I'm just not sure how much longer I can do this

[Bumperlicious]

I have a blocked duct again and dd (8 weeks) is fussing at the breast, crying for god knows what reason, but it is fucking agony. I just want to go to bed. She never sleeps in the evening & doesn't go own till between 12 & 1. She will only sleep on me in the day. If I try & move her onto dh she wakes up.

Still getting a bad latch on the non blocked breast. Gave her a bottle for the first time today & she still wanted to feed after 5oz ebm. When am I ever going to get a break? I just need some sleep & some space.

Any chance you can express some milk and get your dh to do a night feed at the weekend while you get some sleep?

I found that just one night of a bit more sleep was enough to make me feel much more human and a lot more objective. I had similar problems to you - 3 bouts of mastitis and a dodgy latch. I think that the person who gave me the hardest time about thinking about packing bf in was me.

Once I'd had some sleep, I decided to keep going as best I could, express when it was too painful to bf and see how it went. We went onto mixed feeding in the end and got some more help with latching on, but at about 10 weeks, the latch suddenly seemed to improve and now I have got to the point of painless bf that most people seem to get to a lot earlier. Looking back I realise I was really hard on myself and needn't have been.

When my dh did a night feed, we swapped over in the morning and he had a very long lie in, which cheered him up as well.

Hope things continue to improve.

On Saturday I'm going to give dh enough for 2 feeds & hope that will buy me at least 8 hours sleep!

Have you tried feeding on all fours, with your DD lying on pillows underneath you, so that your breasts are hanging down? I know it's an odd position but I used to find it helped to clear the duct, especially if I gently massaged downwards as I fed too (just don't overbalance!) Also, have you tried cabbage leaves in your bra (helped me when I had sore ducts)?

Not yet but next time it happens I'll give it a go.

ooh, here with my 9 wk dd, in a similar situation. not much to say except that i had my first decent night's sleep last night and today all my troubles seem so far away. it really makes a bloody world of difference to everything... relationship, other child's behaviour, mood, ability to deal with baby's demands.

i feel almost high for 7 and a half hours shut eye!