Hey About your cracked nipple . . .
My really badly cracked nipple once it was cracked so badly still hurt like hell when attachment was perfect right through feed, felt like sharp hot pains shooting into my boob because same prob, big crack on the side that kept opening up with each feed as even with the righ tattachment, the suction immediately opened any healing skin. So, I had to use nipple shields for 2 days (though still hurt through them was bad) but bit better though didn't have time to heal it, got mastitis through the crack, so I totally (gently) expressed off that boob for a while as well and that was the best thing for healing it though not good for my supply. It took 3 weeks to heal so it didn't hurt or weep, and now it feels fine. But there still looks like there's a hairline crack in that nipple even though there's not, it just scarred like a little divet. So, I feel your pain - and you should check with one of your many LC's (I hope that haven't all given you different opinions and confused you more, hated that) and see if you might need to do the same thing to allow the crack some time to actually heal.