14 day old baby feeding hourly....

[RainbowBlue]

My DD is 14 days old and for the last few days has been feeding hourly. She won't settle after each feed for longer than an hour.

She's recovered her initial weight loss and is back to her birth weight in just 4 days (thank God!). She also looks as though she is filling out and feels heavier everyday.

Could this just be the growth spurt that the midwife was warning about? Anyone else experienced something similar?

Assuming baby is feeding well, you aren't in agony (a little soreness is common not nice but common), baby is doing 6+ wet nappies (or 8 cloth) a day, 2+ poos a day, then that is fine and normal, keep her close and feed her when she wants to. It will get easier. If you are having difficulties with latching, lots of pain or cracked nipples, scant wet nappies, do contact your HV for advice, or try one of the BFing helplines to speak to a bfing counsellor.

BTW you count from the start of one feed to the start of the next feed, not the gap in between i.e. if baby starts feeding at 10.30am, finishes feeding at 10.58am and then next needs a feed at 12.06pm they have gone 1 1/2 hours between feeds not 1 hour. Feels a bit better that way

Absolutely normal! My DS was the same early on. Remember at 12 days old they feed for comfort too. My ds is 7 months now and every now and then he still has days where he will want to feed every hour or so! All part and parcel of breastfeeding!

yep 100% normal my dd was feeding every hour for about a month if not more (proberbly more actually) she then began to feed less in the day but still almost every hour at night! Its all part of it and your bonding more and baby's feeling closer to you each and every time! Good luck (o:

rainbow just as everyone says, this is wonderful and normal. To be celebrated, in fact, along with the clear sign your baby is feeding well by regaining her birthweight so soon :) :)

My DD fed hourly from about 10 days old till 7 weeks and at the time it seemed as if I had no life but she can now at four months go a whole 2 hours!! If I had the time again I'd do less other stuff and really just focus on the feeding and not worry about laundry/housework etc other than the bare minimum. And I'd enjoy being able to watch so much tv!!

I'm do glad this is normal! She's now moved on to feeding on and off continuously from 8.30 to
Midnight without settling . She then sleeps until 5, and once have fed and settled from about 8 this morning to 10.15!!!!

I thought I would try topping up with formula assuming that if she's full she'll sleep longer. But not sure I'm doing it right - feed her breast milk first and then during that 'grazing period' before midnight give her the bottle. Any tips on how to mix feed? I don't want to use formula except for the night feed...

Sorry for the stupid questions and thanks in advance for the help

Hello
Congratulations on your new baby!
Absolutely I second what everyone is saying about her behaviour being totally normal, and that it will gradually change and things will get easier.

Firstly... WOW about the midnight til 5am sleep -that is definitely counted as sleeping through the night - my 4 month old doesn't do that yet!

Secondly, I personally would be very wary of introducing a bottle at this stage, as baby is just at the stage where she's getting your milk production up to its highest level, which is what she needs to do. By introducing a bottle, it will reduce your own milk supply, and in fact be counter productive. 14 days old is still very very tiny.

I would keep doing what you're doing - have a DVD box set handy for the long evenings on the sofa, and tell yourself it is a phase, and soon it will pass!

Oh and the evening feeding is called "cluster feeding" and there is lots of info about it on here (do a quick search and you will find tonnes!) or on kellymom.com: link here

How long is your dd on the boob for and do you offer both sides? I used to offer 20-25min on one side then wind and offer the other, because they need to work hard at getting the milk once they've emptied the boob babies will often fall asleep while waiting for another let down so could be that she's not filling up enough?

I'm offering both sides and she will feed for between 10-20 mins depending on how hungry she is. Last couple of nights I have been giving her 2 oz of formula as a top up too .

She is sleeping later and later, tonight 2.15, night before 1.10am and night before that 12 midnight.

Tonight she barely slept 3.5 hrs and I was so tired that DH rocked her to sleep. Not sure how we're going to create a routine for when he goes back to work in a week as I know he needs his sleep .. Any ideas?