3 months!

[Alphawave]

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

[She's A Goddess]

"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

[Leslie]

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

[Laurie]

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

[KC]

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

[Michelle Podnar]

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

[Alphawave]

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

[Alphawave]

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

[Alphawave]

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

[Alphawave]

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

[Alphawave]

KC says:

> Congrats on making it to 3 months!

Thanks!

> Do you have a plan on how far you want to go with it now?

No plan. I just want to go with the flow.

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

[Alphawave]

Michelle says:

> Congratulations on the 3 months!!

Thanks!

> Hopefully in another 3 months, you will have had a better
> experience and say that you now enjoy it.

I hope so. :-)

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

[Leslie]

>Is there another ointment I should
>try?

Well, if you are sure there is no more thrush, maybe neosporin? It promotes
healing--maybe it would help with the bleb.

Leslie

[Regina Diacopoulos]

In message >, Alphawave
> writes
>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

My baby is just a little younger than yours. I've also had a bleb that
wouldn't budge even though I tried all the usual stuff. For the last
week and a half I haven't worn a bra and it now seems to be going.
--
Regina

[Alphawave]

Regina says:

> My baby is just a little younger than yours. I've also had a bleb that
> wouldn't budge even though I tried all the usual stuff. For the last
> week and a half I haven't worn a bra and it now seems to be going.

Ooohh. Well, I'll keep that suggestion tucked in the back of my mind. My
breasts are D cup and it's pretty uncomfortable to go without a bra,
especially when it's been awhile since DS has eaten. But I'll consider it
if I get to the end of my rope with this bleb. :-)

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

[Larry McMahan]

Alphawave > writes:

: Ooohh. Well, I'll keep that suggestion tucked in the back of my mind. My
: breasts are D cup and it's pretty uncomfortable to go without a bra,

I don't get it, what is the connection. Monika is an H, and she only wears
a bra about half the time. Or are you saying they are too small not to. :-)

Larry

[Alphawave]

Larry says:

> I don't get it, what is the connection. Monika is an H, and she only
> wears a bra about half the time.

Well, recognizing that we're all different... great for Monika that it
isn't uncomfortable for her to go braless, but for me, it is. The skin on
my chest feels pulled and stretched, it makes the skin underneath sweat, I
detest the feeling of my nipples rubbing on loose fabric, and I find
myself hunching over more when I go braless, which ends up hurting my
back.

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

[Larry McMahan]

Alphawave > writes:
: Larry says:

:> I don't get it, what is the connection. Monika is an H, and she only
:> wears a bra about half the time.

: Well, recognizing that we're all different... great for Monika that it
: isn't uncomfortable for her to go braless, but for me, it is. The skin on
: my chest feels pulled and stretched, it makes the skin underneath sweat, I
: detest the feeling of my nipples rubbing on loose fabric, and I find
: myself hunching over more when I go braless, which ends up hurting my
: back.

Yes, and if you are more comfortable wearing a bra, then so be it. The
things you mention are reasonable reasons, but have to do with many other
factors than size. That was my point.

Larry