Engorgement:(

[AdiVic]

Hello - 2nd baby, who is 4 days old. BF my first (who is 2 now), so have had 18 months off. For some reason I thought this would mean I may have a little initial 'discomfort' with my 2nd, but hell fire NOOO!!! Bloody agony:( My MW has checked if ds is latched on properly, which he is - my nips are cracked, scabby and sore:( Any ideas with 2nd baby how long this will last, was 8 weeks with 1st.

Also, they are engorged and HUGE, like bloody torpedos! I tried expressing last time, but couldn't do it, tried hand and machine, nothing and found that agony, so not even going to go there. Again, any ideas how long engorgement lasts? I can't remember:(

ds feeds every 2 hours, sometimes for an hour - he's not as an efficient feeder as his sister was.

Any ideas/help would be really appreciated

ax

Congrats on your new DS. Sorry things aren't as well as they could be so far :( You say your latch has been checked- did the MW just comment on how it looked? A good latch is one that is comfortable and that transfers milk well. If your nipples are all cracked and sore then that's a sign that the latch needs tweaking.

Engorgement can make it tricky for a tiny newborn to get a good mouthful of breast. One thing that a lot of mothers find useful is reverse pressure softening. This page describes how to do it.

There are a few different things you could try to make things more comfortable. Biological nurturing is often helpful.

Is there any local help nearby like LLL or NCT?