How to Unclog a Milk Duct

That title just draws you in, doesn't it? Who is ready for a kind of awkward post?

(Well, I don't think it is awkward, but people who have no exposure to breastfeeding and crazy clogged ducts might think it is and get their minds blown so that was just a little heads up to those who have none).

I just counted, and I have nursed for 26 months of the past 28 months. That really is not even that long considering my mother-in-law nursed for a good portion of the past 28 years.

Back when Ryan was six weeks old, my crying woke Chris up at three or so in the middle of the night. I already dreaded the first painful minute of every breastfeeding session which were spaced no more than every hour and a half even if he nursed for an hour. I rolled my eyes at every mention online that all breastfeeding hiccups and pain would cease after a few weeks, maybe a month. Lies. After blisters, raw skin and mastitis, I was ready to hit that smooth sailing, but it was nowhere in sight. On this particular night, I had the worst clogged duct I had ever had. Chris recognized how painful it was because he said, "You didn't even cry in childbirth." I was crying partly from the pain and partly from knowing that it would be recurring every hour and a half.

Hot showers, hot/cold showers warm compresses and massage while pumping didn't work. I was so engorged in the one duct that heat just didn't affect it, and my pump, as awesome as it is, just doesn't compare to a real, hungry baby's latch. I (stupidly) didn't want to call a lactation consultant. After perusing every dated mommy forum on the internet, I was convinced enough to bring up popping the milk blister with a needle to Chris since I read LuvMyBaby85 or whoever successfully did it. He shot that home remedy down for some reason. Back to the forums I went.

I searched every nook and cranny of every comment until I found something that did not involve sterilizing a needles The Parent Trap way (which I did once when I tried to pierce my best friend's ear freshman year ... how did it go? Well, she got them pierced professionally ... our senior year). Anyway, in between a comment calling for ricotta cheese and one for a grated potato (which very might well work!), I finally found a comment that lead me to my best weapon against clogged ducts in my nursing arsenal.

Nurse upside down.

It worked.

It works.

Oh, what sweet relief! I was so thankful the other day when, once again, it did the trick. 

If you need details, how to unclog a milk duct:

Place your baby on his or her back on a bed or on the floor. It helps to start out with this position when the baby is hungry and has an extra strong suck rather than switching to it in the middle of a feed. Position your baby so that when you are on all fours above the baby, his or her chin lines up to the clogged duct. Get on all fours and nurse. The gravity does wonders and the hungry baby's re-positioned and strong latch does the trick. 

How do you get rid of clogged ducts?

Flying with Liquid Gold

Just a bit of a year ago, Chris and I returned home from a wonderful trip to Ireland (which I never finished recapping ... ). At the time of the trip, Ryan was almost eight months old, and, being the milk fiend that he was, still nursed almost every two hours. He ate some solid food, but since I have as much sap as a maple tree, I wasn't pushing the solid food because somehow Mum-mums and Cheerios meant that he wasn't my baby anymore. It was quite the change in attitude from the first three months of his life when I didn't know if I could keep breastfeeding. Ryan also only occasionally took a bottle and didn't like formula. I think I tried three kinds in that frantic last month before we left. You would think that I would have practiced more, but do you know how easy it is to exclusively nurse (once you have it down) compared to all of the prep and cleaning that comes with bottle feeding?? (just my experience from being a full-time nanny a bottle fed baby). On top of this formula refusing, kind of solid-eating, lukewarm to bottle catastrophe was the fact that I didn't even know how much milk Ryan drank a day. All of this summed up to a recipe for a wife who tells her husband on the hour, every hour that, "Should we really go?!" when most of our trip was being generously gifted to us. 

1. The one time he drank a bottle of formula and got my hopes up about the prospect of a backup plan 2. Not happy campers

We were going to be apart from Ryan for twelve days. I was estimating that I needed twenty ounces a day so I needed at least 240 ounces of breast milk by the time I left to take Ryan to San Diego to stay with Chris' parents (you're welcome for that tough math calculation). I had about forty ounces or so already back in San Diego from when we were out there visiting. Too bad I had only allowed myself a month to create the remaining of such a must-have stash. 

The month of August was basically me, myself, and my pump. I do not know how mothers who exclusively pump do it! I would wake up early to pump, pump after every time Ryan ate, which was often, pump right after Ryan went to bed and again before I went to bed. I drank water like a fish, ate enough lactation cookies to feed a month of La Leche League meetings, and sipped Mother's Milk Tea like I was from across the pond. Somehow, my pile of Lansinoh freezer bags finally reached 200+ ounces.

Now the question was ... how do I get it to San Diego?

After my initial research, I planned on shipping it with dry ice which seems to have worked for several people according to the internets. Then I realized that that would cost quite a bundle and that I already had a plane ticket  for myself and my own bundle of joy. Can a mom check a bag of frozen milk? I looked more into that option and found out that yes, we can do it! That became my plan for about the time of one pumping session during which I spent imagining my beyond precious luggage getting lost. Can a mom carry on a cooler of frozen breast milk when they are so strict about carry on contents? 

Yes. Yes, she can. Here is how I did it:

1. I bought a cooler that was small enough to count as a carry-on and easy to tote around for a day, but large enough to contain the frozen milk. I used a 16 quart cooler with a padded strap except surprise, surprise mine wasn't camouflage. I made sure to have my contact info in the cooler pocket and tied a ribbon on the strap so I could easily identify it in case it was lost. 

3. I printed out the Traveling With Formula, Breast Milk and Juice, page from the TSA website. It clearly states that frozen breast milk is not only permitted, but also allowed to be larger in amount than the normal three ounce guideline. I made sure to have the paper within reach when we went through security in case the TSA worker was unfamiliar with the policy.

2. By the time I flew, I had about 230 ounces of frozen breast milk with me which was almost forty bags of six ounces each. I didn't have much room for freezer packs, but I stuffed a few in there where I could on the top. I waited to pack the cooler until right before we had to leave so it stayed in the freezer for as long as possible.

Liquid GOLD. My frozen assets. 

4. Declare the breast milk right away once you reach the security belt. The TSA man just opened the cooler to see what was in it, swabbed it down to test it for anything of warning and then also swabbed down our Ergo that Ryan was in and tested that. It was all very quick! 

5. Relax and travel!

After almost a four hour bus ride, two hour wait in the airport, four hour plane ride from Chicago to San Diego and then about an hour more until we arrived at the freezer at my in-laws, the breast milk made it to its destination! Since the frozen bags cooled one another very well throughout the day of travel that most of the cooler was still frozen. Only the top few bags had started to turn a little bit slushy. Success! And I am happy to say that the Ryan drank his last six ounces on the plane ride back with his Oma to be reunited with us! 

Leaving Ryan and then pumping throughout the trip will be a story for another day.

So if you are a mom on a business trip or just a trip without your baby and are pained to have to throw away all that breast milk, just fly home with it! 

Guest Post on Fine Linen and Purple!

The ladies over at Fine Line and Purple were kind enough to have me write a guest post about winter essentials as a nursing mama. So hop on over to check it out!

Winter Essentials, Nursing Mama Edition

What I Wore Sunday, Volume 1

Well, I am finally wiggling into a spot on the crowded What I Wore Sunday bandwagon after many weeks of admiring all the Sunday fashion from afar. So without further ado, here is my outfit from Mass this mañana. 

Dress: Gift from my mother-in-law (Mikarose)
Pashmina Scarf: Gift from cousin
Boots: Nordstrom
Leggings with fleece lining: Nordstrom Rack

I definitely recommend the leggings with fleece lining from Nordstrom Rack...comfy, as warm as skinny jeans are and cheap, cheap, cheap. As in $6.97 cheap. They have a bit of a rubbery smell to them, but it's not very noticeable and nothing a bit of perfume (or hairspray if you are like me and use hairspray on your clothes more than on your hair) can't cover up. 

And now for a shot of my outfit combine with Ryan's outfit...

Scarves are my b(r)e(a)st friends. 

Now, take a click trip over to see the rest of the Sunday dress inspiration at Fine Linen and Purple.

Happy Sunday!

Praise from a Nursing Lion Cub

Last week, Chris' department threw a Halloween party for all of the employees' children. I was so impressed by it. Chris' coworkers went all out! I thank God every day that my husband works for such a family friendly employer. 

Fast forward to later in the evening. I had taken Ryan's costume off when I had changed his diaper so he was no longer the fierce lion with a thick mane that he had been an hour before. We laid down on the bed to nurse, and my mind drifted as I pondered what to make for dinner and how many loads of laundry had piled up. After a few minutes, Ryan pushed himself up, sat his bottom down, straightened up, and promptly began to clap fervently!  

Well! If that didn't melt my heart, the presence of his little whiskers and lion nose that still decorated his plump little face finished the job.

My sweet, praising lion cub.

Do you have any sweet or funny stories from Halloween?