One areola seems swollen & that breast seems more engorged?

[ellairiesmom]

Hi there,
Not sure how to best explain this...with DD#1, I wasn't able to get her to latch for 3 weeks & pumped until then so I never experienced brand newborn actual nursing...

DD#2 is 5 days old. Milk came in on Wed night. I had bad nipple pain, soreness throughout the pregnancy & even saw some cracking after DD#1 weaned. I also think I was lazy with the latch Tues/Wed so I am experiencing nipple pain/soreness now & each nipple has some minor cracking with dried blood. I think the latch is good now & once we get going, the pain lessens.

But I noticed last night my right breast seemed hard in spots & very engorged. And the areola is bigger than the other one & almost appears swollen?? I have been pumping after she finishes because she dozes off & I don't want to leave myself too full & when I removed the pump the last 2 times, my right breast had lines on it from the pump being too tight which never happened to me in the past. The hardness did go away after pumping a nice amount out. And the past few feedings, she seemed to be struggling to get her mouth on the right side-like she just couldn't get my whole breast in.

At birth on Monday she was 7'13", discharge Wed, 7'9", appt yesterday 7'11"...so I know she is eating well & gaining.

I guess I am trying to figure out if this is the beginning of a problem on the right side (mastitis?) or if she just isn't able to eat enough for my supply yet & I am just engorged more on the right side.

[ErinYay]

The areola swelling is usually due to edema, and can be relieved by applying pressure all around the areola- there's a great site with videos demonstrating this, but I can't for the life of me recall what it is. EDIT: FOUND IT! It's the video called "RPS by mother with guidance."


When I'm engorged, I pump before feeding, to soften the breast to allow a better latch. I also just read that when your breasts are very full and hard, the baby gets a LOT of foremilk, as the fat clings to the walls of the ducts, and stays there until the ducts have been "drained." I like to 86 some of the foremilk via pump and dump (I don't want 5oz of skim milk in my stash, kwim?) and let the baby really go to town on a softer, fattier boob. Breast massage and compression (gentle! Esp if you're rock hard!) really help loosen the ducts up and fatify the milk.

Lopsided engorgement isn't unheard of at all, esp the first few weeks. You may want to only pump to relieve pressure, like .5-1 oz per side, as pumping a ton before your supply has been established will create a whole chicken-egg issue- you pump bc you're overfull, and you're overfull bc you pump too much.

Good luck, momma! That first week is crazy!

(nak, plz forgive typos!)

[ellairiesmom]

Thx so much!