Nursing the twins has mostly been a joy for me. I tandem nurse with the MyBrestFreind pillow and I have been lucky enough to produce enough milk to not have to supplement with formula. However, I have recently had my second bout with milk blisters/blocked milk duct. We had my MIL over for the night last week and she graciously offered to do the overnight shift with pumped milk to let me and my husband catch up on our sleep. Perfect, right?
Well, by 4am I was in agonizing pain on the side I usually nurse N on all night. My left breast was hard as a rock and throbbing from my ear to my elbow. I reluctantly nursed P on that side when she brought him in but the pain remained and soon enough a white milk blister appeared. I had similar blisters when I had a bout of thrush after a round of antibiotics to treat a kidney infection just after I had the babies. It took 12 days of diflucan every other day to finally resolve the thrush! I would rather not do that again.
This time I was able to relieve the duct pain by using a hot compress and pumping that side for 15 minutes after nursing for 2 days. Unfortunately, I still have the milk blister which causes sharp pain while I am nursing on that side but the pain goes away when they are not latched. I am trying a hot, wet compress before nursing today but with twins, it’s hard to make the time to put a hot compress on for 5 minutes before nursing since when we get to feeding time, at least one of them is usually fussy.
But here goes, luckily I don’t have too much to do today. Wish me luck!
The Accidentally 'Crunchy' Mama 