Close to giving up

[sccurrier]

Feb 18, 2015 15:53:41 GMT -5 @amyg said:

sccurrier, pay attention to where he ends up in position with his head tilted back. meet him halfway there by starting the latch with his head already tilted back, not with his head straight and then it tilts back.

try other positions, if this is what he's doing in cradle or cross cradle, try football hold, side lying or laid back nursing where you can see what he's doing better and if he's sliding backwards to control a strong flow of milk, those positions should help with that.

In cradle or cross cradle his butt should be super close to you, each shoulder the same distance from you, not one shoulder tilted out further tha the other one.  But the head sometimes is a bit further away, tilted backwards a bit.  If you try to pull his head in line with his butt he may be just starting a bit too close.  Help in person is soooo much easier than trying to type it out. 

Everything you're saying makes perfect sense. He's been latching with his head straight and I think cross/cradle I've been starting him off a bit too close. My milk has really come in now so I think he does sometimes pinch it off by pulling back a bit. Other times I think he just falls asleep and then tries to adjust his head or something. The only problem I really have now is trying to get his top lip to flare out on his own and just trying to get my nipples to heal. It's only the initial latch that really hurts now from them being so battered.

[sccurrier]

Feb 18, 2015 15:19:28 GMT -5 mully626 said:

sccurrier, The bringing in close and tight thing - It really was something I had to work on. I had to bring her in gently, do the sandwich thing, get her on, adjust her lips with my thumb to make sure those were flared, THEN put my hand on the back of her back/neck/head and hold her in close. It's tough but with practice, it becomes second nature.

Glad you can find some support here though! If you aren't a lanolin fan, I liked the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple ointment a lot more! Now I use it for a bunch of stuff - on my hands or lips at night, dry spots, droll rash, etc.

Lanolin doesn't seem to do much for me so I think I'm going to look into the butter, I've heard a lot of good things about it.

I seriously don't think I would have been able to stick with bf-ing without the support here. It was much more complicated than I anticipated but it has been SO worth it so far.

[casey]

Glad you are having progress! Sounds like you really are doing great!

That initial latch pain is very normal for most of it, even without nipple trauma. I would always take a deep breath, latch, curl my toes, and breathe-count. It faded in intensity and duration until one day I just noticed it was gone.

Second the nipple butter rec. air dry bm on nipple followed by nipple butter worked wonders for me.

[pooky08]

Another vote for nipple butter. I use the honest nipple balm (was given it as a shower gift) and I've referred to it as "a miracle in a jar." I was in the hospital for five days and had my husband bring it to me on day 2. I don't use it every day anymore, but any time I'm sore I lather that stuff on and everything gets so much better. I always let my nipples air dry.

[seamonster]

sccurrier, I feel your pain. LO is 4 days old and killing my nipples. I'm glad you started this thread because a lot of my issues are similar to your issues.

I don't want to hijack your thread, so I'll start a different one for the different issues I'm having.

[sccurrier]

Feb 19, 2015 17:02:00 GMT -5 seamonster said:

sccurrier, I feel your pain. LO is 4 days old and killing my nipples. I'm glad you started this thread because a lot of my issues are similar to your issues.

I don't want to hijack your thread, so I'll start a different one for the different issues I'm having.

I hope the thread helped you like it helped me. This whole breast feeding thing is rough! Oh and FWIW I just bought nipple butter and so far I like it a million times more than lanolin. Good luck!

[seamonster]

Feb 20, 2015 2:56:41 GMT -5 sccurrier said:

Feb 19, 2015 17:02:00 GMT -5 seamonster said:

sccurrier, I feel your pain. LO is 4 days old and killing my nipples. I'm glad you started this thread because a lot of my issues are similar to your issues.

I don't want to hijack your thread, so I'll start a different one for the different issues I'm having.

I hope the thread helped you like it helped me. This whole breast feeding thing is rough! Oh and FWIW I just bought nipple butter and so far I like it a million times more than lanolin. Good luck!

Maybe I'll see if I can find the nipple butter. I've been doing coconut oil in addition to the lanolin since it soaks in and makes the scabs feel softer (I found it listed as a vegetarian/vegan alternative to lanolin and love it for other skin issues).

[sccurrier]

Feb 20, 2015 4:59:49 GMT -5 seamonster said:

Feb 20, 2015 2:56:41 GMT -5 sccurrier said:

I hope the thread helped you like it helped me. This whole breast feeding thing is rough! Oh and FWIW I just bought nipple butter and so far I like it a million times more than lanolin. Good luck!

Maybe I'll see if I can find the nipple butter. I've been doing coconut oil in addition to the lanolin since it soaks in and makes the scabs feel softer (I found it listed as a vegetarian/vegan alternative to lanolin and love it for other skin issues).

Oh I didn't think of coconut oil, I'll have to look into that. The butter makes my nipples feel less... Stingy if that makes sense. I had scabs as well but they've fallen off now, I would put bm on them and air dry and that helped quite a bit.