I posted a couple of days ago about hating breastfeeding and received a lot of amazing responses. Just wanted to follow up after having my lactation consult this morning.

My son, predictably, was an angel while the LC was here. Didn’t fuss once, latched right away and perfectly, ate 2.5 oz and then fell right to sleep with no issues (thanks, buddy...appreciate you saving the tears and freak out for later tonight!). However, as I kind of thought, one of our major issues is oversupply. My letdown is definitely too forceful at times and it’s just too much milk for him. I’ve been trying to help with this by using my Haakaa before he nurses to express some out, trying to lie back slightly, and letting him come off my breast and take a break while milk leaks out. I’m only pumping once a day in the morning to help with engorgement. I WAS using my Haakaa to collect milk while feeding but also hand expressing some out to get as much milk as possible out. I’m no longer doing that to hopefully help with my supply. Still going to use it, but just a light suction and no hand expression.

My nipple soreness is from him unlatching and relatching so often. I also used to let him stay on my breast when his latch got lazy and painful (I just wanted him to eat as much as possible, who cared about my nipples!) BUT I’ve stopped doing that this past week or so ago. If it hurts, he needs to come off and relatch regardless of the crying that comes with it. It does seem to be slowly helping with the soreness.

The hands in the way are him needing a break and should hopefully eventually pass. The fussiness in the evening is normal for a newborn. My husband and I DO need to stop assuming he’s hungry every time he cries all evening. He definitely nurses more from 4-9 pm or so, but I think we’re too quick to just get a bottle ready or put him on my boob and we need to see if he could settle from other things first. Other tips from her were to use smaller flanges when I’m pumping and not use as much suction. Other than that, Google basically has guided me well luckily and it will just take time to “fix” everything.

Just wanted to share my experience in case anyone else is in the “hating it” phase of breastfeeding too. For now, we’re going to keep making our adjustments and see if it will improve but still supplement with small bottles of my milk when I need a break. He’s a month old today, so we at least made it this far! Here’s to hoping month 2 goes a little smoother.