[luisa]

Lled, congratulations on your progress! It sounds like Brava is working for you. How much longer are you committed to use it?

[lled34aa]

thanks luisa! it's been a while. how is your progress going?

i plan on using brava for as long as it takes. I read on the old forum some girls wore it for over 40 weeks. I plan on easing up on the hours after the initial 12 weeks, but I don't mind pumping here and there for maintanance for years to come. to me, I don't hate the brava nearly as much as the other girls. I love getting the swelling. so as long as I'm living on my own, I plan on using brava... assuming that I get progress of course... if there's no improvement after 6 months, then I'm throwing in the towel and will look into fat transfer.

[luisa]

I have been following your posts and saw how hard it was in the beginning so well done for continuing using it as it looks like you will get great results!
I am doing herbs now (mostly based on Eve's program) and I think they are working but you know how it is the changes are so small that I will only say it has worked once I am at least an A cup. I am optimistic at the moment though.
Do you massage or use your heating pad now?

[lled34aa]

ever since starting brava, i haven't done any massages nor use the heating pad. massaging would make my swelling go away pretty quick. the heating pad was helping me a bit but now that i sleep with the brava on, i can't use that either.

i'm glad to hear the herb route is going well for you. i hope all of us sub-A girls can get at least an A cup for our efforts. it's one thing to have a B cup and wanting something bigger, but it's a whole other ball park to be smaller than an A and just wanting to have breasts. period.

i'm feeling optimistic at the moment too with brava and PM.

i'm thinking of selling all my no-sting skin prep wipes. i have around 2.5 boxes of them. if anyone is interested, please PM me. i will sell them cheaper than amazon of course. i've been using aloe vera gel every night now. the seal is not as strong as when i use the skin prep wipes, but i find the aloe vera gel is easier on my skin. so now the wipes are just sitting there on my drawer.

i am now 4.5 weeks into brava with almost 400hrs of wear total. the blister that i got from my mega marathon wear is gone. i'm now taping my nipples again but this time with aloe vera gel underneath to protect my skin.

before brava, i used to be able to do around 5-6 pushups. but now, whenever i try to do anything that engages my chest muscles, it feels odd. it's not painful, just odd. so i avoid chest exercises altogether. i wonder if brava is having an effect on my chest muscles?

[lled34aa]

i am at the end of my 5th week of brava. it's day 9 of my cycle and i am not as flat as usual, so i think i am retaining a little bit of swelling... though it seems early to know for sure.

i'm still waking up once or twice at night because of the pain from brava. it's not as bad as the beginning though. now i'm able to sleep almost on my side and still maintain suction.... if only i can do yoga with brava on...

i've been taping my nipples down every night now because they just get way too sensitive. an extra perk of doing that is that it gives me rounder swelling, as opposed to pointier swelling if i don't tape them down.

i wonder though if nipples need to breathe? because i'm pretty much taping them down all night, and all day they are stuffed into my padded bra... i try not to wear tight bras, but a bra that gives me shape is essential because non padded bra would just look deflated by the end of the day.

this morning, after 13hrs of brava, my swelling measured 33.5". i couldn't break the 33" mark with the noogleberry, so i was pretty happy this morning.

still doing PM and MSM... i added maca every other day. i'm also drinking spearmint tea, but not regularly.

[lled34aa]

i'm at the end of my 6th week of brava, pushing 500hrs of wear. there's been some days with really great swelling, but by the end of the day, i can't tell for sure if i'm retaining anything. it's going to be a looongg journey!

two days ago i only used brava for 13.5hrs but i drank lots of water and i ended up with larger swelling than my 23hr marathon. but the swelling deflated rather quickly... most of it deflated within 30 minutes...and i was back to my regular flat self after around 6hrs.

i'm posting a photo of my progress in the past year. there was a huge difference between may to november. then from november until now, it looks like i got slightly rounder shape, but not much difference in size. my nipples changed drastically though because of brava! judging by how my nipples are rounder now as opposed to oval shaped like before, i think i grew some tissues on top.

my poor breasts look battered from brava. i'm using soo much aloe vera gel to try to mitigate the irritations as much as i can... but i do miss my nice even breast skin that i had before. oh wells. it's much harder to grow breasts than it is to heal the skin so i'll worry about it later.

[luisa]

It looks like you have made some progress. I can see more fullness in the last photo. Do you still take goat's rue? I get nice swelling from goat's rue tea so in theory it may help you to get swelling during the time you are not wearing Brava.

[mesusuana]

Hi lled34aa,

The last picture look more fuller and rounder, it's great but can see the nipple get more darker. The picture in Apr is how many hours after removed the brava domes?

I get good swelling at week 6th of brava too, but now in week 8, I'm get very discourage that the swelling is smaller, and gone in just few hours although I'm wearing the system average 15hours/day. 8hours after removed the domes, my breast definately flat as starting size, I can say I haven't keep any swelling even I work so hard on brava almost 8 weeks.

Hi luisa,
Can you pls let me know what is Goat's rue tea? is this contain estrogen?

Thank you

[lled34aa]

i am still taking goats rue, jut not as much as before. i'm not sure if i'm feeling any effect from it anymore. when i first started taking it months ago, i definitely noticed breast sensations and fullness... then it died down. where are you getting your goat's rue tea? i've been taking capsules and those are pricey! maybe i will switch over to the tea you're drinking instead. how long does the swelling last for you after drinking the tea?

and yes, my nipples definitely got a lot darker, despite me taping them down! taping them down helped with the sensitivity... but they get dark regardless. i dunno what to do about that. the picture in april was taken about 11 hrs after taking off the domes. i don't know what to make of the fullness just yet... not sure if i can qualify it as growth, or just temporary swelling. it's hard to know what's growth and what's swelling until the following months when you're looking back at the photos. i've had periods when i'd go up in fullness, then back down... all i can really say for sure is that i have more breast tissues than back in last may. so this whole NBE journey wasn't for nothing.

mesusuana, sorry to hear about your lack of progress after 8 weeks! 15hrs/day is a lot! have you tried drinking TONS of water? i find more than anything, that helped me get the largest swelling. do you just use the smartbox, or do you manually suck the air out with your mouth? i suck the air out myself when i first put it on... and usually an hour before i remove the domes, i suck on them again to get stronger suction during that last hour. i can't sleep with the stronger suction though... so i just rely on the smartbox when i go to bed. how much do you usually swell up in the morning? i swell up around 1.25" - 1.5" larger. i'm not sure if that's normal. i can still fit in a 34A bra just fine. some girls said they swell up to a D cup! i can't even imagine how that's possible!

[luisa]

Hi mesusuana,

Goat's Rue increases prolactin which is also important for NBE. Most of people tend to swell after taking it. Isabelle has good experience with it and some information about it in her program's page.

Hi Lled,

I used to take GR in capsules and also had sensations only in the beginning and I am not sure if I was getting any swelling probably because I was taking too little. Once I finished the bottles very quickly I ended up buying it in bulk as dry herb which is definitely much cheaper than the capsules! I get mine from a local internet herbal store here in Germany. You can get it on E-bay in bulk in the States as well, here is an example:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Bulk-Herbs-Goats-Rue-/360380439789?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53e8591ced

Just make sure you do not eat the dried herbs. I used to use a filter to make the tea but got lazy and started putting the herbs directly in the water. I ended up drinking small parts of the herb I could not filter and had some stomach problems for a few days (not sure if it was caused by goat's rue or not but once I started using the filter again I am back to normal). Isabelle recently mentioned to someone that the herb itself is toxic so I assume you can only either take it as an extract or as tea. I take about 3 g per day divided two cups per day. It tastes fine. You should definitely try since you definitely responded to the capsules.