One soft boob, one engorged?!

[Twistering]

Sorry, bit long. FTM and I’ve been EBF for 13 weeks now. It’s going ok but I’d hoped this would have settled by now.

Basically, one boob is completely soft and floppy, you’d think there is nothing in there, but there definitely is. The nipple stays pretty flat and soft so I’m virtually shoving my breast in my baby’s mouth to feed and it gets a bit wet and sometimes she slides off, but once on feeds well (and have pumped well off this breast). Breast only gets a bit firm if not emptied for hours.

Other boob is exact opposite (dubbed ‘super boob’ by DH!). Noticeably larger even post feed and if left for more than 2-3hrs goes ridiculously comedy huge and solid (and painful!). I had a nasty bout of mastitis on this side a few weeks ago but cleared by feeding through and antibiotics.

I try and give baby both breasts at feeds but sometimes she’s not keen, so due to the above (engorgement and fear of mastitis again) seem to feed on ‘big’ side more/first. I make sure I feed off the soft side so supply doesn’t dry up but if I leave the other side until next feed, I get the engorged issue.

Couple of questions...could I be making things worse by feeding on the ‘big’ side more (supply and demand)? Should I leave it to settle or maybe pump a bit off if not using that side (although I assumed pumping tells my brain I’m feeding anyway?)
Or could I just always feed off that side and pump off the soft side?
Could there still be an underlying issue with the ‘big’ side that is causing this?

As a side note, still pretty much feeding on demand - can be every 2-3 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less. No real routine (perhaps there should be?!)

Thank you!!

[Sparkey47]

You could try just feeding on the left side and pumping just enough off the right so that you don’t get painfully engorged, this should hopefully let your right boob know that less milk is needed from that one because less is being removed and it may even out a bit and then you could go to feed from both breasts normally. Failing that, you may just have more milk ducts in that breast, and also I think boobs fill up differently to each other regardless. I too have one that gets bigger than the other.

As for the routine, supply and demand is the best thing you can do for both your baby and your supply so just carry on as you are you’re doing nothing wrong.

[JuneWind]

I had exactly the same issue, two very different sized breasts and had mastitis in the larger breast (although not the infected kind, so not treated with antibiotics).

This breast fills up much more quickly than the other, and there was a noticeable size difference between the two. DD prefers to feed from this larger one too!

I saw a breastfeeding specialist at the hospital who said it’s completely normal, one breast tends to have more milk ducts and produces more milk than the other.

To try and even them out I tried to always start DD on the smaller boob, and then offer the larger after. Would also pump from the larger one but just enough to make it feel more comfortable.

Now at 17 weeks and my breasts have evened out, although one is still larger - I think it always will be whilst bfeeding as it naturally has more ducts. I think it’s just taken them a little while to adjust to DD’s feeding patterns and for my milk production to settle.

Feeding on demand is definitely the way to go, I think trying to introduce a routine will just cause supply issues, your baby will let you know when they need food!

Good luck!