Plugged ducts

Warning: there will be graphic details of breasts in this blog. Sorry to all my sensitive readers!

Can you say "owwwwwwww!"

What started as a tiny lump three days ago turned into an immensely painful three hour ordeal Wednesday afternoon.

I was dancing to the new CDs my cousin Dina sent for the girls. I had one baby and Charles had the other. We were having a grand time!!! But I kept feeling a sharp pain shoot through my left breast. It felt like a stretching sensation, like a balloon being slowly filled with sand under my skin. The pain would subside but it kept getting worse and worse.

Eventually the pain got so bad I decided to look at the breast but nothing looked out of the ordinary. But as soon as I felt the breast, I knew something was wrong. The whole left side was a hard as a rock. It hurt to put much pressure on it. I had had lumps before (caused by milk getting clogged in the ducts) and usually with a little pumping and massage it would work itself out. So I started pumping and massaging. The pumping provided milk but the massaging was hurting; that was unusual because in the past it felt good. It was just such a huge mass that I didn't feel like I was able to find a spot to start breaking it up.

I thought maybe a warm compress would help too, but it wasn't warm enough. So I decided to take a warm shower. In the shower I tried to take a wash cloth and press the mass toward the nipple like I was moving it out. It hurt soooo much!!! And nothing was moving! I spent about 20 minutes in the shower only massaging and pushing on that mass. Eventually I had some movement of the mass toward the nipple but not much. And it hadn't broken up much at all. I wanted this thing out! It was like having to pee out a golf ball!

When I got out of the shower, it was time to feed the girls, but everything was so tender that it was the last thing I wanted to do. And I was worried about the girls drinking whatever was stuck in there.

So I pulled out our baby manual, Baby 411, and looked up plugged ducts in the index. It told me to try everything I tried (warm compress, pumping, massage, etc.) The last thing it told me to do was breastfeed! Huh, interesting! I guess it was safe for the girls after all. But the one thing I hadn't tried was, it said to aim the girl's nose toward the plugged duct when feeding.

When breastfeeding twins at the same time, there is really only one position that works and that is the football hold for both (their legs to my sides and facing each other toward my stomach). But the mass was kinda at the top, outside edge. So I had Charles take Abigail and feed her a bottle, while I took Annabelle (the more gentle nurser) and I
put her in the more traditional cradle hold. This put her nose toward the outside edge of the breast.

And sure enough, Annabelle saved the day!!! While she nursed I continued to massage and push the mass toward the nipple. Annabelle's sucking motion helped pull the mass apart so that it could break up more easily. After about ten minutes, it was almost gone and I was able to switch back to the football hold and finish feeding Abigail too (whose patience had worn thin since she finished her bottle).

My lesson here is to massage lumps as soon as I feel them, never go more than three or four hours without breastfeeding or pumping, and to switch positions when breastfeeding to pull milk from different parts of the breast when possible. If I don't do these things, this could turn into a more serious problem called Mastitis. And from what I've read, I don't want that!

Whew!