Quiet.

Sometimes life forces you to be quiet.

It happened to me this week. I woke up on Saturday not feeling quite right. A little tired, a little achey but nothing too dramatic. Hey I'm just tired. Having a baby will do that to you. 

On Sunday morning we had to be at a breakfast at my brother in laws house to celebrate his birthday. Usually I love family times like these but I struggled to get up. Again I felt achey, tired , lethargic , was developing a cough and I also had a rash all over my arms and legs. As you do I just kept going and got everyone organised. We also had another batch of visitors over that day to meet Noah but by Sunday afternoon I felt so sick I had to go to the doctors (which I hate doing!) 

Turns out I had the flu and the rash was viral and my body's way of saying I was rundown and had to take things easier.  Just rest, the doctor said. Hmmm, how will I do that with 3 children I thought? Although I came home and hopped into bed and Simon took care of everything else. He brought Noah to me every few hours for a feed. I dozed, I ached and I shivered. This went on for a couple of days until I woke up with mastitis! I know the symptoms for the flu and mastitis are similar but I had the cough and the rash so I think I was unlucky enough to have them both at the same time!

After breastfeeding both the older boys for a year each without ever having a problem before I felt a little bit panicky. I pumped and massaged my breast religiously for a few days and I think I have it under control. I didn't really want to resort to antibiotics if I didn't have to. It hasn't disappeared completely but the aches and fevers have disappeared and suddenly things don't seem so bad. 

I think I was on such a high from Noah's birth that I just hit the ground running and tried to slip back into regular life without giving much of a thought of what my body had just been through. I guess I also didn't want Finn and Jasper to feel much disruption in their daily lives either. I was also keeping my little business on facebook ticking over as well. Too much I guess! Adrenalin was obviously getting me through BUT it obviously ran out! Luckily Noah has been so good and is sleeping and feeding well so that has made things easier. Now it is up to me to nurture my body back to strength and good health. I will be taking it slowly for however long I need to. Lesson learnt! 

Have you had mastitis? What did you do? Love to hear your tips :)

Simone xx


image via tumblr