Good morning. I am writing to share some interesting anecdotes from my last
few days...and a theory I have, at least for myself and my body (which I
suppose could apply to others too).
I have 3 children, Sandrine is 8.5, Nyssa is 5.75 and Tristan is now 5.5
days old. I nursed Sandrine through Nyssa's pregnancy and beyond and have
experienced the ups and downs of tandem nursing. I also historically have
*bad* oversupply and OALD. Like...really bad. With Sandrine it was really
quite hellish and I am sure contributed to a nursing aversion (strike?) that
lasted from about 4-10 mos where she would virtually *only* nurse while
asleep...it had been unpleasant for her to nurse at all before that and she
just wouldn't for a long time if she wasn't asleep. When Nyssa was born I
was so glad I had the older nursling to help out and I was *still* miserably
engorged several times. When I got pregnant with this 3rd one I was very
apprehensive of how to handle what I figured would (again) amount to enough
milk for probably quintuplets or something...and after a lot of pondering
and thinking of how it worked out quite well for me to assign each child
their side when I was tandem nursing Sandrine and Nyssa, I thought I would
nurse Tristan 12 hours on the left (at night) and 12 on the right (day). I
was not worried about lack of milk supply since I nourrished Nyssa
exclusively on the left...for 6 months (even when there was only colostrum),
and she did nurse for 4.5 years total. The right side was Sandrine's back
then, but she also sometimes did get the "treat" of nursing a bit off her
sister's side before I latched Nyssa on because of engorgement...to help
limit the "drinking from a firehose" for Nyssa. OK but now here's the
interesting part. Having nursed Tristan 12 hours per side since birth...my
milk didn't come in as fast this time around. It came in when Sandrine was
2.5 days old and when Nyssa was 36 hours old. I JUST got my milk in this
morning (overnight) and he's now 5.5 days old. But before it came in, I
have *pumped* 12+ oz of colostrum, I was literally spraying colostrum and
dribbling it within minutes of him being born, and he was gulping it down at
birth and I felt letdowns in both breasts while he nursed. I also felt
engorged several times. But it was *nothing* like this typical experience
of rock hard hot huge breasts that I have now with my milk (and what I am
pumping is now white, not yellow). And the other interesting part here is
nipple soreness. I had sore nipples after Sandrine was born. I had sore
nipples after Nyssa was born, even on the side Sandrine was nursing off
exclusively and I was used to nursing her (though it did hurt during
pregnancy too). I have sore nipples again. With Nyssa I literally had an
IBCLC in my room within 5 minutes of her birth (she worked at the birth
centre where Nyssa and Sandrine were born). She watched as Nyssa crawled to
the breast and latched on. She looked at her latch on at 24 hours and 3
days at my post-partum viists since I wasn't so sure why it was hurting so
much given I hadn't ever stopped nursing. No one could ever find anything
wrong with any child's latch really. I have now been volunteering with my
Bf support group for 7 years and Tristan's latch looks good to me...and once
the milk flow gets going it feels ok but my nipples *are* sore before that.
They are *not* damaged, pinched, or fissured. But it feels a LOT like it
felt like when I was nursing while I was pregnant with Nyssa. I honestly
feel, with this 3rd experience, that for me, the sore nipples post-partum
are part and parcel of hormonal changes and at least partly linked to lower
supply (ie colostrum) in the first few days. I will see if they feel a lot
better now that my milk is in (I suspect they will) but I don't remember
being sore for 5 days after either girl was born, when my milk came in
faster. I also *did* find it helped enormously in my case to gently tug on
my nipple before latching Sandrine on when I was pregnant with Nyssa, a
little at a time, until I had pulled the nipple out as far as it would be
going in her mouth. It made it much more tolerable (still a bit sore but
nothing like it felt if I didn't do it; felt like rubbing 60 grit sandpaper
on my nipples while I was pregnant!)...and interestingly always coincided
with extracting the first drop or 2 of colostrum during pregnancy when I did
that.
So after this 3rd experience I feel that for me, sore nipples have been
"normal" despite what we say about how it shouldn't hurt. It never did for
long (this is the longest it has hurt for me I'm pretty sure, though I
realize time has a way of playing with your memory sometimes...) and now
that I have mature milk we'll see but my suspicion is that the sore nipples
go away pretty quickly. In any case it makes me wonder how many other
women, perhaps not a majority but surely a few...have similar issues.
Thanks for listening...and anyone else who wants to read the *birth story*
is welcome to e-mail me privately (macbump at gmail.com) and I'll send it
along privately with pictures too. ;-) Condensed version: homebirth, 3.5
hours of active labour, baby was 7 lbs 12 oz. He DID lose a bit of weight
(4 oz) and is my only baby to have done so but was back up above birthweight
by 4 days...he shows no signs of jaundice (nor did my other 2). Seedy
yellow poops and lots of pees (he had *4* pees in the first 24 hours!!).
Fio
--
Maman to Sandrine, 8, Nyssa 5, and Tristan, born 11 aug 2008.
«Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been
looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.» -- Amy
Bloom
http://www.rabais-coupons.com pour des coupons virtuels
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