Rest!

Here I am, a little over 3 months to my baby's second birthday.  (If you're tempted to tell me that she's not a baby any more at this age, just spare your breath; I won't listen to you.  She's a baby until and if we have another baby.)  Last night I felt the tell-tale lump in my right breast.  I emptied it out, and took echinacea and vitamin C, but I must have caught it too late, because I woke up at 4:20 a.m. with a low-grade fever and painful, red breast.  Ugh.

How is it that, this late in my breastfeeding career -- this late in my baby's life -- I'm getting plugged ducts?  How is that?  Shouldn't it be all smooth sailing at this point? 
Regardless of my thoughts or feelings on the matter, here I am, so now what?

Rest is one of the most important things on the list of what to do with plugged ducts and mastitis.  This doesn't mean that you do your normal day, putting up your feet briefly after lunch.  This means REST.  I have been in bed most of the day.  I took a nap.  I read my book.  I read books to my kids.  I nursed the baby.  I instructed the 9-year-old in what to give her siblings for meals and snacks.  I took a shower to work on clearing the duct.  It looks like it's clearing, and I need to keep resting until it's run its course, because otherwise it will be back and I might be facing full-blown mastitis.  And nobody wants that.

Rest means that you have to cancel appointments, meetings, playdates, and anything that uses your energy.  I spent time on the phone this morning (in bed), calling those with whom I had plans today and telling them it wouldn't work.

Rest means no housework. I planned to deep-clean the kitchen today, make chili, make granola bars, etc.  Nope.  The kitchen's a mess because, even though the 9-year-old makes a mean smoothie, she doesn't necessarily clean up after herself.  And to be fair, I was pickling asparagus last night, so there's some of that left around, too. 

Rest may mean videos for the older kids, or asking a friend to come over and play with them. 

Rest, for me today, meant calling my husband and asking him to come home in time to take the oldest two to their afternoon activities.  It meant sending my kids out to water the garden instead of going with them.  It will mean no workout of any kind.  Rest means lying in bed while typing a blog post on my Surface. 

 

I struggle with rest.  There's a lot to do in my life, and I'm sure in the lives of all of us who get plugged ducts and mastitis.  The stuff to do doesn't disappear -- when the plug is gone and I go back to my usual activities, I'll have to deal with all the stuff that didn't get done today.  Weird that rest can be hard.  But I've learned, the hard way, that if I don't stop and rest when I have a plugged duct, I'll get stopped to rest by mastitis, which is miserable, and lasts longer.  So I rest.