What does nursing feel like for you?

[Jenn98]

I'm trying to figure out what's normal and what's not. So, i thought I'd come here and ask you all how it feels? Do you have random pain every once in awhile? I've had thrush since DD was born, so I've never known nursing without it. I feel like we are soooooo close to getting rid of it. I keep waiting for my first symptom free day, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what is normal and what might still be the yeasty-beasties!

Every once in a great while I'll have a shooting pain in my breast - not necessarily after a feeding. Normal? or yeast?

And does your let-down burn a bit? It always has on me, but it's much less than what it used to be. Is some burning normal?

I guess I should also add that DD's latch sucks. (hee hee, pun intended!) 7 out of 10 times I have to relatch her. She can do it right, she just gets lazy sometimes. So, sometimes I know my nipples are sore because of that.

TIA,
Jenn

[smilla653]

I'm not sure I know, exactly, what's "normal" as I had a cracked nipple on one side that took 4 months to heal. I think there might have been some yeast issues as well that were causing the slow healing. What finally did it for me was washing that side with a vinegar water solution after every feeding and sunning/airing out constantly. But I digress.

I CAN describe what was/is "normal" for me on one side versus the injured side:

On my "normal" side --
NO burning. I'm not sure burning is EVER normal. I never had shooting pains unless something was wrong. However, you also didn't say how far into your nursing relationship you were. The first three months were full of ups and down and adjustments for me -- lumps, tingling feeling during letdown sometimes, tenderness all came and went. I stopped feeling the letdown about 3 months in.

On the injured side/yeasty side the symptoms slowly faded until one day I realized I was completely pain free. Once my underlying issue was resolved, I NEVER had soreness, not even when DS latches and relatches (which he has also always done a lot). Until we hit teething LOL.

Good luck, and congratulations on making it this far despite the occasional problem!

[lmariana]

I have no idea what's normal either, but when we nurse I feel NOTHING. I can barely tell if he's latched on sometimes! I'm sure this will change with age though.

Mariana
Mom to Gabe (8/03) and Atom (10/05)
www.heinzandmariana.com
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[deenass]

I nursed DS for 20 mos and I ALWAYS had a slight burning sensation at let down. So, I guess for me, that was normal.

[juliasmom05]

I'm not sure what normal is either. I have to imagine it is different for everyone so I am not sure I can help. I didn't have latch issues nor problems with thrush so my experience may be different than yours. I experienced a burning sensation with my let down until around 2 months or so and an occasionally shooting pain here and there. Now, I don't feel any burning with let down or any pain at all when she is nursing.

I hope you have your first symptom free day soon.

Marci

Mom to Julia 4/05

[Rachels]

I can answer the let-down part. Let-down for me burns pretty strongly. It is letting up a bit, but there have been times I've needed to do fifteen seconds of v-e-r-y s-l-o-w b-r-e-a-t-h-i-n-g. It's pretty normal to feel that part.

-Rachel
Mama to Abigail Rose
5/18/02
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Nursed for three years!

and Ethan James
10/19/05
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"When you know better, you do better."
Maya

[californiagirl]

I had burning pain at let-down for quite a while, and also had refill pain -- shooting pains between nursing sessions. They both went away eventually. It's one of those things where one day you think "Hey! It's been a while since that happened. Hunh. Wonder when it stopped?"

[kboyle]

With DS2 I haven't had any nursing issues, thank God, because DS1 was chock full o' problems. Like a pp said I have refill pains every now and then if he's skipped a feeding or happens to get a bottle instead. I have a tingling pins & needles pain at let down, but that has eased up lately. I also do get some shooting pains throughout the day, not at feeding, not when "refilling", just randomly sometimes. And they hurt, like someone stabbing me in the boob hurt!

With DS1 EVERYTHING hurt, just someone looking at my boobs hurt, just me thinking of my boobs hurt, the only thing that didn't hurt was the actually feeding itself!

[american_mama]

What a range. I have very, very, occasional random shooting mild pain sensation in my breasts. It's very mild and brief. I never have had burning at let down. With DD1, I had a somewhat rough start at nursing, but it resolved pretty easily in a few weeks. With DD2, I have had a very easy and problem-free nursing relationship.

For me, nursing feels like a smooth, comfortable seal of baby sucking at the breast. If she's hungry, then I feel her pulling the breast a tiny bit, no discomfort, and I might feel a tad bit of fullness in my breast. (I do not have a strong letdown sensation and certainly not now that DD is 14 months old). If she's nursing more for comfort/relaxation/just a little bit of food, then I really just feel the slight sensation of her mouth and my breast touching,but not much sucking going on and no fullness or letdown on my part.

[nfowife]

I don't really feel anything, and I have never felt a letdown when nursing. On occasion, early on, I would sometimes feel a very slight (not painful at all) warm feeling- but never when nursing and I never had leaking along with it, so I don't know if that was a letdown or what! I can feel DD sucking for the first few seconds, but after that I don't really feel it anymore. Recently she has started very dramatically pulling off when she's ready to switch or take a breather....more like she just pulls her head far enough back until she pops off! Now THAT is uncomfortable!

[s7714]

With my first DD I always felt a burning/tingling let down sensation until she was probably around a year old. From that point until 20 months, when we weaned, I rarely felt a let down. Sometimes the burn was only a little, other times it was one of those OMG sensations like you get when your foot falls asleep and you can't move it because the pins and needle feeling is so bad. With my second DD I'm still getting the same burning sensation and we're at 7 months. I did occassionally have sharp shooting pains while nursing DD1. Haven't felt any of those yet with DD2. I always wondered if they had something to do with a blocked duct or something?

Jennifer
Mommy to
DD 3/03
DD 6/05

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[VClute]

When we first started, let down felt like a thrumming - like a vibration. I've heard that it can feel "electric," more tingly, for many, though. That thrumming only lasted for a week, MAYBE. Now I don't feel let down. I have to listen to the swallows.

I also used to get those "refill" (thanks for giving me a name to put with the sensation, PPs!) pains, but I haven't felt one in a long time.

And bad latch can happen to the most experienced of us. The other day, I knew DS was on wrong, but I was too lazy to fix it. When he popped off, I found some SERIOUS damage. Yeesh. But with as much time between feedings as we have now, I get more time to heal.

Amy in NC
mom to Dixon, born 2/14/05

[jgriffin]

It's so cool to read everyone's responses. DH and I were just talking about what let-down feels like this weekend...I'll have to let him know that it really varies from woman to woman.

For me, let-down feels very similar to when my eyes tear-up. Not painful per se, but kind of a tingly, achy, somewhat burning feeling. I usually feel it in the side that DS isn't on, sometimes in both. Feeding itself doesn't feel like much at all, unless DS is very hungry and aggressive and pulls on the nipple more. I used to get weird pains in my back behind my breast (not back pains, more internal than that) when DS ate that felt like someone was tugging at something inside. I haven't noticed those in awhile, so maybe they went away.

Jen

[CharmedOne]

I'm not sure what's "normal" either. From my experience when the baby is latched on correctly, nursing should not hurt. It hurts now that DS has entered that looky-loo stage. He must check out every little noise and takes my poor nipple for the ride. OUCH.

My letdown feels like a tingling sensation...kinda like Spiderman's spider senses. ;-) DH thinks it's cute that I refer to it as "my mommy senses tingling". I said that a lot in the early weeks when we were out in public, and I didn't want strangers to know what I was talking about. My letdown sensation was very strong in the beginning.

Caroline

Precious Little Nathan
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