4 days in, blocked ducts, baby just not taking enough to make me comfortable

[ThatDamnDog]

I've done this before (and so far much easier this time around!) but I'm a wee bit worried I could be running into trouble. Don't know if there's anything I could be doing better/differently ...

DD arrived on Monday evening and after a great couple of hours feeding at first she had a really sleepy first day. She picked up though and my milk came in over the last 24 hours, so she's been getting good feeds. I struggle to persuade her to take both sides though because she's quite dozy, and feeds feel quite short to me.

At this stage with DS I was really engorged to the point that we were on shaky ground, he went hours and hours without us managing to get him latched on at all and it was a close thing that we got over it and got going. I was left with blocked ducts in the upper outside quarters of both boobs which came and went for weeks.

I can feel the ducts blocking again and feeding her with her chin towards the duct isn't making much difference, nor is massage. She's a lot smaller than DS was and it doesn't feel like much relief when she feeds. Maybe I just make way too much milk and we have to ride it out, but I'm a bit fretful about facing rock-hard bowling balls in the morning because she's so tiny I think she'll struggle to feed if I get too full. Trying not to express too much because I'm worried about ending up with huge oversupply again but maybe at this early stage I should go for it?

Overthinking this probably, but any thoughts welcome!

You might want to try a technique called Reverse Pressure Softening for getting the breast soft enough for her to latch.

How are you expressing? You should be fine if you're just hand expressing for comfort.

Ibuprofen is good for blocked ducts and engorgement and if you feel a blocked duct you can try dislodge it by standing under a hot shower and gently massage your breast (in the direction of the nipple) with a wide toothed comb over the breast. Put a little soap on it so it glides.

Call the National Breastfeeding Helpline if you want someone to chat to. Good luck!

Thanks so much for getting back to me. Haven't had the weeping yet so I think maybe I'm due for a bit of a baby blues blubbing sesh and I can feel myself getting worked up about this.

She can still latch OK for now, it's just getting her to feed enough. It's hard because with 3 year old DS on the go I don't want to shut myself away, and MIL's staying and been a huge help and I know I shouldn't but I don't like to whisk DD away to bed all the time.

RPS looks really good, feel much happier having that to try if we find ourselves struggling again so thank you very much :)

Yes, just hand expressing, by the way :)

Hi there, I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago with DD (she's 4 weeks now) I called the Breastfeeding helpline for a bit of advice.

I'd expressed A LOT with my son (2 years ago) because he wouldn't latch on properly and I ended up with huge oversupply and had to express a lot to ease my boobs. I had a freezer full of the stuff!!!

This time round (DD now 4 weeks) she fed really well from birth but when my milk came in my boobs became so engorged that my DD was struggling to latch on, Id held off on the expressing as I was worried about over stimulating them again (like you are) I called the Breastfeeding helpline for some advice and they told me to express for a couple of minutes just to release the pressure a bit and it really helped. I literally only had to do this a few times and my boobs calmed down.

Hope that helps!
Good luck
Kirsty

Oh that's reassuring, thanks. Deep breaths now, repeat repeat, it will be fine!

IT WILL BE FINE!! honestly, I promise you it will get better.
Oh and if you happen to get very sore nipples, ask the midwife for some jelonet. Its the most marvellous wonderful thing anyone could have ever given me! Its a mesh type dressing thats covered in vaseline type stuff, you cut a small square out and put it over your nipple. Midwife said it will sort them out in 24 hours and it absolutely did. I WISH Id had it first time around.
x

loveinsuburbia - that technique is fab, just ended a 1 hour standoff between DD and my left breast. She's a tenacious wee mite but the breast dwarfs her head considerably and had very little useful nipple to get hold of. She latched on right away after I remembered to try it. Thank you so much for that tip!

That's great news. I'm really pleased it helped :)