3 weeks into it and still hurting

[MissMaryEffenSunshine]

MY baby is 3 weeks today and I have been breast feeding nearly exclusivly. The problem isn't getting through the pain exactly, it's the length. She goes for an hour at a time and I switch sides, and I am litterally having to pry her off and she is still acting hungry so I give her 2 more ounces. After an hour I am really starting to hurt. Not just my nipples but through out my breast. I've even seen bruising around my nipples. The other oddity is that my left side hurts, the actual nipple does. The right side is fine and I've seen 3 lactation consutlants who say she's latching right, but it still is killing me on my left side. She did have a tongue problem when she was first born but no more. Also my left nipple is coming out of her mouth flat and sometimes blistered looking. I can pump just fine out of it, but her nursing is really hurting. My right nipple is perfect with nursing but I am nervous my left side will dry up if I don't use it as often and I want to go through the pain so that hopefully it will go away. Gosh I hope this came out ok, it's been nearly 3 weeks without much sleep and too much family. :P

[Nipple_nectar]

http://www.breastfeeding.com/forums/images/smilies/welcome.gif When you say you gave her two more ounces, how did you do that? If it is by artificial nipple, that may be the culprit: she needs to change her latch to accomodate an artificial nipple and that is called nipple confusion (http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_confusion.html), most babies cannot transition back and forth in the newborn stage.

During the first eight weeks, there is an incredible demand for nursing as your baby is growing at a very high rate of speed and nursing is the only way she can increase your supply to match her need/meet her demand. Don't confuse this with hunger, I seriously doubt she needs the extra.

As long as you see a minimum of six wet diapers in a 24 hour period, you are doing great! She doesn't need a supplement, trust your body to do what it has been designed to do: Trust the bewbie!

What position are using? I suggest changing your position often as an aid in helping with the latch issues. A boppy will also help in positioning. For pain, I use www.soothies.com and for a long term investment, I also own a pair of silverette, a small pair of silver cups that are literally placed on the nipples are almost magical in their healing powers for pain. Look into this product at www.breastfeedingheaven.com

Keep offering that left side, your right: if you nurse less, your supply will be affected, hang in there, nursin momma!

[sferguson17]

If your left nipple comes out of her mouth flat then she's not latching on right. I had the same problem early on. The right side was pain free, but the left was agonizing. I just kept at it & DS finally got the hang of it. Turns out my left nipple was flat so he was having to work really hard to get it into a peak. If you think that might be the problem, you could try to start the left side off by pumping to elongate the nipple, then put her on to feed. I tried that with some success. Another problem could be if your left breast is engorged when she starts feeding. That makes it harder for her to get the nipple in her mouth. Finally, like pp said if you're giving a bottle, that could cause nipple confusion. I had that problem as well in the early days. Only it stemmed from a pacifier. You should do everything you can to eliminate artificial nipples during the first 4 - 6 weeks of breastfeeding.

Keep up the good work!

[MissMaryEffenSunshine]

Thank you both for the insight. I am going to get some soothies today and also try the pumping idea to get the nipple prepped. My breasts have been engorged, however they are naturally rather large and so the engorgement isn't really a problem so far, I still have enough skin or flesh to get a nipple in her mouth. But being as large as they are I do feel that may be a problem. I try to use my hands to keep it at mouth level and I have been using the heck out of my Breast Friend but I still am using my hands to hold her head and also my breast. It's slightly frusterating to litterally have no hands almost all day long. I have been pumping and then feeding with a slo flo bottle nipple. And on occasion using a little formula in a slo flo too but I am only using that when it is too painful on the left nipple after the right seems drained and she is still fussy. Does that sentence make sense? I also have nipple guards but haven't really used them. I'm gonna first attempt the soothies and go from there. But I will check in more in case there are more response to my post. Thank you both so much and I'll keep ya posted!

[MommytoSarah]

Rather than supplementing with formula you could pump your left breast and offer the baby that. That is what I did for my daughter when I was so sore and needed my nipples to heal. I would feed it to her with an eye dropper rather than a bottle to avoid nipple confusion. I also used a boppy pillow to help with positioning and used the cross cradle hold and football hold to get a good asymetrical latch ( www.drjacknewman.com )

The soothies helped me with soreness. You can keep them in the fridge too. My DD would nurse for hours on end in the first month. It is exhausting and also can make you doubt your supply and wonder if babe is getting enough. This is normal. Babe is learning to nurse efficiently, and also bonding with you and making sure you make enough milk to keep up with her growing spurts. My DD went through a growth spurt at 3 weeks and I just wore her in a sling and nursed her all the time. It is hard when you are sore though. I sure have been there.

[ToniaR]

I was there with my son. We struggled and cried through 6.5 weeks of burning nipple pain. Every two hours he was hungry and I dreaded feeding him. He would also eat for an hour or more. We made multiple trips to the lc (she was wonderful) I thought my problem was latch, but looking back I think it just took really long for my nipples to toughen up. I could pump pain free but nursing was misery.

The lc showed my a position that saved my sanity until things worked out. She had my sit up and latch the baby on then lay down on my back. It worked! I would still have a little soreness but nothing like before. Something about that position just works. It readjusts the latch truly helps.