Sunday, February 19, 2006
Engorgement - Rebecca's story
Ok, let me just say that my concern about whether or not I was able to breast feed quickly subsided. There were some minor issues with Kellen’s delivery, but he took his first feeding of colostrum just fine. I’ll fast forwarded until I got home and my milk came in..and let me just say, “Whoa buddy!” I was in some serious pain here. Kellen was eating what I can only assume were full meals, nursing for 10-15 minutes on each side and coming away satisfied, but I had so much milk that his feedings didn’t seem to make a dent in the milk that was filling up my cartoon-sized breasts. These things were ridiculously huge – I can’t believe that people pay money to get them to be that large…on purpose!
Up until this time, we had still put off the decision about purchasing or renting the breast pump equipment. We were doing some number crunching, remember what I said about me being frugal, right, well it comes into play here, of course. We were calculating the cost of renting a pump for a full 12 months, which was the estimated time that I was expecting to nurse my new bundle of joy. Then we took that cost and multiplied it by three and then four, the number of children that we were and are thinking we may have. Next we compared that to the cost of a top-of-the line breast pump, similar in quality to the ones that we would be renting and what my OB/GYN’s office had been recommending. Well, there really wasn’t a comparison; it was much cheaper in the long run to purchase the breast pump. After seeing me in so much pain, my father, bless his heart, decided that he would purchase whatever breast pump that I wanted, from where ever I wanted, and get it to my house as quickly as I wanted it to alleviate my engorgement issues and help to get me going with this breastfeeding in a less painful manner.
So, now that the purchasing decision had been made, we embarked to find the breast pump…and fast, even on day number two of the engorgement I was seriously close to having my beloved husband take up the baby side of nursing as a hobby. Warm showers and hand expressing just weren’t cutting it. The local shops did not carry the specific pump that I declared as my “perfect pump” – the one to last me through all of my children – so online I went. I found the pump, added rush shipping, and the pump was delivered the very next day, a total of four days after I delivered my son.
When I got the pump in the mail, (double breast, electric with a hand-held thrown in) I couldn’t find the instructions. Filled with hormones and pain from the terribly enlarged breasts, I collapsed in tears…then composed myself long enough to call the company and beg them to tell me how to use this contraption that I had just gotten. The person on the phone was very apologetic, but indicated that they would have to resend the instructions, which would take 2-5 days…I almost lost it again…to have the answer to my sore breasts and be unable to use it was just too cruel. Then I found the instructions in the back pocket of the backpack (my pump is in a backpack format for ease of carrying). Whew! However, I then discovered I was too scared to use the electric pump. I’m not sure why I was scared of it, but I sat on my bed and hand-pumped 18 ounces immediately after feeding my son. That was the first relief I had felt in those breasts since my milk had come in earlier that week. I just kept filling those little milk bottles up and switching them out, first one breast and then the other…because of course with a hand-held you can only do one breast at a time. Oh the sweet relief! The next time I fed Kellen, I did use the electric pump, and realized how foolish I had been by not using it in the first place! It was wonderful! Easy! Simple! Fairly quick, except for my milk-cow self, with the switching of the bottles, but I quickly got my system for that. Engorgement no longer…but a stockpile is starting in my freezer!
Up until this time, we had still put off the decision about purchasing or renting the breast pump equipment. We were doing some number crunching, remember what I said about me being frugal, right, well it comes into play here, of course. We were calculating the cost of renting a pump for a full 12 months, which was the estimated time that I was expecting to nurse my new bundle of joy. Then we took that cost and multiplied it by three and then four, the number of children that we were and are thinking we may have. Next we compared that to the cost of a top-of-the line breast pump, similar in quality to the ones that we would be renting and what my OB/GYN’s office had been recommending. Well, there really wasn’t a comparison; it was much cheaper in the long run to purchase the breast pump. After seeing me in so much pain, my father, bless his heart, decided that he would purchase whatever breast pump that I wanted, from where ever I wanted, and get it to my house as quickly as I wanted it to alleviate my engorgement issues and help to get me going with this breastfeeding in a less painful manner.
So, now that the purchasing decision had been made, we embarked to find the breast pump…and fast, even on day number two of the engorgement I was seriously close to having my beloved husband take up the baby side of nursing as a hobby. Warm showers and hand expressing just weren’t cutting it. The local shops did not carry the specific pump that I declared as my “perfect pump” – the one to last me through all of my children – so online I went. I found the pump, added rush shipping, and the pump was delivered the very next day, a total of four days after I delivered my son.
When I got the pump in the mail, (double breast, electric with a hand-held thrown in) I couldn’t find the instructions. Filled with hormones and pain from the terribly enlarged breasts, I collapsed in tears…then composed myself long enough to call the company and beg them to tell me how to use this contraption that I had just gotten. The person on the phone was very apologetic, but indicated that they would have to resend the instructions, which would take 2-5 days…I almost lost it again…to have the answer to my sore breasts and be unable to use it was just too cruel. Then I found the instructions in the back pocket of the backpack (my pump is in a backpack format for ease of carrying). Whew! However, I then discovered I was too scared to use the electric pump. I’m not sure why I was scared of it, but I sat on my bed and hand-pumped 18 ounces immediately after feeding my son. That was the first relief I had felt in those breasts since my milk had come in earlier that week. I just kept filling those little milk bottles up and switching them out, first one breast and then the other…because of course with a hand-held you can only do one breast at a time. Oh the sweet relief! The next time I fed Kellen, I did use the electric pump, and realized how foolish I had been by not using it in the first place! It was wonderful! Easy! Simple! Fairly quick, except for my milk-cow self, with the switching of the bottles, but I quickly got my system for that. Engorgement no longer…but a stockpile is starting in my freezer!
// posted by Rebecca @ 3:47 PM 
