I am by no means a "new" nursing mother. I BF my first for almost 19 months and I have been BFing my baby for 9 months, but I have never had this happen before. With my first, I had recurrent plugged ducts. Once I figured out what was going on, it was pretty easy to identify the duct and remove the plug...instant relief. With my current baby, I have had a few plugged ducts, but nothing too bad (I know I should remember my lecithin). Once again, easy to identify the source and unplug it.
Yesterday, I woke up and it felt like I had another plugged duct - part of my breast felt knotty and tight, and the rest felt normal. By pushing on the sore part, I saw where I thought it was plugged. It wasn't a single milk bleb like usual though. When I was trying to remove it, thick, sticky, cloudy milk/liquid was coming out in clumps. I kept trying to express it - by hand, by pump, and by baby, but was not getting much relief. I have never seen "liquid" like this before. If I was holding a clump of it between my fingers and moved my fingers apart, there would be a sticky string connecting the two fingers (if that makes sense). It was almost more like cottage cheese than milk. I worked on it again last night, started taking lecithin and went to bed. This morning when I woke up, it was still very sore, but didn't feel plugged. It hurts like crazy to nurse. My first thought was mastitis, but I have no fever or flu like symptoms. Any idea what is going on or anybody experience this before?
TIA!
Follow Mothering