One breast leaking and the other not producing enough?

[julesfrenchie]

Is it possible that I am not producing enough milk to feed my five weeks old because one of my breast is under-producing?
Basically, when I use the pump after a three hours break, I get over 100 ml from the left one and not even half than from the right!

I am finding breastfeeding a real challenge, especially at night when my baby wakes up every hour from 3am onwards, because it won't feed for more than 10 mins and fall asleep on whatever breast I have given him.

He sleeps well from 7pm until approximately midnight, and then, it's a real battle... I really don't want my baby to go hungry and am worried that i just can't satisfy him with one deffective breast... My mum was over and topped him up with formula during the night to get him to sleep more soundly... Anyone has had the same problem???

One of my boobs was always more enthusiastic than the other. I think it was partly the breast, and partly DS had a stiff neck and fed better from one side than the other.

It should be perfectly possible to feed a baby from one breast alone - I believe women have done this following mastectomies and of course if you have twins you are effectively using one breast per baby, so I wouldn't worry that your baby isn't getting enough milk. TBH sleeping well from 7-midnight sounds fantastic at 5 weeks, and the battle from then on sounds totally typical! DS NEVER slept longer than 2 hours at night until he was about 3 months.

I doubt you have a dodgy breast (unless you've had surgery?) With me, I got DS's neck sorted and then consciously favoured the underproducing side, not because I was worried about production but because they were starting to get uneven and I didn't want to have one huge breast and one titchy one! They soon evened up.

Expressing is no indication what so ever of how much milk you are producing. Your breast is not defective. THe way to produce milk is to feed.

Have you tried co-sleeping btw? Full-time co-sleeping wasn't for me because I found I didn't sleep deeply enough with DS in the bed.

But what worked for us was letting DS sleep in his cot until about 3am, or whenever, and then from that point onwards it was hourly wakeups and he came in with us until morning.

thanks so much for the pointers. My left breast is defo bigger than my right one - had it confirmed by my husband. It's good though to know that it doesn't have to be a problem to produce more in one breast than the other. I am so confused and lacking confidence sometimes with being responsible for feeding baby - I was advised to top him up in the first week when he had jaundice, then went back to breastfeeding alone as the formula seemed to give him tummy aches.

RE co-sleeping, yep, tried that too, and didn't work for us because didn't get much sleep for fear of rolling over him, etc.

Also did the feeding lying down, but lately, it no longer works as he gets real bad wind/regurgitating when I do that - at least you guys give me the sense that the battle is a normal one... Consolation of some sorts - I sometimes get so frustrated at night!!

It will get better incredibly quickly - they are totally different creatures at 3 months to 5 weeks, even though that's only a few weeks away. And don't believe anyone who says their little one is sleeping through .