Cuddles & Chaos

A victory of motherhood is when your baby sleeps through the night. Finally, after weeks, months, and years of sleep deprivation, there they are—just sleeping peacefully.

But there you are. Waking up at 3 am because your breasts feel like someone turned them to stone overnight.

You are left with five options:

1. Wake up your baby and toss them onto your breast to relieve the pain
2. Hand express into the sink until it looks like you dropped a milk jug
3. Massage your breasts while you cry due to the feeling of tiny hard rocks being pushed back and forth on your chest
4. Take a hot shower, attempt to rub out said tiny rocks while you cry (again) remembering this is the closest you’ve come to action since the baby was born
5. Pump and then cry (do you see a pattern, yet?) since you’re most likely producing more milk by doing so

Seems like no solution is actually a good one. Besides, even if you tried any of these, they’re not quick fixes and you will still be dealing with this pain for the entire day (maybe more)

As a first-time mom who is exclusively breastfeeding (EBF), I have dealt with this more times than I care to brag about. I am by no means an expert at resolving this, but I do have suggestions that have worked for me.

So, what should you do?

Milk Blisters

Do they hurt?

The first time I saw that infamous white mark (they can also be yellow) on my nipple I just thought, oh okay dried milk! Then I touched it and it didn’t budge. So to my son’s mouth my nipple went… Now, I don’t usually curse around my son, especially not while holding him but the pain that radiated from my nipple went up my back and out of my mouth.

Cool, so super painful. How do I get rid of them?

Please, review the answer above. That’s right. To get rid of them, you need to nurse. I try to trick myself into focusing my pain on the fact that this painful bastard is being sucked off of me.

Is there anything else I can do to relieve this faster?

To help speed things along, apply heat to the breast and breastfeed immediately after. This can be done in a few ways:

• Take a warm shower
• Apply a heating pad. My husband makes me heat rice pack out of a sock filled with rice and popped in the microwave. But you can use a regular heating pad as well. Not too hot though!
• Fill a bowl with very warm water (again, not too hot) and lean over to dip your breast into it.

Clogged Milk Ducts

These sound cute.. what do they feel like?

I have PTSD thinking about having these. They can best be described as incredibly painful small or large hard bumps in your breast. These bumps usually feel like a collection of stones that are trapped under your skin. The pain is always pretty much bad but it can worsen depending on where in your breast they are. For instance, if you have them on the outside of your breast, you will most likely be unable to lift your arm because they form under your armpit all the way to your nipple. I, very recently, got them underneath my boob. Which I didn’t think would be that bad. Sure, you try to push the stones upwards.

OK, these sound painful to get out. What is the best solution?

1. Start taking Sunflower Lecithin. You can take as many as you want with no effect on you or your baby. However – my lactation consultant suggests taking 1 pill 3 times a day. Basically, these pills help make your breast milk less sticky, so they don’t back up anymore. Prevention is your best bet here.
2. Apply heat (same 3 methods as Milk Blisters).
3. Nurse in various positions. It’s best to turn your baby’s nose towards the clogged duct. Yes, I’ve nursed with my child upside down.
4. Re-warm and massage like you’ve got nothing to lose!!

What are some massage techniques?

• I try a variation of different moves and make sure to massage all areas, not just where it’s clogged.

Place one palm on top of your breast and the other under your breast and massage. Like deeply massage and just keep doing it until it softens a bit

Take your thumb and push it into the milk duct towards your nipple. The idea here is to move the clog to your nipple so it’s closer to coming out

Use your knuckles and knead into the milk duct. So. Painful. But works great.

Once you’ve done this, try to hand express it out. You will see stringy white milk coming out if you open the duct. It is such a great feeling!

Rotate between massaging and nursing until the duct is unclogged.

Engorgement

Ah yes. This is the closest you’ll come to a boob job without getting surgery. Your breast will feel hard as a rock. They can also be shiny.

This sucks. Plain and simple.

You’re so positive! Care to share a solution?

Nurse, nurse, massage, warm compress on repeat until your breasts are completely emptied.