Pumping, BFing ? and worry

stever

So my SIL gave us fair warning about the possibility of bloody barfs when BFing, and last night we found that she wasn't joking. Our 3 am feeding turned into an hour long discussion about whether the blood was mine or the baby's.

Seeing as he took a bottle and had a regular barf after that, we concluded that the blood was mine. Not totally surprising considering my boobs/nipples have been getting increasingly sore and his eating has become more vigorous due to a suspected growth spurt.

Anyhoo, he's been fine ever since - albeit absolutely famished - but I decided to start pumping this morning so the girls can heal. 

Sorry for the novel. I guess I have just 2 questions; how long will it take for my boobs to heal? I mean, I'm pretty tough but they are kiiiiiilllllling me. And how does one go about simultaneously pumping and feeding?

I thought BFing was supposed to get easier after the 1st month 

ljlkm

It does, but there are periodic issues.  I've had cracked nipples and a milk blister.  Both sucked hard.  As far as pumping goes, you'll need to pump every time he would have fed and probably for a little longer than he would have since he's more efficient. GL!

Moiselle

Are you using nipple cream?  it helped me through the first week.  Since then, I have not had cracked nips.

rsd12

I exclusively pumped with my 1st & it hurt so much - bleeding & cracked sounds about right to me. I used the Medela Pump In Style.  I would just load up on the lansinoh ointment.  Eventually the pain got better to deal with - I can't say it ever stopped hurting.. but it did stop cracking & bleeding, but took a while. 

With my 2nd I nursed & did not pick up a pump for quite a few weeks (I was terrified over my ordeal with my 1st).  I never had any problems with nursing.. I would just remove his latch if it started hurting & that helped so much.  It only started hurting when he got his first tooth & he thought it was funny to bite.  I never had to use lansinoh either, he was a great nurses!  As far as pumping - I used a manual pump the 2nd time around & if he only ate from one side or did not finish emptying, I would pump the other side/rest after we were done. I actually liked the manual single pump better.. I had more control over the pain ; )

fiazo

Ooh, that is scary to see blood.

BF & pumping is one hell of a job I am finding. The good thing is when the baby is using a bottle, the feeding is much quicker. But the pumping alone can take like 40 minutes. In fact I just finished for like 30 min & got 3.5 oz. How discouraging.

i'd like to know when do we moms eat? I wonder if I am not producing enough because I am not eating or drinking enough.

stever

fiazo:

Ooh, that is scary to see blood.

BF & pumping is one hell of a job I am finding. The good thing is when the baby is using a bottle, the feeding is much quicker. But the pumping alone can take like 40 minutes. In fact I just finished for like 30 min & got 3.5 oz. How discouraging.

i'd like to know when do we moms eat? I wonder if I am not producing enough because I am not eating or drinking enough.

I am able to eat easily when just BFing, but it's adding the extra step of pumping that's throwing me off. I'm producing a ton - 3.5 oz in 10 minutes - but I'm a total clutz at it and have spilled milk all over the bed and the sofa so far. 

But yeah, eat whenever you can Fiazo and drink water like it's going out of style. 

Katiedid1806

I seem to remember that it was about that time I was having serious pain issues. They passed after a little while, but I think it was about a week. I did not go to pumping instead, but I was pumping some already just b/c I was producing so much.