Nightmare latching.

[Trinaj]

My 5 week old ds2 is driving me mad.
He latches well to start, then as soon as I try to relax my arm or release my boob he moves or unlatches, so we have to start all over again.
It's making feeding very akward - i can't feed infront of anyone, he pulls away and flashes me to everyone. And uncomfortable - keep pulling me about!
Anyone had this or got any suggestions?

dd (also 5wk) does this if she is really hungry, or was stroppy before latching, esp on the left side where she tends to grab me and dig her nails in

the calmer she is the less she does it - if being changed calms her down (works for dd) might be worth trying that before feeding her

and leaping at the first squeak so she's never starving hungry...

Didn't think of this he is worse when stressed!
And wonder if it's because I'm stressed too!

I had this with ds2 and it drove me mad until I worked out a different way of holding him. Are you supporting your breast in one hand (ie, L breast, L hand) and holding him across the shoulders with the other arm? Then trying to put your arm around underneath him, which is when he unlatches?

Mears on here talks about the 'angle of the dangle' which is basically not supporting your boob, just letting it sit (I hesitate to say 'hang' as I don't know you ) in its natural position. Then hold your baby so he latches on without you moving your breast. If you've got big boobs that could mean lying him on your lap. It can mean ignoring the tummy to mummy advice, but as long as he's lying with his spine in a straight line and not twisting his head it's fine. It takes a bit of working out - I had to experiment a lot to get it right but once I did it made feeding a lot easier.

Thanks olihan, that's exactly the problem. Shall give it a try. Have tried 'au' naturel latching but cannot get him on, shall try again.

If you do a search for Mears and 'angle of the dangle' you'll probably come up with a more coherent explanation than mine! Like I said, it can take a bit of experimenting so just see how you get on. It gets easier as they get bigger and a bit less floppy.

It's really getting on my nerves now. Seems to be worse in the evenings.
Coped ok during the day but come evening he gets really 'flappy'.
By the time I've sat for over 45 mins with him keep pulling away, I've got arm ache, back ache, sore nipples where he keeps pulling at them, he's still crying hungry and I'm at my wits end!
Gave up and gave him an ebm bottle.
It's tiring me out so much I hate evenings.