BF constantly

[vvtired]

Hi everyone

Got a week old baby and exclusively breastfeeding at the moment.

This cluster session has gone on for 8/9 hours now. She latches, feeds briefly then dozes off.
I wake her but she just lightly sucks.

When I put her in her crib she settles for a few minutes then starts crying and rooting.
I'm so so tired.
Does this get any easier?
I am worried she could be poorly as she's relentless.

[vvtired]

Bump

[NewMum293]

It’s totally normal. So hard but it does end. My record was 10 hours and I was just in tears at the end. Do you have a sling so you can do things while she feeds? We had a Snuzpod so our baby was next to me in bed but in a separate space so I could hold her hand in the night and, when she got a bit better at latching, feed while I lay on my side if I was exhausted.

I also found compressing my breast when my daughter had fallen asleep on it either startled her off it or prompted her to finish off that feed.

[vvtired]

@NewMum293 thank you for your reply. I'm relieved it's normal! Ftm so worried about a lot at the moment lol. I'll look into slings

[NewMum293]

If you have a local sling library, you can try some out before committing to one.

When I got to 4 weeks, my husband gave the occasional bottle of expressed milk or formula just to give me a break when I’d had a particularly long clusterfeed, which helped me maintain my sanity. I was then able to go back to exclusively breastfeeding and am stil breastfeeding (though no longer exclusively) at 8 months. It also had the benefit that my daughter takes the bottle without issue (and we never had a ‘nipple confusion’ issue!).

Keep your chin up, you’re doing great and things will get so much easier - hang in there! x

[vitadolce2015]

Totally normal! I was glued to the sofa for the first few weeks. Netflix and snacks essential! I found it a bit knackering at the time but do feel nostalgic about it now. That phase absolutely zooms past and somehow DS is now 7 months

[vitadolce2015]

Ps as PP said keep your chin up, sounds like you're going a great job it really does go by in a flash this tiny baby phase

[LeGrandBleu]

@vvtired do not do the sling without reading this article of a baby's death due to a sling.
I live in Australia, it was on the news in March followed by many service on slings and babies and why it is dangerous when they are tiny.
www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/babies/mum-distraught-after-sling-suffocates-baby/news-story/8a331a8be8b38e844ce646963a405818

[vvtired]

LeGrand OMG that's horrific

[LHMB]

I could have written this, my baby is 15 days old now and I am feeling like a call complete failure, I just can't settle her with breastfeeding alone and have to combination feed her, she seems to only settle for longer with formula, yet only takes about 1ml so a lot of formula is going to waste. My friends baby is 3 months old and she's never had to use formula, she's exclusively bf and I feel like I've failed my baby and am not good enough for her as I wanted to exclusively breast feed. I don't know what I'm doing wrong and I'm so tired and low.

[vvtired]

LHMB - I got some support and it turns out a likely reason was improper latch - she had to work really hard to get enough milk and she was dozing off as she was getting tired.

We have been working on getting a better latch and tried some different positions and things have improved. It's still hard work but much better than before!

[LHMB]

Thank you, that's something I could look into