Hellobee Boards

First of all, hugs!

Second of all, has he been checked for a tongue/lip tie? It's a commonly overlooked thing that can cause fussiness, inefficient transfer (hence marathon nursing sessions) and nipple pain/poor latch.

Hugs! How old is your LO? Breastfeeding is hard work in the beginning but it does get better! They do become more efficient as they get bigger and nurse for shorter periods of time and eventually will space out their feeds too. Have you tried coconut oil to help with the pain? Do you have a good lactation consultant you can see?

How old is your LO? Sounds like he's pretty new -congrats! And also big hugs...those first weeks are so very hard and you are doing a great job.

I too struggled with BFing at the beginning - toe-curling pain for the first eight weeks. I wanted to quit. I came on here and wrote a similar post and got so much encouragement from HBers and so I stuck with it and we're still going strong EBFing at five months. So, I know where you're coming from and you're in the hardest part.

Here's what I think: if BFing ever starts to threaten your mental health or your bond with your babe, quit if you think that will help you. Do what you need to do to be a happy, healthy mama.

Know this though: the beginning is so hard. And it gets so much easier. If you have concerns about latch, please, please, please see a well-qualified LC. My LC is an angel and she saved my sanity and my BFing relationship with DD.

Also, the fact that your LO is nursing all the time? Normal. Cluster feeding helps establish your supply so that your body knows how much milk to make for your baby. If you have other reason to believe your supply is low (poor weight gain, not enough wet/dirty diapers) then start taking fenugreek and blessed thistle (three capsules of each, three times a day). So many women think they have supply issues when really it's just their baby cluster feeding to build supply.

If you want to BF, keep at it and it will get so much easier, I promise. If it's too much for you right now, that's okay too. Feed your baby throu pgh whatever means works best for you

Is baby 3 weeks old? If not How old? It's really normal and I promise it gets better. My nipples hurt for 6 weeks to be honest. People told me they shouldn't, but they did. My guy nursed for hours. I was so tired. I cried. I got frustrated. I walked away sometimes. I wanted to quit, but I didn't. I stuck with it. It was all worth it. We're 16 months strong now and I wouldn't change that journey one bit. It made me a strong and better mama.

You can do this. You are strong. You want this.

Things do get so much easier! The beginning marathon nursing sessions are rough. It's totally normal though for babies to eat so frequently for such long periods of time and definitely doesn't automatically mean that you have supply issues. Now at 6.5 months a lot of the time nursing sessions are only around 10 minutes or so.

As you mentioned formula is expensive. It is REALLY REALLY expensive. When I first quit BFing I was like, "Oh sure I have to buy formula, but it'll be okay, it's not too bad. Breastfeeding is turning into such a pain and I'm always so concerned about if he's getting enough to eat, buying the formula is worth it." But here's the thing - the older they get, the more formula they need! I now spend double each month on formula than what I had originally expected, and my LO is only 4 months old! Plus, it really sucks when your baby is frantic for food and you have to scramble around making a bottle. Or he's just about to fall asleep, when...oh no, the bottle is empty. LO then starts screaming and you have to make a new bottle and start calming him down all over again.

I really wish I had tried harder to stick with it and saved myself a lot of money and baby tantrums when he's waiting for a bottle.

Take it one day at a time . . . anything more than that can be overwhelming! It really does get better, and so much easier.

Even though people frequently say it gets so much better at 6 weeks, remember your nipples started a little later, since it sounds like he only latched recently. So it will get better, you are just working through that really sore and painful stage. Everyone had great advice, just wanted to remind you of that. For me it got so much more comfortable between 5-7 weeks. Now it almost never hurts (8 weeks). It does sound like he needs to work on his latch though- I know the exact toe curling pain you are talking about.

Lots of great advice so I just want to encourage you to keep at it. Since you started a little later, your nips need time to adjust. LO had a great latch from the start but it still took about 6 weeks to not hurt! You're strong mama! Keep it up!

It does get easier! My LO was a classic cluster feeder and I felt like ALL I did was nurse. She was also milk intolerant so I cut milk out and we switched to a soy formula.

@wonderstruck: I love your perspective from the other side.

It definitely gets easier, hang in there!! It sounds like you've just started BFing regularly so I would give about 4-6 weeks before it doesn't hurt at all, although others have brought up good points about tongue ties and proper latch.
I wanted to quit so many times when I first started but I'm really glad I stuck it out. I had cracked and bleeding nipples and it hurt sooooo badly every time they latched (I have twins). But little by little everything healed and now at 4 months old, I don't even think twice about having to nurse them and it is much easier than a bottle, especially when you leave the house, etc.
I thought I didn't have enough supply either around that point bc mine would be hungry less than an hour after eating but I think when they're that young, your body is still establishing a supply and it's normal to be nursing around the clock!
You're doing such a great job giving your LO as much breastmilk as you can, keep it going, you can do it!

6 weeks was when I almost quit too!!! We hadn't been supplementing at all at that point so I went out a bought some formula so I had the option if I decided I just couldn't take it anymore (which I almost couldn't)!

Definitely go see an LC again. In the beginning, every time I'd try to get an LC to help me with Xander's latch (he was fine on the left but TERRIBLE on the right), they always told me his latch looked fine (and it always FELT fine during the LC appointment too) but then we'd get home and it would be terrible again. It wasn't until my six week LC visit that, even though he latched fine DURING the appointment, the LC gave me a ton of tips of things to do and look for when we were at home and that helped TREMENDOUSLY.

Some of the things I wasn't doing correctly were that I'd bring my boobs to the baby. Don't do that. Bring HIM to your boobs. It was so hard at first to get this right. I had to sit in a rocking chair with my feet up so I could lean back, which forced me to not hunch over him. Then I'd squash his face into my boob! I also had to work at pulling his lower lip down when he was latched to really get a deep latch - he wasn't good about opening his mouth wide enough in the beginning so I often had to help fix his latch once he was on. The other thing that helped me was that a lot of advice/tutorials/pictures say that you get more of the bottom part of your aerola into the baby's mouth than the top, but for me that didn't work - I had basically center my nipple into his mouth to get it far enough to the back.

And I think that it's true that as your baby gets older and bigger, his mouth will get bigger too and it will be easier to get the correct latch going. You're almost there, Mama!