My poor breasts

[Gosia Stankiewicz]

Hello,

I'm five months pregnant now and as every mother-to-be I've read all the
books about what's gonna happend to me during those nine months. Everybody
knows that increasing breasts are one of the earlier pregnancy syndroms. But
in my case it was quite different. I hadn't significant signs so far, but
during last weeks my body accelerated suddenly. My breast size increased
from 70B to 70C and that's OK - I was expecting that.

But it seems all pregnancy syndroms are focusing on my areolas. They
darkened and it's normal - but their size! Now they're above 7cm (about 2
3/4 inch) in diameter - I couldn't resist to measure them, not very
precizely because of their very uneven, "exploded" border. Before my
pregnancy they looked something like 3 cm (AFAIR, I had no reason to measure
them). Now these 7 cm look ridiculously. When I said to my husband that I'm
not very happy about them, he answered "In fact, they became quite
strange..."

I don't know, probably I gonna inform people from Guiness Records.
Is such a big diameter normal?
And they write that baby has to get all the areola in its mouth...
And above all: when I finally give birth to my baby will my areolas return
to their "normal" look? AFAIK they'll become bright as they used to be but
what about their width?


tia
Gosia

[Tine Andersen]

"Gosia Stankiewicz" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello,
>
> I'm five months pregnant now and as every mother-to-be I've read all the
> books about what's gonna happend to me during those nine months. Everybody
> knows that increasing breasts are one of the earlier pregnancy syndroms.
But
> in my case it was quite different. I hadn't significant signs so far, but
> during last weeks my body accelerated suddenly. My breast size increased
> from 70B to 70C and that's OK - I was expecting that.
>
> But it seems all pregnancy syndroms are focusing on my areolas. They
> darkened and it's normal - but their size! Now they're above 7cm (about 2
> 3/4 inch) in diameter - I couldn't resist to measure them, not very
> precizely because of their very uneven, "exploded" border. Before my
> pregnancy they looked something like 3 cm (AFAIR, I had no reason to
measure
> them). Now these 7 cm look ridiculously. When I said to my husband that
I'm
> not very happy about them, he answered "In fact, they became quite
> strange..."
>
> I don't know, probably I gonna inform people from Guiness Records.
> Is such a big diameter normal?
> And they write that baby has to get all the areola in its mouth...
> And above all: when I finally give birth to my baby will my areolas return
> to their "normal" look? AFAIK they'll become bright as they used to be but
> what about their width?

The present size is perfectly normal - I can't just pull up my shirt right
now (I'm at work), but AFAIR they go back to normal.

Tine, Denmark

[H Schinske]

Gosia writes:

>And they write that baby has to get all the areola in its mouth...

Don't worry, they just have to get a reasonable amount in, and not suck just on
the end of the nipple! The "all the areola" advice was written by someone who
wasn't too up on how much the size of areolas can vary.

--Helen

[Plissken]

"Gosia Stankiewicz" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello,
> But it seems all pregnancy syndroms are focusing on my areolas. They
> darkened and it's normal - but their size! Now they're above 7cm (about 2
> 3/4 inch) in diameter - I couldn't resist to measure them, not very
> precizely because of their very uneven, "exploded" border. Before my
> pregnancy they looked something like 3 cm (AFAIR, I had no reason to
measure
> them). Now these 7 cm look ridiculously. When I said to my husband that
I'm
> not very happy about them, he answered "In fact, they became quite
> strange..."

Mine are huge as well! About 8 cm!! Curiosity got the better of me after
this thread and I had to measure them :-) Obviously you can't get the baby's
mouth around the whole areola, otherwise that would be one big mouthed baby!
The baby must get at least a 1 inch area of the areola into his/her mouth.
Here is a good link talking about latching on.

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/t021000.asp

And a good lactation consultant once you've had the baby is a really good
idea (if you find you are having problems)

Nadene

[Chotii]

"Gosia Stankiewicz" > wrote in message
om...

<snip>

> But it seems all pregnancy syndroms are focusing on my areolas. They
> darkened and it's normal - but their size! Now they're above 7cm (about 2
> 3/4 inch) in diameter - I couldn't resist to measure them, not very
> precizely because of their very uneven, "exploded" border. Before my
> pregnancy they looked something like 3 cm (AFAIR, I had no reason to
measure
> them). Now these 7 cm look ridiculously. When I said to my husband that
I'm
> not very happy about them, he answered "In fact, they became quite
> strange..."

Perhaps it will help you to think of those large, dark areolae as visual
'bullseyes' which cue your baby to where the food is? Yours are large, mine
never *do* get any bigger, or darker either for that matter. It's a normal
variation.

> I don't know, probably I gonna inform people from Guiness Records.
> Is such a big diameter normal?
> And they write that baby has to get all the areola in its mouth...
> And above all: when I finally give birth to my baby will my areolas return
> to their "normal" look? AFAIK they'll become bright as they used to be but
> what about their width?

Baby doesn't have to get the whole aureola in his mouth. He does need to get
at least 1" in (I think this would be 1/2" on each side of the nipple) so
that he can effectively compress the milk sinuses under the aureola. Simply
sucking on the nipple won't give him much milk, but it *will* hurt you quite
a lot, and maybe do tissue damage. So you'll try to get as much aureola as
you can stuffed into baby's mouth, but understand you'll never get it *all*
in, nor do you need to.

--angela

[Gosia Stankiewicz]

> The present size is perfectly normal - I can't just pull up my shirt right
> now (I'm at work), but AFAIR they go back to normal.

How long will they stay in that strange form?
And are you sure they go back? I just found that it isn't the rule.
Some mothers must live with increazed size.
And just a few words about their exact look. It seems that pigment
crossed the usual border of both areolas and flooded outside. Now I
have areolas with two border circles the old and the new one. Is it
OK?

[Gosia Stankiewicz]

> Don't worry, they just have to get a reasonable amount in, and not suck just on
> the end of the nipple! The "all the areola" advice was written by someone who
> wasn't too up on how much the size of areolas can vary.

The question is exactly how much the size can vary. I was prepared for
slightly changes in colour but not size. The colour has darkened but
the size increased TWO times. Almost 3 inch looks really strange.

[Gosia Stankiewicz]

> LOL no kidding! When I had Nicolas one of the nurses in the hospital
> tried to give me that advice...I lifted my shirt and showed her that
> mine were as big as his head [cut]

You must exagerrate, or kidding. I can't imagine they can be bigger
than mine. Maybe with bigger breast size (as I wrote mine's 70C now)?
How large was they before pregnancy? I was shocked with my ones
because they were muuuch smaller.

[Gosia Stankiewicz]

> Mine are huge as well! About 8 cm!! Curiosity got the better of me after
> this thread and I had to measure them :-) Obviously you can't get the baby's
> mouth around the whole areola, otherwise that would be one big mouthed baby!

Yeah, Mick Jagger - like :))))

[Chotii]

"Gosia Stankiewicz" > wrote in message
om...
> > The present size is perfectly normal - I can't just pull up my shirt
right
> > now (I'm at work), but AFAIR they go back to normal.
>
> How long will they stay in that strange form?
> And are you sure they go back? I just found that it isn't the rule.
> Some mothers must live with increazed size.
> And just a few words about their exact look. It seems that pigment
> crossed the usual border of both areolas and flooded outside. Now I
> have areolas with two border circles the old and the new one. Is it
> OK?

Oddly enough, Gosia, my breasts are doing the exactly same thing (though
with less enthusiasm) now at nearly 37 weeks. It looks exactly as you
describe: pigment has flooded outside the line of the aureola onto the
surface of the breast itself. My 'linea negra' has also shown up just in the
last few days, as a dark smudge in what's left of my belly button. But not
very dark - I have very pale skin and even my freckles never get dark, so
none of this new pigmentation is dark.

--angela

[Gosia Stankiewicz]

> Oddly enough, Gosia, my breasts are doing the exactly same thing (though
> with less enthusiasm) now at nearly 37 weeks. It looks exactly as you
> describe: pigment has flooded outside the line of the aureola onto the
> surface of the breast itself. My 'linea negra' has also shown up just in the
> last few days, as a dark smudge in what's left of my belly button. But not
> very dark - I have very pale skin and even my freckles never get dark, so
> none of this new pigmentation is dark.

Oddly even more, following your words, I am also very pale skin - a
natural blond-haired but those areolas are almost black. But no linea
negra at all.
Strange. Did you experience so big diameter increasing too?