Sorry-this is going to be a long one-hopefully someone will be able to get through it and give me some advice!!

Michael was a master nurser right from the start in the hospital. I was so relived becaues my daughter and I had a ton of trouble in the beginning-she lost a lot of weight and we both took a long time to get the hang of the bf routine. He made it back to birth weight on his 6th day of life and is a very good eater.

Once my milk came in a few days ago I was super engorged. I tried hand expressing at first (which didn't work at all) so I went to pumping for a very short time before nursing. That helped him latch, but also made me let down right away. Now that I am done pumping before nursing and no longer engorged, he is rarely latching properly at all. It has gotten so bad that my nipples are bloody and he is spitting up blood after he eats. (That was a terrifying sight at 2am-luckily we have a 24 hour number for our ped!!)

Uggh-I don't know what to do. I am so anxious before a feeding sicne i am in so much pain, but I know that my anxiety could be affecting him too. Could he have forgotten how to nurse since milk was basically just dribbling out for 2 days and he could just sit there and suck but not suckle? Is there any hope?? I just keep making him re-latch when he does it wrong, but when he does it wrong he really does some damage.

 
What about a nipple shield? I tried one with Josh when he was first born. I would also highly suggest meeting with a lactation consultant. My insurance didn't cover it so it was $70, but it was worth it. She worked with my on his latch, weighed him before and after a feeding to see what he was getting, etc. What I ended up doing until my nipples were healed was to alternate pumping and giving him a bottle of breastmilk, and then putting him on the breast. There were times when it was just going to be too painful to let him nurse again, esp since he had jaundice and had to eat every2 hours.

Brady is doing the same thing where he doesn't latch on, he sucks like he's sucking a pacifier. Sometimes it takes up to 20 mins to get him to latch on properly. I really try to make sure to relax my shoulders and breathe. It hurts a good bit while he's starting to nurse too.

I was in your shoes with our second DD. She had some major latch issues.

I would definitely call the hospital where you gave birth and ask about meeting with the LC there. My hospital offered free consultations with the LC as long as I came to their office (which is located on the maternity floor).

The LC helped me figure out how to "fix" Charlotte's latch problem (she wasn't putting her tongue down on her bottom jaw so she was just kind of chewing on my nipple, causing it to bleed and crack). Also, you could have him evaluated for having a tied tongue, too.

If you can't reach an LC, PM me and I can tell you the things that our LC told me to do.


 


Just stick with it--once I got Char all straightened out, she nursed until 18 months and it made me SO glad I didn't give up on her.


 

Thanks ladies. We had a better time of it last night so hopefully we are on the road to a better latch! I will call the maternity floor today-MIL is here to help out since dh went back to work today so I should have some free tiem to do it.

 


Ouch is right-That is scary!

I would also have suggested calling the hospital to set up an appointment with the LC & then using the nipple shield until that appointment! Me & dd used a nipple shield for a few weeks after birth & sometimes even later on down the line if my nipples felt sore or raw I would use just to give them a break.