light at end of tunnel with comfort feeding?

[hostelgirl74]

We have a 4.5 week old baby who constantly wants to be comfort fed and takes ages to settle. It is like trying to steal keys from a guard - as soon as boob removed - he is on to us and wakes. Once asleep he will sleep for hours (usually at the opposite time to when would suit us). Take today - since he got up at 4.20am, he has only had about a maximum of an hour sleep (in stints) and it is now 17.25. I think this is cause he dozes off when feeding so although we feel we are knackered, he isn't bothered. He then will compensate and sleep for say 5 hours at a time in a few stints. It is so draining. As he is having all these random little feeds everwhere (I take him off after 40 minutes as he would stay on for hours), he is forever pooing and weeing so we nearly get him to sleep then have to wake him to change his bum.
We tried giving a dummy today (even though we hate them) but once he seemed to realise it wasn't same/nothing coming out, he sucked so vigourously that it kept falling out so we cannot be on constant guard to plug it in every few minutes - that kinda defeats the object. I want to carry on breast feeding if poss but cannot help but think perhaps if he had a bottle, he would settle better.
Any suggestions/light at the end of the tunnel. I have no life at the minute. The other day i had to cancel lunch with my friend as i had been up that many hours i had no sleep, i couldnt have hacked it. Terrified about how it will be when i go back to work next August. Would not be able to work after so little sleep.
Also, if i express few oz here, few oz there, can i store it in same bottle (say do some in morning then more in afternoon, freeze all in evening) or will one lot contaminate another? It is just that it seems like i would only have a little to freeze if i just did one "session". How much should a 4.5 week old baby take in one feed if i left some milk for someone else to feed him?

Just to add - he isn't ill - HV says he is putting on weight as he should do, no temp, we are regularly changing nappies, no other illness symptoms and boob a magic cure all and shuts him up every time.

No one has a life with a 4wk old baby! Well unless you have a nanny like those celebrity. We all just learn to cope better. If your LO doesn't mind the pram, put him in it and push in the park. Or use a sling or baby carrier so you can have a cuppa at home. I remembered my DD won't nap except held. And her head can flop out of the moby wrap. I can't do house work but at least I can walk around and do things one handed. Get DH to make dinner. Make him pack 2 lunches in the morning. Or buy tv dinners if you have to.

Does he like swaddling?

Also I found going to my local bumps and babies useful. I can rock DD while moaning to others how awful my day is!

And really sleep whenever you can. I still live by this and my DD is 9mo. I sometimes go to bed at 8pm!

It will get better!

Oh the dummy my DD was exactly the same. I used it to keep her quiet so both DH and I can have dinner together. We just keep putting it back in every few minutes. I can't remember when but she developed a night time routine and started sleeping long stretches from 6-7pm. That's when we stopped the dummy.

Her longest stretch of sleep started at early evening and it's supposed to be very common. Like they will sleep 5 hours from 6pm and then up every 2 hours. But that's the turning point when they start getting better. I think DD was just under 3mo when she slept through. But still needed a baby carrier to nap in the day.

It will get better. 4.5 weeks is tiny and the world must seem a very strange place, hence wanting comfort and to be near you all the time. I read somewhere that BFing a newborn is basically a full time job and that helped me accept it. Can your friend come to you, hopefully bringing lunch with her? Getting your life back will come gradually.

Don't worry about work just now, August is ages away.

I think you are ok to add expressed milk to the bottle over the day as long as it is refrigerated properly in between.

Swaddling, slinging and pushchair naps are all great suggestions. If you can get baby to sleep in the pushchair then wheel it in to your bedroom or living room (if you don't have stairs) you can have a sleep yourself.

Good luck. Even though it's a difficult thine there's a good chance you will look back on it fondly once it's over!