Breastfeeding - I’m close to quitting

[Freddie15VES]

Baby girl is 8 weeks old

We’ve got a good latch on the right side but still working on the left!

I’ve have a fast and quite forceful letdown - at the moment when I feel it happening I catch the letdown in a muslin as she was getting overwhelmed and choking/coughing

That seems to be working well in regards to that issue but now I have the issue of mucus in her poo and I don’t know if it’s normal? She does grunt and strain whilst having a bowel movement which I didn’t think was out of the ordinary at this age but she’s quite gassy and does cry when passing gas sometimes

She does have the odd bit of spit up, I’d say every 2/3 feeds

Is all this relatively normal? Am I doing something wrong? I do feel like packing it in sometimes 😫

I hardly eat dairy, I’d say I have the odd day where I eat it but the majority of the time I do have plant based alternatives anyway! I’m just concerned about the grunting, crying when passing gas and the mucus!

Hello!
my midwife recommended me the laid back breastfeeding position to counteract a forceful let down. It’s the top left image.
my 1 month old isn’t that great with the left side either.

Stick with it! I think 8 weeks was my low point of breastfeeding. It was still painful, especially on my right side and I felt like it was all I was going.

Now at 14 weeks I’m so glad I persevered. It’s super easy, still don’t love right boob but it no longer hurts and she only feeds every 3 hours or so.

My milk supply settled down about 10 weeks, I rarely leak now. Try and keep with it if you can, but if you want to stop that’s absolutely fine as well - don’t feel guilty.

This all sounds totally, totally normal. My letdown was so forceful at first it would literally choke both my DD and my DS when they were tiny. I also used to try and off load the worst of it into a muslin. It can cause mucus poos, but that's not a problem (unless there are significant other symptoms). Again, it's just normal. Honestly, it sounds like you are doing everything right, so if you want to, I really would encourage you to keep going. Your supply will calm down by 3 months, and then things get easier. Their bowels start to mature too, which helps with the poo and gas. The first few months are hard, but you've already done the hardest part. Absolutely nobody can tell you whether it's the right time to stop or not, that's a decision only you can take, but everything you've described is normal

Stick with it! It’s totally normal. I always had this on my left side and by the time I got to my 3rd baby or so I realised I just needed to pinch my nipple at the bottom and top to prevent too much letdown. It may help. I also second feeding lying down when you can. In the next couple of weeks it’ll get really easy and you’d regret giving up.

Absolutely stick with it. You got this!

I remember phoning a friend in tears of agony and she promised it would pass and then be easy and it totally did. It's a new skill like driving or putting contacts in almost, you wouldn't expect to be instantly proficient at them would you?

I always had a better side too.

Totally normal- don’t give up. It’s about to turn that corner where life is so much easier because you BF- so reap the rewards and you can look at your chubby baby and know YOU made that!!! All by yourself! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Thanks everyone - all these comments have made me feel so much better (although I do feel like having a little cry at them)

We spent a long time in hospital after I had her, for my health not hers and I think it has left me with awful health anxiety. I keep worrying about CMPA as I didn’t think any type of mucus in poo could possibly be normal! I’m googling everything and I know I shouldn’t be