Well, we had a crazy fast and basically textbook dream natural birth, but breastfeeding my second baby, Maggie, isn't getting off to the greatest start. I'm able to achieve a latch that looks good, at least to the hospital LC, but doesn't feel good at all. And when I unlatch, my nipple is creased across the middle (symmetrically). Ouch!It generally hurts most at the beginning, but it continues to hurt some throughout the feeding. My nipples are already traumatized, and she's one day old and my milk hasn't even come in fully!
I'm following my own advice, oft given here on the forums, to seek one-on-one help, and I have a call in to the LC that helped me with Joe even in really crazy, unusual circumstances (after a breast biopsy), this time with my banal latch problem.
I've been looking at her tongue - she doesn't stick it out far. Could she be tongue-tied? What should I look for?
But also, I just can't seem to get her to open her mouth very wide. And when she does latch on, she spits out the breast pretty much right away, and then I have to try again.She's a bit sleepy (she was slightly preterm at 38 weeks, or maybe I just got "spoiled" by Joe who was the most wide awake newborn anyone had ever seen), which isn't helping either.
I just don't want this to get off to a really bad start, with nipple trauma that will take weeks to heal and cause all kinds of other problems, like what happened with Joe.![]()