Sorry to be so mellowdramatic, but I desperately need some advice. My ds is now nearly 5 weeks old and is still pretty small. At birth he was 7lb7oz, he's still only 7lb9oz. He was born by cs and I did get bfing pretty soon afterwards, in recovery. I first realised I had a problem when his feeds were taking 90 minutes, I reduced them down thinking he was just comfort sucking and he lost lots of weight, so I upped the feeds back to 90 minutes. I've also seen a lactation consultant and she says I don't have a great latch. Basically, ds is pretty small, he's got a small mouth and doesn't open it very wide. I've also got pretty gigantic boobs and huge nipples so it's a big mouthful for him.
I've tried to correct my latch issues but he gets really frustrated and screams with hunger, flailing arms and legs about. I've tried swaddling him but he falls asleep. After following the advice of the lactation consultant I took him off whenever he had a bad latch but this has resulted in him not getting great feeds, his nappies have turned green. So because his weight is an issue I'm going to have to give him ebm for a few feeds a day to get some calories in to him so he's not so desperate and has a bit more energy when we try again to bf.
My problem is does anyone have any great tips for dealing with big nipples and a small baby? The lactation consultant says that as he grows it'll get easier, but it's going to be more difficult to change his poor latch the later we leave it. The thing is that although it's taking ages to feed with my poor latch, he is managing to get a decent feed, he gained 6oz last week, and it doesn't hurt really, so should I just not try and correct things for a few weeks until he's grown a bit more and has the energy to fix it, or is there some magic trick to getting babies to open their mouths wide to accommodate a big nipple. I've tried using a finger to force his chin down but it's not worked. Any ideas gratefully received!!! Sorry for crazy long post!