9 day old constantly rooting

[annabeau]

My 9 day old DD has rooted since the moment she was born and constantly wants to feed. I've got the hang of bf but am often overwhelmed by her demands. The 1st night in hospital she fed for a total of 6 hours- no mean feat for me after an emergency csec.
She is better and has slept 2-3 hrs at a time in the night which has been a godsend for me and DP. But I find she's so much more demanding at night and won't be settled by me at all, presumably because all she wants from me is milk. Not fun for DP who has to work too.
Has anyone else experienced similar?

2-3 hours at a time is great for a breastfed 9 day old! The rooting and continual feeding is her way of increasing your milk supply. She will settle down and it can be very hard but just relax, get into bed with her in the day dn be quiet with her while she feeds or just sucks.

They are so tiny for such a short time, enjoy it!

this is what newborns do ! sorry , but it is .

2 - 3 hourly feeding is pretty good going at this age.

your DH might want to sleep with ear plugs in or in the sprae room /sofa if he does nto wnat to be disturbed

the only way you should settle a newborn at night is by feeding, so she is going to want you only

I agree, normal normal normal, and in fact feeding her responsively every time she looks for it is absolutely the right thing to do to ensure your milk supply meets her needs. Please believe me that she will become less demanding with time - right now she's suddenly gone from constant nourishment via the umbilical cord to having to go for periods of time without any energy input. It's to be expected that at first she needs to top up regularly.

Tiring but normal and as long as you accept it and don't try to do anything more in a day than feed her when she needs to be fed then you will get through this, I promise.

Congratulations, by the way!

It sounds like you could be entering the 10 day growth spurt. I remember being my most exhausted on day 10 as DS fed so much! Don't worry, it all sounds normal and things will slowly get easier. Make sure you eat and especially drink lots and spend the rest of your time sleeping/chilling!

Yes - entirely normal! She will be sucking for comfort and reassurance as well as food, and letting her feed as much as she wants now is the best route. I recommend a Lovefilm subscription and just live on the sofa for a bit!

absolutely agree with the others...my dd would not settle until gone 4am for the first 2-3 weeks of her life, and it was so very very hard, but we stuck with it, and it soon passed and enjoyed wonderful breastfeeding for 7-8 months.

it is really really hard for you right now, but to get 2-3 hours sleep between feeds is really great and shows her tactics are working.

make sure you sleep when she does and keeping eating lots of carb rich foods, oh ok, chocolate - you deserve it!

thanks everyone for your reassurances, they really help my sanity!

we had a terrible night last night she slept for 20 mins at midnight, again at 2am before finally getting her head down for 2 hours at 6 am . luckily she slept later this morning so i got an hour or so in

mw came today and said she's probably on a growth spurt and i was reassured by the fact she's now 7lb 3 after being born 6 15 so has regained her birth weight and then some so we must be doing something right!

annabeau - I feel for you, my first was like you describe - the sleep deprivation can be awful. I hope you manage to cope. If not, consider co-sleeping if it is an option to you - it was literally a life saver for me - I was about to crack up when at 3 months babe still woke every 20 mins in the night!

I bf to 2.4 years - it got a hell of a lot easier as time went by.

The MW probably suggested this already, but they don't always, so here is a tip that I found helpful. After you have fed her at night, try to get something to eat and drink yourself, which will help you make more milk for the next feed.
I used to take easy-to-eat food to bed with me... mini weetabix, yoghurts, little plastic pots of "tinned" fruit, nuts, digestive biscuits...it's making me hungry just thinking about it.
DS is 9 now, and I still feel nostalgic for those 10 o'clock, midnight, 2am, 4am, feasts. By 6am I'd run out of snacks and had to come downstairs and make toast.

My DS also seemed to feed constantly in the first few weeks. It was pretty much 1 hour of feeding, 20 mins sleeping over and over again 24 hours a day. I had an emcs too and within a couple of days I was overwhelmed with tiredness and I felt like I couldn't cope. After DH went back to work, it was even worse. You have my sympathy as these were difficult times.

One thing which did help was co-sleeping as I found we both got a lot more sleep that way. I wish I'd done it straight away, but I was nervous about falling asleep on him.

In the end I started giving him formula top ups which I regret (lot of pressure from well-meaning parents). I mixed fed (mostly bf, but with one evening top up of formula) for 10 weeks, but then it fell apart when ds decided he preferred the bottle .

I guess my only advice is to stick with it as it will pass.