I'm having a wobble - please hold my hand!

[maldivemoment]

First of all thanks for looking. I'll try to keep it brief...

...6 week old baby and I am successfully managing to exclusively breastfeed (VERY proud as first time around was horrendous and ended up combination feeding). I just need to know if the following is normal and if not, what I should change.

Feeding on demand which is roughly every 2 hours, sometimes more frequently. Normal?

Fussy in evening and wants to be attached to me for hours. Not always feeding. Normal?

When she's upset during the day & I don't know why I tend to just get my boobs out and this does the trick! Is this wrong? Am I establishing a bad habit?

Feeds to sleep daytime and night. Will this pass or should I try to discourage it? If so, when and how?

I suppose all of the above questions are pointing towards do I just 'go with the flow' and let things happen or should I be more active in beginning some sort of routine?

All advice gratefully received. Thank you so much in advance.

Go with the flow. You are doing fantastically, and all normal.

Wee babies do not do routine - that way madness lies :)

All normal. Sounds like you are doing a great job. I agree with the above post, babies are very clever, they know exactly what they have to do do just go with the flow. As for feeding to sleep, you'll find some people will tell you that you are 'making a rod for your own back' but nature wouldn't have given us such a useful tool to instantly soothe a child to sleep if it wasn't meant to be used. I've never met an 18 yr old that needs breastfeeding to sleep so I wouldn't worry! Keep up the good work!

Keep going with the flow. You're doing brilliantly.

They develop their own routines eventually or you can tweak things later. For now, just go with it!

All sounds normal to me, sounds like you're doing really well . My ds2 is now 14wks and he is settling down into less cluster feeding in the evening and has discovered sucking his thumb so I'm no longer being used as a human dummy (and he will self settle a bit now rather than always being fed to sleep - but I'm taking the lead from him on that - ds1 I fed to sleep for months and he's always slept well/settled himself well). Both of mine have fed at least every 1.5-2hrs.

6wks is a particularly tough time as it's growth spurt territory and ime they just want to feed and feed. It does get easier!

Another vote for normal, normal, normal, normal. Etc.

Try a sling in the evening if he/ she is fussy but doesn't necessarily want to feed, and you don't want to be on the sofa the entire evening. Or just be on the sofa and enjoy the Olympics!

But also: won't last for ever, so don't panic that this is what breast-feeding will be like indefinitely.

Thank you SO MUCH ladies for your kind words and reassurance. Will hold my head a little higher now that I know we're doing ok!

Wow maldivemoment, my son is 3wks and you have asked all the questions that I wanted to ask! Nice to know that there are others out there going through the same things and worrying about the same things too! I have even started worrying about how much I have been worrying...its got that bad!

I never realised having a new born was SO hard. Dont get me wrong, I love him to bits. Its just when he is screaming so much, I think he is going to damage himself, I wonder if I did the right thing having a baby!

Newmumhannah - hats off to you. You are doing so well if this is your first baby! It's my second and first time around I could have filled every page of Mumsnet with questions and, yes, I also worried about worrying!!!!

Sometimes all you need to hear is that someone else has the same worries and it's all perfectly normal.

Well done for getting to 3 weeks and HUGE congratulations on your snuggly little newborn!