Is this normal?

[flowerflo]

My dd is 8 days old. During the day and night she feeds approx every 2 hours, sleeping in between. However the last 2 evenings she had fed constantly from 9pm until 12.30. This seems a very long time and I'm exhausted. Is this normal or should I be worried? How long will it last? help :(

Sounds very normal for an 8day old, as long as she is producing lots of wet nappies a good few dirsty nappy's in 24hours and your not in pain when feeding then everthing sounds good.

A good site to read on what to expect in the first few week's is this one.

www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/index.html

Try and get everyone else to help with any other jobs and remeber your only job at this stage is feeding your baby and looking after yourself.

I;m still doing that now and my little girl is 7 weeks old!! she will go a few hours between feeds in the day but from 7pm until 1am she feeds, falls asleep wakes as soon as I try and put her down, cries til I feed her again and so the cycle goes on until we are eventually allowed to go to bed at 1!! Is your baby waking properly to feed? I have to remove some of her clothing sometimes to get mine to wake up better to get a better feed. Virtual hug from me, it is hard work!

Thanks for your replies both of you. It reassures me to know that I'm not the only one :) She is waking to feed which is good. I just spoke to the health visitor about it too and she explained that the lengthly evening session is called cluster feeding.

Thanks for the weblink MigGril, i'll have a look later. Virtual hugs right back at ya GEM33 x

Sounds normal to me. It will pass eventually! Make sure you settle into feed with a drink (I seem to drink all my drinks through a straw at the moment!) something to snack on and the remote control!

Congratulations on your DD :)

My bf support worker said she called it "the witching hour". For some mums it starts around 7 p.m. for others around 8 p.m. Think of it as them putting their order in for the next day and tanking up for a few hours sleep and it's not so bad. Put your feet up in front of the TV, eat cake, have a small glass of wine and relax.

It doesn't last for ever, and believe me, you will look back on these first few weeks and the hours you spend bonding/feeding your child and realise how amazing they are, even though they are tiring.

The housework will still be there in the future, these amazing precious weeks with your newborn will be gone before you know it.

My little one did this (now 4 weeks old tomorrow) and I resorted to the bottle (expressing breast milk and formula - about half and half). My evenings are better although definitely support the 'witching hour' theory. The only thing is, my little one is just active and whingy.

He did 'feed' from 7pm until 11pm, midnight, 1am or in one case 3:45am!!!!! It was physically and emotionally exhausting. I didn't have the will power to continue and I was heading towards depression (past history).

I found my MWs unsupportive - more like lecturing, making me feel like a bad mum because his mouth wasn't on my boob (one said no to express!) whereas a female registrar at the hospital (another story!) and my GP (will admit to being male) said that babies often use the breast as a comfort rather than a feed.

When I stopped the breast contact, my little boy was able to have good feeds (4oz sometimes 5oz) at regular 3-4 hourly periods. He is absolutely thriving now.

Some people believe that you can't bond with your newborn in the same way as you can breast feeding. YOU CAN! I sometimes have skin to skin when bottle feeding, lots of kisses and cuddles and he can also enjoy the same bonding with his dad.

Breast feeding isn't for everyone but I would certainly advise to persevere as much as you can and do not beat yourself up if you want to change things. Our lives are very different to how they used to be and whereas breast feeding can be easy for some, it isn't for others.