Milk Blues

Another clog. And possibly another bout of mastitis. My plan was to continue expressing milk until Pig's 6 months old and then turn to my frozen stash. But now I'm thinking, well, the freezer is full, perhaps the time has come to crack open the lansinoh bags. According to our calculations (a chock full 5 ft by 5 ft chest freezer) we have roughly 40 gallons of frozen liquid gold. That should be enough to feed Pig for another 6-7 months assuming that she'll eat 30 ounces a day. Once she starts solids I'm sure that'll drop.

At first I felt badly thinking ugh, I'm about to wean my 4 month old child. The word "wean" just sounds negative. But it's not really weaning if she continues to get breastmilk right? Considering that most of her meals are by bottle at her daycare. And lately Pig's been sleeping through the night so I haven't had to do a 4 am sleepy nursing in a long while. Ideally I would've stayed home with my child for at least 6 months where she would've been nursed 24/7 and then we would've done a gradual wean. Pumping kinda complicates things. As far as my body knows, my baby has some killer milk needs and my girls are rising to the challenge...big time. I produce 40-50 ounces a day and for that I'm grateful. But oversupply also mean recurring clogs which in turn often means mastitis. And that sucks.

So the plan is to start the pump weaning process in April when my dad (harabuhjee) arrives to look after Pig. I've arranged to telework that week so if I end up with some really bad clogs I can take care of it right away. That way I can walk around with cabbage leaves in my bra as well...no way I was going to do that work.

In the meantime, got this clog to deal with. I've had it for 3 days...I really should give it a name...how about Pat? Pat is pissing me off something fierce. I've done everything possible to get rid of her, pumping like crazy, applying heat compresses, resting (well sorta, kinda hard during the work week) and massage. Nada. This broad refuses to budge. Problem is, the only person who can reason with Pat is the Plumber and the Plumber refuses to cooperate.

"The Plumber"

Not sure why, K and I have several theories. 1) When she gets home she's super tired and does not want to work for her food. And the Plumber is smart, she knows that we've got bottles in the fridge so it's only a matter of time before we give up trying to get her to take it straight from the tap and whip out a bottle. 2) Also read that clogs can make the milk salty so maybe she's grossed out by the taste. But I doubt that. Her nickname is Pig after all, I've had clogs before and she drank the expressed milk with nary a complaint. 3) Finally, could just be pure cussedness. She comes from a long line of stubborn folks on both sides so maybe she's just following tradition. Whatever it is, the Plumber and I have a date this weekend. She and I will spend the whole weekend in bed until we whip Pat's ass.