Baby 4 months - sudden drop in milk supply

[Countryside14]

My little girl is 15 weeks old and the last few days I don't feel like I'm satisfying her after her feeds. She's always been a frequent feeder about every 2 hrs in the day. At night she'll feed at 7pm then dream feed at 10:30 then goes through until 4/5 am then back to every 2 hrs.

I don't feel like there's a lot of milk coming out at each feed now. I don't know what to do as I really don't want to have up. She was quite small at birth at 5lb 7 and last week was 11lb 3 so she gained nicely and the hvs have been happy with her weigh gain. Just so nervous I'm not enough for her now and really don't want to give up.

The last few weeks she's dribbled a lot and sucked her fists and lips. I thought this might be signs of teething but now I'm worried its hunger. She's a wingy baby anyway so its hard to tell what's wrong of anything at all?!

Any advice?? X

There us a notorious growth spurt around four m

There is a notorious growth spurt around four months. Expect increased ie nonstop feeding, grumpy unsettled behavior and tough nights for a while. You are enough for her, but expect increased nursing time while she bumps your supply up again. If you can park your bum on the sofa, read books and watch DVDs while she nurses, so much the better! You'll probably get through a whole box set! Seriously, stick with it, it's all normal.

Is she more hungry than usual? (more feeds/more frequent waking?) Is she upset when she's finished feeding? There's a few possible things going on here: 1. growth spurt, lots of feeding, lots of hunger; 2. distractable baby - the world is exciting and interesting, and I spent a lot of time chasing my baby about trying to get him to latch back on in case he just wasted away (he didn't); 3. your baby is probably becoming more efficient as a feeder - we were having feeds mostly no longer than ten mins at 4 months; and 4. your supply may well becoming more in tune with your baby, so you may not feel as engorged as previously - you're more supply on demand now, rather than supply waiting for demand.

I think that hungry babies are pretty clear in their fury for being hungry, they will root and nuzzle in too. The dribbling and sucking sounds like teething, and also like developmentally appropriate learning behaviour - babies do suck their hands a lot. Teeth can also take ages to turn up, so while it might seem like a red herring, she really might be uncomfortable with teeth under the gums. Do get her weighed again in a couple of weeks if you are worried, and keep an eye on the nappy output, but it sounds like you've done a marvellous job so far, and I see no reason why your supply would be dwindling at this point.

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Hmmmm, maybe slightly more hungry. Or I just end up feeding her as she's grumpy and I no it stops her crying. She never seems upset right after a feed. I let her stay on as log as she wants. She just seems to be more fussy than her usually fussy self haha.

It's so difficult. I'd love to do 3 hourly feeds and really feel like she's satisfied. She's my first so it's all new to me. I've been getting her weighed every 2 weeks so far. Is it quite normal for a baby to nurse so much?

As you say hopefully its a bit of a spurt x

It's very very normal. Three hourly feeds, especially so young, are the exception rather than the rule. She wants to be with you, on you, all the time, it's how she is designed to be. You are absolutely doing the right thing to go with it, and let her set the pace.

Kellymom.com is a great bf website for info and reassurance.

We didn't get to three hour feeds for ages, probably until he started taking food. It sounds like she sleeps well overnight, so she's taking in lots during the day.

Thanks everyone. I had thought if she's sleeping well at nights she can't be hungry? Not sure how these little babies work just yet.

All sounds perfectly normal . Agree with the others too that 3 hourly feeds might be a bit unrealistic at this age, much better to feed on demand.

I really doubt you have low supply but if you want to check, could you go to a Bfing Support Group and talk to a BFC? This article on kellymom is useful too