Another Breastfeeding Bump in the Road

So The Kid (easier to depersonalize her when she is hurting me) has started to do this new thing where she clamps down and then pulls back while clamped down instead of just opening her mouth and letting go of the boob.  NOT COOL.  Actually very painful.  As painful as biting, PLUS pulling.  Excellent.

She's been doing this since Friday afternoon.

I have a number of theories:

• I'm not producing enough, and the slow flow is ticking her off.
• Growth spurt, and the slow flow is ticking her off.
• That's kinda what happens when you pull a bottle out of her mouth, maybe she is just transferring.
• Teething.
• Finished nursing, clamp-pulling is fun!

There is (different) supporting evidence for each theory, except for teething, because you never know when it is teething.  So without a real cause, it is really difficult to try to intelligently break the habit.

Here's what I tried:

• Saying (ok, occasionally yelling) "No" very firmly and removing her from the boob.  Full on toddler hissy fit tantrum ensues, including red faced crying/screaming, back arching, etc.  Awesome.
• Putting up with it.  I tried this when I was trying to get her to sleep, because let's face it, she isn't sleeping if I'm scolding her.  Result: pain.  And she still didn't sleep.  Total failure.
• Pushing her into the boob when I feel her trying to pull back.  This interrupts her breathing, forcing her to open her mouth to release.  (Sounds worse than it is!)  I've had mild success with this one.  But it is difficult and requires serious vigilance on my part to catch the clamp-pull *before* the clamp.  Or at least before the pull.
• Switching sides after first clamp-pull, ending session after second clamp-pull.  Also resulted in total tantrum.  And eventually me giving her a bottle.  And she took 5 oz, so I really believe she was still hungry, at least that time.  Even though she had nursed for almost 20 minutes already.
• Breaking her suction and frantically withdrawing boob every time I think it is about to happen.  Also difficult on me.  Usually results in my holding boob in one hand, and her head in the other, cramps running up both arms, neck bent 90 degrees staring at her, scared to blink, cramping in my shoulders, stomach hurting from the fear... Yeah, not my favorite method.
• I'm also playing around with my pumping times so as to never feed her when "empty".  Even though breasts actually produce milk on demand, and are therefore never empty, production takes time and slows the flow, so I'm just generally trying to go into feedings having pumped no less than 2 hours previously.

When I got to work yesterday morning I was shaking from the adrenaline.  I felt like I had been in a battle with the baby!  I was disturbed to the extent that this morning I just offered a bottle.  And it was so.much.better.  Wow.

Last night we had one good session (the last when she fell asleep), and one bad (2 clamp-pulls, ended in bottle).  So I was pleased with the last session and am hoping that means she's over it. *fingers crossed*  (I have found in the past when she has gone through biting phases, twice, that after about a week it seems to work itself out.)  I mean, I really really hope she's over it.  Because when nursing ain't going right, ain't nothing going right for mama.

Well, one thing is going right.  This morning I did the 30 Day Shred for my 30 minutes of exercise today, day 2, oh yeah!