Breastfeeding issues

Not sure I posted this earlier or not, but I was hoping to get some opinions and information.  I never had a problem nursing my older children, just the length of time I could.  Anyhow with Nadezdha I have found that my nipples are ALWAYS sore.  She nurses an appropriate amount of time and everything however as an example on my left nipple there seems to be a small bruise on the nipple itself.  Sometimes it hurts when she latches on and I just have to take a deep breath and wait for her to latch on what I thought was "properly"....

Anyhow after looking up some breasfeeding information, I found that babies aren't supposed to curl their lips under while nursing... and I noticed that she does that often.  Could this is the source of our problems?  Anyone else experience this?

[Sashasmama]

I'm kind of new to this forum, so I don't know your story.  How long have you been nursing for?  I nursed my daughter for a year and she never even had a bottle of pumped milk or formula, so I've encountered every problem known to man, lol.  Nadezdha is a russian name!  I'm russian, I named my daughter Sasha, short for Alexandra.  My nipples were so sore all the time, I had bruising and mastitis and cracked nipples, but those problems worked themselves out after about 2-3 months.  Although my nipples stayed sore throughout the whole year of nursing.  My daughter nursed for 45 minutes, about 20 minutes on each breast for the first 1-2 months.  Every time she latched on I could seriously scream in pain, I always made sure to squeeze my husband's hand or the boppy pillow to ease it.  I was so determined to continue nursing that I didn't worry much about it.  They even bled at first, it was horrible.  I'm sorry I'm not really answering your question (like the other one you posted).  What exactly do you mean by "curling lips"?  My daughter seemed to have a few problems with latching on, but she learned as she grew.  I guess my take on it is to just wait it out...well, depending on the fact if you've already nursed her for a while.  

[tmv]

When the baby curls it's lips, the hard upper gums can move around the nipple area instead of having a good suction and staying in one place. This can make you very sore. You should try to nurse her in another position where her nose doesn't point to that bruised area to allow it to heal.The area under the nose is the main point of pressure.You may look up the conversation that I had with Rubyolivia about the position of the hands of the clock in regards to bf'ing. She got a kick out of the way I explained it, but I truly couldn't think of any other way to do it. Try sidelying or football hold if you've been mostly doing the cradle hold. Make sure that she is not making any smacking sounds while she nurses, this indicates a broken seal.If you notice her lips curled under. Break the seal with your finger and reapply her to your breast. Good luck to you and congrats on breastfeeding!

[tiredbuthappy]

hmm... i have no successful experience with breast feeding, but something did occur to me. my nipples were in really bad shape a while back, and we suspected they may have been infected. didn't do much about it at the time. then i got mastitis and was put on antibiotics. while on the antibiotics, my nipples healed, so i think that they may have been slightly infected. the only reason i mention this is because of your other post where you said you're not feeling well in general. having an infection anywhere can make your whole body feel like cr@p. when i had my breast infection, i had muscle soreness, exhaustion, etc... i know it may not be the most likely scenario, given all of your other medical issues, but maybe something to consider??

[ImmortalOne]

I seriously think its the lip curling thing.  Basically if you were to take your upper lip and put it between your teeth when you close your mouth... that's the best way to describe it.  I never noticed it till tonight... We use cradle hold during most of the day, and laying down at night/mornings.  I don't notice any issue with her suction (I swear she's like a vacuum cleaner sometimes!)... and there are a lot of times where she'll pull my nipple back with her (I must be a rubber band to her).  

And Sashasmom, Nadezdha is 4 weeks old.  So we're still learning about eachother.  I have a DD that is almost 15 and one that is 10.  I know Nadezdha/Nadezhda is Russian, it is also Slavic in form.  The important thing is that it meant "Hope" and after everything, we needed a lot of it to bring her into the world.

[Sashasmama]

I used cradle hold the whole time I nursed, it was the only way I could get her to latch on.  I think that your problem will work itself out as you learn more about each other.  The thing that helped us get a good latch was to put my breast on her lower lip first when she opened her mouth, and not use the C hold as they call it (when your hand makes a C when you squeeze your breast), I squeezed mine from left to right, or sideways C, the only way the C hold would work out for us is if your baby was nursing in vertical position, in my opinion, that worked best with the cradle hold, the only time I used the C thing is when I nursed lying down. Sasha did curl her top lip when I squeezed my breast from top to bottom, since that made is wider and their mouths are so tiny.  My daughter pulled on my nipple so hard that I had to pull her lips to the side to ease up the vacuum she created.  Nadezhda is such a prety name.  Russian came from Slavic...pretty much the same language, Slavis is just a lot older and not many people speak it anymore.  The short for the name Nadezhda is Nadya, so cute.

[AnnieBrooke]

At his best, my son curled his lips outward, like a suction cup on my nipple, rather than inward over the teeth.  When he would do that, it felt fine.  If he didn't, I would get the sore nipples like you could yell in pain when he latched on, and my nipples hurt a lot for a long time with nursing.  At about 6 months plus, I realized I wasn't sore any more. I think he just figured out how much latching was needed and also my nipples finally got used to the bacteria from his mouth so there were no more incipient infections.  A good thing, because now (8 months 2 weeks) he has a couple of teeth, and if he was still gumming down hard the way it was before, I would have to quit.  I could take it when it was only gums, but if you added his sharp little teeth into the mix, it would have been too much.  Now that it isn't difficult, I want to keep doing it as long as we can.  May you hit that happy point sooner than I did!  Annie

[ImmortalOne]

Alright, after talking to TMV last night I worked with Nadezdha on the nursing and everytime she rolled her lip under I fixed things and miracle of miracle.... not so sore already this morning!  Woot!

[tmv]

Glad to hear it! The tissue at the furthest back on the areola is less sensitive than the tissue in front that she may have been rolling over and stretching with her lips in the curled under her gums position. Hope you continue with the healing.