pump, interrupted
At ten and a half months, our baby girl spiked a fever and wasn’t acting like herself. When we took her to the pediatrician the next morning, they diagnosed her with an ear infection after noticing inflammation inside her ears. I was not feeling well this same day, and took a rapid antigen at-home test that came back negative. I went to my own pediatrician who diagnosed me with a sinus infection. Both baby and I were given a prescription for antibiotics, rest, and snuggles.
When we asked both doctors how the antibiotics might affect breastfeeding, they assured us that a very limited amount might transfer into my milk, if at all. Since our baby girl was going to be taking the same type of antibiotics as myself, we weren’t worried. They also assured us that there is no evidence that the antibiotics affect milk supply. I would discover—however—that the infection itself would cause my supply to drop.
After two days of R&R, baby girl and I were starting to feel better, but—my husband started feeling sick. We were preparing to take him to our primary care doctor to see if he also had an ear or sinus infection when he took a rapid antigen at-home test and… it came back positive! I tested myself again and it came back negative, as before. Upon testing our daughter, her result was positive as well. Heartbroken, we called her pediatrician and asked for advice. The “prescription” was the same as for her ear infection: rest, snuggles, and Motrin to help reduce her fever. I had a PCR lab test done on myself and two days later I received the result: negative. I kept boggling my brain trying to figure out how my husband and our baby could both be positive while I remained negative!
We are very fortunate that the only symptoms our baby girl presented were a fever, irritability, and trouble staying asleep. She did not experience the congestion that my husband and I were withstanding.
Throughout the sinus infection, I noticed that my milk supply was steadily declining. We were needing to thaw a couple bags from our frozen milk stash each day to make up for the deficit. Feeling discouraged, I decided to try dropping down to three pump sessions per day to see what might happen—I had plans to do this anyway, since we were approaching eleven months and preparing to bring our breastfeeding journey to a close at twelve months. Surprisingly, dropping a session did not have a significant effect on my daily milk output! I produced roughly the same amount of milk with three sessions as I had with four during my illness. I am a “glass half full” type of person, so I took this discovery with a dash of optimism—when my supply started climbing back up during recovery, I was able to better manage the feeling of “fullness” between the more spread out pump sessions.
With the drop down to three pump sessions per day, I am now pumping milk at 6:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m. The twelve-hour stretch overnight has been going well, and I feel more comfortable looking ahead to the drop to two pump sessions per day. We are not sure yet when we will implement that adjustment, as we are taking our breastfeeding journey one day at a time!