Breastfeeding With An Oversupply

My Sweet Happy Boy

Breastfeeding came very easy to me with my first son. I had a natural delivery and shortly after he was born he latched on and that was that. He nursed until he was 4 months old without any problems. I had always said that I would nurse until 4 or 6 months. At 4 months he cut his first tooth, we had our house on the market, and I let myself get stressed having to leave the house all of the time for showings. My milk supply started to decrease, but I was really ready to quit nursing so I weened him at 4 months without any problems.

Baby number 2 was completely different. I ended up having IV drugs during delivery and was very loopy when he was born. I wasn't sure that I could even hold him without dropping him, so he didn't get to nurse as soon after delivery as I would have liked.

He did finally start to get the hang of nursing and was gaining wait like he should, but every time he nursed was like a fighting match. He would latch on and then come off and scream and latch on and scream. I don't really remember at what point it became really bad, but it didn't seem as easy as it should from the beginning.

I cried A LOT. I just wanted my baby to nurse peacefully and seem satisfied. I thought that maybe I was having a supple issue. I starting pumping some to increase my supply. Each time he nursed was a struggle for both of us. He never seemed satisfied, and he nursed every 1.5-2 hours instead of the 2.5-3 hours that most babies went. I wanted to pull my hair out.

I started to suspect that I had an oversupply, but wasn't really sure what to do about it. I did a little research online, but didn't really find much on how to correct the problem. The one thing I had read was to try holding him in a more upright position while nursing. This helped. I thought we were making progress, but it didn't last long. I was ready to just give up, but I couldn't.

There was a lot more crying. A friend sent me this link about nursing with an oversupply. I had never really heard of anyone I knew having an oversupply, but after reading about it I knew for SURE that this was the problem. It also helped me figure out HOW TO CORRECT the problem. I then saw that we were having more issues than I had realized. Henry's poop had been green instead of a mustardy yellow and I didn't know that was bad. I knew that it was supposed to be mustardy yellow, but the info sheet from the peds office said that it could vary from yellow to green, so I didn't give it a second thought. His was just green.

I began to feed Henry on only one side at each feeding. Within 4 days he had yellow instead of green poop. He nursed like he was happy to be nursing. He started going 3 hours between feedings. He started taking naps like he should. I had a HAPPY BABY!


Why am I tell you all of this?

-If you are having issues nursing, it is okay to get help. I wish I had called my lactation nurse early on. I thought that because everything went so smoothly the first time around that I knew it all. I DID NOT.

-Some people have an oversupply of milk. I didn't know this existed.

-If you are having problems and really want to nurse, there is a chance that with the right info and PATIENCE the problem can be corrected. (I do realize that every issue or problem can't be
corrected.)

Henry is now 14 weeks old and nurses like a champ! Life is good.