Help! what's happened?

[LIB]

Back Story - My son was born at 35+2 and was in the NICU and SCBU for 10 days, during that time I expressed and he was tube fed until he was well enough to start being breastfed.

Initially he latched on ok until my milk came in properly and then we started to spend at least half hour attempting to feed and by the time he got on he would be too tired and fall asleep. This meant his weight gain slowed. After a couple of days, the nurses at the SCBU suggested I try nipple shields. The moment I started to use them we have been able to breastfeed with no problems.

Last week, DS started to get reflux due to his heart meds and we realised the nipple shields seemed to be making it worse ( I had started to wean off) so I stopped using them on my right side completely but had to carry on with my left as he still couldnt latch very well on that side due to a slightly inverted nipple. Due to decreased use of the shields his reflux reduced considerably.

Last night we finally managed to stop using the nipple shield on the left side aswell. However, this morning I woke up to my right side being quite engorged and it currently feels like the supply in the left has reduced a lot.
When I hand express I can hardly get anything where as before I could get plenty. I just fed DS and he wasnt satisfied so I had to put him on the other, normally we only do one side per feed atm.

I have no idea why my supply seems to have dropped so much on this side. Could it have been caused by continuing the shield on that side while not using on the other? I'm really lopsided so would love to be able to get my supply back up again!

 

[noon_child]

Back Story - My son was born at 35+2 and was in the NICU and SCBU for 10 days, during that time I expressed and he was tube fed until he was well enough to start being breastfed.

Initially he latched on ok until my milk came in properly and then we started to spend at least half hour attempting to feed and by the time he got on he would be too tired and fall asleep. This meant his weight gain slowed. After a couple of days, the nurses at the SCBU suggested I try nipple shields. The moment I started to use them we have been able to breastfeed with no problems.

Last week, DS started to get reflux due to his heart meds and we realised the nipple shields seemed to be making it worse ( I had started to wean off) so I stopped using them on my right side completely but had to carry on with my left as he still couldnt latch very well on that side due to a slightly inverted nipple. Due to decreased use of the shields his reflux reduced considerably.

Last night we finally managed to stop using the nipple shield on the left side aswell. However, this morning I woke up to my right side being quite engorged and it currently feels like the supply in the left has reduced a lot.
When I hand express I can hardly get anything where as before I could get plenty. I just fed DS and he wasnt satisfied so I had to put him on the other, normally we only do one side per feed atm.

I have no idea why my supply seems to have dropped so much on this side. Could it have been caused by continuing the shield on that side while not using on the other? I'm really lopsided so would love to be able to get my supply back up again!

It might be down to the shield but if so, feeding him without the shield will build your supply again. It is currently recommended that both sides are offered per feed even if baby seems satisfied (because sleepy babies sometimes can't be bothered to give feeding cues etc. in short I don't think anything sounds like it's worng and you are doing well. Just keep doing what you are doing!

 

[LIB]

Thankyou! I didn't think I was doing anything wrong, I'll start to offer both sides everytime from now on, maybe he just wanted extra?