Breast feeding gets harder not easier??

[buckyou]

My DS is 8 weeks old. BF is going ok but he's getting more frequent with his feeding not less? He's been up feeding for at least an hour. He was doing a decent stretch of 5/6 hours but that has reduced to about 3.

I BF my DD to 4 months too and never got to that 'easy' stage. She fed constantly.

What am I doing wrong?

[workingmumagain]

You're not doing anything wrong! My DS is almost 2 and he only started going 5-6 hours after his first birthday, prior to he (and his older sister for that matter) fed hourly round the clock a lot of the time, sometimes 3-4 hourly but more often 2 hourly. Yes, it's intense. Feeding on demand is exactly that, not on a schedule, not according to any adult clocks. Your baby's biology is asking for milk, nothing more, nothing less.

[HopelesslydevotedtoGu]

Mine did this for short periods when they were having a growth spurt, then returned to their previous levels of feeding. It could also happen during illness or Wonder Weeks periods.

What really helped was learning to breastfeed lying down and with baby in a sling.

I found it got easier around 3 months. By the time we started solids at 6 months breastfeeding was almost effortless and I found solids a huge hassle in comparison!

[bittapitta]

It sounds like a growth spurt.

It only started getting easier for me after 4-5 months so stick with it. Babies aren't little limpets for long.

[FurryElephant]

It definitely sounds like a growth spurt, hang in there! My 4 month old has been feeding up to 19 times a day for the past few weeks but before that only around 12 times, it just changes so much based on their needs at the time before you know it it'll go back to normal! Then chanted again

[buckyou]

I understand babies are not on a schedule but everyone seems to say it's meant to get easier as you go along not harder. I think it might be a growth spurt though because we were doing quite well.

I'll stick at it a bit longer.. not sure I'm on it for the long haul though.

[Mysterycat23]

I think you have misunderstood the word easy in the context of breastfeeding. Easy refers to the latch and it becoming painless and easy for baby to latch on well. Breastfeeding is easy in terms of instant food available 24/7 with no faffing!

Babies feed frequently, that is totally normal. They are so tiny after all.

My LO feeds every 2 to 2.5 hours. At night he will sometimes sleep for 4 or 5 hours at once. He's 11 weeks. Of course I'd love it if he did a 5 hour stretch every night but if he doesn't I can accept that. I won't be bf him for ever!! It's such a short length of time in the grand scheme of things.

[FurryElephant]

It really isn't for everyone if you aren't enjoying it and finding it stressful then you might find bottle feeding changes everything! Fed is best I think what it means when people say it gets easier is more to do with latch struggles/pain/sometimes lengths of feeds, I definitely wasn't told that it'll be this frequent forever either that or we're all too delirious from lack of sleep we lose track of time

[milleniumhandandprawn]

I think when they say easier they mean that it gets less painful - the let down "tingle", cracked nips etc - and you and the baby get better at it.
This definitely happened for me - way less leaks and dribbles and no more (or rarely) squirting milk halfway across the room. I don't have to take 2 spare tshirts out now wherever we go.
I very rarely get engorged boobs now too.
I'm sure I've read as well that mastitis is less common as the baby gets older.
So all of that is "easier"

My DD is 6 months now and we still haven't got the sleeping sorted. She just gets hungry a lot at night time - always has since she was about 6 weeks. (Before that she lulled us into a false sense of security and pretended to be a sleeper!)
We introduced solids a month ago and even that hasn't made a big difference. I guess she'll just get there eventually.
I'm not sure that it's down to breastfeeding - I've known ff babies who were crap sleepers too!
It is hard though. So very hard! I feel your pain OP (literally).

[buckyou]

That makes sense. I don't find it hard in any other ways apart from frequency and length of feeds.. so quite lucky really.

[Whatsername17]

Buck I feel exactly the same. Dd2 is 11 weeks. The thing that has helped me most in changing my mindset. I don't like breastfeeding. It's a chore. I'm doing it for my baby, I don't have to love it. I'm stopping at 6 months. It really has helped.

[Blahblahblahyadayadayada]

Well this doesn't fill me with confidence st all! I have a 3 year old who had formula who has always been a poor sleeper and now I am BFing my 2 week old and if there is no hope of ever getting any sleep then I don't know what to do! The baby just feeds and pops constantly (she must be getting enough if she is pooing regularly?) and is unsettled at night. Ugh.