photo by epSos.de
Being stuck in the bed postpartum with two bouts of double mastitis has forced me to simplify my days even more than I thought possible before. But note, this post is not titled “5 FRUGAL Ways to Simplify Your Days,” so you might have to cancel the cable to pull this off, but it’s totally worth it.
1. Order a monthly meal plan from someone else and OBEY it. Tweaking is a real time eater. I have a super-impossible diet for health reasons, so you may be able to do this for much less. $16/month
2. Get a teen to cut the lawn. We don’t use him every week, but when we get really lazy, we wander over from next door. Our front lawn is 2300 sq feet. $15/mowing
3. Get a scrubby lady. I clean my own house in a general weekly way, but one to two times a month, someone else gives it a good scrub down. I don’t mess with the bathrooms. I don’t dust. I do a passable job on the kitchen floor and counters. She takes up the slack. Love her. My house is 1700 sq feet. $60/cleaning
4. Put all the kids in the SAME activities. When someone goes to karate, they all go to karate. When someone is singing at mass, they all sing at mass. This may save you money if you had them each in different activities, but I didn’t. The others weren’t even interested in karate, so that meant I would be entertaining #2, #3, and #4 while #1 is in karate class. No way. If anyone does an activity, they all do it. If I’m going to the trouble to drive one there, I expect to get an hour of complete freedom for my trouble. 60$ extra/month
Have you tried applying cabbage leaves to ease the mastitis?
Place them inside your bra and leave them there for a hour. Remove. Replace with fresh leaves for another hour, remove, and then repeat the above until you are feeling more comfortable. Do not leave in for the night.
Really works 🙂
Scrubby ladies are worth their weight in gold. ESPECIALLY when there’s a new baby in the house.
Mastitis. Boy have I been in your shoes more times that I, or my doctor, care to ever remember!! Uggghhh !! So park yourself in bed with that baby. Drink lots of fluids. Eat decently .. do not skimp, your body needs fuel to help the healing process. Breast feed that adorable baby on that infected breast first at each feeding, with the baby’s chin closest to the red area — helps suck out the plug. No it won’t hurt the baby to drink breast milk when mastitis is present. Use lots of warmth on your infected
breast(s) such as warm compresses, hot showers, or a heating pad — for about 10 to 15 minutes, several times a day, if you can manage it. But mostly, REST and NURSE only. If you have to get antibiotics, please see if they can give you Dicloxicillin. It worked great for me many times. Bless you for being a Breastfeeding Momma. Hang in there, this too shall pass !! {{{HUGS}}}
P.S. I want a Scrubby Lady !!
Yes, cabbage leaves. And also hot compresses. Pump if you have to. Ouch. Been there numerous times.
Mastitis…pure hell.
Ouchy, ouchy, ouch! I am 59, and remember when I had mastitis at 24,3 times. It can reduce you to waaay past tears. Since I was the only breastfeeder in my family, I got little sympathyand a;so doctors told me to wean. (Which is the WORST thing one can do, it “backs up” the infection and it gets more infected!)
Breast feeding, back then, was for happily married hippies– like me! I was thankful for La Leche League’s wonderful support and advice! I ended up nursing all my 4 kids. Good for you, my “bosom buddy!”