New Breastfeeding Patterns At 8 Monhs

Whereas baby used to get hungry at about the same time as I would start to feel full, a different nursing pattern seems to be emerging. The above situation still does happen, but nowadays it's rare that I get overfull until a few minutes after she starts suckling. But then --watch out for your eyes, ladies and gentlemen- the geyser erupts at her beckoning and she gets a mouthful-- or I get a shirt full if she gets distracted and raises her head to check out the commotion that her brother and /or cousins are inevitably making in some other part of the room.

Training Bra

I'm back to training bras, I realized today. I was standing in my bathrobe and selecting undergarments this morning when my sister walked in and fingered the bra I'd set aside. "It's a sleeping bra. A nursing sleeping bra." I told her. She wrinkled her nose. "THIS is what you wear during the day?" Sometimes. They were cheap-- a great big sale at Sears. Buy one get the second for $3. Looking back, I should have just splurged on a real nursing bra for forty-five bucks and then added an extra three to get second one. But yes, I can nurse and wear sleeping bras during the day. I am that small. They're not all that comfortable for me, actually. You can't adjust how tight you want them around your body. But the nursing mechanism is easy and effective. Also they don't do much to prevent leakage. But for the most part they're ok.

The Big Leak

I had a big leak today while teaching. I had to run to the classroom next door and borrow the teaching assistant's scarf to cover up the to huge wet spots on my bosom. My nipples were busting through my bra, t-shirt and thin sweater I was wearing. It got pretty uncomfortable for me. My boobs haven't been this rock hard in a long time. I don't think any of the students noticed or if they would even recognize it for what it was if they saw it. I don't even wear nursing pads that often anymore. Goes to show... you never can tell. Worst thing is that I had to hang around after work for an extra hour because of a staff meeting. BOY, was I glad to see DD when I got home. She was sleeping but she managed to make me feel a lot more comfortable even in her dream state.

The Need To Feed

When I'm trying to describe the need to breastfeed at regular interverals, I find that the best way to make people understand the feeling is by describing it as the need to empty a full bladder. I don't always mention that the 'bladder' or in this case the milk ducts don't always wait for an invitation from me to start discharging their contents.

Sucking on the dyke: The Leak Is Back

Last night she slept for six hours straight. Then she woke up, had a couple of sips and fell back asleep. Three hours later, I had to wake her up to eat. I haven't that that rock-hard breast feeling since the DS breastfeeding days when I was constantly overfull of breast milk and leaking like a geyser. I thought that I would be able to shatter glass if I aimed my high-pressure nipples at the sliding doors and let the milk rip. It hurt, too. Things hurt a lot worse with my last breastfeeding experience. This time I only really get breast pain when I'm overfull.

Leakage Continues

When I first started breastfeeding DD, I was a little worried that I wasn't leaking the way I had with my DS. With him, I only had to hear him whimper and I'd turn into a milky geyser. Well, that wasn't happening in the beginning but it is now, though not quite to the same degree. When she starts suckling one side, the other side fills up and starts to spray. I end up switching back and forth several times in one feeding to try and avert a big wet mess.

Nursing Pads

I just saw an article that recommends getting the cotton nursing/bra pads instead of the disposable kind because they're softer. Well, I have better reasons than that. A couple of times, after a particularly leaky or sweaty night, DS looked up from my breast into my tired face and breathed out a mouthful of cotton. Those things disintegrate! Especially the cheap ones. Not only that, but the reusable ones are, of course, more environmentally friendly than their disposable counterparts.

I also recommend bringing the nursing/bra pads to the hospital with you. You never know how long you're going to be there and your milk might come in, as mine did, with a vengance. I only had a couple of shirts with me (I snubbed hospital gowns after wearing them for the first couple of days) and they both got real stinky real fast. I had a lot of leakage when I was nursing. He'd be eating from one and the second one would leak like a dyke with a hole in it. Or I'd be just one minute too late getting my nursing bra loose and I'd have two geysers sprouting from my chest. Nursing pads were my saving grace in those first few months. I was never without them.