Breast Abscess

As you can tell from the title, this blog involves the boob. Please stop reading now if that makes you uncomfortable!

Before getting pregnant, I had heard terrible stories about breastfeeding moms who developed mastitis and how extremely painful it is. Naturally, I ended up being one of those "lucky" moms...

When Hudson was just a couple of weeks old, I noticed a pretty good size knot on one side. The knot was painful and the skin was red and warm to the touch. My temperature was 100.3 degrees. I figured it was mastitis so I called my OB that Thursday who prescribed an antibiotic to take care of the problem. I was given strict instructions that if it wasn't improving in 48 hours, then I needed to be seen. So I waited 48 hours till Saturday rolled around, and the knot seemed to have gotten larger. I felt fine (no fever), but it was clear that the antibiotic wasn't doing the job. I got ahold of the on-call OB at the hospital, and he immediately advised me to go to the ER to get checked out because it sounded like it might have turned into an abscess. So Thomas took over baby-duty while I headed to the hospital.

First I saw the triage nurse. She took one look and said I would have to see the nurse practitioner and possibly the doctor. The nurse practitioner immediately had me placed in a room to be seen by the doctor. The ER was pretty busy, so it took a while for the doctor to see me. So I just sat back and relaxed in the bed and watched a little TV. I sure did enjoy not having to worry about Hudson for once!

Eventually the doctor came in. As soon as he felt the knot, he said it was an abscess. :( Not what I wanted to hear! He went on to explain what he had learned about abscesses in med school: "First make an incision and drain. If that doesn't work, make an incision and drain again. If that still doesn't work, make another incision and drain. The last step was to treat with antibiotics." Ugh! Are you kidding me?!?!? You want to cut my boob open???

The doctor brought in an ultrasound machine to take a closer look at the abscess. From the outside, the knot measured 10cm wide. From the ultrasound, he measured the fluid pocket to be 4cm wide and 3cm deep. He said he was going to call the on-call OB to see what he recommended or if he wanted to come in and see me. I got the feeling the ER doctor wasn't too comfortable treating me... He knew he needed to drain it, but he was a little hesitant to actually do it. That made me a little uneasy.

The on-call OB was the same doctor I had spoken with on the phone earlier who instructed me to go to the ER. He told the ER doctor that he would come in and drain it for me, but he wanted to do a needle aspiration instead of an incision. Apparently it is successful about 60-70% of the time, but it is much less invasive than making an incision and draining it that way. This sounded much better to me (although it still sounded AWFUL). So I called Thomas and we quickly arranged for a babysitter. I needed someone there for support if they were going to stick a giant needle in me! The OB was there within minutes. Of course Thomas was going to be another 20 minutes before he could be at the hospital, and I knew the OB didn't want to wait for him since he came in just for this procedure. I had to buck up and do this on my own!

The nurse didn't take my advice about which vein to use to draw blood. He attempted a spot on my forearm first, and then he proceeded to tell me that my skin is REALLY thick while he was digging... Then he went straight through the vein. Of course next he used the vein I had suggested. No problem getting that one! #MenNeverListen :)

The OB first numbed the skin with some lidocaine injections. I felt a pinch for a couple of seconds and that was all. Then came the ginormous needle. I told him not to show me the needle or I would probably pass out. He thought I was joking but I was dead serious. He told me he was inserting the big needle and I braced myself for the worst pain in my life. He had explained that I would feel pressure at most, but I just didn't see how that was possible! Turns out, I didn't feel a thing! About 10 seconds after starting the procedure, I heard him say "jackpot!" He had reached the fluid pocket and was now drawing up as much of the fluid as he could get. He inserted the needle into my skin about an inch before he got inside of the abscess. Wow! The abscess was deep under the skin, that's for sure!

When he was done, he showed me the syringe filled with nasty brownish liquid tinged with blood. He removed 30mL (1 oz) of fluid. I wish I would have taken a picture of it because it was sooo gross! They sent it off to the lab to run cultures and see what we were dealing with. The nurse later informed me that she had totally grossed out the lab tech when she dropped it off at the lab. The tech saw it and said, "Oh my gosh. What is that???" Ha! I can't imagine what that stuff smelled like... Yuck.

They gave me a booster antibiotic through my IV and then some IV pain medicine as well before they sent me on my way. They switched me to a different oral antibiotic and gave me a script for hydrocodone for pain. He said I would be in a lot of pain the next day and that ibuprofen (which is what I wanted to use) would not cut it. I got my scripts filled late that night and drove back home with instructions to follow-up with my OB on Monday.

I saw my OB on Monday. I was anxiously awaiting the lab results, so the nurse immediately started looking to see if they were in my chart yet. Cultures came back positive for MRSA. Well that wasn't fun to hear! The good thing was that the antibiotic that the ER had me start was effective in killing this bacteria. So I should be on the road to recovery! She wanted me to be seen again one week later. So the following week, I arrived for my second follow-up appointment. This time I was seeing the nurse practitioner. She took a look and went to find the doctor on duty (which was the other doctor in the practice who was not aware of my situation). This doctor said there was still some fluid inside the abscess but not much. She offered to do another needle aspiration, but she wasn't sure if she would be able to get much fluid out. She then asked me about the culture results... I told her it was MRSA. Her eyes widened and she said, "oooohhhh!" Apparently the nurse practitioner was not aware of this tiny detail either. She said this was her first breast abscess patient where it was MRSA. Because the antibiotic that I had just finished should have killed the infection, the doctor was a little concerned. She stepped out to take a look at the culture report which shows which antibiotics are effective against my particular infection. She then called the infectious disease team at the hospital to discuss my situation - she really wanted to use another drug that would still allow for me to breastfeed. They talked about oral vancomycin but thought maybe daily IV vancomycin would work better... That meant I would have to come in everyday for IV antibiotics! How the heck do I accomplish that with a newborn??? And the other bad thing about vancomycin is it's not compatible with breastfeeding.

They eventually decided on another oral antibiotic - Bactrim. Of course, this drug gave me a terrible, TERRIBLE rash on my hands the last time I took it. I had to stop the medication it was so bad! However, in this situation, I would rather deal with a terribly painful rash on my hands rather than a daily trip to the hospital with an infant for an IV! I bought some benadryl to take before I started the Bactrim in hopes to prevent or lessen the extent of the rash. Surprisingly, it worked and I never developed a rash!! It's now been a week since I finished this antibiotic. The knot is still there, but it is smaller. There are no signs of infection, and it's not painful anymore. I think the knot that is still there is just all of the inflamed and involved tissue that was encompassing the abscess. It should slowly keep shrinking and eventually go away. If not, they will likely have to make an incision and surgically remove that tissue.

So it has been a long process that I wish no one ever has to experience! Somehow, I've been able to continue breastfeeding through all of this. Shocking, I know! I'm not sure how many times my mom said to me, "So since it's MRSA, you can't breastfeed anymore, right?" Or "Are you sure they said it's ok to keep breastfeeding?" Ha! Actually continuing to breastfeed was part of the treatment as it keeps the milk flowing so nothing gets stopped up again. The only time I couldn't follow the doctor's orders was right after the needle aspiration when that side was producing what I called "strawberry milk!" They said it was totally fine for him to get blood-tinged milk, but I couldn't give it to him. I told Thomas I didn't want a vampire baby!

One of my many talents... homemade strawberry milk!

First Month of Life

Well I started this blog weeks ago, but it took me forever to finish it!

I can't believe I'm saying this but... our baby is over a month old. It seems like he just arrived! He's going to be a toddler before we know it. His first month has been amazing (minus the lack of sleep)!

Weeks 1-3

1 month!

Hudson sure does keep us busy! Thomas has been working nights for the past few weeks, so he's been trying to get some stuff done around the house and outside while he's home during the day. This means Hudson and I spend most of the days and nights together. He eats about every 3 hours so in between feedings and fussiness, I am busy washing bottles, doing laundry, pumping, doing the dishes, pottying the dogs, etc. I know they say to sleep when the baby sleeps, but I am terrible at doing that unless it's during the night! There's just too much to get done! Notice cooking was not on my list... Thank goodness Thomas has been making me meals everyday! I'd probably be down to about 100 lbs if he wasn't bringing me a plate of food multiple times each day. :)

Thomas planted 4 trees so far.

Flower bed

Thomas is slightly obsessed with mowing!

We call Hudson the little monster. If you could hear the noises he makes all day long, you would understand why! He is quite the grunter. He has so many different noises! And he exaggerates everything (kinda like Daddy). When he is sleeping and realizes he is hungry, he lets you know by all of a sudden letting out a high-pitched scream. There is no warning that it's coming! He jumps like crazy at almost every noise (it doesn't even have to be that loud). When burping him, he will keep trying to throw himself backwards so that you will give him the bottle again. When he is upset, he flings his pacifier as far as possible. He knows exactly how to pop that thing out of his mouth with his hand in a very quick motion. There's no stopping him! Yup, he's quite the little angel (ha!).

Swinging at the giraffe!

Jake is ready to play already...

Maddie likes the bouncer too!

Oh how he's changed since the day we brought him home!

His only real problem is gas. If you have held him, you probably already know that the kid has some serious gas. And it STINKS. BAD. He is getting breast milk, but apparently he's having a little trouble digesting it. When he is trying to fart, he kicks his legs and strains so hard. It's terrible to watch, but he's a happy baby once he gets it all out. We're using gas drops and gripe water to help him as much as we can, but he still has belly pains at least a couple times each day. He will also go several days without pooping. The pediatrician said breastfed babies will either poop all the time or not very often at all. They said not to do anything about it unless it's been 5 days of no poop. We've only made it that far once, and with the aid of prune juice 2 nights in a row, he finally pooped after 6 days.

His face is adorable when he cries/pouts!

Thanks for the outfit, Jill Meisenheimer! 

Ainsley likes talking to Baby Hudson :)

Our big boy!

I am always snapping pictures of Thomas and Hudson hanging out, and it seems like they are always napping together!

Overall, it's been a great 1st month, and we are loving being parents. I can't wait for this little guy to start sleeping more than 3 hours at a time though! :)

Hudson Cole

Well, he's here!! And we couldn't be happier! Below you will find Hudson's birth story. There are some details of the birth that not everyone may want to read, so proceed with caution! :)

Just chillin'

Super strong little guy!

He loves his bouncer!

All smiles after a dirty diaper!

The Birth Story of

Hudson Cole Gillespie

Born: Monday, April 15, 2013 at 2:22pm

8 Pounds 8 Ounces

20 Inches Long

Doctor: Dianne Woolard

Pediatrician: Gary Olson

     Hudson was brought into this world 14 days early. His actual due date was April 29, 2013. It all started Friday evening after I got off work for the weekend. I started having painless contractions that I could only notice by watching for my belly to tighten into a very hard ball every so often. These contractions continued through Sunday. They started to get more regular so I started timing them. By Sunday afternoon, they were consistently 3-6 minutes apart for about an hour, but still pretty painless. We made the decision to head in to Labor & Delivery and get checked out around 6:00pm. Being a first time mom, I didn't know if maybe I was just handling the pain really well or if they really were just very weak contractions. Either way, they were very close together and I didn't want to have this baby at home!

     After arriving at the hospital, they hooked me up to monitors to take a look at my contractions. They checked me immediately and I was not dilated at all. After an hour of monitoring my painless contractions, the nurse said that my contractions were pretty weak and somewhat irregular. She said she would check me again and then put a report together for the doctor to make a decision about whether they keep me or send me home. She said that since I'm only 38 weeks (and not yet 39 weeks), they wouldn't do anything to stop the contractions or make them stronger. This time however, I was 3cm dilated! I had made progress in an hour which would help my chances of being able to stay and have this baby! After the nurse talked to Dr. Woolard, she came back in the room and said enthusiastically, “Well, do you want to stay and have this baby?!?” I was so excited!!

     We were then given the chance to move to a different room. We chose room #248, a big corner room at the end of the hall. My contractions started getting stronger that night. If they would have sent me home earlier, we would have been back again later Sunday night! Around 11:30pm, I asked for some pain medicine. Stadol was selected and wow, that was amazing! She only gave me half the dose to see how it made me feel along with some phenergan to prevent nausea. Well I was almost instantly asleep! I woke up an hour later in pain once again. We decided to go ahead and get the epidural started. They did the epidural at 1:30am when I was about 4-5cm dilated, and I felt pain-free within minutes. I slept comfortably all night long.

     In the morning, my contractions had spaced out a bit while I was sleeping. We decided to go ahead and start a little pitocin around 9am to regulate the contractions. Next, the nurse checked me again. This is when mishap #1 happened... The nurse accidentally broke my water while she was checking me! She said I was 6cm dilated. No one else was in the room when this happened, and she didn't have any towels or anything! My water went everywhere, but thankfully it was clear. We also learned at this point that the doctor would be in surgery at 10am, so it was sort of a timing game. Around 10:15am, I started feeling contractions again in my lower left abdomen. Turns out the epidural medication bag was empty and the nurse neglected to pay attention when the pump alarm went off the first time! (mishap #2) They called anesthesia back up to my room. I spent an hour breathing through contractions (and cussing anesthesia in between) while we waited for anesthesia to come hook up another epidural bag. I was not happy! Eventually they got the bag hung, but for some reason, it didn't numb the spot I was complaining about in my left lower abdomen. I gave it 20 minutes while flipping from side to side trying to move the baby or get gravity to help the epidural work faster. Nothing worked. Anesthesia was called back to my room again. She topped off the epidural and gave me some additional lidocaine. Eventually, we got the painful spot to stop hurting during contractions.

     Soon after that, I was fully dilated! We did a couple pushes, and then the nurse made a couple calls for delivery. It was time! Thomas got the videocamera set up and I started pushing. Hudson had the hiccups throughout most of the pushing! About mid-way through, Dr. Woolard could feel that he was turned a little which was not necessarily a problem, but it most definitely would make the delivery process harder. She successfully got him turned into the correct position, and after about an hour of pushing, baby Hudson was born at 2:22pm! The doctor was shocked at how big he was! (I was not in the least bit surprised... take a look at his father!) He was a little blue, so the doctor alerted the baby nurse that she was bringing him straight to her after the cord was cut. Here comes mishap #3... Thomas was quickly instructed to cut the cord, but it didn't go exactly as planned. As soon as he cut it, the doctor turned her head and started coughing into her scrubs. Some blood from the cord had squirted into her mouth!! Everyone was quiet and just stared at her. She just kept going like normal and handed him off.  The baby nurse got him crying in no time!

     Next was the delivery of the placenta (mishap #4). I was pretty distracted watching Thomas who was in awe watching over our new bundle of joy as they checked him out and cleaned him up. Next thing I know, the doctor is asking me to push to deliver the placenta. Just a few moments later, I felt a huge gush and heard a huge splash! The placenta had busted in the doctor's hands and exploded leaving a huge mess all over the doctor, nurses, bed, and floor! The doctor's somber comment was, “Sorry guys,” since all of their scrubs and shoes were now covered with the contents of my placenta! The next comment I remember that came from the doctor was, “Well that was dramatic!”

     After getting a few stitches, Thomas brought Hudson over to me to hold for the first time. We immediately did skin-to-skin contact and he took to breastfeeding like a champ! After spending a good 45 minutes with Hudson, they took him away for a bath and some more health checks. During this time, Thomas went to the waiting room to inform our families that a healthy, 8lbs 8oz, 20in long baby boy had arrived! Not long after Thom's announcement, our family members heard a baby crying around the corner... They peeked in the nursery windows and got to see our baby boy for the first time! Eventually, it was time for all of them to file into our room to see our newest addition and find out his name. So in came Grandpa Frank, Grandma Sharon, Aunt Jackie, Aunt Jodie, Grandpa Bill, Grandma Shelly, and Mark! I announced his name and they all took turns holding baby Hudson.

Daddy looking pretty comfortable while we wait...

I think I was describing what my contractions felt like. :)

He's finally out!

The proud daddy had to let our neighborhood know that Hudson
had arrived! The balloons had already blown away. :)

Hudson in the outfit Thomas wore home from the hospital when he was born!

He's not a fan of this outfit!

Please stop with the pictures mom!

Our little glow worm

He was one week old on Monday, 4/22!

Relaxing while Dad plays a video game

He's got some cheeks on him!

Already knows how to use his hands to hold his bottle up and keep his pacifier in!

Again... holding his bottle!

Today is my actual due date, and I can't imagine still being pregnant!! That would have been awful... My body must have known to go into labor early or he was going to come out via c-section!

Hudson is two weeks old today. Crazy! Time is already flying by. Thomas goes back to work today, and we are sure going to miss him! He's been quite the help, and I have been slightly spoiled :)

As you can imagine, I have much more to blog about for Hudson's first two weeks of life. Hopefully I can get a couple more posts up this week before we head back home to visit this weekend! In case you haven't heard, we will be having some times available for everyone to meet Hudson. Hope all of you can stop by (unless you're sick...)! Here is where we will be and when:

Saturday 12:30pm-4:30pm: Frank & Sharon's house
Saturday 5:30pm-8:30pm: Mark & Shelly's house
Sunday 12:30pm-4:00pm: Bill's house

"Are We There Yet?"

I remember when I was little, on our family vacations, I was the daughter who never slept in the car and continued to ask the annoying question over and over again, "Are we there yet?" I guess you could say I'm still pretty impatient! I am soooo ready for this baby to make his way into the world. The days seem to be getting longer as work becomes more and more challenging. The nights seem to last forever as well because I pee every 1-2 hours. Every time I wake up, I somehow manage to find the toilet without turning on a light or hardly even opening my eyes! Since Thomas sleeps through everything, Jake (our golden retriever) keeps an eye on me during the night. He sleeps right where I step down to get out of bed. That way, he knows when I get up since I have to feel my way around him with my feet!

Monday marked 37 weeks, and this baby is now considered full-term. I couldn't be happier! He is close enough to being fully-cooked now that I don't have to worry about going into labor early. At my last appointment on Tuesday, my doctor felt around on my belly and roughly estimated him to weigh about 6.75 pounds. That sounds great to me! I want him to stay under 8 lbs! For the one person who voted he will be a 6 pounder, you are most likely wrong! Everything else looked great, and my belly is still measuring right on track. His heart rate was in the 130's, and he is still head down. Here's a belly pic from today at 37 weeks and 4 days. (Please ignore the lint/hair all over my tank top!)

37 and 1/2 weeks

Besides feeling really uncomfortable at work, I really don't have too much to complain about. However, I think I must have done my fair share of complaining based on my co-workers' due date guesses! I've already passed up the first guess, and the last guess is still before my due date of April 29th. I keep telling them that April is going to end and I'm still going to be pregnant!! And that may make for a slightly crabby boss :)

9 lbs 3 oz... Really Zack?!?!?

We've taken the dogs for a couple walks in the subdivision since it has warmed up, and I'm not sure who it wears out more! Here's Maddie after a very slow paced 20 minute stroll, and you can see Jake already asleep in the background.

Thomas and I are both off all weekend, and I sure am looking forward to some relaxation! Hopefully we can finish getting the house ready. I wish the "nesting" stage would hit me... I am in no way motivated to clean. Maybe it has something to do with the feeling that my pelvis may crack at any moment!!

36 Weeks!

Well, the weekly appointments have begun! I never thought the end of this pregnancy would ever get here, but thankfully it has! We're sooooo ready for this little guy to join us!

Tuesday was my 36 week appointment, and I saw the nurse practitioner. Everything looked normal except my blood pressure was slightly elevated. They checked it again at the end of the appointment, and it was better but she instructed me to take my blood pressure three times a day for the next three days. If it didn't go down, then I needed to let her know. Luckily, my blood pressure has been great over the past few days. I must have been nervous about the appointment or something... and for good reason!

I knew they were planning to do the group B strep test and check me for dilation for the first time. However, I guess I was nervous for no reason... both were quick and painless! She told me that the baby is very low which I already knew because it feels like I'm smashing his head when I sit down! But I haven't started dilating yet, not that I would be any closer to labor if I had. It sure would make me feel better though! We'll see if I make any progress by my next appointment!


The crib bedding finally arrived! I ordered it off of Etsy. I never found any sort of themed bedding that I liked, so I just chose some fabric and had it made the way I wanted. Turned out pretty cute!

Can't wait to have a little baby in the crib!