Please help!! DD fed ALL NIGHT, no sleep! She's 3 days old & milk just came in...

[absandme]

Day 2, yesterday, she fed happily & slept all day.... a lot of the time she slept on the pillow after bf'ing or on a shoulder after winding.

Having her sleep on us was probably our first mistake!?

I hope that she doesn't have her days & nights mixed up.

My milk came in yesterday afternoon.

Last night she fed from 11pm until nearly 3am, she would take milk but also use the breast as comfort. When put into moses basket she would wake.

Husband let me sleep & rest boobs for 1.5hours but have been feeding her since then.

She latches on really eagerly, has a wee drink then just mouths/not major sucking until she's asleep. She's just nodded off for 5 mins for me to type this.

Because she hasn't settled all night when she hasn't settled she does her arm flinging, mouthing thing 'feed me' motions.

Is it normal for a baby to feed ALL the time when your milk comes in? I'm dreading my boobs going huge now after all this demand.

My nipples are really sore too but only when she latches for the first bit I practically hit the roof but then it eases.

Please help....

Congratulations on your new dd!

Having her sleep on you was fine - my lo was like a limpit for the first few weeks of his life although we did put him down in his crib too! Just I agine the shock of being out in the world, snuggles with you is the way to make her feel safe nd secure.

Yes, yes it's all normal to have a baby feed on you constantly; your boobs may get bigger but they may not. Get some lanisoh for your nipples and take some paracetamol.

You sound like you're doing just fine - it is exhausting those first few days - don't try nd do anything else. Stay in bed with baby, feed, sleep when you can get dh to change nappies, organise good and drink and sod the housework.

Normal! Your baby is only a few days old and has had a bit if a shock by being born. Wanting to be on you and suckling or nuzzling are part of her transition into the world. It's exhausting isn't it? You just need to go with it, and get everyone else around you to do everything else. First job for your DH is to go out and get you a tube of Lasinoh for your nipples, it is marvellous. Also a week's worth of nice ready meals, some fresh fruit, decent tea/coffee, nice biscuits and some cereal bars for you to keep by your bed to grab when you are starving hungry but pinioned by the baby.

The first two or three weeks of a new baby's life are pretty relentless for the mother (been there twice, and not so long ago), but it does slowly get better.

You've got my sympathy, Dd was like this. And infact at one point I think I was embeded in the ceiling. It's toe curling isn't it? But, it does get better, honest.

Tell DH to go get you a Savoy cabbage and put it in the fridge. Pull one of the leaves off and put it in your bra, it really eases the pain. There's something naturally occuring in the leaves which soothes. Scrunch the leaf a bit before you put it in, to start the enzymes being released. Also have you got Lanisoh cream? Apply after every feed!

She's only little and needs all the contact, for bonding so don't worry you can't 'spoil' her

Keep with it, it is exhausting, but I promise you it will get better.

Congratulations

If you're wondering why the constant feeding, it's to put her order in to make more milk is produced and when she feeds she stimulates the breast to produce more - it's natural, normal and a good thing to be happening.

Ps - congratulations too!

With my second baby I had a rule for visitors "no entry without pie/cleaning products/entertaining older child". Everyone was quite happy to oblige!

No one ever tells yet this in advance! This is completely normal. You have to feed on demand to establish your milk.

Snacking does turn into longer feeds but at the moment her tummy is the size of a small marble so it gets full very quickly. Plus your milk is helping to clear out all the mecomium out of her system.

Get lots of skin to skin contact with her: just put a blanket over you both. It'll be great if your DH can do it too. My DH says that that was his fave part of the early days and 15mo DD pulls at his top now to snuggle herself directly on to Daddy's chest! Sleeping on you is great.

Good luck. It does get easier.

Perfectly normal. Am not looking forward to it with no. 3. It is all about establishing supply, and will settle down. Take care of nipples, with lanisoh ( can never spell it) and be waited on hand foot and finger. Nap when baby naps, and be as unsociable with visitors as you want. Congratulations!

Thank you all for your reassurance & helpful comments... I feel so much assured now. It made me cry!! Hormones & sleep deprived!
She's been asleep for half hour & I too have dozed so I'm gonna see if I can sleep now.... lets hope she adjusts to feeding during daylight hours!
Thanks :-)

Congratulations! This is so normal for the night before your milk comes in - now your milk is in it will begin to settle down (although newborns still feed like crazy anyway) but that all-nighter is hard work. Put your feet up today and do nothing except feed your baby. All other jobs can be done by someone else. Rest whenever you can. Don't worry about day/night being mixed up - newborns haven't developed a body clock, apparently they don't really have any notion of circadian rhythms till about 6 -8 weeks and before that day and night is all the same to them. a wrap sling is great for a tiny baby that wants to sleep on a human being and won't be put down in a basket.

Congratulations on your new baby!
Just wanted to say something about your worry that your baby may have her days and nights mixed up. It's totally normal for a newborn to not yet be able to distinguish between day and night, and indeed it may feel at first as though she is nocturnal! It will take a little while for her to gradually become more active in the day and less active at night. You can help with this by making days a bit more lighter and noisier and at night being quieter and dark. But what I am trying to say is do not expect a newborn to know the difference between day and night- that will take quite a bit longer, more like weeks than days. So try to rest whenever you get the chance, whatever time it is!

Sleep deprivation is evil. It sounds like you are doing brilliantly.

My first used to sleep all and and party all night, but it did work itself out eventually. Things were easier with number 2 as number 1 kept her awake most the day anyway so she was much better at night. Also, not sure if this helped or not, I woke my second and offered her the boob every 2 hours during the day with the idea that she would fill up on milk then. No idea if it helped or if she was just an 'easier' baby.

And congratulations

Oh bikerace for a minute there I thought visitors could bring an entertaining older child instead of a pie - perhaps to cheer you up like a jester!

Yes this is perfectly normal, right and proper.

I think it's a very rare baby that doesn't get days and nights a bit confused. With my 3 there was a noticeable night/day difference by about day 8 which helped.

Wrt the sleeping on you thing - again I don't think you're doing anything wrong.

By dc3 we'd kid of cracked it in that we realised that what a baby needs is close physical contact and he co-slept from day one. Or rather would feed/sleep on me/dh until I went to bed (early!). We'd carry him upstairs in his carry cot and then he'd sleep there until he stirred and from then on would be in with me (us, when dh came back into our bedroom - was a while with dc2 and dc3 because we split roles so he'd see to older ones in morning and overnight and I'd just be in bed with dc3 until they were ready to start the day).

Lanisoh is great for sore nipples. Also airing them

She will adjust but she's still so tiny and new. Was prob easier with dc3 in that the noise and general hubbub of family life duringn day led to more emphatic cues about what was day and what was night.

OP it sounds like you are doing a brilliant job! Keep posting is my advice x

Congratulations on your new dd, i could have wrote this post, ds is 6 days old. Sounds like you are doing a fab job and another one here that could have embedded myself in the ceiling on more than one occasion too!

Ds also likes 5 minutes then falls asleep, for 40 mins before wanting feeding again but he's just taken 30 mins (just wish he'd do that at night!!!)

Definitely second the lanisoh cream, my right nipple is already suffering severely so praying it will right itself soon!

But my "it's so worth it" moment was when ds was weighed yesterday afternoon and had dropped only 4.4% (10lb 2.5oz at birth) and the midwife said - normally us midwives like to interfere but whatever you're doing keep doing it cause it's obviously working well.

Good luck

Absandme huge congratulations .

You are doubt a brilliant job, as pp said completely normal and exactly as it should be. It will space out and settle till she needs to increase your supply x

wow, thanks to everyone, I feel so much better after reading everyones replies. Lansinoh & air had been going on since she was born.

She has spent more time awake today & I feel happier with feeding, I can understand how people give up but no chance, I may hit the ceiling & leave toe curl prints in the carpet but we are getting there :-)

Thanks again, I really appreciate it!!

abs good on you x

absandme - firstly, congratulations. secondly, sounds like you're doing a great job. thirdly - it gets much much easier! your dd is doing totally the right thing and tis completely normal.

just to say as well, it can take weeks, sometimes months to really and truly 'settle down'. often in that time, you might find your dd has growth spurts for a few days on the trot, where she just feeds and feeds and feeds. that is totally totally normal too.

congratulations again!

Congrats OP!

Agree with everyone so far - these first few days are so precious that routines / day & night and housework goes out of the window.

Someone said to me when dd was a similar age: she's been inside you for 9 months, warm, cosy, food and drink on tap and mummys voice to comfort her. She then goes through being pushed out in to this scary world - new smells, light, dark? having to wear clothes to keep warm, crying to get some food or a cuddle...you see where I'm going? She'll just want her mummy and milk and it's up to you to meet her needs.

Ignore any one who says 'creating a rod for your own back' or similar. Co sleeping might work for you if breastfeeding. Read up on safety though (google it)

Night and day don't exist for babies only food, comfort and warmth. Do what comes naturally to you and you will be just fine.

All the best. Enjoy these days. My dd is one on Monday, it's gone so fast! (we're still bf'ing though and I remember those toe curling painful feeds in the early days, it's gets better I promise)

I'm going thru the exact same thing right now. My dd was born on Thursday morning 2/08 and she is literally attached to me aaaaaall day and even when try and change her quickly she is sucking at her hand / arm I think I have a slow flow as she keeps falling asleep getting bored waiting. I was up all night as she his wants to feed so I left her in bed with me in the end I don't care it's easier. At least we are going through this together. Dreading taking her to get registered on Friday as I know she will spend the whole trip screaming !

Hi everyone, new to the mum scene, currently on Day 3, I’m breastfeeding and last night was relentless! Baby won’t sleeo unless on my myself or Dad and is very ferociously searching for breast and feeding almost constantly. Is this normal? My breasts are rock solid so I presume he knows my milk is coming in?
I just don’t want this to escalate into never sleeping again
Thanks in advance everyone x

Totally normal! And it does get easier with sleeping. I co-slept quite a lot in the first four weeks, I was a bit nervous about it but read up on all the safety advice and it meant I got some sleep as baby didn’t want to be left alone. After four weeks he was ok in his cot so stopped.