My LO is 12 days old and has been a great nurser but the last 3 days she will be done after 10mins at one breast. Is this normal? Can I pump the other breast or will this mess up my supply? I'll take any advice at this point, I really don't want to mess this up
Follow her cues. If she's not giving hunger cues after the 10 minutes, and she's still having plenty of wet and dirty diapers and gaining weight well then 10 minutes is absolutely fine. If it would put your mind at ease, you can attend a BF'ing support group, LLL meeting, or stop in at your pedi's office and do a weighed feeding to see how much milk she's getting. (Change baby's diaper. Weigh baby with clean diaper on. Feed baby. Weigh baby with same diaper - even if it's dirty-. Difference in the two weights is how much baby ate.)
Unless there's some reason you need a freezer stash like now, I would advise against pumping the other side until around 3-4 weeks PP. Otherwise you could risk giving yourself an oversupply. As long as you start the next feeding on the breast that didn't get eaten the last feed, and as long as baby is eating every 2-3 hours during the day and not going longer than one 4-5 hour stretch at night your supply will be fine. If you want to pump the opposite side than the one she eats once a day starting around 3-4 weeks to build a freezer stash that is fine. Pick a time to do it consistently every day. During or immediately after a morning feeding is a good time because that's when milk production hormones are the highest. Don't panic if you only get a small amount (0.5 oz) at first. It will take a while for your body to get used to the pump. Also you are BF'ing full time right now, so getting 1-1.5oz total is perfectly normal.
Great advice from PPs... avoid oversupply issues-- they're tough to correct. My LO is also a one sider. Just keep an eye on the diapers, they're great indicators on whether or not your
Re: New to the board and have a BF question