breastfeeding help please!

hi ladies
well ive made it to week 3 (cant believe ive got this far!!!) and ive got one massive humungous boobie. the other is much smaller and doesnt seem to produce milk anything like the other.
The midwife said its normal, and to offer the bigger boobie if he is still hungry after a feed from the not so good one, which i do quite often. the bigger boobie jackson really struggles to drink from as so much comes out so fast and he screams as he tries to keep up. a feed from this boob takes about 10 mins and the other takes about half an hour. he usually falls asleep on the smaller breast.

anyway, ive noticed that EVERYTIME hes had a feed from my smaller boob he is up for 2 hours and is really unsettled? the only way i seem to get him to sleep is when i offer him the other breast which is not really what i want to be doing. its not just a few minutes on the other breast he is taking either, its more like 10 mins which is just as long as a normal feed.

ive been expressing on occasion from my smaller breast and i manage about 60mls or so... so i know it is producing milk. i can also hear him sucking and swallowing so i know hes actually getting milk.
when i express the other i can fill 100mls in just minutes

how on earth do i fix this? do you think its just coincidental that he is up for a few hours after every second feed? should i express for an extra 10 mins after hes finished off the smaller breast? or is this all so completely normal and should i be offering both breasts EVERY feed? im just worried hes not getting the appropriate hind milk/foremilk etc etc and im going to bugger everything up!

I had this exact same problem and now Lauren prefers the bigger boobie and often rejects the small one, and this is 6 months on!

After every feed I would express off the small boobie to try to stimulate more milk production on that side, it did help for me, but not a huge amount.

Even now I find myself often feeding two times in a row on the big boobie side and only offering the smaller side every seccond feed. Although I know one produces more milk than the other, you cant tell by looking at my boobs that one has mega milk and the other has a piddly amount!

Good on you for sticking at it, b/f IMO is really hard work and it was a challenge for me to actually reach 3 months! And now 6 months on, I am still doing it, although it has become ALOT easier thankfully! Those first 6 weeks are a real struggle!

Hugs to you it will get better!

As Rach and Deb said, I offered both breasts at each feed and alternated which side I started on.

Maybe try that and see how it goes?

I had one fuller boobie too, and unfortunately now it has stayed bigger even though I have stopped BF which annoys me a lot!!

I found that if I let her suckle longer on the smaller boobie, and then tried to express after a feed on that side, it helped the supply increase on that side. I ended up giving her the smaller side first each time for a few days, then topping up off the big side, to make sure that the smaller side was emptied more etc. and it increased the supply on that side more, which kinda regulated things, then I alternated sides at each feed again.

I'm not sure I made much sense.

BF is hard though, good on you for sticking it out so far!! I wanted so badly to give up every day, but I made it to about 3 months (which was way longer than I thought I could do). Just take each day as it comes, and don't feel bad about whatever is happening... it's different for everyone and it can be such a challenge.

peachy wrote: Sorry to thread jack here, but can anyone help me on what to do if Lauren flat out refuses the smaller boob at some feeds, yet if I offer the other she will take it just fine? Eg she has done this twice today. Should I try the vegemite on my nipple trick? It drives me crazy some days

Caprece does this too, I just let her do what she wants but you could try the vegemite thing os always offer her the little one first. Maybe feed her off the little one when shes sleepy? So it still gets the stimulation.

Yey - well done Kaiz

thats exactly what my midwife said too, to feed off one breast and offer a small top up of only a few minutes on the other breast.
mum said she never had any problems with us and we were always full, she said that way you dont have lop-sided boobies
i was very impressed, i was finally able to wear a towel around my chest yesterday when i got out of the shower