So I think I have an oversupply. Yesterday C nursed both sides in the morning for about 40 minutes. An hour later I went up to get ready and was engorged and leaking already and pumped 4 oz in about 5 minutes to take the edge off. The same thing happened at night--C ate from 8-8:30 and by 10 I was a fire hose again. I pumped and got 3 oz quickly.
So what do I do? I'm worried that pumping will just make it worse, but I also can't walk around painfully engorged and shooting milk all over. I don't really mind pumping since I seem to get a lot quickly.
Pump as little as possible for the next few weeks, and it will improve.
If you're a leaker, look up "Milkies Milk Saver" to catch and store the overflow. Use Advil if you've got pain. It should calm down in another few weeks.
Post by imimahoney on Oct 28, 2012 15:58:14 GMT -5
If it's only one side then you could just nurse the other side more frequently and sort of ignore the engorged side for a bit. Eventually the engorged side will slow down and the other side will catch up a bit.
If it's only one side then you could just nurse the other side more frequently and sort of ignore the engorged side for a bit. Eventually the engorged side will slow down and the other side will catch up a bit.
I'd look into block feeding on Kellymom. That's what we had to do.
and this helped me. My left side was completely out of control until last week. Crazy oversupply and overactive letdown. Starting about 2.5 weeks ago, I fed E twice as often on my right side; kind of a modified block feeding. Then after about a week of that, I switched to just regular block feeding with ~4 hour blocks. I noticed a huge improvement early last week, and the sides are now fairly even. I only get "full" feeling after at least 3 hours, and engorged after 5+ (which I know because E started sleeping 5-6 hour stretches a bit over a week ago. Awesome, but painful). Actually, sometimes righty is the "eager" side now. E's still just taking one side per feeding, and I'm back to switching with each feeding again. Edit: I decided to pump the other day because I thought I was "safe," but that seemed to trigger another round of overproduction. I am going to avoid pumping for the next several weeks. Apparently my body reallllly wants to feed babies.
This happened to me w/ DS1. I took hot showers when it was painful, nursed him on demand, and wore breast pads all. the. time. until my boobs and the baby worked it out. Eventually my body regulated the amount of milk on its own. It was seriously weird to feel let down in the shower and be spraying breastmilk like 2 feet, though. haha.
I leaked until about 13 weeks or so in the AM so badly it was like someone peed the bed. Caramini slept though the night fairly early though and that probably contributed to the problem. Minimizing pumping and block feeding were helpful, but honestly I had to go back to work at 9 weeks postpartum, so some of it did not regulate until I was forced into a pumping schedule by work. I was way lopsided with my supply (right megaboob, left regular boob), so my advice may be crappy.
Ditto PP, they've given some good advice. Try to pump as little as possible, your breasts will regulate themselves eventually. I had a crazy oversupply at first especially in the mornings, I would pump to relieve the pressure so DS could latch and would get 5 oz in like 2 minutes. After WEEKS of that I finally decided to stop the pressure-relief pumping cold turkey, I was so sick of it. It was a pretty horrible 7-10 days but my supply finally regulated.
When you're away, pump enough to replace a feed, but stop after a max of 3-4 oz per side. Really, 3-4 oz total = a bottle. Try to keep your production as close to his intake as possible.
Definitely try to feed one side as long as he'll stay there.