[junie22]

Jackson is now three days old. He has latched well from the very start, nursing for the first time within 20 minutes of birth. He has had no latching problems, and I am so grateful to be able to BF.

He received plenty of colostrum in those first couple of days. I made sure to nurse plenty, whether he seemed like he wanted it or not. My milk started coming in yesterday afternoon, and my breasts are now really engorged. The nipples were really sore yesterday, but that pain is subsiding. Now they are just so sore from engorgement that I'm not sure how to proceed.

I have a breast pump. Would you recommend that I pump some of the milk out? I don't want to end up over-producing, but I also would love to have relief of this engorgement. So far, the engorgement has not prevented Jackson from latching. He has been helping out a lot actually. He seriously wants my boob all the time, as long as I burp him plenty. So that brings up another question... is there such a thing as nursing too much?

Can I expect this engorgement to subside on its own as long as I continue nursing as I have?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[alicenwonderland]

i would not pump. It can make the swelling worse. A lot of engorgement is swelling as well as milk.. and you can't pump off swelling. i tried pumping during this stage and it just made my nipples bleed.

What worked for me was heating a sock full of rice in the microwave and then compressing my breasts. The milk would leak right out. I let it leak into a cloth diaper, but you could try to catch it to keep. After i let them leak a while i would compress the milk out of the nipple and it made it really easy for my baby to latch. The swelling only lasted a couple days. Frequent hot showers feel really good too

[LadyCoconut]

If you can bare it, I would not suggest pumping. Nursing is entirely supply and demand... so if you stay a little full for a few days, your body will recognize that your'e making more than he needs right now and it will back off production. If you pump, that will relieve it in the moment but tell your body to keep it up. And if he's willing to be at the breast, let him be at the breast!

If you really feel like your'e in bad shape and NEED more relief than he's providing, hand express or pump for just a couple of minutes before nursing. Literally just do barely enough to take the edge off so you don't tell your body to keep making more.

[junie22]

Thanks so much for the advice, Alice. The last thing I want to do is create more engorgement. I was a B cup pre-pregnancy, and they are definitely DDs now.

Yesterday, it killed my nipples to take a hot shower, but today it felt really good. I will definitely try the rice sock trick because this is just ridiculous.

Thanks so much for the advice, Shannon. I can handle it, but I just never imagined they would be this gigantic and sore!

[LadyCoconut]

Oh! Alice brings up a great point about avoiding the pump... the pump ALWAYS gave me sore nipples, I don't think my sheilds were the right size and I never really pumped anyway to figure it out. But I never had sore nipples when nursing, even in the first few days... ONLY when I tried pumping. So that might be something to take into consideration as well. Hand expressing in the shower would probably be a much better idea.

[junie22]

I knew you ladies would have great advice.

[alicenwonderland]

haha i remember those days all too well. Not looking forward to football boobs again, but luckily it is short lived.

[MosaicWife]

I agree about hand expressing a bit but if it's notreventing him latching right you don't even need to do that unless you're super uncomfy. I was only engorged for a day. I told DH I was going to go out and find hungry babies to feed because no way could Paxton's little tummy handle it all but he did great. We nursed all through the night and morning and my milk regulated that next day. OT just takes your body a while to figure out how much you need but it will and the engorgement will go away. Just keep nursing. He's your savior right now.

[AllyssaM]

When I was engorged, I hand expressed just enough to relieve some of the uncomfortable-ness of it. And I just let A nurse as long and as much as her little heart wanted. The next day the pain wasn't as bad, but I am still have engorgement issues at night as she goes a bit longer between sessions then.

[irunpink]

Let him nurse as much as he wants. I know the engorgement is rough. I used to just pump for 5 minutes to take the edge off, then I'd save that and give it to my little one in a bottle, or dh would give it to her. And oh I remember the soreness. But you can't overfeed a breastfed baby , so you can feel confident that you're giving him exactly what he needs.

[Jenn1320]

Oh yeah, that has happened to me every time. The amount of milk will adjust in a couple of days. It's really amazing how your body figures it out. Then when he has a growth spurt it will happen again.

[mzshell13]

Something that helped me was to pour hot water in a diaper (I just used water from )the sink) and then wrap it arond your breasts. The heat lasts a lot longer than just heating a cloth and its easy to do in the middle of the night.

[1fabulousfem]

Adrienne, I had that same issue but the others beat me to my reply. Don't pump, manually express if you need to and it will ease up. The first few days are tricky but the pain does subside and your body will adjust. As for feeding, Finn gets hungry every 2.5 to 3 hours because he feeds for 40 minutes at a time. When our clinic nurse came for a home visit she said to let him feed until he is full on one side, burp and change and offer the other side. When he unlatches you know he is done. LOL! They say babies should feed 8 to 12 times in a 24 hour period. I use that as a guide.

[one.juniper]

I'm so glad the engorgement phase is over - its the worst eh!? I broke down in tears a few times because my breasts were killing me. The nurses at the hospital gave me a pamphlet about dealing with engorgement and it said expressing or pumping to relieve the pressure in the first few days won't lead to over supply issues and its ok. It will go away on its own as your body adjusts to your LO's needs. I think by Day 7 or 8 it had mostly subsided for me and we are now at 15 days and I'm not getting engorged at all anymore, its such a relief!

It also had other tips, such as having a warm shower, massaging your breasts as the baby gets near the end of a feeding and using a warm compress. I found all useful and I pumped a few times as well to help alleviate the pain.

Good luck!

[rainbowfish]

Last time my nurse suggested getting a cabbage and keeping it in the fridge. You can take off one leaf at a time and use as a cold compress. The leaves are just the right shape.

[newmommysarah]

I'm 5 days pp, I've always had big boobs but now they are just ridiculous - i dont think im engorged though just a bit sore but if Noah naps for more than 3 hours i need to feed him!
I can help with the sore nipples though - my left is cracked and my right nip has a milk blister on it. get some lansinoh nipple cream - its amazing, I've been applying it after ever feed and its taken ALL the pain away and the skin is healing quickly.

[Blessed.Life]

My pain did not start to subside until after about a week. My nipples hurt so so bad before that! I still feel a bit engorged if Micah goes a while without eating. I had an amazing lactation nurse who told me not to pump until 4-6 weeks. She said otherwise I would most likely over produce. If Jackson isn't having a problem latching, everything is fine but if he ever does i was told to hand express milk.

[NYCgirl]

Yes the cabbage leaves work!!!

[ufmelissa824]

A shower does actually help a lot. I put the warm washcloth on them and let it soak for a few minutes in there and they felt much better afterwards. Mine only lasted a day or 2 after my milk came in on day 3 and they've been fine since.