I've nursed 4 of my 5 children, all without fail have left me lop-sided. My newborn I think is fixing to really leave me dry on the same breast everyone else sort of neglected. He won't completely latch on to it at times and will throw a fit until I put him to the other breast where he's completely happy.
All my kids have had nursing issues but only one managed to nurse perfectly after she turned 3 months where I guess her mouth was wide enough to nurse from both without hurting me.
Is it possible for this little one to get everything he needs from just that one breast? I have and will continue to offer that breast but I know he refuses to latch on for more then 5 minutes max before refusing it so I'll put him to the other one.

Have you tried nipple shields? Mine had a hard time latching on and they helped immensely. He was able to nurse without them after a couple of months, but they were great at first. Inconvenient, but great.

I had to use nipple shields with my preemie. They were a PITA, but they helped and saved our nursing relationship. We had to use them for 6 mos. If you use them, chat with a IBCLC or a lactation educator to be sure things are going well, since they can potentially contribute to low supply and blocked ducts. The other idea would be to increase your supply by pumping after you offer your babe the breast.

I wouldn't give up on the "off" breast quite yet. I'm sure you can nurse with just one breast (after all, moms with twins have the same set of equipment, but twice the demand, so it would make sense that you could nurse one baby with one breast) but it would definitely be easier if you could use both.

Thank you, I'll try the nipple shield on that breast and pumping as well.

Or it could be he's more comfy laying in your dominant arm (is it your stronger arm?). That's usually been the case with mine but if I lay down and nurse they would nurse fine on the other side. More pillows, I say! lol

I meant to say that I have a friend that nursed on one side only because of an injury. Her baby got plenty... she just stuffed the other side to make them look even!

Nope, the side every child has prefered is my left side....I'm right handed. I', pretty sure the reason why they prefer that one is because the flow is much easier, they sound like they're gulping it down. LOL I'm thinking the other side takes more work but it doesn't take much work to hand express it though.
He's going through a growth spurt right now and he completely refused to nurse from the left side....didn't even want to go near it and would push it away if I tried to bring it closer to him. But when I switched sides he latched on right away. He won't even go for it with a shield on....not even with expressed milk in it.

Well shoot! That blows my theory. I wonder what a lactation consultant would say. Little guy certainly has an opinion on which side he prefers. They sure assert their minds right from the start don't they?

I wish I had some advice to offer here. But I just wanted to say as a first time soon to be mom, this is so interesting to me! Its an issue that I never would have considered I might have. But thanks to you ladies, I can already troubleshoot the issue if it comes up. I love this site! xoxo

Well now he refuses to nurse from both sides, so my only option is to bottle feed while I supplement with formula and pumped breast milk. He won't take the shield at all.
The problem that my midwife saw was that my nipple is shaped oddly so this most likely is the reason for my issues with nursing all my kiddos. Its shaped more like this....." /"""\ " Instead of being rounded at the tip it's wide and flat making it hard for a newborn to grasp. The only one that was able to nurse without hurting me was my dd2 who wasn't able to do it till she was 3 months old where he mouth was wide enough.
At this point I can only continue offering him the nipple shield in hopes that my milk won't dry out by the time he's 3 months old as I continue pumping or just pump till I completely dry up but at least he'll get my milk till it does but in a bottle.
All I know is that when I went without nursing him yesterday I felt like crying everytime I felt a let-down knowing I would never have that nursing experience I wanted to share with my last child I'd ever have. At least by pumping I'll know he's getting the best I can give him.

Oh no, Rachel! I'm so sorry. Have you seen a consultant yet in addition to the midwife? Get some good support. La Leche league, although I've never used yet has people on call.

I have a friend who's a LLL leader and she suggested the nipple shields and pumping. I talked to a LC the other day and she suggested the same thing.
I just pumped twice (every 2 hours) and managed to get only 1 oz combined from both breasts. I freaked and tried to get him latched on but he wouldn't go for it. So either my pump sucks (Lansinoh pump) or I'm very close to being dried up.
I'm so frustrated, I gave him 6 oz of breast milk I had pumped a couple days ago and he loved it. After it was done dh refilled it with formula and now he doesn't want the formula....I wish things were easier.

just want to pipe up:

I have flat/inverted nipples. I didn't know it til I tried to nurse my baby. Like my OB never mentioned it and its not like I ran around comparing my nipples with my girlfriends nipples in undergrad so I thought they were normal!

I tried to nurse my brand new baby and the nurse glances at me and says "Oh! Look at that, you have a flat/inverted nipple, lets check the other side to see if its normal? Oh look, that ones just the same! Well lets work with what we have then!" and she tried to help me out...it wasn't fun. (and I REALLY wish my OB could have mentioned it to me sooner because that was like....not the time for me find out I'm a genetic freak that would make it hard for me to nurse!)

I'm like sitting there, (still in a puddle of blood with pads under me because, ya know I just gave birth like 10-20 min ago?) completely dumbfounded....flat/inverted???

Anyways, the baby was only like 6.5 lbs as he was 3 weeks early, and he wasn't interested in nursing much. I had 2/3 nurses who completely gave up on helping me latch, although the lactation consultant could get him to latch when she stopped by. So, once a day he latched for a period of time and the rest of the time...blah....nothing and he was fussy and then he'd fall asleep because he didn't really act like he wanted to be awake.

There was a third shift angel (*cough* I mean nurse) who came in the last night I was at the hospital, she worked in the nursery, she wasn't even "my" nurse. She sat there for like 2 hours or more. And she grabbed my boob and kept shoving it in his mouth, snapping his feet, and repeating the process over...and over....and over again! She did NOT give up. It was long, I was tired, I wanted to give up, I wanted to quit and she did NOT let me.

She taught me to use my weird genetically mutated breast properly, shove the WHOLE "SAMWICH" nipple into the back and top of the baby's mouth and help him get the latch he needed. He nursed over two years.

The second one came a day past her due date, over 9 lbs, screamed until I nursed and kept nursing while I was wheeled over to the recovery room from the delivery because she didn't want to unlatch. No problems with her whatsoever, except she'd never take the bottle and I thought it was because she loved me best. (not true, wait til the end of the story)

My third one was 7 and a half pounds, again I knew what I was doing with my weird nipples and no problems nursing, he also wouldn't take a bottle of expressed milk when I'd leave him though. I found out he was tongue-tied, severely tongue-tied! Then I realized my little girl was too! So neither of them could latch to a bottle! I got them both snipped at the local pediatric dentist.


Turns out the first one was the only one that wasn't tongue-tied out of my kids and he was the one I had to learn to nurse on! I thanked God for the little bit of grace in my tough experience with him because if we'd both had a latching handicapped we'd have been screwed! However, I think the reason things went so smoothly with nursing with the second two is because I struggled so much with him, that even though they had a handicap we didn't even notice it in regards to breastfeeding.


Okay, there's my textwall story! It can be tough, but if want to do it you can do it! But if you don't want to do it, and you keep pumping, you can do that for 2-3 years as well, or as long as you want to! Do what works for you! but don't let a genetic handicap keep you from doing what you want to do!

hahaha your story sounds like my breastfeeding life.
At this point I'm still battling with this. I now have him on the SNS system and my dh is going out to rent me a hospital grade pump since my sucks to no end. LOL I'm hoping it will get my supply high enough where I can nurse him without pumping. I imagine it will be my greatest fight since nursing my others but since he's the last one, I think I can suck it up and run the course.
Thank you for all your encouragement and stories.