Why is my newborn constantly feeding at night?

[Melittlebee]

He's 5 days old. He's literally going from breast to breast through the night but during the day it's back to normal where he's giving me a few hours (4 max) rest and he sleeps in between.

Is this normal?

Yes, night feeds are important for maintaining supply. Plus he’lol be gearing up for a growth spurt.
I know it’s fucking hard but honestly, it doesn’t last (as long as it seems!)

Totally normal. He’ll get it.

You can help the process along by making nights quiet and dark, low lighting, no eye contact etc, and in the day leave him sleep in the normal household lights and noises.

Mine had jaundice in the early days so i always put her to sleep by a window in the day which I think helped.

It’s normal! It’ll be partly because newborns stomachs are tiny, growth spurts, but also comfort because just a few days ago he was safe and warm inside you and now he’s in the big, cold world and he’ll want to be as close to you as possible to feel safe!

Newborns don't know the difference between night and day. It's just something you have to go through. Ways to help is make sure it's noisy in the room they sleep in during the day and put them in a dark quiet room for night time sleeping. It may take you a good few months to help them establish the difference between night and day. It gets better. Hang in there

Your baby has no concept of day and night- they don't exist in his world. Your baby does not have his circadian rhythm 'set'. This takes around 4 months.

He's only 5 days old so he'll be sleeping a lot.
Give it another week and you'll find him much more wakeful and feeding more in the day time (night time feeds may remain frequent. Mine all fed every 1 1/2- 2 hours, day and night. It was so tough).

Congratulations!

It’s normal keep going . it’s hard work but will start to be less frequent within a few months .

Oh and if it helps to know it will feel like he feeds contantly for the first few months.

Go with it, sleep where you can, you just need to get through it. There is light at the end of the tunnel though, bf comes into it’s own about 3 months when things settle, you can get out and about without having to worry if you’ve forgotten anything, have enough formula, are the bottles sterilised etc. Suddenly you find yourself getting longer and longer breaks.

Then by 6 months you’re weaning and it’s a whole different world when you can go out and leave baby- they can have a bowl of porridge if they need feeding.

Hang in there!

Very common, I would be actively waking him up during the day for more frequent feeds as it's more bearable to constantly feed during "day" hours that night time.

Very normal. Google safe co-sleeping, then you can sleep (or st least doze) while he feeds, makes it much easier to cope

Yup normal. My 8 month old seems to think he's a newborn and does the same.

Feed him every couple of hours in the day, handle him lots and keep things bright and noisy.

Then 11pm-7am stay in bed with him, lights off/low, no talking or TV on and try to doze while he feeds.

If you physically can its a good idea to get up and out into daylight in the morning (easier said than done sometimes). This will help with the circadian rhythm.

I think it’s called reverse cycling

I would try and feed him more frequently in the day. You want those long stretches to be at night so you can sleep.

Reverse cycling is where you intentionally put the baby into a routine where they feed at night and not in the day.

Usually in older babies- i did it when i went back to work and dc wouldn’t take a bottle or formula. She fed before and after work, then three times in the night. More common in the US as maternity leave is so short.

In newborns it’s entirely normal, as they don’t have a cycle at all, forwards, backward or reverse :)

Combination of the fact that they don't know day from night at an early age and that this is just what newborns do.

However, I would also recommend popping to a drop in breastfeeding support group just to have latch checked and make sure there are no issues. Hopefully you can find one that has an experienced lactation consultant that can also check for tongue tie to rule that out and make sure there are no other issues with milk transfer.

The hormone prolactin that helps increase and maintain your supply has its highest levels at night, usually around 3am. So it's actually in babies' best interests to feed regularly in the night sometimes knowing the biology can make it easier to deal with as it shows it's not only normal, but a really good thing.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amy-brown/good-baby-damaging-breastfeeding_b_12452336.html?ncid=fcbklnkukhpmg00000001&ec_carp=5335533236748426228&ec_carp=5335533236748426228

Not sure if the ink will work but it’s a good article.

reallyanotherone not heard of that. This is reverse cycling kellymom.com/bf/normal/reverse-cycling/

I was going to say what Littlemiss said milk making hormones are highest at 3am.

How your baby knows that is beyond me but its something nobody tells you.