Sending you my thoughts. It's such a hard road emotionally and practically when all you want to do is BF and it just isn't smooth sailing. You are doing fabulous for hanging in there. Only a few more days until Tuesday and hopefully that will change the lay of the land for you.
It sounds like you've got a good LC. If you need any tips on managing expressing feel free to PM me, or scroll through the past pages of the EE sticky or your LC might have some good tips too. I got advice from everywhere to manage expressing efficiently every bit of advice (some really fabulous girls who have BTDT) really helped me and made the process more efficient.
Rep points coming girls, just always seem to be in a rush and on my phone replying while I pump!!
I'm so sick of expressing. I know others have a lot harder time (Lisa, my hat goes off to you!! What an awesome thing you're doing for your LO!) but I'm just over it. I just want to BF my baby! I've got hardly any time to spend with either of my girls and as much as I'm appreciating family and friends helping out when they are around, I just want to do my job! I want to feed and snuggle my newborn, I want to play with my toddler - I don't want to palm them off cause I have to express again!! Argh!!
Ok, vent over. Hopefully things will return to normal soon. I spoke to my LC this morning and she had just received my test results - they were clear! So I've stopped taking the last course of antibiotics as I was taking them just incase the results were positive.
My nipples still don't feel quite right, they're a bit tender, but that could be the vasospasm and or my nipples just adjusting to BF/pumping again. DD stopped BF in Aug 2010 so they have been out of action for a while.
My LC said to keep pumping full time until after DD's tongue tie appt on Tuesday. So hopefully that means I only have two more days of it to go. Fingers crossed we can get back into it on Tuesday. My LC is visiting Tuesday afternoon to help us get back on the wagon.
The light is shining at the end of the tunnel, I think. Cross your fingers for me girls that my nipples behave.
Oh Taurean, I'm so sorry to hear you are going through all this, you poor thing! But you are totally AMAZING for soldiering on. Hope you get it sorted soon, your LC sounds wonderful!
When DS was about 5 months old he bit me and my nipple got terribly infected, I ended up with blood poisoning and a severe case of mastitis. It took several courses of antibiotics to get over the infection, but to be honest (and very sorry to say this) it probably took a couple of months before I was completely pain free feeding again. I continued to feed DS despite the excruciating pain but only because I was so bad at expressing (it took hours and I didn't ever have enough to actually satisfy DS) I HAD to feed him. I found I had to switch sides frequency and take little breaks, and once my nipples were healed enough, I smothered them in Lansinoh. Like you I wondered if I had vasospasm, though I didn't seem to display all the symptoms my nipples were certainly tender for some time.
You're doing a great job to get this far, hopefully not long now xx
yeah the early days of pumping are really tough particularly when you are trying to add in a BF as well. In the early days a feeding cycle (attempting to BF, expressing, cleaning up and bottle feeding) took about 1.5 hours, leaving me with about 1.5 hours between the cycles. Vent all you want. I was so over it at 3 weeks. Believe it or not it's almost a breeze these days as I now only express 4 times a day. All the feelings you've got are really normal. I"m sure Tuesday can't come quick enough. At this age I found expressing whilst feeding my bub was a useful trick (your LC could probably show you how if you need too. It was an LC who showed me how) or having the bouncer beside me on the couch so I could enjoy my bub was a bit more enjoyable.
Last edited by Lisa B; January 15th, 2012 at 08:36 PM.
Well the tongue tie has been snipped! She was a classic case, apparently, and it has the highest success rate from snipping. Cross your fingers for me that BF goes well this afternoon!
Our first feed went well and the second, with my LC here, was even better DD took 90mls all up (she's been having 100mls of EBM at each feed) so we were thrilled! She did really well on one side shield free but grew tired quickly so I used a shield on the other side and she fed beautifully!
I'll need to use the shield a bit until her strength builds up and she adjusts to her new tongue and technique but things look really promising! I'm attempting full-time BF as of now!
My nipples are still tender but we are certain it's the vasospasm. The nifedipine should really start working soon so hopefully that'll take care of the tenderness.
Thanks for your support and advice girls, it really means a lot
It's so hard when all you want to do is feed and it's such a struggle. I know when I was in so much pain every day (every feed really) I considered weang and I'm so glad we got past it.
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But you are totally AMAZING for soldiering on.
Hope you get it sorted soon, your LC sounds wonderful!
DD took 90mls all up (she's been having 100mls of EBM at each feed) so we were thrilled! She did really well on one side shield free but grew tired quickly so I used a shield on the other side and she fed beautifully!
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