The Boobityville Horror

It's been two weeks since my little big boy blasted his way into our lives, and I'd had every intention, this weekend, of crafting some wonderfully mushy letter to him, welcoming him to the world and rhapsodizing over his wonderfulness: his beauty, his sweetness, his calm, his impossibly tiny little bum. But I can't. My boobs hurt too much.

It's not that I write or think with my boobs - although this might be a more interesting blog if either of those things were true - but it's impossible for me right now to write or think about anything but my boobs. They're that sore. I've gotten through the circle of hell that is Early Engorgement, only to find myself in the deeper circle that is Chomped Off Nips (chomped off nips that aren't healing efficiently, such that - TMI alert - one of them has a nasty tendency - TMI TMI - to ooze blood into the breast pump that I employ, sometimes, to give that particular boob a break from the tenderizing effect of Mr. Chompsalot's sturdy gums during his more enthusiastic boob frenzies.)

So it is that when I think about writing a touching letter to my infant son at this particular moment in time, the draft sounds something like this:

Dear Jasper,

Welcome to the world. I adore you. Please stop chomping* off my nipples.

Love,

Mommy

(*Chomping is a bit misleading. Mr. Chompsalot isn't chomping so much as sucking voraciously, such that the scabbing from week one isn't fully healing and, um - TMI TMI TMI - pulling right off. But it feels like the boobies have been well and fully chomped to bits - not mention dragged over pavement - so I'm going with 'chomp' as my descriptive verb of choice.)

I've spoken with a lactation consultant. I will speak with her again tomorrow. I know that his latch was problematic in the first week because of the engorgement; we've rectified that, for the most part (it's still hard to get a good latch when either boob is so sore that I continually recoil from his hungry little mouth.) I resort to the pump and bottle only when the pain is intolerable, and I need to give one or the other nip a break. I'm doing, so far as I can tell - based upon my previous breastfeeding experience (which went spectacularly badly for the first few weeks and then turned around) and my consultation with lactation specialists - everything more or less correctly. So why is it all so difficult? And why does every single freaking breastfeeding resource in the world, everywhere, insist that breastfeeding doesn't hurt and that if it does you're doing it wrong so you really shouldn't have chewed off nips but if you do oh well you'll just have to get past that by, say, taking a Tylenol and biting down on a damp rag to muffle your screaming? ("Do not stop nursing! If your nipples are exquisitely tender try numbing them with an ice cube beforehand." Thank you, Dr. Sears! You forgot to mention putting tiny earmuffs on my infant's head so that he isn't deafened by my shrieks of pain, and, also, that I'll need four fingers of straight single malt to go with that ice if there's to be any kind of useful numbing. But whatever.)

I mean, am I missing something? Is breastfeeding really just blissfully straightforward for everybody but me? In which case, I'd like to have a word with the gods, because putting me through three weeks of labor, a terrifying delivery and shredded nethers only to condemn me, on top of all that, to severe boob pain seems perverse and unjust in the extreme. I feel like a fallen brood cow that somebody forgot to euthanize. I don't like it.

Anyone got any magic remedies for ravaged nipples and general boob-related malaise? Other than multiple shots of single malt scotch, that is, which I'm already considering.