Breastfeeding struggles at 4 weeks

[lilysmemo]

Hello, please advise! I have a beautiful 4 week old daughter who I am breastfeeding, but it is a struggle, she is feeding and latching on well, and is putting on weight well( is just over 10 lbs now-8.12 at birth). The problem is a constant hunger! She feeds almost constantly and I am lucky to get an hourbetween feeds in the day. At night time I am awake as much as I an asleep and I am exhausted. I do express when I get a chance and we have given her occasional formula to give me a break.
I really want to continue to feed her myself , as I fed my 13 yr old dd for 6 months with no problem ( she slept through from 6 weeks)- but I am tired and frazzled with this little one. We even bought dummies today( a big no- no for me) in an attempt to ease her off to sleep at nights.
Any advice would be great- I am not remotely worried about her, she is thriving and happy, it's me that looks 900 and is losing her marbles!

bumping for you - but this might get more responses if you post it in the breast/bottle feeding section

I hesitate to say this as I KNOW how hard what you are going through is, but I think that pattern is not unusual for a four week old baby.

I am sympathetic though - can you catch up on sleep at all during the day? DH used to take both children out as soon as DD had had a feed and keep them away for as long as possible so that I could have an hour or so in the day.

Do you co-sleep? Feeding lying down at night can be a good way of maximising sleep.

It will get better soon.

also swaddling and white noise can help

3 weeks is a classic growth spurt time - so with any luck you're about to come out of the spurt... and the best way through a growth spurt is to feed, feed, feed to get your supply up.
Good luck! And remember you don't have to get anything else done except feed her - get other people to help and put everything else off for later.

ditto what others have said. I breastfed my son for 4 months only because I too was 'frazzled'. I remember leaving my door on the latch because I was constantly feeding him day and night I didnt have the will to get up to answer the door !

I co-slept which did make it easier for me to drop back off to sleep inbetween times - DS was on top of the duvet with his own covers and I turned the bed around so one side was along the wall to keep him safe.

It was exhausting and I totally admire anyone who does it xxx

I had a terrible (!) time feeding mine!!!! She was constantly feeding snd with two older children it was really hard!!! But i stuck at it and managed to do 9 n half mnths! I know its really hard but try to stick it thru, i didnt breastfeed my eldest properly and i really really regretted it so i really pushed my self for my youngest. Stick through it, u wanna give ur baby the best possible start and once you bottle you wnt be able to reverse the decision! BIG HUG

Thank you all for your comments, it helps to know this is quite normal- we got 2 sleeps of 3.5 hours last night so are feeling a lot more positive this morning

Glad things are looking up.

Sleep deprevation is hell.

You are doing a brilliant job. I sometimes think it doesn't help that society thinks there is something wrong when a baby doesn't sleep well, instead of thinking that it is normal and congratulating the mother for being so responsive to her baby.