Engorgement and frustrated newborn!!

[kelly]

(Accidentally posted in BF challenges already - need help now!)
I did not experience this with my girls, so I need help! I delivered last Thursday, and yesterday my milk started coming in. Today I am painful and my bbs are huge. My son is now starting to cry and get frustrated when latching on, I am guessing b/c the nipples are hard to grab onto. I tried pumping a little bit after he feeds to get some of the swelling down, but is there anything else I can do?
How long is this going to last?

[woodchick]

Instead of pumping after he nurses try expressing a little before hand- either into a cup or bottle or even just into a cloth diaper. This should soften up your breasts just enough to get him to latch on, but shouldn't trigger even more milk production.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

That is what I had to do with both mine the first few days after my milk came in.

[kelly]

Thanks for the quick replies - I will keep on doing this until my milk stabilizes.

[kismetbaby]

Yep, I had to do the same (pump a bit before I even tried to latch to soften things up for him). When my milk came in, things went totally haywire for me. . .got so engorged that he couldn't latch well, so got more engorged, etc, etc. Agh. It was pretty scary at the time. So I ran out and rented a pump which did help and I started a nice stash of BM in the process.

The other thing my LC had me do was the cabbage leaves trick. They don't recommend it for everyone, b/c it can reduce your supply too much if you are on the lower end of things. But I had so much milk! Buy a big green cabbage. When it is cold from the fridge and AFTER a feeding peel off two leaves and place them over your breasts (works well if you line a bra with them) and leave them on till they wilt. Repeat as necessary. My LC had me only do it for 12 hours (overnight basically), not longer. But that and the pumping did get me over the hump.

It calmed down within a week for me. I still had a LOT of milk but I and my LO could deal with it.

Hope you're doing ok!

[raidercake]

Originally Posted by kelly

(Accidentally posted in BF challenges already - need help now!)
I did not experience this with my girls, so I need help! I delivered last Thursday, and yesterday my milk started coming in. Today I am painful and my bbs are huge. My son is now starting to cry and get frustrated when latching on, I am guessing b/c the nipples are hard to grab onto. I tried pumping a little bit after he feeds to get some of the swelling down, but is there anything else I can do?
How long is this going to last?

I found that ice helped me. I folded a bath towel into thirds longways and put ice packs in it then wrapped the whole thing around myself. I slept in it too - but I used the reusable ice packs - a bag of ice prolly not work so good! Good luck - that is frustrating and painful!
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