Over Sharing
Fellow Moms may appreciate this bit of over sharing – uncles and male cousins may want to skip this post.
In spite of everything that we have been through in the past few days, I feel that one of the most unfair things to happen in the past 24 hours is that my milk came in this afternoon while showering in a hospital shower with no way to attach the shower head to the wall, so that no matter what I did, in order to get clean, I was constantly being hit in the chest with the metal hose of the showerhead. How is that at all fair?
And now I’m hard as a rock, massage is the most painful thing, warm compresses are ineffective, pumping just makes it worse, and I have no memory of how to deal with this. Oh this is going to be fun. Suggestions and remedies gladly accepted.
comments
I got no advice except wait two days and it'll be over. And stand in a (working) hot shower. And pump on a weak setting (if the hospital pump has such a thing) to clear the suckers out.
Milk coming in is my least favorite part of birth - I hate it even more than delivering, because the discomfort lasts for longer. But it's never lasted more than 2 days for me, so... I'm sorry.
Hand express just enough to get everything soft enough for this new baby to latch on. Don't pump extra if you can help it, or hand express too much. Your body is trying to find its rhythm with this new baby - so help it know how much he needs to eat by feeding him all the time. And your body will figure it out and catch up, absolutely.
IV fluids can make engorgement worse. Here's an excellent article on how to help relieve some of that pressure if it's due to IV fluids: http://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/rev_pressure_soft_cotterman/
In case you want more info: http://kellymom.com/category/ages/bf-preemie/
http://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/engorgement/