Help! Advice needed on oversupply and expressing

[RememberingMyPFEs]

I think I've buggered it up... DD is 2weeks today and I've had no issues with supply since milk came in at 3 days. I have H/I cup breasts and flatish nipples so latching has been, well, interesting at times.
I have had problems with overnight latch and fussiness so HV suggested I express a little first to make boob less hard. Yesterday am I used manual pump and took 1-2oz off. Fed all day no worries but she fed less than previous day.

Last night leftie was engorged and hard so manually expressed but boob felt sore/bruised and DD still wouldn't latch. Tried all night but she basically fed from rightie 3 times. I now have one normal boob and one big sore one. Worried that rightie will now have oversupply die to 3 feeds on that side but I had to feed her and leftie wasn't working.

I need to express from leftie then get her to feed from that side but I'm worried that the expressing is just meaning ill get more and more milk come in

What do I do?

I'll join you waiting for some BF expert to come along. DD is 5 days old and since milk came in 2days ago my L breast has been harder & bigger than the R and baby doesn't feed so well on that side. I have also tried expressing small amounts but all the MW has recommended is to keep encouraging baby to drain it.

Try not to worry too much about stimulating oversupply, its still early days and your supply is still establishing at the moment (it will do for the next couple months even!) trust that supply will even out, even if it doesn't feel like it at the moment.

Do you have any thoughts on what's affecting her latching that side? What positioning are you using? You could try biological nurturing (have a look at youtube vids - also known as laid-back breastfeeding on LLL) which gives your baby much more control. Some babies prefer to feed from a certain side because it is more comfortable, birth trauma can affect comfort in lying in certain positions and I've heard that Cranial Osteopathy has worked wonders in situations like this - my childrens centre were even funding CO with a referral from the hv.

I think your main aim is to get your baby to latch today from the left side. Unless you are super engorged I would just hand express off enough to give yourself a nipple shape. Try BN, and skin to skin. If she still won't latch, don't force the issue, just give her the other side and express the left to maintain your supply.

This article is informative about preference for one side

Engorgement

A technique to help latch when engorged

Thanks batcave It's good to know its still early and I've not messed up my supply completely. I expressed off a little again this am and managed to get her on the left for 10 mins - it's still much bigger and harder than right but feels slightly better.
I'll check out the links and see if I can figure out why it's coming in harder on the left. The only thing I can think is she was struggling more on the right with flat nipples so she may have been taking more from the left, stimulating supply...
dexi hope it improves for you soon too!

Have you tried feeding using a few different positions? DS had trouble feeding on the left side. I didn't notice initially and ended up with mastitis that side two weeks in.

Eventually realised at around 8 weeks. We saw a cranial osteopath that worked wonders, he had a stiff neck and was uncomfortable feeding on that side. He fed much better in the rugby hold. Congrats btw

You can try using reverse pressure massage to relieve engorged breasts too. It's not always the milk that's making the breast engorged, sometimes it's fluid in the surrounding tissues and it doesn't matter how much you express that will not come out through the nipple, you have to move it up to the lymph glands so they can deal with it and allow the milk ducts room to let the milk through.

Does that make sense? Try googling it but I will try and find some links when I get on the computer later. hth

OK. here's some research on reverse pressure softening massage.

Here's a good FAQ and some pictures and diagrams

Here's a video of someone doing it

Hope these are useful to you

Thanks Cakes will check out the links.
nothings I struggle with the volume of breast tissue and worry ill suffocate her if I don't hold some back for her. Not sure if LLL/BN will work but I might give it a try tomorrow. Today's gone well but she has fed EVERY hour since 10am
Thanks again everyone