
I'll tell you now...a clogged milk duct is no picnic. It's painful, firm, and warm, and the solution is to massage this firm tissue, apply heat, rest, and to get the milk out. Because your baby is most efficient at getting all the milk out, it's ideal if she sucks that breast frequently. However, when she's screaming and clawing and pushing off your breast, she's bound to hit that tender, swollen tissue, which feels just great. I thought things had cleared up as of today, but she had another crying jag tonight and refused to eat, so I'm sitting here pumping a tender left breast again. No fun... And it doesn't look my pictures have loaded yet. I'm going to go to bed and see if they appear by morning.
This post sounds so negative, but there is sunlight in this darkness--Lydia has definitely started to smile a lot more, and her little smiles brighten our daytimes so much that these crying jags seem inconsequential. She is the cutest thing ever!
Thanks to everyone who let me know they're reading this. It's nice to know you're out there :)
2 comments:
eeek... i hear that plugged ducts are REALLY painful. poor you! hope you heal soon. and no, i don't have a good reason to be up. i just played a game of bejeweled (ok, i was reading before that). reminded me of the old days... :)
Hi Yolanda! It's Lesleigh. I have been reading your blog too, it is fun to see how little Lydia is doing!
As for her crying jags. I have two suggestions, since I went through very similar things with Brianna. First, gas drops are a gift from the gods. We lived on them for a while - they literally kick in within seconds of giving them to her, and were magic. Ultimately we had to switch her to soy formula, she just couldn't tolerate breast milk or milk based formula.
Dr. Brazelton told me all about what he calls "the witching hour." For Brianna it was between 7 and 9 at night, and there was nothing we could do. It often has to do with them needing a way to work off excess energy. It was SOOO painful, a couple of times we put her in her crib and went outside for a few minutes. We never let her cry more than 10 minutes, and after a few days she got used to the routine and cried herself to sleep after just a few minutes.
Good luck!
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