Breast Engorgement....Hello Dolly!

 This post was originally written back in September.  It has been sitting in my draft folder because I have been either too busy or too tired to finish it.

Before I start with this rant, I just want to say that I no longer envy big chested women.  I will gladly keep my C cups.  Personally, I find big breasts to be a pain in the ass and I no longer wish to look like Dolly Pardon.  Mission:  Deflate.  



Okay, so I was worried about my milk coming in.  I really couldn't remember what to expect because I didn't exclusively breast fed with Al like I'm planning to do with Ashten.  My goal is one year.

My milk started coming in on Thursday night, that was two days after I gave birth.  It came in so fast, I thought I was having a heart attack or something.  I remember feeling full chested and unable to breathe a little bit.  My back started hurting and when I held up my breast, I could notice the obvious difference.  I hadn't bought a nursing bra yet, but I knew that would be first on my list because those puppies hurt in my regular underwire bra.  Can you say too, too small?  I normally wear a 38C-that's pre pregnancy but with a nursing bra, I found the 42 D to be the most comfortable.

The next nite which was Friday, I noticed that I had become engorged, and boy were my breast twice their normal size and heavier than a bitch.  Seriously, I was having back pain just holding these girls up.  I hadn't planned on taking in pain meds, but I ran to the pharmacy to fill that Ibuprofen prescription!  After several massages, breast feeding marathons, cold and hot compresses, I'm in day two of breast engorgement and not happy at all.  Ashten is still nursing on demand which can be anywhere from every thirty minutes to every hour or hour and a half, but my breasts are draining slowly.  I even bought an electric breast pump to help, but so far it's done nothing but hurt instead of help.  I'll have to wait until my breast are less sensitive before I use that thing again!

Update

The pump that I was using was the Evenflo Single Electric Breast Pump and even after the engorgement, it still hurt to use it.  I ended up getting an EnJoye Double Pump from my local WIC office.  And thank God for the lactation consultant.  I was in her office a lot because I was having a hard time getting him to latch on properly and he preferred only one particular breast.  To hell with the other, he wouldn't take it so we went through a spell where he was gaining weight slower than he should.  But all is well because he was up to 11 pounds at his last visit.

EnJoye