Is this cluster feeding or something else?

[Ginger4justice]

Hi I'm brand new mum to dd 6 days old and breastfeeding is mostly going well. She normally feeds brilliantly until she falls asleep. However during the night, (the past two nights from 10 until about 3) she feeds and feeds, doesn't get sleepy, spends time messing around at the breast (licking instead of latching on) and she throws up. She may settle for about 10 min before grizzling and making feed me faces again.

My thoughts are so far that she may be using it for comfort rather than being hungry and I hate the fact she's making herself sick doing it (she doesn't seem to throw up during the rest of the day) but I don't want to ignore her licking her lips and sucking her hands in case she is hungry, plus the fact she only stops being upset while she is at the breast, even if she's not feeding properly so me and my dh don't quite know what to else to do at midnight!

I'm assuming someone else has come across this and has some words of wisdom as my brain is like fuzz and I just don't know what to do!! Is it cluster feeding and she is actually hungry, is the throwing up just wind because of the extra feeding or is it a comfort thing?

Well it could be just comfort, but who can blame her if it is? She has just spent 9 months tucked up inside you and is it any wonder she wants to be close to you now? I've always looked on the first 3 months as the 4th trimester, lots of cuddles and lots of feeding while they get to know you and the world around them.

As for the sucking of the hands, I'm not trained but always thought this was a sign of tiredness, not hunger. Would it be possible for DH to try to rock her to sleep if she has fed but is still sucking her hands?

Kellymom has some good information on what to expect during the first 6 weeks and on Cluster Feeding too.

Plus, don't forget to give a Bfing Counsellor a call. Whether its one of the helplines or a local one they will be only too happy to talk to you about this and any other concerns you have. Do you have the numbers?

Congratulations too

What worked for me was to make sure ds didn't have any long stretches of sleep during the day (more than 3 hours) in the hope that the long stretches would happen at night. Also keeping him with me in bright/noisy rooms during the day and quiet, dark bedroom at night. Hopefully soon she'll start organising day from night and won't have the long awake periods.

We did what Rita did too. Plus we dressed them both in the morning and got them ready for bed about the same time each night. Not sure if it helped but at least you feel like you are doing something about it

Thanks! I'd forgotten I had the breast feeding counsellors number, I think she said she'd arrange a visit soon, maybe I'll call and get that organised.
and check out kellymom.

Rita&Jilted she definitely sleeps a lot in the mornings - like a teenager, I'll keep getting her up for feeds.

Thanks again everyone!

Ginger giving her a call sounds like a good idea. If you call her now you'll have plenty of time to catch her before the night time fun starts