Breastfeeding
I have a few questions, please help
How to get LO to open her mouth wide?? I tickle her lips with my nipple and tickle under her chin, she doesnt seem to open wide enough to really get a GOOD latch.
How to keep her from falling asleep on the breast? This last feeding I put her on my left breast and she went for 8 minutes and stopped, So I moved her to the right breast and took a few suckles and fell asleep. I tickled her, move her around, burp her then try agin but she is just more interested in sleeping.
How do I know she got enough? Even if she does go 15min on one breast(which doesnt happen often) she never really gets going on the second breast. My understanding was 15 min on each breast at each feeding.
tia
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Re: I have a few questions, please help
It sounds like she may be getting enough...DS never did 15 min on each side. For the first 5 months, he only ate from one side per feeding. He just wasn't interested. Pay attention to her output. Make sure that she is having the correct number of wet/dirty diapers. Do you go for a pedi visit soon? They will check her weight. It took DS a week to get back (and a little over) his birth weight.
As far as the latch...I didn't think DS was on correctly either because I was told that he had to cover the WHOLE areola. Not. You should be able to tell if she is just on the nipple. Check to see if you can hear her swallowing.
Now that I've gotten this far, I remembered that you are only 5 days out. Oops. Has your milk even come in yet?
If she's feeding for 15 minutes on one side, you're doing well. "Finish the fist, offer the second" is the best piece of advice I ever got. Then start on the last side the next feeding. Think of the 1st breast as the meal and 2nd as desert.
milk came in today. At the hospital she wasnt bfing enought so they made me suppliment with formula so i have to deal with the challange also that she has had a bottle and knows how much easier it is than the breast. My pedi appt is tomorrow morning so hopefully i will get some info there too.,
God, this is just so frustrating. Why don't they understand that newborn infants are supposed to be guzzling tons of liquids in their first days of life?? Just remember that you are doing a great job! Good luck tomorrow!
Check out the "deep latch technique" on kellymom.com. It basically will show you how to position their head and your breast so that they are coming at it from underneath.
I also used to gently use my fingers to pull his chin down and his upper lip up so that his lips were flanged out around the nipple.
You've gotten some good advice above. I'd add that maybe it would help to see/call a lactation consultant. I saw mine twice in the hospital and called three times after getting home. I could've gone in to see her too, but the phone calls always cleared things up.
BFing is very confusing and nerve racking at first (and even three months later I still get frustrated sometimes). I'd definitely recommend using all your resources and really trying to stick with it for as long as you can. I just took it one week at a time at the beginning. Any day I felt like quitting I told myself I'd keep at it for one more week and if I still felt like quitting I would do it without guilt.
Well, as you can see the desire to quit never won out...
YOu'll know she's getting enough by how many soiled diapers she has, and if she's gaining weight. Also if she seems satisfied after nursing. It's still so early yet, and like your other post said your milk just came in. You're both still in the learning stages of nursing. The one thing that worked for me was holding my breast with my thumb and index finger, like a "C", and sort of cramming as much as I could into her mouth when she opened it. Another thing you can do is undress her down to her diaper and nurse her. Skin to skin contact is really good for nursing. Sometimes my dd will nurse on both breasts but most of the time it's on one side and she's done. If she didn't finish I'll start her on that side the next time.