Breastfeeding help!

[Immycho]

Hello everyone,

I gave birth a week ago now, I am exclusively breastfeeding and my newborn would sometimes go 3/4/5 hours at night before waking for the next feed. The hospital says to wake her every 3 hours but some people say don't wake her so I'm not sure what to do. She has reached her birth weight, wet and dirty nappies are fine.
Also, another thing is she seems to get really fussy at the right boob and is fine on the left. Is there anything I can do to get rid if this preference early?

Many thanks in advance.

If they're back up to birth weight and getting plenty of wet and dirty nappies, then you're fine to let them sleep!

Just keep offering them the right boob, or start of the left and switch over when they start getting sleepy. If you give in and just let them have their preferred boob, the preference will get worse because your supply will dip in one boob and they'll get fussier.

You could also try a different feeding position for the right boob. They may not like lying on their side to feed.

Thank you very much for your reply @DaleyDerDrache I will definitely try different positions! For the night time wakings I was worried my supply would reduce as I would wake up with slightly hard breasts so was worried that would signal to my body to lower the milk.

2 of my dc slept from a few weeks old. All night. While I lay there with bursting boobs!! Unless they are prem or small let them sleep. The people telling you to wake them haven't then got to resettle them!!

Very very normal to have engorged breasts at this stage! I wouldn't worry about that. My baby slept through from very early on too and I'd wake up with rock hard, leaky boobs every day. Not feeding during the night hasn't affected my baby's weight gain. We're at 5 months old now and I'm still waking up with very full boobs.

If baby has already gained to the point that they are back at their birth weight you really don’t need to worry about producing enough milk

I would let them sleep for as long as they like in the night but offer a feed every 3 hours in the day. Ideally you want them to take as many as their feeds as you can get in between 7am and 10 pm

Is there any difference in let-down between left and right? Is the let-down on the right maybe a bit faster?

But as PPs say, just keep offering/using both

@DaleyDerDrache that's so interesting because everything online as well as healthcare professionals always scare you into thinking if you don't wake them at night your milk supply is doomed lol. Glad to know it's not true based on your experience so thank you for the reassurance!

@BunnyRuddington thank you for your advice! Am I correct in only feeding her when she shows hunger signs during the day because people say put baby to the breast but I noticed if she hasn't shown me the hunger signs then I can't just "put her on the breast" as she is simply not interested lol

@RandomUserName96 I think the letdown on the right side is slower so it frustrates her that the milk takes long to come and so she starts to cry.

Yes although when my slightly older LO was plateauing with their weight I found that if I offered more often she would feed more. If you LO has gone longer than 3 hours in the day, if you wake her and change her, will she feed then?

@BunnyRuddington sometimes yes but mostly no 😬

Offer the boob plenty in the day.

Try the rugby hold. I had the same problem, baby had a slight tension in his neck and he wasn't very comfortable on his left side. Rugby hold helped until the tension went away.

One of my boobs also has less milk. A lot less! I thought it was all in my head until I started pumping and I get about 2/3 less in that boob!