When PMD Attacks

For the past two months, I have had 4 attacks of Plugged Milk Ducts, or what I now lovingly call PMD. I've had mastitis before, once, when I was nursing H, but I believe I've never had PMD until recently.

The first attack lasted less than 24 hours as we massaged, soaked, applied warm compress, nursed and did everything we could to get that plugged duct to drain. The second attack happened as I was preparing for Chain of Command. Understandably, all the stress and anxiety proably contributed to the attack in the first place. The third attack was somewhat expected. I missed the last day of Chain of Command due to it. Baby Z had went without nursing for 5 hours straight, so I wasn't that surprised when the attack came, but I was still dismayed.

The fourth attack happened because Baby Z left me high and dry after he recovered from his flu during which he had high fever for 3 days straight. On the fourth day, after nursing all night, he slept through the morning, leaving my body continuously producing milk to the point of blockage. It was during this fourth attack that I truly employed my children to help me iron the wet towel to make myself a warm compress.

Before, I employed them to dunk the towel in hot water, squeeze it and bring it to me. Poor kids, the water was hot. I figured out that ironing a wet towel is more convenient and less messy, so on the third attack, I tried it.

I am ashamed to admit(especially to my fellow Malaysians) that it has been years since I have ironed anything. My husband even irons his own clothes when he needs to, which is not that often, so the iron is something novel to the children.

So when I repeatedly asked them to iron that wet towel for me, they did it quite willingly. In fact they fought over who got to do it. The fourth attack lasted about 24 plus hours, close to 48, which really worried me to no end. But the kids got to 'play' with the iron for about more than 24 hours. I even thought to myself, as H chattered,

"Should I do it to rayon? Ummi, I'll do it to rayon, ok?"

"Make it point to crayon!"

"Ummi's doing rayon!"

that were I not so occupied with trying to unplug the plugged ducts, it could have been a learning moment. We could have researched the types of fabric, and it would have been something relevant at the time for them. It wouldn't be forced learning or learning something because the curriculum tells you to. It would be because of natural curiosity, and it would remain longer in their brain as they connect with the subject matter, inshaallah.

That's what Rh have noticed in them. Rh comes every Friday to teach them 'Islamic Studies', and as her major is childhood education, she is currently reading up teaching techniques, learning processes and what not. In fact, her reading material is not so different from what I have been reading all these years. She mentioned to me that the kids seems to connect better with something when it means something to them. Subhanallah, it is true. Shove geography, science, history and whatever else you have to them without meaning, and they will just as soon forget all the facts and information as quickly as they can. But take them out on a nature walk, involve them in the activity, spark some sincere interest, and they will actually even seek to learn about the subject matter themselves, and remember it longer, if not forever. This is the kind of homeschooling I want to start to do once we're done with OHVA, inshaallah.

We did do a 'tree hunt' a couple of times during Spring. I took them all for a walk outside, and we took leaves, twigs, flowers from some trees, and compared them to the trees in the tree guide from the library. I actually now know what a crab apple tree looks like. It's a learning experience that involves even the teacher, who in the beginning knows nothing whatsoever about the subject matter!

I yearn to do something like that again, inshaallah, and with Baby Z, things sure are a wee bit more challenging, especially since he is a high maintenance baby, what with his eczema and allergies.

Alhamdulillah reading has become second nature to the children. Most of the time, they learn about what interests them through their own reading, on their own time, ironically, 'outside' of 'school time'. I'm really glad I took the trouble to do the Glenn Doman method with S when she was 3. Now I really need to start on Baby Z, inshaallah...but...let's pray that the PMD attacks are held at bay now and forever, inshaallah. Ameen!