So what a crazy couple of weeks! You'd think since school has been out my life would have gotten a little easier, but then again I do have triplet GIRLS! I should know life will always be an adventure. So for the update I am going to write about each person individually. For the sake and understanding of the week I am going to begin with me.
Mommy- I had started noticing a few weeks ago with all of the stress of going back to work, ending the school year, reflux woes (I will explain in the girls' section), insurance dealings (explanation below), and schedule of going back and forth to the nicu all while still trying to be a mommy and wife; I was beginning to feel a little rundown and tired. Well...it all came to a head this week. Ending the school year went pretty well, thanks to the support of family and my husband, I felt pretty confident the whole way through.
Since giving birth to the girls I have been using a hospital grade breast pump to help feed the girls, and I have been able to exclusively breastfeed all 3 these past 4 1/2 months with no supplementation. I am extremely proud and want to keep going until they are 1 year at least at this point! However this hospital grade pump has to come from a medical supply company- no problem- my lactation consultant from the hospital help set it up with insurance and the medical supply company. Received my pump and all is great! Fast forward to May, medical supply company is mad because the insurance will not pay for all the months and is demanding that I return the pump or pay the rental fee. Umm..hello? How do I feed my babies without this pump? Man from the medical supply company does not care and wants the pump returned anyway. After 2 weeks of talking and mediating between the insurance, medical supply company (who is not a very nice man to speak with), and my lactation consultant, we were able to reapprove the pump through August. Until last week, the nasty man from the medical supply company calls back to demand that I return the pump immediately as the insurance is denying my claim. Again he is almost screaming at me, as I am pretty much begging for some time to solve this so that I can continue to pump enough milk to feed the girls. Anyway it got so bad I ended up with my very first stress headache. It was so bad I couldn't see straight. We are still in the process of figuring this mess out so pray that it works out in our favor! So Monday night I start noticing pain in my chest and that I might have some clogs. It happens when feeding multiple babies and I can usually work them out. Late Monday night I woke up shivering and running a fever with extreme pain everywhere, especially the right side of my chest. It got so bad I couldn't give the girls their first bottle that morning. For the next 2 days I ran fevers up to 104 degrees. I was taking ibprophen, tylenol, and an antibiotic prescribed by my doctor. Yep...for those of you who have knowledge of nursing/pumping...I had gotten a severe case of mastitis. I had 2 minor cases before but cleared up within 24 hours with no problem and no antibiotic needed. Not this time! I got so sick we even took a little trip to the ER to see if IV antibiotics would help. Thankfully they doubled the dosage of antibiotic and increased pain meds and said give it 24 more hours. By Thursday morning I started to feed my temperature coming down, and feel more normal. I felt like I could actually get out of bed without passing out. And maybe I could eat some food too. By late morning my fever was normal. For those who don't know about mastitis, it is one of the most painful things that can happen to a nursing mom. It is when the milk ducts clogs and then cause an infection which can spread to your blood if not treated or unclogged immediately. Many times mastitis causes a drop in milk supply too. The other 2 times I got mastitis I was able to clear the clogs and recover my supply within a day or two. This time my supply has drastically dropped. I went from making 9-14 oz each pump to now make 5-6 oz. It can really be frustrating and discouraging to see after being able to pump so well before, and now not knowing if you can recover your supply back. I am staying positive and will do what I can to help get back to where I was before. Thankfully, I do have a supply built up in my freezer that will help up get through..although there is a pitfall to that as well (explain later haha). So being down for 2 days what happened to the babies???? Ta-da! Family to the rescue! Hubby stepped up and did morning feeds and stayed with my in the morning until my parents came. My parents helped take care of the girls during the day and into the evening both days. I cannot ever thank them enough for all the help that they have given to us. Without them I would be lost for sure! They do so much for us and I will always continue to thank them and let them know how grateful we are for their help and support! We also had help from our other grandparents in the evening to watch the girls and from their uncle who watched Alyx and Luci by himself for an hour! He was and should be proud! That is a big undertaking for anyone!
So on top of the all of this we have been dealing with the dreaded reflux with the girls. We have tried a couple different meds with no success among other interventions that we are trying from home. We finally have a GI appointment but while we are waiting to go, it was suggested by others that I try to remove dairy from my diet to see if that makes a difference. So for the past week and a half I have stayed away from all dairy. We have been feeding the girls purely dairy free milk to see if this will help with their massive spit ups. We have definitely seen a reduction in spits so I will keep it up for now. This is not easy when ice cream is a daily food group for you!! But for my babies I will do with a smile on my face. Now... this has been a problem the last few days because of the mastitis. With my supply down I am not producing enough to feed the girls so we are having to use the frozen supply...which has MILK in it!!! So frustrating.
Anywho hopefully now life will get back on track. Exciting weekend planned..first zoo trip, first birthday party outing, and visiting sissy at the hospital. I will update on the girls soon as well!
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