When you are breastfeeding, it is great and all but it does comes with some not so great other things. Pumping is good because you can get your milk when you are feeling full if your baby is sleeping or has already ate. Leaking, that just happens… It really likes to happen when you aren’t paying any attention, when you are sleeping and the baby has slept through the night, when you are drinking lactation helpers, really just at the most inconvenient times.
Today I had this leaking problem. This happens pretty often for me just because Penelope is eating more and more. Even though her feedings are spread a good amount apart, I am still producing enough to make my boobs hurt and if i don’t either pump or feed Penelope again it just starts leaking through my nursing bra, and sometimes just straight to my shirt. As I was saying, I had a leaking problem today. Penelope woke up at 5:00 this morning, which is nice she slept through the night but anyway she got up at 5 a.m. and I changed and fed her like normal, after I got her to sleep I put her in the bassinet and proceeded to play on my phone for a little while and then went back to sleep myself. At about 7:45 I have been woken up by what I thought was a very large drool spot ended up being a very large milk puddle. Sad. Side note: I have recently started laying on my stomach again since having Penelope and this is mainly the cause to my problem. Anyway, I began to check myself and see which side I have exploded from, to find out that the whole left side of my nursing bra and my shirt were soaked.
When you start breastfeeding and it is your first baby it can be rough. When someone tells you that in the beginning when you hear a baby cry (it doesn’t even have to be your baby, just any ones tiny baby) your boobs will start to fill up and hurt. It hurts so bad! When I took Penelope to get her blood test done I had my mom go with me because I had no idea what to do, so as I sat at the desk putting in information about my daughter my mom was hanging out with little newborn P. I soon came to realize there were a lot of new new babies in that waiting room, Like clock work one of them started crying and I didn’t really think about it, then two seconds later they were all crying! At that point it was happening, I look down and then look over at my mom, she looks at me very confused because she does not know why I am making such a sad face while trying not to laugh. I mouth to her “my boobs are hurting” she didn’t get it at first which lead to me making more faces and hand gestures to her on the other side of this waiting room. If anyone tell you that, that happens you need to believe them!
Pumping is good when you want to start storing your milk or just want to make it a little easier to get your baby that last little bit of milk they are throwing a tantrum about. Pumping is also great when you are waking up in the middle of the night because your baby already ate off one side and fell back asleep, so your other boob is just fulling up and you are now in pain. If this happens definitely pump or you and I will have the same leaking problem. (haha) When you pump for the first time it is very weird, like really weird because you have to sit with this machine on you for what feels like forever and you cant get up,(unless you have one that allows you to be mobile) and after you sit there for however long you look into the bottle and realize you sat there that long just for maybe 1 ounce. Its upsetting but after a month of pumping and you finally get up to 3 ounces its a wonderful feeling.
For me I am now pumping around almost 6 ounces out of one side, that makes me feel great. On the other hand my pump is malfunctioning, of course it is happening today as well. I am getting no suction and it wouldn’t release my milk into the bottle. I’m sure i just need to get new pieces and change that batteries.(lets hope that’s all it is) After my leaking situation that is when I decided to pump the problem side and as I began, already there was a problem with the suction, and then the problem with it not going into the bottle. For me, I bought one of those things you wear and it holds the pump up for you so your arm doesn’t get tired and slip off and then you lose suction and drop your milk. I was wearing that and went to go shake the milk out of the pump to drop it into the bottle, as I am doing that the nipple shield comes off of the whole thing and spills all the milk that didn’t drip into the bottle all over my bed! Thank goodness it was less than an ounce, but still! not a great way to start the day.
Anyway today’s lesson really is wear boobie pads when you sleep, (just wear them all the time) and before you pump check your equipment and keep up on replacing your parts. Also BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR MILK!
Figuring It Out 