A few keywords in google and it ALL MAKES SENSE! Why my baby won’t latch correctly, why she had a hard time with my left breast when nursing for the longest time, why she chokes and gags when she’s eating part of the time, why she needs to burp so much and has funny colored diapers sometimes.
My boobs have ALWAYS made too much milk. It’s something like hyperactive milk production, basically not only do I make too much milk, but the let-down process shoots too much out too quickly, causing the gagging and etc, and having too much milk means having too much foremilk, which leads to the funny diapers and such. She wasn’t nursing on the left side because it was shooting too hard (every time I tried before she would pull off and I’d have several ounces shoot out/run down), so she cried and wouldn’t take it.
Pumping my breasts made it better for her, because she could bottle feed, and of course it relieved the breast she wouldn’t eat on. I followed the LC’s suggestions and was pumping every 3 hours or so. Compounded over 3 months and all the sudden I woke up Saturday with 16 ounces of milk between my 2 breasts. When my baby eats about 4 at a sitting. I’m not sure why it doubled overnight, but I was sure this was not a good thing.
The only thing I can really do is go cold turkey. My breast pump is silent. I just dumped out what I had pumped out at 5 am and washed everything. I have not used the pump since then. I am following suggestions of several different places online and trying to cut production. My baby alternated breasts about every 3 hours and was satisfied. I have a lot more time.
My breasts are also swollen beyond belief. Supposedly if I allowed her to only eat on one side for every 2 or longer hour period that it would cut production because it would give a ‘no more’ signal to my breasts, as in I am too full, don’t send any more. I have no idea how long it will take to cut production to ‘normal’ — but if I can get her to eat ‘normally’ and without having to dork with a bottle and such, I will be completely ecstatic. It’s what I’ve wanted all along and had been trying to implement. At this point in time, one thing I read said 24-48 hours. Her first feeding was around 10 am this morning, and as I said, I am swollen beyond belief. But she ate and was happy.
I have a very good chance of having infections and other problems, but I am hoping and praying that I won’t. That by this time tomorrow I will not be swollen beyond belief, and that I won’t have any other issues. For now, I hope and I pray. Please pray for me. Tomorrow morning is going to be VERY VERY painful, unless some miracle happens overnight and my breasts decide that they don’t need an extra 16 ounces since they are already WAY overfull. Right now my plan is to take a shower as soon as my husband gets out, so that the heat can soften my breasts enough for her to nurse, and go ahead and wake her up early. Then I plan on going about my business and getting her up or feeding her again in about 2 hours so that at least I have some relief and then hope for a 3 hour or so schedule again.
For now, my pump is silent. I don’t know if it will last, this last time my baby had a really hard time latching on, but she finally did get a chance to eat something. We will see. If this doesn’t work I can easily go back to a pumping routine, but making it a lot longer in between pumpings and only pumping a tiny bit to relieve pressure, but right now I’m hoping that this will work.
This sounds crazy – but for the swollen engorgement – put cold cabbage leaves on your breasts (like 2 leaves per side) for 10-15 minutes – and that will help. You only need to do this once or twice until the milk lets up a bit.