Blood blisters, compression, and other woes

blue_elle

We've had a rough go of BF'ing from the start. By day 2 my nips were bruised and starting to crack. By one week I had deep cracks, bleeding, skin literally falling off, and was crying over DS in pain. I've met with multiple LC's who have told me the latch looks good. We've tried shields, different holds, angles, aiming off-center and bullseye. No matter which way we do it my nipple comes out compressed, and after a few sessions I end up cracked along the compression. I had the pediatrician check for tongue-tie and she assured me everything is normal and there is no restriction.

At the advice of 2 LCs, I started pumping to give my damaged nips a break. That led to mostly EPing for a couple weeks, but I can't pump enough to keep up and we had to supplement w/ formula (I'm sure because my supply didn't get built fully yet by nursing). I finally healed completely, so I started nursing again regularly this week, first once a day, then twice. We've nursed 3 times today and already I have a painful blood blister. My nips hurt for hours after every session.

I really want to make this work, but I can't imagine going long-term with damage like I had, and I feel like we're headed right back there. Any advice is appreciated. Also, any advice on healing the blood blister quickly?

TIA

emikat

I had similar issues and things started to get better right around the point where you are. I grinned and beared it though and just kept letting him nurse through the pain so my nipples developed their calluses and toughened up.  I thought about pumping during that time, but I wasn't sure it was the right thing to do.  My LC couldn't get me in until about 6 weeks, and so by then I was turning the corner.  I didn't think I'd last, and I'm just past 6 months now.  Hang in there.