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Newbie with Qs

Starfish+77Starfish+77 member
in Breastfeeding
Hi everyone! Look forward to 'meeting' you all and gaining your input. My son is 1 week and will only latch with a nipple shield. Any success in weaning off shield and when can I expect this? The one LC gave me a hard time about using one but they gave it in recovery after section and he won't latch without. Also, my milk came in on day 4 and my breasts felt huge and hard. Since, they have softened and returned almost to normal size. Is this to be expected?? I realize this is prob a silly Q. Daytime going great but night he pushes away and cries regularly so not sure what's going on with night feeds. DH says he's starving and needs a bottle..hence the 3AM brawl ughhh. Any words of wisdom for me would be greatly appreciated. I'm determined to give this 110% effort and make this work!! (Sorry on mobile so no formatting..)
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Re: Newbie with Qs

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  • vvvvvfeevvvvvfee member
    i also had to use a nipple shield for a while. the sooner you wean your LO off it, the better, IMO. i was able to get my DS off of it by starting the nursing session with it on, so he wasn't frantically hungry, and then trying to remove it partway through the feed and try to get him to relatch (smush your breast with one hand like a sandwich to help your LO latch). if he had trouble and started fussing, i'd put it back on right away. sometimes i'd also try the same thing when he fed from the other breast. eventually he was able to do the 2nd half of the feed without it, and finally we got rid of it altogether.

    yes, totally normal for your breasts to be comically huge when your milk comes in. they will still shrink and grow as they are emptied/filled with milk, but they won't be that big anymore.

    like PP said, newborns cry for lots of reasons-- just keep nursing on demand. for the first several weeks, they also don't have any concept of night and day. so it takes them a while to get sorted out into a rhythm. the first 6 weeks are the hardest, but it will get easier! it's totally overwhelming at first, but that is just life with a newborn- it would be overwhelming whether you were breastfeeding or not. stick with it- you are doing a great thing for your LO! :)
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  • CEOwifeCEOwife member
    I was in your exact boat!!! My husband was suggesting bottles, we were battling with a shield. We ended up nursing with a shield 5a-8p and pumping for bottles over night. We made sure to do paced bottle feeds. You can see about them on kellysmom. I am not sure if this delayed the time we were able to wean off the shield but we couldn't drop it until 4m. She is now just about 7m and a rockstar. The day we dropped the shield, we switched from bottles to nursing over night. I also want to point out the length of our nursing sessions decreased dramatically when we dropped the shield.
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