12 day old and cluster feeds - normal?

[petisa]

please excuse typing as only have one hand.

my dd has times during the day when she wants to feed for hours and hours continuously. for example yesterday she fed from 11.30am to 5.30pm with only a couple of v short snoozes in between. is this normal or is it a sign that something's wrong or she's having trouble getting milk out? she has plenty of poos and wet nappies and gained a bit of weight in her first week. i have had cracked nipples but they are much better and i can see her latch is improving.

after the marathon feeds she'll conk out for 3-4 hours. at night she'll sleep for 4 hours and would sleep for longer but i wake her.

should i wake her? is this type of feeding bad for my supply? should i try and have a more regular pattern i.e. every 3 hours or should i go with the flow? tbh i think it would be a big stress if i tried to wake her all the time or stop her from feeding when she wants to but i don' want to endanger my supply...

surely after feeding for hours and hours there's not much milk there and we'd be better waiting for an hour or two for the milk to build up again?

help! it's so confusing!

forgot to say i try and do breast compression and make sure she's doing active sucking during these marathon feeds. but how can her little tummy deal with all those hours of feeding unless it means she's not getting very much? btw there are other times when she feeds for 10 mins, seems satisfied and goes back to sleep for an hour or two.

and if these looong cluster feeds are normal, how long do thhey go on for?

thanks!!

petisa - this sounds normal. There is always milk there - waiting for milk to 'build up again' is not necessary. Production continues in response to the milk being removed. Babies - especially new babies - feed as a way of connecting, communicating and comforting.

Can you see a midwife or call one of the bf helplines and talk this through? You sound a bit wobbly and under-confident and worried about your supply...when all the signs are that it is just fine :)

No need to bother with breast compression.

Breast compression is a great technique when a baby is not thriving and needs help to get milk out and stay awake to do so.

It is not at all necessary when all is well :)

Hi Petisa - I have a 7 mo DD who was a marathon feeder from the word go. Except for it feeling like someone was attacking me with a cheese grater for about 10 weeks I didn't have any trouble feeding but wondered if I was doing something wrong because DD fed ALL the time... one memorable time when she was 4 days old she was on for 2.5 hours in a go with both of us in tears. I never thought that I would get through the marathon and constant feeds.

She settled down and stopped doing the massively long feeds at 14 weeks and we went to 40 minute feeds every 2 hours which was a huge improvement from the hour to hour-and-a-half feeds. At about 5 months she dropped her feeds to about 20 mins every 2.5(ish) hours and then at 6(ish) months when she started solids she dropped to 5 breastfeeds a day, would only let me feed her every 3 hours for about 10 - 15 minutes. After the initial months I thought this was wrong and tried to force her to feed more - cue screaming from DD. Once I let it be as she wanted we both became much happier with it.

I used to be so envious of those around me who had the quick feeders when DD seemed to want to settle down for a picnic every time it was time for a feed. If someone had told me it would get this easy I would have smiled vaguely and dismissed it thinking that DD would never get there.

While I completely understand why some don't or can't carry on with it, now that I'm here I am glad that I personally carried on as I very much enjoy the cuddles etc that we have.

I got through the early days by setting small goals of 6 weeks, then 3 months, and then 6 months. Sometimes I reset my goals to just get to the end of the week... I remember once complaining bitterly to my mum (who breastfed 4) and she said that if I made the choice to breastfeed that I didn't have to enjoy it but if I wanted to be successful at it that I just had to accept it. It was harsh at the time (when I was just looking for sympathy!) but in the middle of the night it did help me to stop feeling to hard-done-by to remember that it was my choice.

Sorry for the epic post, I just wanted to post how I got through as you sound very much like I was 6 months ago :).

thanks so much for your replies! tiktok yes i think i'm a bit of a worrier. i seem to think my milk is going to disappear just because dd sleeps for 3 hours fraid i can't talk to a midwife or anyone who'd be of any use here. i'm in spain and bf support is awful. there is a group i've found that i'm planning to go to though.

your reassurance has been great, i just didn't know cluster feeds could go on and on for hours like that! i searched it here and found loads of 'help, my 2 week old feeds for HOURS non-stop' type threads

Thanks for posting your experience overwhelmed, it does help to think this WILL settle down sooner or later. i just don't know how i'm going to manage 6 days a week till 10pm with dd1 who's 2.4yr and no nursery or family around!

Hi Petisa - as you're in Spain the kellymom site - here is a great source of information. BTW my ds also did monster cluster feeds and he did settle down into a good regular pattern. For him, it was around the 12 week mark (though it had improved steadily from around 4-6 weeks).

Congrats on your DD!