Please Ladies, tell me my breasts will be back - post-breastfeeding qualifier for pancake day

[jennifersofia]

I stopped about a month and a half ago and we are talking National Geographic famine victim. Not that I am meaning to trivialize famine victims, and not that I am wanting Pamela Andersons, I just want a little something. Remind me if they do come back, and how long it takes.

Mine came back......with the next pregnancy

'scuse me, just going to cry into my not very well used underwire bra....

You can't be as bad as my Mum - 36H whilst carrying my brother, now a 32AA.

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Yes, they usually come back, usually after normal hormone levels have been restored for a while (it's lady fat from oestrogen that has to get laid down again).

OOOOhhhhh mine never went back down - I'd give anything to go down to my pre-pregancy 36C instead of my now more than ample 36FF

BTW youngest child is now 3.7 - so not holding my breath for deflation any time soon.

I think it may have something to do with not losing the pregnancy weight gain though

oi!! I am now a proud owner of 34 AA (maybe even a AAA as I hardly ever wear a bra) and boy when I was pregnant and breastfeeding, I would have shopped at the same places as Pammy.
So - hope you have better luck than I did!!!
hana

I shrank on one side last time: returned to DD on the right, D on the left. Left, surprise surprise, is the more productive breast. I am dreading the effect of dd2's much more extensive breastfeeding. I shall presumably look like an Amazon, but without the sinuous muscularity.

Someone told me it took about 2 years post pregnancy/feeding for them to return to anything resembling their former selves. Mine are OK now about 18 months post feeding, pretty much the same size as before but less "perky".

I don't think mine ever got back to what they were and it was almost exactly two years between ceasing breastfeeding and falling pregnant again - but they did improve. They have grown a lot again this time and the left one is definitely bigger although haven't had them measured just dragged my old maternity bras out of the loft.

We live in constant hope

Mine were 32DD/E (depending on bra) prior to BF, after 10 weeks of BF they were 34F (at their peak). Having finished BF at 10 weeks they pretty much returned back to normal within a couple of months. DD is 16months old and I am back to 32E, sadly they aren't as high as they once were But I did manage to get away without stretchies on them, same can't be said for my midriff

They do come back but in my case it took a couple of years for the fat to be laid back down in them. I breastfed 4 babies and I have to say they look pretty damned good. DH has no complaints either

Really really really, mears? Do you promise? I used to have very nice bosoms, and the prospect of contemplating their re-ruin does not fill me with joy (or dp either, poor love).

Thanks ladies (I think....) it sounds as if there might be a little room for hope, if what mears says is anything to go by. Good job my husband is good at looking at things in the long term...(mind you, it isn't so much him that is bothered by it, it is me!)

Like samacon, mine are back - gorgeous ripe melons, but I'm pregnant and due anyday now. Sorry!

Mears or anyone else, sorry OT here, but expecting baby any day now and have a breastfeeding question: with my DD1, I was told at the hospital right after giving birth, to limit breastfeeding to half an hour on each side even though I believe DD1 would have happily sucked for longer. Do you agree with this approach? Or should I let baby feed for as long as she wants or until she falls asleep in the very first days? It's feed-on-demand during the first week, isn't it?

I'm no expert but I'd go utterly with the demand.

you can have some of mine JS

Alas, I am definitely more 'floppy' than I was. In fact I wasn't every floppy at all before breast feeding. They're about the same size but seem to have lost their oomph.

We shouldn't forget the time factor here....if you breastfeed for a year, and you take some months to get back the fat, then it will total two years or more since you last had non-pregnant/non-bf breasts. If you are in your 30s especially, this may well mean you feel a mite less perky....but a lot of that will be the normal 'getting older' process .....sadly

Tinyfeet - allow baby to feed for as long as he/she wants, ensuring that he/she is attached properly. Babies should spit the nipple out when they have had enough. Once they have fed on one side, 'offer' the second breast. If they don't want it that is fine. Start the next feed from the unused side. Some feeds can be 10 mins, some can be an hour. Babies don't work to time schedules.

By the way, it is on demand for most of breastfeeding unless you don't find it suits. It takes a good 3 weeks to get breastfeeding established, so best to have on demand feeds till you know what you are doing. I demand fed all te time, but sometimes it was my demand and not the baby's. i.e. if your boobs are busting and the baby is sleeping, wake it up and get the milk shifted. It is not a one way street IYKWIM

Thirties? Would that I'd see my thirties again. Oh dear. Here we go...down, down, down