I BF'd DD for roughy three weeks and she was a breeze in terms of latch, no soreness, etc. I moved her to FF as she wasn't feeding very much (she would happily go 6-8hrs between feeds), sleeping all night, and was slow to gain weight.
I'm BFing ten day old DS (DC3) and he's feeding well - every 2-4 hours for roughly 30-60 minutes at a time, lots of wet and dirty nappies.
But my god, I'm sore!
He much prefers the right hand side and feeds off there with no problem, good latch, comes off it himself when he's finished and usually content when he comes off.
The left hand side is a different story. He fusses terribly at the side, pops on and off the nipple, chews at it, twists his head with the nipple in his mouth and so on. As a result its absolutely shredded. I've got a deep crack running around the tip of the nipple that widens when trying to feed off it and it bleeds. It hurt that badly I was crying trying to feed him off that side and had to take him off.
I've tried different holds and lying down and he won't have it, he's got to be across my body or nothing. I've had his latch checked at the hospital and by three midwives, they all say his latch his fine. He's not tongue tied and latches perfectly on the right.
I've got some Lanisoh which I'm slathering on every chance I get and I'm letting it air when I can too. I've been expressing from the left side just before he's due a feed to try keep my supply up. I get 2-3oz. When he's ready for a feed I'm BFing from the right hand side and then offering a bottle with the 2-3oz I've expressed, if he's still hungry, but this isn't really sustainable long term and sitting with a pump is not something I can do when I'm out and about.
Does it get easier? I really wanted to BF for longer this time, for convenience more than anything as I can't be bothered faffing around with bottles when I have two other children to see to. I expected a bit of discomfort as my nipples get used to the change but not this. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Does it get easier?
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Infant feeding
Breastfeeding, does it get easier?
Bearfrills · 09/03/2014 11:53
It does get easier, hang in there. I still get a bit sore on one side - DC3 is 3 weeks old - but it's a lot easier than it was. If I recall correctly, by 6 weeks with DC1 & 2, feeding was a piece of cake 
Sounds normal to me - some babies just find one side much easier than the other.
It does get much easier, but it does also sound like maybe you'd be comfier with some support. Have you had a check in with a midwife or an HV who could look at it and see if there's a fix with positioning? A specialist lactation consultant would be even better, ours was worth her weight in gold.
I definitely wouldn't stop feeding on the tricky side - some people do make a go of one-sided feeding, but when DS nearly dropped one side I looked ridiculous and would probably have finished bfing early! The best advice I got when trying to rejig my small side was to feed often, which may be hard, but I also tried different holds. There is some grea advice on kellymom.
Owl, congratulations :)
I think you should get some rl help to check latch, position etc.
A friend of mine described early bf days as like breaking in new shoes :)
Are you using a lanishton after every feed? and keep your top off as much as possible.
It is so worth 
keep going and get help/support. Xx
Oh, I got some nipple shields yesterday to try on the left side. I put Lansinoh on to glue it down a bit, he sucke the shield right off the nipple, gave me a "WTF?!" raised eyebrow and refused to feed with it. So that was £7 well spent 
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