help me deal with oversupply without pumping

[threadbey]

my one week old (2nd baby) is a bigger baby than my first and sleeps amazingly well and also doesn't eat as often as my first did. I know, I am very thankful for all this and haven't told anyone in real life how long she sleeps because they will hate me, but it is causing me some serious discomfort and I don't quite know how to deal with it. I'm drinking some peppermint tea, but don't want to overdo it and end up with not enough milk if/when she decides she wants more to eat.

Anyway, she has trouble getting through more than one breast at a time, but goes so long between feedings that I have to have her relieve at least a little pressure off the other breast before ending the session. Then I don't know how I should deal with the next feeding in terms of switching sides and staying balanced. Sometimes she takes more from the second side than others and I'm having trouble deciding whether to start with the second side first the next feeding or follow the rule of always switching (so would often be starting with the same side every time). Last nursing experience I ended up with much more supply on one side and I'd like to avoid that if possible, although it might just be the way I'm built since I think I was quite good about being balanced in the nursing with DS.

Hmmm. I feel like this is kind of a long and slightly silly question. Anyway, any advice appreciated. I don't want to pump because I don't want to dig out and sterilize the pump and with DS we never ended up using the milk I'd pumped and I hated throwing it out.

[Heba]

A couple of suggestions - sorry, v quick cos have to put ds to bed:
- start with the opposite side than you started on last time, regardless of whether she took the second side
- perhaps consider hand expression - especially if only to relieve pressure - I'm sure you'll get good hints on here if you decide to give it a try

(Also slightly concerned that a one-week old may be going a long time without feeding - both in terms of her getting the milk that she needs and in terms of you establishing your supply...*please please* forgive me for the unsolicited comment and feel free to ignore me, but if it were me I'd want to keep an eye on her dirty/wet nappies...) Oh, and no-one will hate you for being able to get some sleep yourself LOL!

[hotharmony]

I agree with Heba, I wouldn't let a new baby go more than 2.5 or 3 hours without feeding them.

I would also do my best to learn how to hand express some milk. Getting engorged can lead to plugged ducts and mastitis.

[Norasmomma]

I have been having the same issues, my son is totally different than my DD was. She was every 4 hours, then a 2 hour nursing session and then another 3-4 hour sleep session, my son is just so different. He's 3 weeks and around 1 week he just woke up and out of the fog from his first week, he literally slept in one stretch 7 hours, I had to wake him to eat and then he would fall asleep again. He was having wet diapers and such so it wasn't a concern for me, but holy moly was it causing me grief, it still does at night. My right breast is like a boulder when I get up inthe am, he is feeding aggressively during the day, but he just sleeps at night. I am personally pumping and freezing the milk because I like to have expressed milk just in case I get sick or something comes up so I have a supply. I also start a bottle of bm at 1 month after the nursing relationship is established.

Now I do have to disagree a bit with the PPs, I did let my DD go 4 hours when she was a new baby w/out feeding her, sometimes 5 because I could not wake her-it never hurt my supply or her. Stripping her, changing her diaper none of that stuff worked-she was set with an internal clock from day one(she still wakes about every 4 hours a night). My Dr had me so stressed because I was *supposed* to feed her every 2 hours. DS has been a bit more interesting, I did have to wake him a couple times and he hates getting his diaper changed, so that will wake him, but I swear he just was still in a newborn fog for his first week of life-then he just started nursing like a monster, but he still will sleep LOOOOONNGGG stretches at night, he also is now able to get the boob in his mouth at night and nurse.

I'd just express a bit manually and go about feeding her, that's what I've been doing-it also seems to stimulte his appetite if he gets a drip or 2 in his mouth prior to latching on.

[threadbey]

yeah, i know the concern about supply and keeping baby fed. but she was back to her hefty birthweight within 5 days and she poos and pees quite often. my supply is fine, i never had any issues with ds that way (and he also slept alot pretty early on, just not quite this early). in fact, it took weeks after he was fully weaned (at 13 months) for my breasts to even start to calm down. im'' just not worried right now. she's cluster feeding great for several hours in the evening, too. in fact, it's getting late here now annd finally my breasts feel almost normal!

yeah, so, no way am i going to wake her up every two hours! but i will try hand expressing if i need to.

thanks!

[Heba]

Sounds good! Just mentioned the dirties and wets as you didn't say how long she was sleeping without a feed. The pp mentioned a 4-hour stretch, which is generally held to be fine even for a newborn so if all other signs were fine I certainly wouldn't be waking after 2 hours either! Glad things are getting better for you .