3 months!

DS and I made it to 3 months! Okay, so anyone here thought we would? No?
No one? :-) You'll note my hand isn't raised either. ;-)

There is still unexplained pain in my breast, but it's not as bad now.
The seemingly permanent bleb is still there, but doesn't rage as much as
it used to. DS has become totally unpredictable, and now we're back to
feeding 10x/day instead of the 7x routine we had fallen into. He spits up
more now than he used to -- not just the gushers I posted about before,
but regular ol' spit-ups now too. NIP is still a big hassle. He gets
distracted by everything, still squirms around, still pulls off and cries
-- basically, still makes it impossible to NIP discreetly. The Maya wrap
is wonderful, but hasn't helped with NIP.

Now at 3 months, I'm not as tempted to quit. Some things have gotten a
little better, and I've more or less made peace with the things that
didn't. I've concluded that the one persuasive reason to bf, imo, is that
it's the way it was meant to be. It doesn't give me any greater joy than
ff did, it's much more of a hassle when we go out, it's less predictable
than ff, it prevents DH from having the bonding experience of feeding,
etc. But I tend to believe that, in general, we humans do better the
closer we stick to nature, and bf is nature's way.

If anyone knows why this bleb will not go away, please advise. :-) I've
tried just about everything, and then tried the opposite for good measure.
:-\

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

"Alphawave" wrote in message
...
DS and I made it to 3 months! Okay, so anyone here thought we would? No?
No one? :-) You'll note my hand isn't raised either. ;-)

Hey, congratulations! You were having a truly rough time of it for a while
there. Maybe in three more months you'll be able to tell us that you love
it.


--
Rhiannon
Madison Sophia - 9/6/01
Owen Grady - 6/23/03

I wasn't SURE you would, but I hoped you would stick it out. I'm so happy that
you've made it!

But I tend to believe that, in general, we humans do better the
closer we stick to nature, and bf is nature's way.

ITA. That's a great reason for bf. I hope that, in time, you come to enjoy it
as well.

Wish I had more advice re the bleb--what all have you tried?

Leslie

Alphawave wrote in message ...
DS and I made it to 3 months! Okay, so anyone here thought we would? No?
No one? :-) You'll note my hand isn't raised either. ;-)

There is still unexplained pain in my breast, but it's not as bad now.
The seemingly permanent bleb is still there, but doesn't rage as much as
it used to. DS has become totally unpredictable, and now we're back to
feeding 10x/day instead of the 7x routine we had fallen into. He spits up
more now than he used to -- not just the gushers I posted about before,
but regular ol' spit-ups now too. NIP is still a big hassle. He gets
distracted by everything, still squirms around, still pulls off and cries
-- basically, still makes it impossible to NIP discreetly. The Maya wrap
is wonderful, but hasn't helped with NIP.

Now at 3 months, I'm not as tempted to quit. Some things have gotten a
little better, and I've more or less made peace with the things that
didn't. I've concluded that the one persuasive reason to bf, imo, is that
it's the way it was meant to be. It doesn't give me any greater joy than
ff did, it's much more of a hassle when we go out, it's less predictable
than ff, it prevents DH from having the bonding experience of feeding,
etc. But I tend to believe that, in general, we humans do better the
closer we stick to nature, and bf is nature's way.

If anyone knows why this bleb will not go away, please advise. :-) I've
tried just about everything, and then tried the opposite for good measure.
:-\


Congrats on making it this far! That's great! Has DH given a bottle yet?
Then he can share in the bonding of feeding too! Not as often, I know, but
he still can.

The only time I've found BF to be a little inconvenient was last weekend,
when we were on a long trip and only 25 minutes from home, had to stop to
BF. A bottle in the car certainly would have been easier. But, I'm not
complaining by any means; it's the only time I've EVER thought that FF would
have been more convenient at that moment! (meaning, in a situation where I
wouldn't have a bottle of EBM with me).

I think it will still get better for you and you WILL have the great
experience. You've had a tough start, but it can only get better from
here!

laurie
mommy to Jessica, 27 months
and Christopher, 12 weeks

*This email address is now valid*
-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

I love what you said there. There are pluses to bf, but I do it for
the good of the babe, not the good of me, and I do think it is better
for the babe.

Congrats on making it to 3 months! Do you have a plan on how far you
want to go with it now? I am pretty much thinking over a year even
though it is hard.

KC

Alphawave wrote in message ...
DS and I made it to 3 months! Okay, so anyone here thought we would? No?
No one? :-) You'll note my hand isn't raised either. ;-)

There is still unexplained pain in my breast, but it's not as bad now.
The seemingly permanent bleb is still there, but doesn't rage as much as
it used to. DS has become totally unpredictable, and now we're back to
feeding 10x/day instead of the 7x routine we had fallen into. He spits up
more now than he used to -- not just the gushers I posted about before,
but regular ol' spit-ups now too. NIP is still a big hassle. He gets
distracted by everything, still squirms around, still pulls off and cries
-- basically, still makes it impossible to NIP discreetly. The Maya wrap
is wonderful, but hasn't helped with NIP.

Now at 3 months, I'm not as tempted to quit. Some things have gotten a
little better, and I've more or less made peace with the things that
didn't. I've concluded that the one persuasive reason to bf, imo, is that
it's the way it was meant to be. It doesn't give me any greater joy than
ff did, it's much more of a hassle when we go out, it's less predictable
than ff, it prevents DH from having the bonding experience of feeding,
etc. But I tend to believe that, in general, we humans do better the
closer we stick to nature, and bf is nature's way.

If anyone knows why this bleb will not go away, please advise. :-) I've
tried just about everything, and then tried the opposite for good measure.
:-\

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

Congratulations on the 3 months!! perservering can be very hard sometimes.
Hopefully in another 3 months, you will have had a better experience and say
that you now enjoy it.

Michelle P
"Alphawave" wrote in message
...
DS and I made it to 3 months! Okay, so anyone here thought we would? No?
No one? :-) You'll note my hand isn't raised either. ;-)

There is still unexplained pain in my breast, but it's not as bad now.
The seemingly permanent bleb is still there, but doesn't rage as much as
it used to. DS has become totally unpredictable, and now we're back to
feeding 10x/day instead of the 7x routine we had fallen into. He spits up
more now than he used to -- not just the gushers I posted about before,
but regular ol' spit-ups now too. NIP is still a big hassle. He gets
distracted by everything, still squirms around, still pulls off and cries
-- basically, still makes it impossible to NIP discreetly. The Maya wrap
is wonderful, but hasn't helped with NIP.

Now at 3 months, I'm not as tempted to quit. Some things have gotten a
little better, and I've more or less made peace with the things that
didn't. I've concluded that the one persuasive reason to bf, imo, is that
it's the way it was meant to be. It doesn't give me any greater joy than
ff did, it's much more of a hassle when we go out, it's less predictable
than ff, it prevents DH from having the bonding experience of feeding,
etc. But I tend to believe that, in general, we humans do better the
closer we stick to nature, and bf is nature's way.

If anyone knows why this bleb will not go away, please advise. :-) I've
tried just about everything, and then tried the opposite for good measure.
:-\

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

Rhiannon says:

Maybe in three more months you'll be able to tell us that you love
it.

That would be pretty nice. :-)

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

Leslie says:

Wish I had more advice re the bleb--what all have you tried?

The standard advice is to soak it, work on it with a sterilized needle,
try to lift it off, and have baby latch or pump right afterward. I also
tried spending lots of time airing out my breasts, I tried Lansinoh, I
switched breast pads*, and I went without breast pads. The soak - needle
- suck thing works, but it always comes back. Like, 2 feedings later,
it's back. Or even the next feeding. I haven't figured out how to make
it go away for good.

(* odd thing -- the two times I used Johnson's breast pads, I suffered a
plugged duct in the breast with the bleb. Those two times are the only
times my bleb has led to a plugged duct. Needless to say, I went back to
the Lansinoh pads. :-)

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

Dawn says:

Re the bleb.....are you SURE it's a bleb?

I won't say I'm sure, because it behaves like a bleb in every way except
one: milk does get around it. It looks like the pictures of a bleb I saw
online, the pain feels like what I've read it described as, and when I
work on it with a needle, I can sometimes manage to lift out what for all
the world appears to be dried milk -- but, I imagine it could be dried
skin.

...but nipples are supposed to have sort of round "blips" at the end of
them, if you look close. Some are a bit bigger than others, and
sometimes they appear to be white. I'm wondering if you have vasospasm
(I know, I say that about everything.... ;-) and it looks white
because it has no blood in it, rather than because it's full of milk?
I haven't had a bleb, but I hvae had white "blips" that looked like
blebs but weren't. (if that makes sense!?)

It's so hard to say. I wish I could see a picture of a "blip" with a
vasospasm to compare with!

Still, I do seem to
recall that the first 3 months were the worst time, so perhaps you will
soon find things get better.

Hope so!

(There's a growth spurt due any moment, BTW) ;-)

Is that what all this sudden craziness with feeding is about? Sometimes
he'll only take one breast for 4 minutes and then begin refusing. An hour
later, we're back at it again, and who knows how much he'll eat and
whether he'll take both breasts. He's all over the map!

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

Laurie says:

Congrats on making it this far! That's great! Has DH given a bottle
yet?

Yeah, he gives Quinn a bottle every night -- but Quinn is usually half
asleep, so DH doesn't get the full experience of feeding him. But hey,
it's something. :-)

I think it will still get better for you and you WILL have the great
experience. You've had a tough start, but it can only get better
from here!

Thanks for the vote of confidence! :-)

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net