feeding hourly AGAIN WTF!?!!??

[cindyrella]

Support needed!
My dd is 9 weeks ebf. On average she feeds 2 hourly night & day. Which is wearing thin i can tell you! On top of this, she went thru a 6 wk growth spurt, then 8 week growth spurt feeding hourly. Now shes doing it again at 9 weeks.
I know i should relax and go with it but f*%@ me when will she go longer? Surely after growth spurts she should be going longer between feeds.
I thought last night when she went three hourly that hope was on the horizon but today its hourly agsin.

Is there anyone out there who has been thru similar and can give me a good news story? Will it get better i.e. Longer between feeds soon???

God i'm tired & feel chained to the house.

[samebutdifferent]

Omg nightmare!
It WILL pass lol but hideous tired nightmare def!
U feel chained to the house - would going out distract you both? How do u feel about feeding out n about?
R u using both boobs? Three boobs? Even going back for a fourth boob can help...
Breast compressions help some people (google jack Newman breast compressions)
Sometimes big growth spurt around ten weeks and six months seems another one but u r responding - awesome - u will have a great supply for as long as u want.
Hard work now!
Well done!!!

[samebutdifferent]

Sometimes too, just when u think u just can't take it anymore, they let u sleep... Good luck!!

[cindyrella]

Thanks x
I dont mind bf in public but my boob shoots milk across the room when she pulls off due to fast let down then she screams cause i'm busy catchhing said jet stream! Embarrasing :)

[FrogsGoWhat]

DD1 was like that. 2 hourly feeds day and night, apart from when it was hourly in the early mornings, and evening cluster feeding. Nuts. I learned how to feed her in the sling while doing stuff just to keep my sanity.

It got better at about 7 months during the day anyway - when she started getting the hang of food. She still wakes 2 hourly now at 2.9, just doesnt feed back to sleep.

Hopefully yours will be better than that! DD2 is a dream by comparison - already going 3-4 hours at 3 weeks....

[cindyrella]

Oh no! You poor thing...

Well i have brilliant news...she just went 6 whole hours between feeds! I got to sleep for 5 hours...magic :)

Hope its not a one off but even if it is...ill remember this night fondly.

[PuddingAndHotMilk]

I feel your pain, DD is 16 weeks and generally feeds every 1.5 hours daytime and 2.5 hours overnight. As a pp said occasionally when I don't think I can cope she gives me a 5/6 hour stretch (happened 3 times in total)

Once I resigned myself to this I've found it easier to accept and focus on the positives. More nighttime cuddles, great benefits of max prolactin production with nighttime feeds, secure happy child having her needs met, lower SIDS risks. I'm also kidding myself thinking the harder babies tend to be easier toddlers.

Basically hang in there, this too shall pass and you're not alone.

[PuddingAndHotMilk]

this made me feel better about it too

[cindyrella]

Thankyou PuddingAndHotMilk (love the name) it is very nice to know im not alone...and fab link thank u! She makes a lot of sense.
I know i should go with it...and have been...but every now and again i feel its all too much. Helps knowing there are others out there x

[SpoonfulOfJam]

I'm only 4 weeks into this and cried at 3am as my son spent an hour feeding. He also feeds every 2 hours. I'm losing the plot. I'm going to try and express so hopefully my husband can do a feed. I really hope this gets better. I don't want to give up bf because I'm tired but I equally don't want to resent bf.

[FrogsGoWhat]

Spoonful. I can honestly say that you get used to it. I very rarely get more than 2 or 3 hours sleep in a row, and it's been like that for 2 plus years. In fact if she does sleep I still wake! We do bed share though so I don't properly wake so get back to sleep easily.
I did hit a wall at 6 weeks though when I started hallucinating from tiredness, but then as long as I get a lie in once a week, and nap whenever I can then I cope. Even when back at work!

[FrogsGoWhat]

Dd2 on the other hand is a dream! So it's the baby, nothing you do / don't do... I blamed myself for ages, but it's just the way she is.

[Creamtea1]

Hi op and spoonful - please be assured it does get better and frogs is right that after about 6 weeks your body seems to adjust to the lack of sleep.
Dd (dc3) is 9 weeks and it is so much better now than a month ago. Their digestive system starts to mature so they can cope with wind etc better and she is more interested in being on her play mat.
And I thin frog said about difficult babies make easier toddlers? Well I can only speak my from my experience but dc1 was a walking hell of a baby for 1 year but then morphed into the easiest toddler ever, in fact right up to age 6ish - at which point he turned into a teenager
Dc2 was a dream baby sleeping through at 12 weeks and so low maintenance, and you guessed it then became devil toddler!

[PuddingAndHotMilk]

Spoonful, it does get better and you do get used to the lack of sleep thing. Take a nap in the day/eve while DH does a feed but keep doing the nighttime yourself - the nighttime feeds impact your supply the most so if you skip one you produce less prolactin and it might mess up your supply xx

[cindyrella]

I'm back.

Situation has not got better. She is still.feeding hourly during the day. Waking up from naps to feed. Inside or out and about. I've started taking a bottle because i live in country she gets hungry where i cant bf her.

Now she is refusing my right boob. Drinks longer from left. I can only pump 20ml from it wheras i used to be able to pump 100ml in 5 mins!

I know your supply is supposed to be always just what they need...or is it? Can i be producing less?

Shes sucking her hand a lot.

God im sick of overanalysing! Even sicker of having my tits out!