Hi all.
Thought I would put up a positive story as the bf/bt-f messageboard is often full of pain and panic.
I've been back at work for a week (minus a snow day) and have a 25-week boy who is exclusively breastfed. Well, exclusive if you are kind enough to discount the 2 or 3 slugs of formula he had in the very early days to save my sanity, and the finger-fuls of mashed potato, apple, custard and other random tastes he's been having for the past couple of weeks.
I had mastitis culminating in a leaking fistula from weeks 6-15. I whinged detailed that saga extensively here here and here, and fretted about going back to work here. The fistula left a scar which is still obvious (may be there forever) but baby is always satisfied with feeding on both/either sides.
Baby distinctly unimpressed with bottles though. He'd rather go hungry and then pin me to the sofa as soon as I got home on the occasions I left him before! So this week was at least as much (if not more so) a challenge for him in accepting a new feeding system all day (and a sanity challenge for DH and the nursery, three/two days respectively).
Happy to report that today DH says there was a very noticeable improvement in the bottle-guzzling. Yay!
And also I used my spanky new double Medela pump today. It is a bit noisy so I was slightly to consider what the people on the other side of the rather flimsy office partition wall might have been thinking. But boy it works. I was using a medela swing before which is good, and compatible with their mini hand pump lever. In a 15 minute pumping break (which I now like to think of as a remote breastfeeding session - across time and space ) I would get 80-120ml ie one bottle - and that would be including switching sides halfway.
With simultaneous double pumping I got 180ml mid-morning, 170ml just after lunch and 120ml at about 4.30. Great! But it has shown that there is a lasting effect from the mastitis - in the first session I got 105 from one side and 75 from the other (ish), which I thought might be coincidence, one pump assembly not fitted together securely or something, but in the second and third it was the same proportions. So obviously a few ducts have suffered a long term damage from the mastitis fistula/abscess.
But all in all it's great - I feel good that we are getting to grips with our new regime. Lots more challenges to come and I'm sure there will be some very tough days and weeks. But we can do it. Yay!