2 day old baby takes one breast for at least half hour at a time!

[expatinscotland]

latch looks good from teh outside.

but he NEVER comes off on his own.

is windy as hell, too.

passing stools well and colour is good, plenty of wet nappies.

he often gets very hungry and shakes his head trying to get on, so i wind up swaddling him to try to calm him.

has a preference for one breast.

widgey pillow helps positioning a lot.

what's going wrong? his sister was a dream to feed!

yes but no steriliser. he's sooooo windy just now.

re: rugby hold, if you have a V pillow (or a normal one) support him with that. Am tired so prob. giving quite random advice...

Have you infacol? Milton tablets? Or even just boil your pump/bottles? Is the latch still sore? Not keeping up very well...

latch soooooooo sore! i've stopped the head shaking and clamping prob he had by not sleeping and thereby fending off his getting too far gone with hunger.

DS suffers with wind bad, I think he gulps too greedily. Helps massivly feeding in bed, seems calmer for him and he settles better. Was agony for first week or so with him, nipple massage, tiny bit of hand expression helped... never try and feed if your nipples are hard, it is agony - massage them down. He feeds for hours sometimes too ~ he's here now feeding even!

Sore ltch as in sore nipples? I got that partially due to unflex nipples, once they got into the swing of it and become less hard etc., the pain eased. Hence the massaging abit before a feed etc. Cor I am probably not making much sense...

midwife coming soon and going to find me crying!

will go sit with him and massage.

no choice as no 24 hour shops here.

Good luck... and if all else fails for the time being I think just boiled bottles would be fine, if it helps you. Also try the pinch and post the nipple into mouth thing, helps him get a whole mouthful of breast so he isn't feeding off the end of your nipple which is very very painful x

thank you so much.

i dont feel so hopeless now.

Don't feel hopeless... I cried when DS fed for the first few days. The pain totall went after a while, going good now at 10 weeks, feel nothing. Just remember, the pain will pass. Just post as much breast in as you can.

well expat - I think she'd be more surprised to find you sitting smiling at 3.30am in the morning (american elections excluding ) when it's only 48hrs since your DS was born

Morning, although you've probabl;y been up for hours. Hope the MW has helped you.

expat - hope today is a bit better for you both, your milk should be coming in soon which will help settle him

milk is here! he's eaten and eaten. now he is refusing to settle so we can nap.

wee gurner.

about this time yesterday he was narky as all hell, too.

thanks so much all.

midwife showed me football hold but with him on his side and it really helped.

he is flattening the nipple some still though.

he's a dead sucky wean, tho.

he also pulls his wee heady to the right a lot.

wish dh were here but the car was so manky he went to jet wash with the girls.

shall itry him at the breast more?

yup - let him feed all he wants

Oh hurray for you, expat! DD was like this - she was also big. She flattened the nipple a bit for months - still stuck on her centile and it stopped hurting, so I decided not to care!

I was very sore with dd for a while (felt like ages, but in hindsight it wasn't...) rugby hold with her on about 3 pillows next to me, lying pretty much flat on her back, with her head cradled in my hand worked well, and then suddenly it all stopped hurting and could feed in any position.

Well done, missus - that was a tough patch - onwards and upwards. I would stick him on again if he's fussing - worked v. well for dd!

Congratulations!!
Sounds completely normal to me too. Both dd's shook their heads about in the stress to get on, though they settled soon enough when on. Only came off boob if they fell asleep on there.
Also both preferred my left boob .
DD1 refused to feed from the right boob for the first two days I think...
It is really early days. It will get better.

Yay!! Just keep on feeding!! Definitely would recommend getting your name down for a baby massage class, I found it very useful for my fussy,sucky, monster feeder baby! Of course if you're in the sticks it may be more difficult.

G was a marathon feeder, too. I found that body position (mine and his) made a huge difference to comfort.

Glass shards-type pain if he pulled at all on my nipple. I finally figured out that he was sort of "falling" into the gap between me and the Widgy, pulling my nipple with him. OUCH. I stopped using Widgy and just used a good, firm bed pillow (or two) which seemed to support him and my boob better. Funny enough, as he got much bigger, I could use the Widgy again. And now I use it to help him sit up (7 months) so it's not a total loss.

I was much more comfortable feeding lying down as my mahoosive boobs were supported and I wasn't sat hunched over trying to keep one hand on the babe and one on the boob. Also means you might get a bit of kip, or at least some rest.

lol @ dead sucky wean I had one of those too

DD3 thankfully takes after DD1 and is a speed feeder 5 minutes and she's latched off and smiling at me, I say to her never mind smiling get back on that boob and get some milk into you

keep him at the boob as much as he wants and well done

dd2 would have made Gina Ford proud. she'd get on first try and stay on for 10 minutes or so, give me a belch and then go on the other for another 10 minutes and go to SLEEP.

haaahaa, DS!

he sucks for 5 minutes, falls off as if sleeping, then if you try to wind him he doesn't give you wind.

if you try him other boob he sleeps.

lay him down so you can rest and he wakes up.

every two hours or so he'll feed off one boob for about 20 minutes.

i'm worried if he keeps up this snacking he won't stimulate supply .

Snacking is just a good for babies (though more tiring for mums)as four hourly feeds. Both my babies have/are snackers and I have no problem with building milk supply.

Also as your DS is frequently taking a small amount off your breasts, they will stay relatively empty and hence the milk he will be getting will be more fatty than a baby who feeds once every 4 hours.

expat, he is only very little still (well, not so little, BYKWIM), but try not to fret about the milk supply, it will come and you will probably drown in the amount.

I have huge sympathy with the painful latch, I too had that with all of mine bar DD3. in fact, DS2 was the worst, he turned out to have tongue tie...has anyone checked your wee boy?? It does make a difference to how they latch and how they feed.

plus, others here have said that him being such a good size will make a differnce, and it is true. Mine have not been quite as big as your biy, but DD2 was 8lb10oz, and believe me, she fed and fed and fed and fed.......and after having DD1 who would feed 4hrly for 10mins a time, DD2 was a SHOCK!

you can do this, you know you can, but you have just gone thro a fairly traumatic birth and come home much quicker than I ever did........it will make a difference to how you are getting on. not least, becuase you do not have ready help with the latching on.

don;t forget, chin up, shoulders down, and count.......the pain soon goes (so they say).

hooray for for you and ds, what good fortune to get a sensible mw. i had much worse trouble with one side than other and didn't turn ds over, just slid him round a la rugby hold. is this what you are doing?

it gets loads easier as the tiny mouth grows, even the widest gape isn't much to write home about at this stage so if the latch isn't perfect you will know all about it. mine was a snacker too, get a sling?