Woke up with two sore rock-breasts

[LottyLikesWindows]

Morning all. I was hoping someone could offer some advice. Been successfully ebf dd for the past two months. Have occasionally expressed milk to leave for her when going to the dentist etc, and have noticed that this increased my already over abundant milk supply. Often when I feed her my milk spurts in her mouth quickly and it can cause her to choke. I've followed advice on kellymom to catch it in a muslin before continuing to feed her and that seems to help.

Last night I woke up with painful breasts, one more so than the other. Dd has fed from both during the night but this morning they have felt very hard and painful to lie on, especially the left one - dd didn't feed from there as much for some reason and instead made strange clicking sounds instead of latching on properly. She just had a little feed now and the breast feels a lot better. I haven't has this pain before and am really looking for some answers: is this engorgement? Do I have an issue with closed ducts? Could this be start of mastitis? Do I need to stop expressing? (Last time I did so was a week ago) I really love breastfeeding and would like to continue it for many more months, so am just looking for some reassurance that this isn't going to mean the end of it.

[TiredandGrumpy2014]

Hi. I bf my 19 week old dd and have had lots of problems with engorgement, blocked ducts and mastitis. It does sound like engorgement but it may not lead to mastitis and certainly shouldn't mean the end of bf. In the short term you need to drain your breasts as much as you can- keep feeding even if it hurts and pump if you can. I also do massage while feeding- massage towards your nipple in any areas you feel lumps. Also a hot bath or shower before feeding helps- and a cold compress between feeds- I use an ice block from a cool box wrapped in a muslin. And take ibuprofen too as I find this helps. Look out for the signs of mastitis- red streaks or patches and feeling unwell- if you get it I find it comes on quickly but also goes quickly once you get antibiotics so contact your gp if you're worried.

Im the longer term you might find you supply settles down- mine has a bit but not as much as I hoped and people promised!
I do find pumping increases my supply so I avoid it unless I miss afeed- and even then I don't pump for long, just enough to take the edge off

I'm sure the bf experts will be along soon with more advice but I just wanted to post and say I know how you feel- I've spent too much of the last 4 months worrying about bf problems but have realised now that the best thing to do is not panic!.

[Helenc19]

No it's defiantly not going to be the end.
It could be she wasn't that hungry but still wanted the comfort of a feed so didn't latch properly and drink much. It's possibly just a one off or she may be starting to reduce her night time feeding, if that's that case your supply will adjust accordingly in a few days so just keep helping her with the forceful letdown as you have been and if you are very full before a feed hand express just a little to make it easier for her to latch on.
Carry on expressing for when you need milk but try not to express just to empty full breasts as you will just continue to make loads of milk, if you are very engorged then do express a small amount to make yourself comfortable. Keep an close eye out for blocked ducts though which will be small hard and tender lumps which you can massage out and position baby for a feed with her chin inline with the lump. I don't have much experience with mastitis. I've had it a couple of times but only very mildly, my first symptom was feeling like I was getting flu so watch out for that.

[LottyLikesWindows]

Thank you so much for your posts tired and Helen. I called the NCTbreastdeeding line thismorning and they also said pretty much what you wrote. I expressed in the morning to relieve the hard breasts and managed to fill a 4 oz bottle in 15 mins with a hand pump! The relief was heavenly.

I do now think that it was all caused due to a change in dd's feeding pattern over the weekend, following on from her jabs on Friday. I didn't even think to put two and two together thanks to sleep deprivation. She fed constantly for a day after the immunisations and then didn't seem very interested yesterday. Clearly my supply was all over the show. You're right tired about trying not to panic. It's all calmed down today as we are getting back to the usual feeding patterns.

Thank you both again for your encouraging posts

[ouryve]

If they're becoming engorged and she's less interested, then there's a chance that she's managed to stimulate them to produce more milk, so she needs to spend less time feeding to feel satisfied.

[LottyLikesWindows]

Ah, that makes sense ouryve. Thank you.