3 week old feeding every 1.5 hours!

Prothet_of_Doom

My wife breast fed both our kids and the smugness of parents who bottle feed is amazing.

No, the first didn't sleep more than an hour at a time. And the second, yeah she was the same. Don't worry though give it time, and they'll leave home and give you some peace.

flossy_splodge

jojo2004 wrote: »

Hi OP, I'm flossy_splodge's DD and she's right, as is Molly, above.
I'm just starting to realise that you CANNOT have a baby and expect life to be as it was before. It isn't. You will have to give yourself a break, and be kind to yourself, or you'll go mad.

Also, as Molly said, don't set too much store by what you read/are told, as in six months time you'll feel confident enough to dish out the advice- that's all most of it is: someone with a bit more experience telling you what worked for them. I was fed the most appalling rubbish in hospital about bf, by midwives who haven't actually done it.
When I tearfully repeated it to a bf counsellor, who'd had three kids, she said 'you are the only expert in the world on your baby,what do you think?'. Made me stop and think!
Also, re ff, we had to ff from the first, as I was in theatre being transfused and stitched up, so she had her first feed from a bottle. She happily takes both breast and bottle. I think 'nipple confusion' is just so much guff.

Do you feed on the sofa? I've just bought two baskets to sit next to me. One has a sports bottle of water and tasty snacks, the other has the tv remotes, DVD remote, phone, any pills I need, baby scissors (seems to need her nails cut a lot), lip balm, Infacol which I give her before each feed, etc. Everything I need to stay glued to the sofa, comfortably and without trying to multitask (impossible when bf).

And lastly (she is now asleep, so taking the 'sleep when baby sleeps' advice), as my mum says to me a lot: you are doing really well.

As indeed you are!
There isn't a textbook for this in spite of what some believe so trust your instincts and relax. You'll all look back when child is 20 and realise it was in fact the easiest time! Honestly.:rotfl:

Toomuchdebt

Haven't read it all but just wanted to say all 5 girls were like that for the first 2 months at least, and then I had my boy who slept all the time and fed every 4 hours and I thought something was wrong with him LOL.

GobbledyGook

Toomuchdebt wrote: »

Haven't read it all but just wanted to say all 5 girls were like that for the first 2 months at least, and then I had my boy who slept all the time and fed every 4 hours and I thought something was wrong with him LOL.

That happened to me as well! Feeding and sleeping wise my third was so different to the first two.

DD1 cluster fed in evenings. I felt chained to the sofa. DD2 didn't feed quite so often (every 2 hours or so), but she believed (and still does) sleep is for the weak.

DS1 fed 4 hourly and slept. He slept 11pm until 7am when he was 11 weeks old and I woke in an absolute panic. My friends used to howl with laughter as they were battling to get their babies to sleep and I was prodding mine awake!

deva

Agree with others: first 6 weeks is upside down hell, but then they start to understand day and night and things should settle. Nothing is permanent as we've just had a mad 72 hours back feeding every two hours at 4 months. They like to keep us on our toes!

I had to change my diet as although it's common knowledge you need to drink constantly I don't usually have any milk in my diet, since having daily porridge and tea she's much more content!

Hth

stardoman

ss3n08 wrote: »

Please help. I am a new mum my boy is 4 weeks old and since he has been born he feeds every 1.5 hours or if I am very lucky, every 2 hours. At night each feed can take in excess of 2 hours, today one feed took 3.5 hours and only ended because we had to go out. This is day and night. He is gaining weight very well but this constant feeding is exhausting me. We tried him on one formula bottle but it made him unwell so he is completely breast fed. I haven't had more than 4 hours sleep in any 24 hour period since he was born. Is this normal? Does anyone else have this trouble? Does anyone have any advice please?

My first two babies did this until they were just over 6 weeks old - so you're nearly there. After the 6 week growth spurt they seemed to become more efficient at feeding, so still fed as frequently but the feeding time on the breast massively reduced. I think part of this was them becoming more aware of their surroundings so they had other things to do.

Have you heard of breast compression because I did this and it helped a bit. Its a way of getting more milk into the baby. If you go to the kellymom website there's information on there.

Well done for getting this far with such a demanding baby. But I promise you it won't be like this for ever.

daisy2012

our son now 19mths fed often in first 2 weeks until I couldn't keep up as need sleep with my epilepsy. midwife advised me to put him on hungry milk. when we did he only had 6 bottles a day. express and let someone else feed him while you have a good sleep. you can also mix breast with formula to fill him up longer. he may need to get used to formula or try different brand. we found aptamal easier on his stomach. they have reflux, colic, soya, hungry baby types. good luck

KPDQueen

Hi, my son was exactly the same and after two weeks I made the decision to go to bottle feeding as I was feeding constantly and also had a two year old to look after as well. I got barely any sleep. I felt very guilty moving to bottle and did express as I had plenty of milk. He still only took an ounce or so at a time so that meant he was feeding frequently. I remember my midwife suggested that I give him a dummy. I am not a fan of dummies and my daughter never needed one so didn't. After a few weeks I tried one and it changed my life. I wished I had done it much sooner as may have made all the difference. It may not work but with little sleep you will try anything. I also agree about trying different baby formula too as I did and made a difference. Well done you for sticking with the breast feeding. Expressing is great too but if you get little time between feeding then it is hard to then express as well. It does get better.

Kaz2904

If you do get to the stage where you need to feed and sleep at the same time, I found it very easy after the first few days. Luckily DD- the nightmare sleeper was the first. We happened to have a spare mattress so dumped it in her room on the floor. I then worked out a system....
I would hook her out of the cot and bung her on the outer edge of the mattress (not so far to fall). I would then go to the end of the mattress and get on the inside of the bed. The duvet would then come up my back but flicked over so it wasn't on her. A pillow was down by my knees so I couldn't roll onto her. She would then be pulled into position, head to top and toes to bottom, tucked really firmly in position and feed. My underneath arm would go under my pillow so it also stopped me rolling.
If she wanted the top boob, if awake enough, I would swap so we went head to foot. After a while, we got so used to it that she would find it herself.

DS seldom had night feeds after the early days. As he had taken up the mattress space on the floor, he just came into bed with DH and I if he was feeding tonnes.

It is really hard work. The only advice I can give works for every hard stage;
"This too shall pass.".
It really only helps in hindsight though