my 9 wk old wants to feed every 2 hours, at least...

[blackcurrants]

DS feels every 1 1/2 to 2 hours if we're in the house, though he will go longer if we're out and about (basically because he falls asleep in the Ergo carrier), but otherwise (car seat, pushchair) he cries to feed. And if he's being held, he'll try for a snack pretty much all the time. DH calls him 'ever-hopeful' about food!

He wakes up every 2-3 hours during the night. Sometimes it's four, when we 'top off' with a bottle of EBM at 10pm after he's been clusterfeeding for 2-3 hours he'll do sleep till 2am, but I don't like doing that because expressing that extra bottle is a pain, and I don't want him to start needing it to fall asleep. I do feed to sleep most nights, and he's an efficient feeder when he wakes in the night - twenty minutes (usually only one side) and he's back to sleep. The past few nights I tried keeping him awake and offering the other side (in the hopes of filling him up a bit more so he'd sleep a bit longer!) but he was so soundly asleep it would have taken a foghorn or a cold shower to get any more food in him!

He's putting on weight well and being generally adorable, plus he rarely cries - I don't have much to complain about. But I could REALLY use some more sleep, and I'd sort of expected feeds to space out a bit more by now.
Could my supply be going down for some reason? When did your LO start sleeping in 3+ hour chunks? Please give me some hope that I'll get a whole REM cycle one day! :)

Oh, and I can't quite co-sleep cos I get even less sleep (I basically lie awake staring at him for hours, twitching at every sniffle and kick) but he's in a cot next to my side of the bed, and I scoop him out of it and deposit him back in it with minimal fuss after feeding him lying down.

So although I'd appreciate tips on making it more bearable, what I really want is ideas on whether it's normal for a nearly 10 week old to feed that much, and if so, how much longer it might last?

Sounds fairly normal to me. He is probably increasing your supply. Maybe when he gets a bit bigger he will be able to feed a bit longer. 9 weeks is still very new IMO. I don't think any of mine went 3 hours till they were 12 weeks. Mine were all very hungry babies!

Try your best to nap when he sleeps.

Fair enough 3littlefrogs - he's a big, hungry chap and putting on weight like crazy, so at least I know it's going in! And I can't complain that he's refusing the breast or anything, I suppose!

OK, I will reconsider at 12 weeks - that's only a month (gulp) - the past two have gone by so quickly that I'm fairly sure I can do one more.

Sadly I'm back at work 3 days a week, so can't often sleep when he does. Weekends have become precious to me, and I go to bed very early - I'm just starting to feel the effects of cumulative tiredness.

agree with 3littlefrogs, he's hungry, feed him. it's hard but it will get better. it takes longer than the books say to build up supply when they have a growth spurt.

sleep when he does if you can.

good luck.

I was nervous about having them in bed with me, so I took the side off the cot, pushed it right up to the bed and covered the join with a folded sheet, tucked under the far side of the cot mattress, and me lying on the other side IYSWIM.

I could lift them easiy to feed in the night, but didn't feel worried about squashing them.

I breast fed them all for over a year, it was worth persevering, honestly.

blue - I think you're right. He did this punishing growth spurt a last week - six days of feeding in the night 20 minutes, then sleeping for less than an hour... what with being back at work, I thought I was going to die. DH did one night with lots of bottles, and I slept in the other room, and that helped - but I don't pump that much milk for it to be a regular option, plus I want my supply to go up enough that he's not doing the pull-on-breast-while-punching-it thing all night, like he is at the moment during the evening clusterfeeds.

My 9 week old also feeds fairly non stop. She will tolerate a sling for about an hour, the pushchair for about 30 minutes and screams when you put her in the carseat. She just wants to be held and fed. It can be wearing but my DS2 was like this and I remember him becoming a lot easier at 3 - 4 months. It will change. Just bear with it.

oh it all sounds so familiar blackcurrants. i too am hoping for it to ease off over the next couple of weeks (ds is now 11 weeks). we had a 6 hour stint of sleep on saturday so that's a step in the right direction.

you're not alone! though am not back at work - i take my hat off to you for that.

Hi blackcurrant.sounds normal to me. Dd is 12 wks tomorrow and will go no longer than 2 hrs during the day.as day progresses she wants food more frequently so we might have 2 hr stretch in morning, then hr & three quarters, then hr & half etc etc until she's on the boob non stop in the evening. We were having 2-3 stretches at night & never thought I'd see the day when we'd get longer but had an amazing 8 hr stretch last nite.still think I dreamt it happened! Not expecting it again but there is hope.
I thought I was going back to work early when dd will be 14 weeks but that is tough been back when your baby is so young. Do hang in there & take some solace in the fact that lots of us are going through the same kind of seemingly endless feeding.
Good luck.

Nice to know it's normal, thanks :) 6 hours! maybe one day! I work MWF - not by choice exactly, as there's no mat leave for my work here in the US so I had to go back for me and DS to have health coverage. I used to take the NHS for granted....

It's very tiring and I miss DS, but it helps that I like my job and work with nice people. Argh, DS is snotty and tired. going to spend tomorrow in bed.

Sounds normal to me too. DD is 12 weeks and feeding every 1.5-2.5 hours. She was sleeping for 6 hours at night from about 6 weeks but this stopped at 10 weeks and she started only sleeping for 2 x 3 hour stretches.
Last night she managed 6 hours again and I've got my fingers crossed that this means the sleep regression was a growth spurt.

You have my sympathies, it must be very hard to cope with the increased night feeds and a return to work.

Blackcurrants - I feel your pain. I started a thread on this exact thing yesterday, not having seen your thread.

No advice, but sympathy. :)

Hi, just to say mine did this for the first three months. I was dead on my feet and ended up sleeping in the spare room with him next to me just so the rest of the family could stay sane. He was my third and I was expecting an easier time! Anyway, just to say I kept with his mad rhythm and didn't do any extra 'dream feeds' or anything like that (not that I needed to wake him for feeds anyway at that point) and then at 12 weeks he suddenly started going for the whole night - and at 5 months that's still what he's doing. So maybe some hope in there. My health visitor did say that you ca expect a change at 12 weeks so maybe hang on in there? I did much more complicated stuff with my other two, read books and tried everything, but actually my little one sleeps better than the others now!

marl I do like the 'do nothing' approach thanks! I mean, I've not got any energy to do something, so I'll try nothing!

He's got a cold atm, so feeding every 2 1/2 hours. I'm hoping as he gets better he'll sleep longer during the night. He sleeps up to 2 hours during the day... ah well, I'll hold out for 12 weeks. It's only 2 weeks away, now!

I feel your pain, my 8 wk old DD can go up to 3 hrs if we're out and about or she's asleep. At night she has had 5 hr stretches...every now and then.

However today she has fed every hour, sometimes more frequently. We both have streaming colds, so I think it is a comfort thing for her as much as anything as they're not 'hungry' feeds.

Re the cold, sometimes helps if you tip the cot slightly so they're not so flat and head is raised a bit - books or something under the legs at the top or matress or a blanket under the top of the moses basket. Sorry if you already know that...

Hoping things get better soon.

my 10 week old does this; feeds every 2 - 21/2 hours during the day and then at night 4 hoiurs, then 2/3 then 1. It is exhausting but bearable. Glad i'm not alone as my mum keeps saying he should be going for longer.
He is putting on loads of weight so i'm not worried.
Hoowever he has just startde doing the punching the breast thing. Does anyone know if hat means he is not getting enough?

In my head my DS was going to need a feed for 5 mins every 4 hours but what you describe is fairly normal as I quickly found out! It is exhausting, especially if you are back at work already but it sounds like you are doing a great job. I found it really difficult to co-sleep until my DS was a bit bigger. My friend's baby fed every 2 hours so she started to bottle feed and guess what...she still needed to feed every 2 hours! It does settle down though and I found that my DS became more and more efficient at feeding so that helped.

Until we started weaning at 6 months LO woke every 2 hours. I'm thankful that we're every 3 hours now (7months).

She fed every 2 hours in the day until about 4 months I think then switched to every 3.