The day after giving birth to cuddles, I had 2 giant rocks on my chest. No one told me about it, I only heard that the first few weeks of breastfeeding will be painful. I didn't expect rocks on my chest. Before the end of the next day I was running temperature, I had lumps under my armpit and I was scared thinking it was some form of cancer - This is me being honest - after series of Google searches, I figured out what it really was ENGORGEMENT! *Phew*

What is Engorgement? 

According to WebMD, "Engorgement is when your breasts are painfully full of milk". You won't be in doubt when you have it because your temperature will increase, your nymp nodes under your armpit might swell, your once succulent breasts will be replaced with rocks and it will be painful and uncomfortable. 

How do you deal with it?

- Get a comfortable but firm maternity bra:  This will help but them in place and avoid any jiggle because every shake, touch or poke will hurt at this point. 

- Let your baby nurse strategically: Anything touching your nipple now will hurt and will even hurt more if it's a baby sucking hard on it. However, when you are dealing with engorgement, you have to be strategic about the nursing. Place your baby's mouth in the direction of the "lumps" while gently massaging them in circular motions. You also have to alternate in short intervals in order to relieve the 2 breast simultaneously. If the lumps is towards your armpit use a different style to hold baby to suck towards the direction of the armpit - talk about being strategic!
Different holding styles
 
- Hot Compress: Put a towel in hot water and just place over the engorged breast. Since I was still using hot water to press my body, I just included it as part of my routine to help relieve the pain and let down some milk by gently hand expressing. 

- Pump: The trick with pumping to relieve engorgement is to just pump till you feel relief dazz all. If you do not intend to store the milk, there is a tendency that you start producing more milk than your baby needs because you are pumping. So, just watch out for that and just pump enough to feel relief. 

These are the methods I tried. Other methods that are recommended online are;

- Cabbage
- Cold compress. 

Did you ever get engorged? How did you deal with it?