constant feeding!

[toadie30]

it feels like my three week old is constantly feeding. there is no routine at all. i know he's only new, but he would feed all day if he could. am i the only one?? its hard to think i'll ever be able to go out in public. when did this get better for eveyone else?

Totally normal for such a new baby. My DS (now 16 wks) was exactly the same, remember wondering how I would ever leave the house again. But it does get better - by 6 wks DS was much more predictable, and now, although we don't tend to really have a strict routine, I can predict quite accurately what he'll be doing at certain times through the day depending on what time he wakes up in the morning. It will get easier!

No, you are not the only one! This is totally normal and it will get better soon so hang in there. I think things tend to fall into place at around 6 weeks when you start learning tricks of how to get out of the house in less than 2 hours and how to eat lunch while doing 10 other things at once. For now I can only suggest laying on the sofa watching lots of TV, invite some friends round so they can make you a cup of tea and sod the housework.

i am in exactly the same position - my DS is now 4 weeks old and feels like i have been doing nothing but feed him since he was born! I've gone through the initial nipple soreness pain and now just trying to come to terms with fact that my time is going to be spent constantly feeding... We have been to the park a few times and we've stopped to feed half way, but yes I'm thinking that I won't be able to go out in public without needing to feed for quite a while to come. and no rhyme or reason to it at the moment for me either, but i understand that it's pretty impossible to see any sort of routine at this stage. would be good to know what experienced BFeeders have found with this.

thanks guys!! nice to know i'm not alone and theres light at the end of the tunnel!! just have to accept this is the way things are at the moment!! nothing [prepares you for this massive change!
oops...better go and feed again!!

Normal, yes. My DS only really got himself into a feeding routine (ie feeding at roughly the same times each day) at around 6 months. Obviously it's possible for you to get them into a routine before then, if that floats your boat, but we just pretty much went with the flow feeding-wise and it sort of settled down by itself around that time. His feeds have spaced out quite a bit since starting solids.

I posted on here once (when DS was about four months) about how the constant feeding was exhausting me and someone said that it was early days in terms of breastfeeding (even though it felt like years at the time) and she was right. Now at 7 months I actively enjoy feeding

• though it's much easier now that DS only feeds for 10-15 mins every 3 hours, rather than every 2 hours for 45 minutes at a time! Hang in there - it'll all settle down.

The constant feeding won't last forever, and you'll soon get the hang of feeding in public! By 3 months I had fed ds pretty much anywhere you can imagine...

The feeds do get more predictable, and as they get bigger you'll be able to know that if you feed them just before you go out they probably won't want another feed a couple of hours - and if it's nearing 3 hours since they've last fed then find somewhere comfy to sit because they'll want more soon.

I'd say by around 4-5 months my ds was pretty predictable, in that he'd want to feed whenever he woke up, and whenever he wanted to sleep. It was basically every 2.5 hours.

yes, completely normal as everyone else has said. However you mention going out - I did find that DS did feed less when we went out as the car/walk would keep him asleep. So don't think you are tied to the house. You probably will have to feed when you go out, but there is a bit less of it! You just get used to feeding in all sorts of places :)

Completely normal. I used to feed and then run out of the house so we could get somewhere I could feed again before DD cried.

This felt interminable to me with ds - we reached the stage where I just felt like he was hanging off me constantly! Don't worry too much since it should get better on its own, and don't worry too much about fixed schedules since your baby is still dealing with being in the wide world and learning his circadian rhythm. But it can be frustrating. What worked for me was just trying to hold off feeding for as long as possible (since this was every 20 mins or so at worst, I only mean for a extra 10 mins longer than when he first asks for it) and dealing with a bit of crying in the meantime, and gradually expand the time between feeds to about 2 hours. It only took ds about a week to adjust to feeding roughly every 2 hours during the day (more frequently in the evening and less frequently during the night).

Crucially, don't do too much! Nothing else matters at the moment, so forget the housework/cooking/shopping/etc and just take your time and enjoy your baby :).