I thought I was doing well and only having to hand express for a minute on each side to relieve pressure once a day....then this weekend happened. I'm not sure if it was the two runs at the end of last week (possibly stimulating my nipples in my sports bra with the friction), but this weekend my breasts HURT. Especially my left one (which is the one that didn't have as much milk?!?).
On Sunday I broke down and bought Sudafed which supposedly has an ingredient that drops your supply. I had some freaky dreams Sunday night (thinking that I was in the show The Leftovers) but I plan on finishing out the box. I also grabbed some Peppermint Altoids and drank a couple cups of Peppermint tea as I guess peppermint is supposed to help decrease your supply as well. I don't really want to down tons of Halls if I am not sick, but I might start soon.
While I appreciate my boobs hanging on to every last drop in case Izzy decides to change her mind, it is too late and I would really appreciate it if they would dry up as soon as possible.
6 comments:
Sage is supposed to drop your supply, too. They use it for moms that have to drop their supply really quickly for unexpected things like chemo, etc.
Just a thought!
I'd try hand expressing a little bit more. Once isn't very much! I found the shower especially helpful. I'd work out the knots in the shower just until the pain went away. I had to wean very suddenly at 4.5mo, and I still produced over a year later!!
I don't really know much about it, but I'd assume hand expressing a bit more than once a day would be good at this point. I personally don't get much when I hand express though, so maybe you do.
Good to know about peppermint. I'll have to avoid peppermint tea for now! Thanks, and good luck!
When I gave up on breast feeding and pumping, a lactation consultant told me to continue pumping, but only for a few minutes at a time, just enough to relieve the pressure. She also suggested colder showers and don't face the stream to avoid stimulation. Hand expressing probably works just as good to relieve the build up, but I think you should do it more than just once/day and gradually decrease. I never did get very much supply, so I'm sure it was easier for me, but those are the tips I was given.
SAGE! I swear to you it will do wonders. And it's cheap.
Good luck getting it to where you're comfortable. It took me a few weeks longer than I expected but I finally got there.
I didn't know about sage and peppermint. Interesting. I won't be much help because I stopped so gradually. I would drop a pumping session then wait several days or sometimes a week until my boobs stopped getting super full and wanting to pump at that time. Then I would drop another. I also shortened each pump session. Once I was down to once a day I just kept shortening until it felt comfortable enough to stop. It takes forever. About a week after I thought I pumped my last pump I had so much pressure in my boobs, I had to pump for a few minutes. I may have even leaked milk for weeks after that. Now, it's been a couple months and everything seems pretty dried up. I am curious sometimes if I could restart the milk supply.
I'm late to commenting on this so hopefully it's gotten better for you since you posted this.
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