Well, we seem to be back on track again, thanks to 3 lots of antibiotics to clear the miserable mastitis, infacol to soothe Little Miss K's trapped wind and oodles of support and advice from my mum and my lovely midwife sister in law. The mastitis was so painful and I'm actually pretty proud of myself that I managed to continue nursing through it. I had got to the stage where I was saying to myself 'I'll just nurse for this feed and then I'll see' and I managed to keep going from feed to feed. I am planning a ceremonious burning of the lousy M&S nursing bra that gave me the mastitis! I normally love M&S lingerie, but their nursing bras are terrible.
I've also cracked on the 'no sleeping in our bed' thing and Little Miss K is now sleeping in our bed rather than in her co-sleeper beside us. After every night feed she would fall asleep and I would put her back in the co-sleeper and she would wake with the movement of the transfer and cry and would then want to nurse again. It would sometimes take 4 or 5 nursing and put back sessions before she would stay asleep in her co-sleeper, so the amount of sleep I was getting was minimal. Since she's been sleeping with us, I lie down to feed her, which I find much more relaxing, and after a feed she just sleeps on because we don't have to move her. For the last 3 nights she's fed at 11pm, 3am and 7am, which I think is incredibly civilised for a 4 week old baby. I'm now getting far more sleep which makes everything so much easier to cope with. I had got to the stage where I was very weepy and negative with the sleep deprivation and feeling quite post-natal-depression-y (thinking that she didn't like me was not a good sign!), but now I feel much more capable and positive again. Yay sleep, we love you!
I've also done my first 'nursing in a public place' session, out at a cafe while surrounded by my family, as I knew I'd have complete support from my family if anyone started getting sniffy about me feeding in public. It all went really well, and I will certainly nurse in public again and anyone who doesn't like it can go stuff themselves! Attitudes to breast feeding in Ireland are pretty negative as bottle feeding is the norm here and has been for many years.
oops, time for another feed, must dash! Will try to post a photo of Little Miss K in the future when I work out how to put photos on Typepad.