Growth spurt question

[hunkermunker]

DS2 is eight weeks old now and has had several growth spurts - fussiness, wanting to feed every hour, feeding as if I'd forgotten to do so for a week or so (ha!), etc, etc.

I know why this is. It's to increase my supply. It's what I've told people in the past, it's what I know to be true.

But how come after a feed, I can express 5oz straight off? Surely there's enough there for him without having to do this fussy thing?

Hunker, are you expressing to increase supply?

Nope.

Express so that DH can do one night a week with DS2 and I can sleeeep! It's not a chore as I have dairy herd properties, obviously! Also didn't want to get into the "won't take a bottle" fight with DS2 that we had with DS1.

You obviously have magic norks.

Mine were like this sometimes.I often sensed they were stressed or overstimulated,and would go and lie down with them in a quiet room.

Maybe he's just in a grump? I am sometimes at mealtimes!

No, he's quite specifically had a few periods of several days where he literally wants to feed non-stop, then settles back down again into his usual feed a bit, sleep some, beam at everyone, feed a bit, sleep a bit more pattern.

LOL at magic norks - sounds like they have rabbits or strings of hankies under them or something.

It does sound curious..maybe he is smart enough to create more supply than there is demand for?
(He will obviously grow up to be a world famous economist..)

ROFL! Yes, perhaps that's it.

Or perhaps I'm feeding triplets and haven't noticed.

I'm so glad that this BF lark can confuse you as well! I wish I had an explanation but I am also a dairy farmer whist breast-feeding and fully expect the same fussiness from DB#4 during growth spurts. (That is assuming that she will still consider breast feeding at that point!)

ds3 was given bottles before bf ( he was prem) and he still refused them later on. Just stubborn statement of preferences!

It constantly confuses me, Cadmum! Bloody odd thing to do really.

It's weird, before I had DS2, the idea of breastfeeding seemed really peculiar, despite the fact that I'd only stopped feeding DS1 four months previously. Not peculiar in a bad way, just sort of "whoa, I can do what?!"

Oh, no, Chipmonkey!

Ha ha Cadmum.
Took that at face value and was about to ask you what breeds you have...

(Actually,one of my friends is an ABM counsellor and runs a dairy farm. She tells me that she has occasionally sent a sample of b/milk along with the samples of cows' milk they regularly submit for analysis.
Comes back with a nice little print out of fat and protein content etc)

Oh, that's interesting, MD! Would be interested to do that with my BM (am weird though!).

Hang out at cattle auctions looking pleasant.
You may strike lucky...some old geezer might take a shine to you.

PMSL! "looking pleasant" - they'd inspect my hooves (trotters? wtf are cows feet called?!) or something, right?!

Probably squeeze your norks and slap your arse (according to dh....big into cattle)

Don't worry, Hunker, ds3 is an exceptionally stubborn child. Ds1 and ds2 took bottles with no objections at all. Ds3 also refuses to go to bed at a decent hour and to stay asleep when he gets there. If I'd had him first its doubtful whether I would have gone again!( only joking, kind of!)

I have had an increasingly challenging time establishing a workable breast feeding relationship with each baby... I have finger-fed with a syringe and battled through months with ds2's bad latch and endured bouts with mastitis that lead to an abcess... never thought that I would understand the bottle feeding mother's choice but I am nearly there. DD2 is fortunate/unfortunate enough to have a very stubborn old cow of a mother. The human body is an amazing thing!

It's a shame though, quite like the mad incoherent auctioneering that everyone around you understands and takes so seriously!

Chipmonkey, thank you for the reassurance

It can be bloody hard work, Cadmum, can't it - I have only had bad latch, brief flirtation with mastitis and ridiculous midwife suggestion of formula for lowish but by no means dangerous blood sugars when DS2 was first born to contend with but an abscess must've been horrible.

Sorry for the confusion! My reference had more to do with the fact that I am constanly leaking milk so I know for certain that supply is not an issue. (Also confirmed by the effortless filling of bottles as and when...)

It is interesting though - do babies just go through a fussy period around typical growth spurt times if supply's not an issue? Or would supply be an issue in a few days time if they didn't do this? Hmm.

Mastitis is no fun and the abcess was a giant nightmare but that is thankfully in the past, Now to figure out what this beautiful baby has planned for each feed. It is starting to do my head in; just when I think I have it all figured out--she changes the rules. Think I have blocked ducts as I type.

That is a good question. My SIL (also an extended breast-feeder)always struggles with supply especially around growth spurt times so I would imagine that in her situation it must help. It certainly forces her to sit down, take a break and remember to drink more...

I think that babies just seem to go through fussy stages... I don't think it matters how they are fed.

I have a friend who bottle feeds, and she says that her baby goes through phases of not knowing whether she wants her bottle or not... fussing when she has her milk, not happy when it's taken away etc. So I think it is just something that babies do, sometimes.

Still, it did give formula manufacturers an idea for another product to market - hungrier baby milk. "For the baby who doesn't seem satisfied, however much you give them". Is there no end to their ingenuity?