New to the forum and to breastfeeding!

[Skywalker]

Hi ladies!

I gave birth to my beautiful son on the 7th of May. He is perfect! He does, however, have a wee little mouth and I have big, flat nipples (and he has a slight tongue tie) We had serious trouble breastfeeding and I ended up supplementing with formula for a while and I also was purely pumping and bottle feeding what I pumped to him, but didn't want to have anything to do with formula.

Anyway, a lactation nurse helped us with using a breast shield, which we've been using successfully (for the most part). But sometimes it is SO PAINFUL for him to breastfeed, and other times, often in the same day, it feels like he's not even on there at all. When it feels like he's not even on there at all, there's TONS of milk coming out. When it feels like someone is brutally tormenting my nipples, I have milk coming out, but it's not as free flowing as it could be.

So my question is, does it eventually stop hurting terribly and does it start to feel more like he's not even on there? Also, I tend to get quite engorged (especially if he cries) and am trying to feed him on a every two hour schedule, but does that also get better? I'm still within the first week of giving birth and I just don't even know what I'm doing and hoping it gets easier. Sometimes I have to also pump one breast if he gets full on another breast. It feels like I need to breastfeed every hour (according to my discomfort in my breasts) but I think I'd drown him if I tried to enforce that.

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[sheldonsmommy]

Welcome!

Yes, it does get easier with time. I would just feed when he is hungry, the engorged feeling will get better as your milk regulates to baby's needs. I also would occasionally pump one side if my son got full off only one side, but I would be careful about pumping too often in the beginning because you don't want to trick your body into thinking baby needs all this extra milk. I would only do it once in the morning when we woke up.

It's wonderful you have so much milk, I hope you have much success