Sore Nipples and Memories

Here it is, 28 hours after my first pumping. I don't know what I expected, but sore nipples was, for some reason, not among my expectations. I have a slightly inverted nipple on one side (TMI, sorry), and the pump is drawing it out, which is good, but it hurts!

Because I am not nursing a baby, I am able to take some liberty with treatment. I don't have any lanolin cream, so I am using Neosporin with pain reliever. I wouldn't touch Neosporin, especially with an added pain reliever, if I was going to be putting a baby to my breast between pumping.

The pumping is getting more comfortable now than it was last night, and much improved since first thing this morning. I have gotten no measurable amount of anything yet today. Last night I pumped maybe 1/8 of a teaspoon at my last pumping of the night, but no more than a drop or two per side today. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to also be exhausted from labor and delivery or surgery and trying to do this!

While I was pumping, painfully, this morning, I recalled one of the first times I ever pumped. This would be a little over 10 years ago. My first born was just a few weeks old. I had a super cheap, battery operated, single pump made by Gerber that I paid maybe $20 for. I remember hooking it up to my breast, the side with the slightly inverted nipple, and pumping for a while. When I went to check how much milk I had pumped, I saw only blood in the flange from the laceration when my nipple was drawing out. That was the day we called the lactation consultant. Looking back, that was probably the day that changed my life, because meeting that lactation consultant introduced me to a world I didn't know existed!

I had always understood that you had a baby and you breastfed. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. How long you should/could nurse never crossed my mind. That there was an entire profession dedicated to helping with breastfeeding was news to me!

Time to pump again. Then do a little more research on relactation. I'm wondering how long before I see a change from yellow/clear sticky fluid to milk. I wonder if it will feel like Lactogenisis II, or if it will be a gradual change. I wonder if I'll be able to find the info.