8 day old feeding constantly

[salander]

title says it all really! for the past 2 days, all lovely 8 day old DS seems to want to do is feed nonstop. if he seems sleepy on the breast we try and put him down but then he immediately wakes up distressed and will only settle with the breast again. is this cluster feeding? he is ok overnight, feeding every 3 hours like clockwork, but during the days is another story. yesterday from about 7am til 2pm could do nothing with him other than feed. please tell me this is normal or if not what can i do! thanks

It's absolutely normal. And it won't last for ever.

Is he your first? Find a comfy place and find someone helpful to bring you drinks, snacks & a bit of conversation.

IME this stage was a combination of hungry baby with small tummy, baby who was working out that he knew how to feed and he really enjoyed feeding so he'd do it again, and baby who liked to suck to settle himself when tired. Put those together and you get constant breast. You'll find that in a few days (or weeks) he'll take bigger amounts in one go and get better at napping, thus leaving more time between breast sessions.

Cuddle and enjoy.

Yes, it is normal but it won't last long! I agree, lie on the sofa with some DVDs, get lots of skin-to-skin contact to help establish BF and get someone to wait on you hand and foot . If there's no one around during the day then try using a sling so you can get on with essential things (like eating and going to the loo, no housework though!) and get someone to cook a big batch of something so that you can just heat up food- something you can eat with one hand is useful.

ah, nice to know it's normal! thanks for that. yes, he is my first. dh being brilliant and is running round after me which is lovely. ok. back to the sofa.

Tis normal.. and it probably won't go on for too many days.. YOur nights already sound like they're good..

Yep....they do this!! It won't last for ever, so try and enjoy the sit down! Glad your DH is so supportive.

At least he's doing it in the mornings and not the middle of the night!

What's your baby's weight like? You might benefit from also getting your latch checked just in case - my baby fed pretty constantly and in our case she wasn't getting enough milk efficiently enough - she wasn't losing weight, just not putting it on all that fast.

thanks for all the replies. his weight is good - he had put on loads when the midwife weighed him the other day. she also checked the latch and all seemed fine, she said. its just nice to know this is normal!