What am I doing wrong?

So Penny latches beautifully and has an AWESOME suck when feeding (to the extent that both nipples are really bruised!) anyway she seems to be struggling to get enough from me herself. It doesn't seem to be a supply issue as I have been expressing after feeding today and I get 60ml easily without even having to pump for that long. She has lost 12.3% and has mild jaundice so getting her to feed it imperative.

Anyway she's been feeding but screaming half way through and being really unhappy, she'll then latch back on but scream minutes later. This happened ALL Last night and didn't settle until 5:30 this morning. Just in time for Chloe to wake up!

Midwife suggested feeding from both sides then giving her expressed milk to top her up then expressing myself. We have done this the last 2 feeds and she has been so much more content and has had a good sleep in between.

The weird thing is that I can express off 60ml after feeding her so I'm worried that for some reason Penny isn't able to get enough out of me herself as this seems an awful lot of milk for 4 days after birth.

Any advice please???? X

Firstly, take a deep breath. You are not doing anything wrong, you are both still learning. Penny is new to bf and you are new to bfing Penny.

How often is she feeding and for how long each time?
Have you got a bf specialist who can double check her latch? Are your nipples misshapen / flattened after she feeds? Can you hear her swallowing while she feeds?

You could try massaging your breast towards the nipple or using breast compressions as she feeds to help the milk flow. I found this very helpful for L who wasn't great at extracting milk! If you can express that much then try syringing or spoon feeding her after she's fed from you.

Have a good look around on Kellymom.com too - excellent resources on there.

Thanks @sim had midwife over who checked latch etc... Honestly just think she's too little to get the hind milk out. Have been massaging etc... Problem is she falls asleep feeding from me within a few minutes then I burp her or try and wake her. She cat naps for a few mins and then it starts all over again

I don't think it helps that I am exhausted. She had a feed from me then 60ml of expressed at 7 so am going to go to bed and see if I can grab an hours sleep before she wakes up. (An hour would be about what I got all last night!) then there is already 60ml ready to give her after that feed if she needs it. Am hoping she's not lost any more weight tomorrow. Don't know what the next stage is from there if she has. X

How often is she feeding and for how long each time? 15/20 mins roughly excluding catnaps

Have you got a bf specialist who can double check her latch? Yes but I don't rate them that much of I am honest.

Are your nipples misshapen / flattened after she feeds? No

Can you hear her swallowing while she feeds? Sometimes when she gets into the swing of it you can hear her guzzling away. Other times she seems to just use me for a dummy. She's an incredibly sucky baby (not in a derogatory way lol)

X

I know this will sound like a really silly question but have you burped her enough? I say this cos my baby used to do exactly the same thing (and occassionally still does at nearly 5 months but no where near as bad now). She did have colic but one of the ways I began to tell that the wind was trapped and hurting again was when she'd cry mid feed. Sometimes it would also then be hard for her to latch back on as though her mouth couldn't close properly even though in general she didn't have any trouble latching or sucking. Anyway, getting a massive burp out (admittedly sometimes easier said than done) always helps her and I'll still often have to do this mid feed when I notice she's getting uncomfortable.
Do Penny's lips look that greyish white colour and extra puffy on the sucky bit (if you see what I mean)? I'm not sure if it was just me that didn't know but my sister told me it's a tell tale sign of wind and since I've known that it's really helped cos I have a visual cue to burp / continue burping baby; sure enough there has always been more to come if her lips are greyish white.
I also have a fantastic breast feeding group at the local children's center, if you have one near you I would highly recommend it (I hope they're all as lovely as the one by me!). The breast feeding advocates are wonderful and give 1-1 support and advice and are completely supportive of your wishes (in a way I didn't have from the health visitors). Months later lots of us still go just to hang out and have a lovely morning eating fruit and drinking tea / coffee / herbal teas etc... Just a thought anyway as really helped me just being in a friendly and supportive atmosphere when things were sometimes getting a bit much (colic, reflux and mega baby blues!!).
Good luck with it anyway and I hope you find something that works

Sounds like you are on the right track

Keep going, wake her up (with my oldest I had to strip him and bother him with a damp cloth to keep him awake). I'd think about block feeding so she gets more high fat 'hind milk' (feed from the same side every feed for 2-3 hours) rather than switching during or between feeds unless she is still hungry and not being happy to latch back on to the same side.

Right... I've worked out she isn't sucking hard enough and hasn't been getting anything thus I can express so much after a feed. (Have only expressed about 5 times now as had thought she was doing really well until midwife came over. As a result I think my milk supply isn't building up enough. So the first proper feeds she's had have been the expressed milk today. Which is why she's been such a different baby. I feel awful as it's been made worse by offering her a dummy as she had been searching and sucking constantly and Chloe never had a problem now she's got all confused because I thought I was helping her.

Yes I would definitely ditch the dummy hun. She will be getting enough because remember they have a stomach the size of a marble so little and often is fine. My milk didn't come in til day 6 so I fed my two on colostrum and then leon didn't latch properly with his tongue tie and was fine (i wasn't ha ha )

Your nipples shouldn't be bruised do you think she has a deep enough Latch? Do you know the soft palette at the back of the mouth, your nipple should be there otherwise it rubs on the hard palate and hurts. When she feeds it's good if you can see long slow suck after a while you can see her swallowing these are good signs.

Just feed feed feed , she will put weight on and will help your supply. It's good to empty the breast if possible before offering the other side as it's supply and demand. Xxxxx

That's the problem though I don't think she is getting anything out of me I don't think she is sucking hard enough. She will suck for a while fall asleep I'll wake her then it will repeat until she lets of the highest pitch cry you have ever heard and refuses that breast where she'll leave it in her mouth and won't bother sucking and just cries. It's heartbreaking. The midwife said to offer second breast of that happens which I do and we repeat the same process. I have been offering both breast repeatedly to try and encourage her to feed. As she is jaundice and has lost too much weight I have been advised to express and offer her the expressed milk. This is the point that she will drink a full 60ml then and only then does she seem content.

Sunday night I feed with no expressed milk and she slept less than 2 hours in total and screamed the rest of it. Monday night I topped her up with expressed milk and she slept 3 hours at a time and with no screaming. She has also finally started having poos that aren't just meconium. The other thing that I have noticed is that my breast don't feel full even now after 4 hours since she was last latched on. Which is weird because on Sunday morning I could feel they were hard and full. I hate the idea that she's literally been starving for the last 2 days and I haven't noticed. Poor little thing.