2 week old - some questions

[wkmmum]

DS2 is 2 weeks old and EBF. DS1 is 8 years old so it's been a long time since I've done this and I honestly can't remember a lot of what I used to do.

We got off to a shaky start with him nipple feeding and me in agony and bleeding at every feed. Have got that sorted and every day is getting better now. But there's still things I'm not sure of...

My nipples are now fine but I'm still sore (especially on one side) where I think his gums rub/bite me. I can see where his teeth are going to be at the bottom and wondered if his gums are just really hard ?

He's feeding roughly every 2 hours day and night. Is that normal? It was about every 3 hours and a few nights ago we even managed 4 hourly. But he's had a cold and since then we're back to 2 hourly.

Often he seems satisfied after feeding on one side but sometimes seems to want more so I switch to the other side. When I do that he only has a little before falling asleep. Am I doing the right thing? Am I supposed to feed on one side each feed or do both each feed?

Sorry if these questions seem a bit stupid but I just feel a little bit lost. TIA xx

As to your latch, it's really hard to offer any sort of useful advice as the best thing would be for someone to actually look at it happening - you could try a local breastfeeding counsellor?

On the frequency front though, it would most definitely be normal for a 2 week old to feed every 2 hours - or even more often. Don't try and 'stretch' him between feeds - the four-hourly thing is a bottle-based timing and completely irrelevant for bf-ing. As you come up to 3 weeks you may find evening cluster-feeding starts too.

AFAIK the advice is still to feed fully on one side and then offer the other. If he's falling asleep a little while after starting the second side then he's full!

Agree with Zuleika. Now that the latch problem sounds better everything sounds normal.

My dd is 11 weeks old and initially I tried to stretch her for longer between feeds but now have stopped, and she feeds 2 hourly in the day (often 90 mins!) but does really well at night. Your dc is hopefully filling up in the day nicely.

My dd also sometimes does one breast and sometimes 2. Do whatever she wants, just try to alternate breasts each feed.

Hi! I hope its going better now. I live in Sweden and my sister-in-law recommended these shells to help with sore nipples. It sounds (and looks) a bit daft, but they do work. They are basically washed out limpets. You can get them from here if you don't fancy going down to the beach yourself :-)

www.itworksmum.com/product/breastfeeding/natural-norway-breast-shells

Regarding the 'sides' issue, I just started with alternate sides each time. Sometimes only one be enough, but then others times both. The milk didn't flowly equally from both sides. And DD would go through phases of favouring one side and then one side would be easier, then the other. No such thing as symmetry!