Cast your mind way back - how did you cope in the early days?

[mumofwun]

I was just bfeeding my 9 month old ds and reminiscing on how i struggled during the first few weeks. seemed like ages before my milk came in and he was a very big and hungry baby. when it did finally come in i was just gushing all the time. i know they say to change your nursing pads frequently but several times in one feed? i used a breast shield once and measured 3oz of leakage on the opposite side.
how many hours of precious sleep were lost due to waking up soaking and shivering, then having to change pjs and sheets. resorted to sleeping on a bath towel all the time.
please dont laugh but in the end i was so desparate i would stick a maternity sanitary pad to the inside of my bra across both boobs, before going to sleep and would fill it with every feed. for day time i would have to fold a flannel and put in each cup aswell as the nursing pad
i can laugh about it now. am i abnormal or did anyone else have to resort to such ridiculous measures?

I slept on a few towels I could soak the whole of a double bed in I didnt NOone tells you these things though do they????!!!!!!!!!!

no, no-one warned me about that part. i did seem to spend a lot of the first few weeks soaking, either from leakage or from ds projectile vomiting.

I managed ok in the day with pads (just the occasional embarassing accident) but at night I wrapped a muslin round me and had to change it once or twice. And I dripped on the floor more times than I'd care to mention - it was the summer so I tended to wear nothing in bed but a muslin(eat your heart out Marilyn), so when I got up, I often dripped a hansel and gretel trail to the bathroom!

i can remember thinking it was funny when my mum said she covered the mirror in the hospital after having me. well after my ds i seemed to cover the landing from bedroom to loo, the sink and the mirror before slipping on the floor and finally settling over the bathtub with shower in hand.

I managed to splash my friend whilst feeding dd in the Ikea cafe

Nearly 4 years on it is still a source of great amusement to said friend...

I had towels in the bed, and towels under the non-feeding side when feeding ds to catch the run-off.

I remember the shame of my mum saying 'I think ds needs a feed' when I asked why, she told me to look in the mirror. My entire top was soaking - my milk had just come in!

I was as bad as that with DS1. I used to use a folded up tea towel in my bra or I'd end up soaked. If I bf out of the house I'd have to use 4 or 5 breast pads at once. I have to say it does get better, not just as they get older, but with each child too. I ended up with loads of spare breast pads with DD (the third) as I hardly leaked when feeding, and after the first week never leaked in bed or between feeds. I think they get better at it the more you do it!

Oh...fond memories! I remember one time when DD (my 1st) stopped feeding half way through a feed and i saw something which took me a while to realise what it was -it was a jet of milk shooting into the middle of the room from my boob! Couldn't believe the distance it covered

I think some people leak more than others -I leaked loads with both my 2. Couldn't go anywhere without spare breastpads yet friends of mine never ever needed them.

Oh God yes!
I remember one night getting 3 hours sleep, woke up to see ds still sleeping peacefully but i was in agony with engorged boobs and had to go down stairs and express, i sat weeping because i was absolutely DESPERATE for sleep and had woken up when i could easily have had a straight 4 hours in a row.
Up till then i was feeding hourly as ds was a very low birth weight and was catching up.
The following day a friend phoned me to see how i was and i blubbed to her and asked her that very same question "how did you cope at this time?" and she said very wisely "you do whatever you need to in order to get by, just do it" she then followed on with telling me to just give up BF and give the child a bottle...i ignored that bit of advice.

LOL, I remember it well! When I fed DS1 I had to have a shell on the other boob and it always filled up and when I'd try to get it out of my bra it'd slop everywhere and make me look like I'd spilt something all over myself. I sleep on my front and would wake up with 2 huge wet circles on the sheets and a soaking nighty. Ahhhh, happy memories

Oh, and when the shell idea went awol I'd fold up a terry nappy and stuff that in my bra

I'm still sleeping on towels now and baby is over 6 months!

PMSL!!!!
Remember friends coming round to visit shortly after milk came in and me not realising until after they'd gone that I'd soaked though the pads and now had two HUGE waterfalls down my top. They were too polite to mention. Why? Why? Why?

Fantastic!!

its kinda reassuring to know it wasnt just me. went swimming with a friend and her dd yesterday and while standing in the changing room in my swimsuit had two streams running down my legs! i just said, oh look ds has thrown up on me.