Starting to really resent breastfeeding...

[TriJo]

DS is 12 weeks on Monday, he's been EBF all the way apart from a couple of formula top-ups when he was in hospital with jaundice. He's an incredibly hungry baby - I would put him to the breast upwards of 20 times in a 24 hour period, I spend almost 4 hours a day just feeding because he grizzles for it every 45 minutes to 1 hour! He's gone up significantly in terms of percentile since he was born - he was 7lb 8oz at birth (50th percentile) and now he's following the 75th percentile for weight and is over 90th percentile for length, he looks like a long, slim baby.

I'm starting to really struggle though with how much he feeds. When he's constantly feeding in the evenings I feel like I just can't produce enough to keep him satisfied even though logically I know he's fine because he's gaining so well and producing plenty of wet and dirty nappies. I dread these evenings and once I've settled him down to sleep I just feel so touched out that I just want to crawl into a corner and hide away. I know I'm giving him the best possible start but it feels like it's draining the life out of me in the process and I'm starting to really resent it, and that makes me feel really guilty...

[Plantpot83]

I felt like this with DD, by the time she was four months I was really really fed up. She was a constant feeder, through the day and night. I got particularly fed up of her cluster feeding all evening. However by 4/5 months that had stopped she started going to bed (she'd wake up again before going down for the night but I did at least get an evening to myself a bit) and as she became more distractible in the day it actually got quite hard to feed her. From l then on it did get easier, although there have been ups and downs. I tried a bit of formula when she was 7 months but that made no difference at all to her sleep etc and I realised how much more convenient bf is. Now at 9 months she can go for hours without feeding especially if she's with DP or DM. If you're really fed up then obviously do whatever is best for you but in my (limited!) experience it will start to improve soon.
Good luck

[HumphreyCobblers]

You could start to give an evening bottle? That may give you a bit of space, and if you are keen to carry on breastfeeding you can limit it to that one bottle.

[Numberoneisgone]

Oh God I remember those early days and yes touched out exactly sums it up. They do feed a lot but I found that getting a bit creative during the day by feeding in a sling really helped making me still get everything done including shopping and not feeling so hemmed in. I wrote off the evenings though to the tv and box sets and doing the bedtimes for the others one handed. By 5-6 months once my they started to get a bit more mobile and interested it got better and after solids it got infinitely better because you could quickly stave them off with finger food or a yogurt and move on with what you wanted to do.

[HumphreyCobblers]

Yes! The relief of handing over a biscuit rice cake and having that work instead is immense.