A story about sore boobs

This post is about boobs, so if you don't want to hear about my sore boobs, then don't read on! I am writing this purely for those readers who are pregnant and are interested in practical advice on what to expect...

Breastfeeding has been going really well, and I am so pleased that I can breastfeed Preston. He is a very...let's say...vigorous feeder and right from the start I managed to have rather damaged nipples which required attention. When the milk properly comes in, breasts turn to rock and it is difficult for the baby to latch on properly, so you get lots of ouchys. I've just about healed now, and it was time this week to try using my breast pump to express some milk. This is recommended so that the baby gets used to drinking occasionally from a bottle, and being fed by someone else so I don't always have to be there.

So I spent a while the other day in between feeding times pumping away, but since Preston is so hungry, I managed to get only about 80ml that was left (I was aiming for about 100ml). Breast pumps are curious devices if you have never seen one, and basically it creates a manual vacuum sort of system which sucks out the milk. Imagine having a vacuum cleaner on your breast - it is a weird sort of pain! Anyway, it was an interesting experience, rather time consuming though. But after I was done, I was in quite a lot of pain. The vacuuming had kind of 'bruised' me and I had ouchy pain radiating up my shoulders and even down to my toes. That night and the next day's feeds were so amazingly painful I was just about crying from pain. It is not very fun trying to feed a baby when you are so scared of him latching on (it's like a super powerful vacuum) and anticipating the pain.

The other problem is that breast milk is created on a supply/demand system, and as the demand increases, supply increases about 24 hours later. So my pumping told my brain that more milk was needed, so the next day (while I am in extreme pain) I have an enormous amount of milk produced. So I have really hard engorged breasts that REALLY hurt, but the only way to make it better is to feed and drain it all, even though that is the hardest thing to do. I took a hot bath to try to relieve some pain, but heat makes the milk flow, so I had milk pouring out everywhere. Hmmm. Luckily today I feel lots better, and I'm giving the pumping a miss for a while.

Incidentally, Dan got to feed Preston my expressed milk in a bottle, and he didn't seem to mind at all. So that is great that he's not fussy! Hopefully when we try it again it will still be ok.