Hi - I would love to get your opinion on our breastfeeding journey. My baby is two months old and breastfeeding has been a struggle for us since the very beginning. I was in tears pretty much the entire first 6 weeks as feeding was excruciatingly painful. I saw multiple LCs who all said our latch was "fine" and that my baby did not have tongue tie. In the last 2-3 weeks, his latch has gotten a little better so that nursing only hurts about a level 3 or 4 (out of 10). However, it's still painful at times as he seems to lose his latch often. Other things I have noticed:
-he constantly makes "smacking" sounds while eating either while nursing or bottle (pumped milk)
-my nipples used to have a severe lipstick shape after nursing and now has a slight lipstick shape after nursing.
-my areola is sore
-he starts off each nursing session with some clamping, no matter how much of my nipple/breast I get in his mouth
Any ideas as to why it's still hurting? Everyone said it's supposed to get painless by at least the end of month 1.
Other than the pain, another issue we have is that he wants to nurse all the time (seems genuinely hungry every 45 min-hour or so when nursing) but if I give him a bottle of pumped milk, can go about 2-3 hours in between feedings. I wouldn't mind nursing him that often if it didn't hurt so much but my poor nipples can only take so much. A part of me just wants to give up nursing all together and exclusively pump but I hate washing all the parts! Any tips as to how I can get him to eat more and efficiently during our nursing sessions as he does with the bottle?
He has been gaining a good amount of weight and typically has yellowish poops.
I'd love any insight!