Nursing mamas..sore boobs yet? - Page 2

[mama*pisces]

Originally Posted by mamatoady

when I was nursing my dd and pregnant with ds they didn't start to hurt until the end of the 1st trimester and it would come and go.

sarah

Mine started out quite painful but it's dwindled now, after a week....it had me so baffled that I took another HPT yesterday. BFP, of course. I guess the pain will be back...I just thought it was weird that it went away so quickly.

[Onemagicmummy]

my boobs are fine but at times my nips feel all chaffed and sore, so much so that early hosur of this morning, DD2 came into bed with me for her 6am feed, i wsa dreaming abotu sore nipples and putting nipple cream on them, woke up and yep they were really sore.

i cant tollerate her feeding for as long as she would like to so have to keep swaping over and over

Kiz

[Koalamom]

Ok, I am so glad to have read this thread. I was wondering why my breasts felt like broken glass when DD nurses. I had no idea of this. I tried all anti yeast stuff, and no relief. We tried switching positions and no better either. But this is what is weird to me:

I have had painful nipples for several weeks, even before I thought I was ovulating. I took an ovulating test on the 28/29th of Nov (and it was positive}), and found I was pregnant 11 days later. But I am starting to wonder if I am farther along than I think I am. Why would my nipples hurt several weeks ago, and my pregnancy test register very dark on 11dpo? How could this be?

[saoirse2007]

Originally Posted by averysmom

My boobs are SO sore!! My 17 month old is nursing like crazy and I can barely take it any more. I feel like she is sucking my nipples raw. I never knew nursing could be so frustrating. Just needed to vent.

Oh and my nipples didn't start getting sore till probably 20-25 dpo.

here I am 20 dpo, nips started getting sore at 18dpo...still tolerable though
ds is an acrobatic nurser! he sticks his but in the air, takes turns kicking his legs,bounces, jumps..loves to go from boob to boob every 5 seconds...
marathon nurses in the morning...1 hr+

I can handle that, but It drives me nuts having to fight to protect my other nipple! I have to hold onto it for dear life...he digs for it with all his little might..:

There is no way I could wean him peacefully so for now we will go with the flow, trying to teach him some boundries.
When dh comes home for Christmas holidays next week we are going to work on no milky milk until the sun is up...

he doesn't need boob to go to sleep, but he is crooked if he does not get it upon waking ( naps too)
He wakes between 430 and 530....ouch!

Anyone who nursed through pg, did it send you into labour early?
I would like to go the full fourty weeks (I know they say it is ok to go after 36 or 37, but I like 40+ just to be sure), but I heard that bf might start contractions b4 that

[redpajama]

I nursed through my last pregnancy and went to 42 weeks exactly!

I think as long as you don't have a history of preterm labor, you should be fine. In the end, I recall that nursing would sometimes bring on a Braxton-Hicks contraction, but that was all, for me.

The other thing is that your child may slow his nursing habits as your supply and milk change during pregnancy. My almost-4-year-old nurses more now, I think, than he did during the last months of my pregnancy. (He picked it *right back up* when the baby was born, of course.)

Anyway, I would just pay attention to your body and if you don't see signs of preterm labor, I just wouldn't worry about it.

Also, by the time you get to 36ish weeks, if you go into labor at, say 37 weeks, I don't know that it would be accurate to attribute that to breastfeeding--in fact, I would highly doubt it. At least in my experience, nursing didn't produce the kind of contractions that were going to put me into labor (let alone preterm labor). I suppose it could encourage an already-going-to-happen labor--but think of some of the other ways we can "encourage labor"--sex, walks, et cetera--we don't abstain from them during a normal pregnancy, because they don't *cause* labor. But they might help to encourage labor to happen, if the time is really right.

[wombatclay]

I'm currently tandem nursing 3.5yo dd1 and 18mo dd2. I nursed all the way through dd2's pregnancy though we did night wean a few months into the pregnancy... I had no night supply (which meant dd1 would latch on in her sleep, there was no milk, she'd wake up and scream bloody murder) and it hurt!

This time round my body seems to be doing something similar... during the day breastfeeding feels a bit rough but generally ok (and dd2 nurses probably 5-7x a day). At night breastfeeding is still ok except during let down. And then it feels like broken glass is getting squeezed out my nipple. It is really painful for about 1-2 minutes, then goes back to just a sort of slightly uncomfortable ache. I remember this happening last time too... after a few weeks of painful letdown it became all painful and no letdown.

DH and I are thinking that we'll gently encourage dd2 to nightwean as well (we used the No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and a very modified Dr Gordon plan with dd1 and helped her nightwean over the course of about 2 months).

~~~~~
My vbac OB was a LLL leader for years (as well as an OB who did an internship with Ina May Gaskin) and she felt that as long as the mama didn't have a history of pre term labor or other serious medical concerns there was no "biological/medical" reason not to nurse as long as mom was eating a well balanced and complete diet with some sort of back up supplement. She explained pregnancy breastfeeding and self weaning like this...

Breastmilk is a supply/demand product... nursling nurses more, there is more milk. But this process is controled by hormones and during pregnancy the "pregnancy hormones" trump the "nursing hormones". So even if the nursling nurses more, the system can't go beyond what the pregnancy hormones will allow.

In early pregnancy the milk volume tends to drop, and the taste/composition changes (saltier, more minerals). Some nurslings just don't like the new flavor and the extra work required to get as much as they want, and they self wean.

By the end of the pregnancy the taste/composition changes again (begins shifting to the newborn milk, so thicker and fattier) and nurslings who kept going despite the earlier changes may decide to wean now. (be prepared for an older nursling to chunk up a bit when the new babe arrives... they're essentially moving from skim milk to ice cream )

For some reason that last bit never occured to me and I was actually a bit worried when dd1 gained a whole pound right after dd2 arrived... I mean she was/is totally healthy and active and in love with her little sister but all of a sudden she had "baby rolls" of her own!

[elight23]

My 3 year old is still nursing, but I am not experiencing much pain. My last pregnancy, which ended in miscarriage at 11 weeks, I experienced horrible nipple pain from conception on. This time, at 5 weeks I only have sore breast and no nipple pain. I imagine it will start closer to 6 weeks, though I have been getting a lot of acupuncture so my system may be more balanced with thus less nipple pain and symptoms.
Ds has commented that my supply has dropped though, but he just keeps on nursing anyway.

[heggie]

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[Koalamom]

Oh the pain so so bad. I was planning on nursing through the whole pregnancy, but I am weaning as soon as possible. I just can't possibly put myself through anymore pain than morning sickness. Nursing is so painful now. We are FINISHED!!!!

Sorry if that sounds selfish, but I just can't do it. I hope I am not a bad mom weaning already.