EY, I just wanted to join the chorus sending you lots of virtual hugs and support. You are working your butt off to keep your baby healthy and fed, this mom thing is so hard, especially at the beginning! I'm no LC, but I have breastfed my three kids, using some formula supplementation here and there. A few thoughts in no particular order -
- Newborns are hard! I love my babies but the newborn stage is not my favorite for so many reasons! Hang in there, it gets better.
- I see you are in CA, this dr is in Portland and is supposed to be one of the best at treating tongue/ lip ties,
http://www.drghaheri.com/, I *think* he does over the web consults as well. Definitely get checked out for a tie ASAP. My youngest had a tongue tie and it was clipped at our ped's office when he was just 2 or 3 weeks old. My ped is awesome and it was a minor tie so she didn't need to refer out. She highly recommended getting it done early because problems associated with a tie tend to get worse as the baby gets older. Plus bad nursing habits are hard to break.
- Get some rest! Pump or use formula, have your hubby give your LO a bottle and say "don't wake me up for at least 4hrs!" That amount of time won't wreck your milk supply, and you will feel so much better after some solid sleep.
- The 10min nursing thing sounds strange to me too. Newborns are terribly inefficient and have to practice a lot to get better at nursing. My first child in particular would nurse for WAAAAY longer, and that was fine. Which brings me to my next point...
- Don't feel guilty for offering a pacifier. Yes, it is mom's job to comfort and soothe the baby, but you CANNOT do it 24/7. My first child had a powerful suck reflex. At his 2wk appt, the ped took one look at me and said, "are you sleeping at all???" She said to give him a pacifier! I said, "but but but what about nipple confusion? And artificially satisfying him? And how will I know if he is really hungry?" She practically rolled her eyes (different ped than the one we have now, she was pretty old school) and said, "you'll know." And sure enough, gave him the pacifier and he was so happy and slept so much better and nursed until he was 15mo when he weaned on his own. My second child hated the pacifier and screamed at the sight of it, third was so-so. Each kid is different.
- Definitely try the soy lecithin for plugged ducts. I struggled with plugged ducts when I went back to work and had to pump 5 or so times a day (worked 12 hr days). Soaking the breast in a bowl of water also helped, but I obviously couldn't do that at work! When I started taking soy lecithin at the first sign of discomfort I found that pretty much eliminated the plugged ducts.