Curious if others are this way

[@llli*lovemygirlso1]

So to preface a bit I am the first of my sisters to have a baby (I have two sisters and I'm the youngest anyway) My mom breastfed all of us (2 brothers too) for a year or more so she is very pro breastfeeding. Anyway So I was the first to breastfeed besides my mom and she and I are pretty much exactly alike. We both have OS OALD and great nursers. So for the longest time I thought that the milk spraying out, the stinging let down and the abundant milk supply, heavy leaking was all just normal. Until my sister had her DS. And she has what we would probably call a normal supply. She doesn't leak, she feels let down but no pain, her milk doesn't spray, she feeds from both sides at a time and her DS drains both sides. Anyway. I asked her, "Does your milk let down just at random times during the day with no stimulation at all?" She looked at me funny and said, "No....it lets down when he eats. Doesn't yours?" I laughed. Because my milk lets down constantly! If I think about BFing, if I hear a baby cry, if I think about my baby like at all, if I see someone else BFing, if I get the tiniest bit of stimulation to my chest like a hug haha I let down! I thought this was normal because my mom had it and I have it and I never talked to anyone else about specifics before now. So I was curious, are others like me and my mom?

ps sorry for the long winded story.

[@llli*jenna562]

You mean do others have a sensitive let down? Of course! And yes others have OS and OALD. And some have just one of those issues.

[@llli*lovemygirlso1]

Oh I know lots of people have OALD and OS I just didn't know if many had as sensitive a let down as I do

[@llli*mommal]

I once had an old lady come up to me while I was nursing, and she said "Oh, I remember those days! Used to be I'd hear a baby cry at the grocery store and I'd feel my milk run". Sweet, huh?

[@llli*mek]

I'm like your sister. I only let down when I'm nursing. I've never leaked, not even in the beginning.

[@llli*richmama]

At first, I was like you...anything could make my letdown happen, and my shirt would be soaked. Now that DS is 8 months (and he's my 2nd), I'm not having so much of that. Although, if he happens to decide to sleep longer at night without a feeding, I can wake up wet again.

Totally normal!!

[@llli*aprilsmagic]

Yep. That is me. Leaky, with lots of milk the leaking got better with every baby faster.

but milk supply doesn't always run in families. I have a mom IRL I'm working with who has IGT. Classic symptoms, classic presentation of hypoplastic breasts. Her mother nursed 7 children, including twins! She thought she would have no trouble breastfeeding her children, so when the first was called FTT at just 2 weeks, it crushed her.

[@llli*kmanih]

I'm like you. For the first few months, anything would trigger a let-down just like you described. I would talk to someone about breastfeeding... I would think about breastfeeding... I would talk lovingly about my baby... and... when I would drink a glass of cold water too!!! Hahaha. Also when I would get stressed, anxious, or scared. Let-down! Now it's not like this anymore, thankfully. I am prone to clogs and all the let-downs without release (i.e. no feed) were making me cloggy.

At 10 months, though, I still use one breast per feeding, sometimes one breast per two feedings. If I have a little extra short nursing session one day, the next day I have OS again. I sometimes say that my breasts are over-enthusiastic! (And I like them this way.)

PS. My let-downs are still painful. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but always strong and "squeezy."

[@llli*worknpump]

In the early days with DS I had a lot of leaking and a very sensitive letdown. My letdowns even sometimes had a "predictive" quality to them. If DS was sleeping somewhere and I was in a different room, my milk would let down a minute or two before he woke up and started crying. It was as though my brain/breasts could sense the tiniest movement or need from him - even from another room in the house! As he got older things regulated.

[@llli*gamom]

Exactly like you with DD1 and more like your sister with DD2!! LOL! Every experience is different!!