My momma had hard teats also. Warm compresses helped. Also I put the fattest one on them so they could empty it. When mom starting digging out of box I just stopped her. One of my puppies was up all night crying and after 5 hours I rubbed her belly til she fell asleep. Hope some of this helps.. Mine are 15 days today so I can tell you with a fresh memory what we all went through..
Hopefully some of it will help out.