Help! I suddenly weaned!

[AmamaAgain]

I didn't get a chance to wean slowly as I needed to stop feeding my milk to the baby and my pump broke last night: so now...

I'm engorged and my breasts are SO uncomfortable and bigger than my biggest bra! I've had cabbage on my breast all day without my help. Any other suggestions?

How long will this pain and feeling in my breasts last before they get back to feeling "normal"?

[toddlermama16]

Can you try taking a hot shower and expressing a little milk by hand? Just enough to take some of the pressure off...

[mrforbes]

Sage tea with peppermint. There is a 'no more milk' tea and those are the primary ingredients. I feel your pain as I'm weaning myself rather fast.
If you can take the peppermint in a tincuture form that absorbs faster into your body, I take 2 dropperfuls about 3 times a day and drink sage tea.
Also my LC said if you want to, you can take 2 benedryls at night to help dry you up. I would also take echniciea tincture 2x/day because that will help prevent against any infection.

I'm so sorry for you! Weaning has been really hard for me and I think it is a hard process both emotionally and physically that is often underserved in the breastfeeding community. Many people I worked with to help me breast feed had no good knowledge of weaning.

The first couple of days are THE worst, there is a hump in awfulness and then it gets a lot easier.

[AmamaAgain]

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I just wonder...

How many days will this be agonizing for? I've been doing the cabbage and today is day two. My breasts are so heavy and HUGE. They do not even fit in any of my bras right now.

[mrforbes]

For me, I was very uncomfortable for about 4-5 days.

This is the hump I was talking about, after this period I've found weaning to progress much faster. It's like riding a bike up a really awful hill to put it mildly - although I don't in any way mean to downplay the pain of weaning - I think it's been worse than I remember childbirth to be.

[PatioGardener]

Hand expressing may help to take some of the pressure off and help to avoid mastitis. www.kellymom.com has some good articles with pics.