I was awaken at about 3ish in the morning yesterday, by the sound of my baby's cry. I was about to feed her and that was when I realized my left breast hurt so much. It was the first time I experienced it ever since giving birth, and I'm not sure if that's breast engorgement or plugged duct or something else, but only the upper part of my left breast was as hard as a rock and I could feel a few lumps there - my other breast was fine. I tried massaging it with warm towel but it didn't really work. The nipple on that breast was so sore that I couldn't bear the pain of Ayra's sucking so I only fed her on the other breast.


By 5am, the pain worsen as I still couldn't express the milk from my left breast. And having a crying baby only made the whole situation a lot harder to handle. I tried expressing the milk by hand but it hurts. My breast pump? I had been trying to figure out why it did not express my milk at all - at first I thought it was bcoz I don't have a lot of milk. But I could express it with my hand, so there must be something wrong with the pump bcoz I can't even feel the suction! It was so dissapointing. I was so close to write a complaint letter to Philips/Avent to get a refund or something, and buy a different pump (Medela) out of desperation bcoz I need to get the milk out of my breast ASAP... until my husband came to the rescue. Well, he didn't literally help with getting the milk out; he helped to assemble the pump and it turned out the pump did not work earlier bcoz I didn't insert one of the parts (the white valve). Nasib baik tak tulis surat complaint; kalau tak, malu jer! ;p


And so the milk from my left breast was expressed successfully, and the pain and lumps were gone! I didn't get that much milk at first tho - only 60ml in an hour! The next pumping session, it gradually increased to 60ml in half an hour, and just this morning I managed to pump 80ml in just 20 minutes (I got 60ml of milk at the first 10 minutes btw). Now I'm kind of looking forward to pumping my milk bcoz it feels like my breast is being massaged. And I get really excited seeing my milk flows, filling the bottle!


But I just found out there's a few cuts around my areola as a result from pumping, and it stings. It only hurts after I've finished pumping tho. Sometimes it bleeds a little. Sebab macam ada kulit terkopek. Is this common? How do I prevent this from happening? Appreciate your help, mommies.

Labels: Mommyhood and Baby