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You've been given some great advice, so I wont reinvent the wheel either! But I will say you are doing an awesome job Dusty. Snaps for you for giving it a go. I found at the start that it was such hard work, and often I had hard leaky boobs, but now its just soooo easy. Big hugs, you are definitely not stupid, you're a mum :hug:
You're not stupid! I bet every new mum wonders the same thing. I had exactly the same questions when I had my DD, and a helpful bit of advice I got from an ABA member was to try to make sure you drain each breast within a 24 hour period. Doesn't matter if its not at one feed / one sitting. Once (if?) your DD starts doing a cluster feeding session in the evenings, you might find that your BBs are getting pretty well drained and floppy by the end of each day :) And for lumps, yep, massage in the shower.
Congratulations xx
Ooops, I never heard that advice either and I definitely swapped DD over for both sides when she was a newborn. Then I didn't, then I did. There was no set pattern with us, I just sorta followed her lead. :dunno: Sounds like you're both getting into the bfing swing of things. ;)
:hug:
I worked out that a last off/first on method worked best for me so I'd never fully drain both breasts at the feed, but the one that wasn't drained was the first one bub went on for the next feed. There is no need to feed stupid hun! What is one nurses opinion of how it should be done is not necessarily the right way for you.
At 6 days your breasts are still working out what to do so there is a chance of lumps regardless of them being fully drained. It's not ideal to leave one engorged though so if that is happening then express the edge off.
I could never remember which side E was up to and would usually just stick him on the side that felt fullest and hope that I'd got it right :redface: Most of the time it was fine, I'd occasionally get lumps and very sore boobs which needed to be massaged or I'd hand express just enough to take the edge off (although you do need to be careful not to express too much or you'll increase your supply even more), but you'll find that this will probably happen regardless of any conscious thing you do, as babies will occasionally feed more frequently (growth spurts) or less frequently (starting to sleep for longer) and the supply/demand thing sometimes takes a while to catch up to what bubs is doing.
It's so easy to worry about being exact about times and alternating boobs when you first start feeding, but don't think that anything you've done has caused the situation, oversupply is sooo common in the early days. You're doing ace!!