Please help- no idea how to help baby

[whitby81]

I know newborns don't stay in one "phase" for long so this could be completely normal, but I'm worried about what to do. My baby's about to turn 4 weeks old, and she's bottle fed expressed breast milk, with a bit of formula, as I had problems with my nipples.

Yesterday for some reason she was sooo hungry, constantly wanting more more more. In between feeds she was wide awake and alert when previously she has had sleeps. During her last feed before bed, she was just not satisfied at all and kept seeming to ask for more (rooting, opening mouth, sucking fingers, crying) despite drinking upwards of 150ml in that one feed. After a while I felt I had to stop feeding her as her belly looked really big and swollen. I wondered if she needed a poo and tried to help by massaging and doing bicycle legs, but nothing happened. In the end she was distraught. I couldn't work out what was wrong and she's never cried as much before. It went on for hours. I didn't want to just keep feeding her as I felt as if I'd fed and fed her too much. Also, I noticed that she'd started guzzling a bit too fast from the bottle and was getting a bit of reflux and so i started making sure to feed her slower, keeping her upright and lowering the teat each time she takes a break from sucking. However she wouldn't stop crying and was so distressed- I had no idea what was wrong. In the end I remembered I had swaddled her before, and tried that (following safety guidelines) and like a miracle, she instantly stopped crying and slept peacefully! This was after about 4 hours of her distress and stress on my part.

Fast forward to this morning- I gave her a feed at 9am and this has gone on and on until now (3.5 hours for only about 90ml).. I'm trying not to let her guzzle but the feed seems to be unbelievably slow. I don't know why. Everytime I think she has finished feeding and I put down the bottle she cries and cries. The actual amount she's drinking is so slow that I'm now worried overall today she's not going to get enough! Having gone from thinking I was overfeeding her yesterday!

So why was she so upset last night and today? Why is her feeding so slow today and how do I feed her enough but not too much? And why won't she sleep or nap after feeds which she usually would?

Try faster flow teats on her bottles.
Some people will say to make holes in her existing tears with a needle, but I just bought faster flow teats.

But surely that's just going to make her guzzle to fast- which was the problem before. She was getting reflux.

*too fast

Yup change the test size ASAP. I couldn't believe the difference.

Not necessarily. The crying can be frustration. So you are only talking a tiny bit bigger, longer smoother flow. Other thing might be a dummy just to replicate the sucking. I wasn't keen but had to concede I had a sucky baby.

Changing the test size will mean she get more milk per suck, so won’t need to guzzle. She’ll be satisfied quicker and less frustrated.

Ok I see. But what I don't understand is that she fed super quickly all yesterday, so she has no problem feeding fast, if not too fast normally...

The other thing to remember that your baby might actually just be awake! I remember the panic when dd1 wasn’t asleep between feeds when dh went back to work then cottoned onto the fact she was awake. So we played for a bit, then she napped.

I know that sounds really daft but I do remember feeling the same as you.