Anyone else had a baby who feeds non stop with no breaks? How to cope?

[thing1andthing2]

When I say non stop I mean non stop.
Last night he slept 10pm till 1am, then fed 6 or 7 times till 6am when I took him to DH who gave him 3oz expressed milk then by 7.50 had to bring him back to me hungry. I fed him solidly till 10.15 save for a quick shower, then stuffed him in a buggy and went to a breastfeeding drop in. Within 10 minutes of arriving he wanted to feed again. Fed for an hour (no bf counsellor came to the drop in which was pretty shit). Stuffed back in buggy to walk to friends house. Ds wanted feeding within 10 mins of arriving. Bf for 40 mins. Walked home. Ds finally asleep. Awake 30 mins later wanting a feed at 1.15pm. Has been feeding solidly since (now 3.15).
My nipples are sore and I don't know if it's because of constant feeding or bad latch because there was no bloody bf counsellor at the drop in.
It's like this every day, it has been for a couple of weeks. Not sure I can cope any more (also have a 2yo dd), am thinking formula would fill him up for longer and give me some time to spend with dd.
What can I do?
Ds is 3w 2d and had a tongue tie snipped on Friday (hasn't changed anything). He won't take a dummy and doesn't seem to cry for anything other than hunger.

How are other signs if getting enough- is he doing plenty of wet nappies? Is he putting on weight? Some babies cluster feed where they feed a lot at a certain time of day but if it's all day maybe he's not getting enough milk and there is a probl with his latch- try and see someone. Shame about bfc no show that sucks its hard enough getting out. Good luck.

You do need to get his latch and milk transfer checked out.

But if it does turn out that you have an avid bfer (I've had 2), a sling might be the answer to your prayers. DS in particular lived in the sling as I had dd to take to school and a house to do up. I've decorated a house, put up shelves, plastered etc with him in the sling feeding on and off all day.

Are you sure your ds is feeding ie let-down, good latch, and not just feeding but falling asleep at the breast?

Hope this is not a stupid question (I assume you are experienced at bf-ing since this is your second dc) but that is what my dd did and I thought she was feeding because she would cry if I tried to unlatch her, so I assumed she was feeing but she actually just wanted to use me as a human dummy.

thing I barely remember a minute of the first few months when DS wasn't attached to my boob.

I remember vividly one night I had been feeding from 6pm to 10pm - without a break - and I went to the loo at 10pm as I was desperate. He screamed blue murder as if he had never been fed until I was back feeding him again. My nipples felt they'd been through a mangle.

The good news is that it didn't last. (He also didn't have any latch problems.) A few weeks later, feeds spaced out until they were more manageable. I mean, not so I could have a life or anything, but less horrendous than those early weeks.

Yes, I've had this twice.

I ended up topping with formula both times but still breastfed (combined with formula feeding) for about 6 months with DD1 and 4 with DD2.

I'm just coming out of the other side! Dd2 is 8wks, up until last week it was constant just as you describe plus she wouldnt be put down.

This last week she has started to space feeds, stay awake longer and interact more. I've given two formula feeds and it made feck all difference she was back on the boob within 30 minutes.

I think the change around is as she has established my milk, become more aware and I have started to separate her hungry from tired cues and forced her to have a dummy to get to sleep by holding it in her mouth, touching the roof of her mouth with it and tapping the outside. Terrible but sanity saving for us both.

Just got to get her to lay down and sleep without having to be held forever now :(

It is possible that the tongue tie wasn't revised properly (very common), or it has reattached.

Sometimes there can be both anterior and posterior ties. The posterior ties are harder to spot and lots of so called experts miss them. If a posterior tie remains, so will the breastfeeding problems.

Were you advised to do massages and stretches to prevent it reattaching?

Did you have any bodywork done (eg cranial sacral therapy) before and after the tt snip?

have a read of this it takes a second or two to load on my laptop, so give it a chance when you open it! Look at the section detailing the aftercare following revision.

Dr Kotlow is an expert on tongue tie. He talks in this leaflet about treating with lasers, but as far as I know, there is only one dentist doing laser revision in the UK.

What about lip tie? The tongue can be revised, but a remaining lip tie can prevent a proper latch.

In the meantime, you can try to help get a deeper latch

Also, forgot to say that there is a tongue tie support group on Facebook.

Thanks all for your responses. He's putting on loads of weight, 14oz in his first 16 days, he never even lost any following his birth. Lots of wet nappies and explosive poos. He's a bit windy but doesn't cry about it, just wriggles and farts a lot. The tongue tie snipper was also a lactation consultant and was fairly happy with his latch although he is a strong little chap and it's quite difficult to get him to latch properly all the time, lots of little fists getting in the way and some back arching, but I just wait until he really wants it and does a big wide gape.
Sling is waiting and ready but I had a problem with a prolapse after my last baby and I'm just waiting for my pelvic floor to feel a bit more normal before lugging ds around, he's reasonably chunky and I can feel my pelvic floor complaining if I carry him in the sling too long. Plus it's too hot for that at the moment.
He sucks vigourously with a good let down, and I know he's caused me to produce loads of milk because I can express 3-4oz in about 5-10 minutes which I think is quite a lot for 3weeks in.
We're going to stay with my in laws for 4 weeks at the weekend so they can look after my dd while I look after ds, so I figure, he'll be 8 weeks when we get back and if it's still a nightmare I'll introduce a bottle of formula once a day then so I can spend some time with dd. it's nice to know he's not the only one. You only read about how they'll feed every 2-3 hours and all I can think is, wow, 2-3 hours between feeds would be a luxury!
I rang the hv for more advice and we had a long chat. She suggested it might be the hot weather causing him to feed more right now due to thirst, so maybe it'll calm down on Friday when it's supposed to rain here! She said she'd ring again tomorrow and come and see me if I still need someone. After that conversation, my friend came round and DH packed us both out to the pub and I had gin .

Tongue tied babies sometimes put on a lot of weight because the shallow latch means they are getting more foremilk and not emptying the breast properly. The foremilk is higher in lactose which I am lead to believe results in larger weight gains.

Oversupply is common at first in mothers of tongue tied babies and then at around 4 months, when the supply becomes more demand driven, these same mothers find that their supply isn't keeping up with the demand because the babies are not removing the milk effectively.