the pain is back :-(

[lyndsey3010]

I posted on here in the early early days of bfing as I was struggling with the nipple pain. After about 6 days it went and we were getting on really well.

Now it's back with a vengeance. Cooper is feeding more and more, he can be on the boob literally for hours. He will fall asleep, come off by himself, as soon as I put him in his basket or whatever he's then crying for more food.

I'm not sure my poor boobs can take much more. Is the return of the pain normal and will it ever go for good?

 

[Aussie Jen]

Hi, lyndsey.

Give yourself and little Cooper time. I know it is difficult and can feel like it will never end, but the pain will eventually subside when your body gets used to the feeding. Try to get Cooper on the breast when he is hungry enough to take a full feed, encourage him to take a good long feed and then take the breast out of his mouth to give your body a break.

If he cries, it may not be for food. It is so hard in those early few weeks to work out what your baby is trying to tell you. Offering the breast everytime he cries may not be right for you, especially if you are in pain.

Try to listen to his cries carefully and watch his body language to determine his need. Baby's cries are different for different needs. These are the sounds you can listen for:

- neh (hungry)
- ow (tired)
- heh (uncomfortable; hot/cold, clothing too tight or nappy change required)
- eh (needs burping)
- eairh (pain in bowels associated with wind moving through)

For more info on these sounds, check out www.dunstanbaby.com . It helped us with our first little one. HTH.

 

[mommyof3co]

Is it possible he's not actually hungry just needs to suck? Have you thought about giving him a pacifier and seeing if that helps? I know for me my pain didn't fully go away until about 2mo, it would get a bit better then him go through a growth spurt or some kind of change and it would start back again, but after about 2mo we really ad the hang of it and it went away fully.

 

[Mervs Mum]

I had it come bback at the start of feed for about the 1st 10 seconds. It went away again after a week and fingers crossed it's not been back since

 

[lyndsey3010]

Thanks girls, yet more fantastic advice and support.

How weird is this, I must have got back to sleep about 5.30am and I had a dream that my best friend gave him a bottle as I was sleeping. I woke up livid at the thought of anyone doing that after all our hard work so I've certainly woken up with my head in a better place to percevere.

PMA and all that. I'll keep you posted........

Thanks again.
X

 

[lyndsey3010]

Thanks for that link AUssie Jen, definitely going to study that!

 

[Mervs Mum]

I firmly believe PMA is a MASSIVE part of BFing. Or certainly self belief.