Breast feeding advice.

[round2]

Hi,

I was hopeful for some advice. My dd and I,had problems breast feeding to begin with re latch/TT but finally got this sorted and has been ebf ever since. DD is now 8 weeks old.

DD took a bottle inbetween being bf at the begining due to soreness from latch etc.

DD is now feeding every 1/2 hours but can be on from 5 mins to an hour, she tends to cluster feed from 5pm untill 10pm every night. I say she goes every 1/2 hours but then she is very niggley and only sleeps for a maxium 20 mins at a time during the day. At night she goes down at 10pm wakes at 2.30pm then 4.30am and 6.30 am up for the day. sometimes she has 12.30 am feed. The longest time she sleeps inbetween feeds is 2 hours solid if she is in the car or pushchair.

DD will not take dummy just spits it out. She will not go in bounce chair/swing for more than 5 mins without wanting to be cuddled. She is now refusing breast milk in a bottle.

I have been going with the flow but today I had an appointment at the hospital and she was unable to attend with me,so Mum had to look after her but she was quite upset the whole time, luckily i got back in time before she got to distressed.The appt was important could not re arrange.

Anyway, was just wondering if this pattern was normal for 8weeks? any tips?Any advice appreciated.

I wonder if maybe she's a bit overtired if she only sleeps for 20 minutes at a time during the day? I'd think about getting a couple of longer naps in during the day.

How's her weight gain?

How do i encourage longer naps?I put her down asleep but she just wakes 20 mins later. She was gaining weight healthily the first few weeks and the hv said to come back in a month to check,which is on thursday,so will see then if she is still gaining sufficient weight.

I used to go for a long walk with the pram or sling once (often twice!) a day - sometimes when he was really asleep I could stop somewhere for a coffee and cake.

I seem to remember 8 weeks being a real low point for me and DD re: feeding and sleeping. By 10 weeks, and more so 12 weeks, she was sleeping longer than 20 minutes in the day and the feeding seemed more efficient. She still only really went 2 hours between feeds, but the cluster feeding had subsided.

The cluster feeding from 5-10 and the pattern of waking up in the night sounds pretty normal for an 8 week old to me. Also not wanting to be in the bouncy chair or swing - my DD definitely didn't enjoy anything like that at that age.

My DD would also wake up if I put her down asleep, at 8 weeks she used to take all her naps on me, often attached to the breast for the first 10 mins or so of being asleep, then I'd gently detach and try to slip my top back on without waking her! I'm not saying this is necessarily a good idea, it's just what we did. If you do try it then make sure you have the remote for the TV, a drink, and your phone within arm's reach before you sit down, sometimes it would be up to 2 hours. She would also sleep like a dream in a sling if I was walking or on a bus or train.

About 12 weeks I think I started putting her down once she was asleep and she would stay asleep for a decent amount of time, but it was still a bit touch and go as sometimes she would wake up as I put her down. I didn't put her down awake for naps until about 6 or 7 months.

It does get better! (Now she sleeps through the night and naps beautifully).

HTH