Almost forgot!

Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention that I have been dealing with mastitis this week.  Yes.  I have basically joined the ranks of suffering mothers everywhere. 

Mastitis is no laughing matter.  

For your edification, I will include an excerpt from a Jeter family email from this week so that I don't have to type it all.  I am so proud of surviving that I want to share it all! Muahaha.

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I've always heard that mastitis is horrible, but I figured it was a tolerable horrible.  NOTHING TOLERABLE ABOUT IT.  I knew it was a severe thing, but it didn't dawn on my how serious a foe it is until I realized that on all my mommy Facebook groups, which are mostly inhabited by super hippy, crunchy moms who will try just about every alternative remedy for nearly any issue before resorting to anything that Western medicine has to offer, nobody messes around with it.  The minute somebody posts that they think they have mastitis, the answer across the board is to get to the doctor and get treated.  One of my friends even told me today that if she could have a redo of her first bout with it, she would not have hesitated to go to the doctor for antibiotics.  Instead, she self-treated for a week, and then was admitted to the hospital needing more medicine than what she would have received had she originally seen the doctor.

Noted.  

I felt a hundred times better after my first dose of meds, and a million times better by this morning [Tuesday morning]. Still not 100%, but I'm not really worried about it anymore.  I no longer feel like I am dying, and I am continuing to treat it, so I don't expect any regression.  I never actually ran fever, but just about every other symptom played out with an ugly vengeance... I am fairly convinced that if I had experienced this within the first two weeks post partum, I would have given up and this little girl would live on donor milk or formula.  I can see how it would be verrrrry discouraging to a new mom! 

If the mastitis stuff is TMI, I hope you get over it.  I'm still not certain about most breastfeeding etiquette, but, basically, if I'd be comfortable enough talking about it in Mom's kitchen with you people milling about, then I'm okay with mentioning it in this letter.  If it bothers you, then I encourage you to Google the symptoms and take a moment to appreciate every single mother since the beginning of time. And, if you're feeling generous, an extra moment to sympathize for the ladies in your family...specifically me ;-)

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Anyway, that's it.  I guess I am proud that I finally had a breastfeeding issue.  Things have gone more or less perfectly since Day 1, so having a blemish on that perfect record makes me feel less lame whenever other moms try to commiserate with me about breastfeeding woes.  Now I have one under my belt.  Hooray!

That being said, I NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER want to experience anything like that EVER again.  

I would venture to say it is the worst pain I have ever experienced.  You may ask, "You mean even worse than labor?".  

To that I say: Apples and oranges, my friend.  Apples and oranges.