Week old night feeding

[Scroobius]

My week old baby is feeding regularly pretty much every 4 hours and for the 1st few days was pretty regular every 2 hours at night. But she's just started being really erratic at night waking up at least once an hour and crying until I feed her. I'm ebf at the minute but if this is something that's going to carry on I might have to think about bottle feeding as I'm seriously starting to feel ill!
Am I doing something wrong in feeding her to stop the crying? Should I stop automatically offering food ?
Also she pretty much sleeps all day, should I try keeping her awake more so she needs more sleep at night?
Thanks for your help, I just have no idea and don't know anyone who has breastfed before.

4 hourly feeds are very infrequent for a newborn - I would feed every 2 hours in the day if possible, don't let her go more than 3 hours - then hopefully she will need less at night. Also try having her sleep in bright, noisy rooms in the day and then keep everything dark and quiet at night so she starts to work out the difference between day and night - babies always start off nocturnal and then it takes a little while to adjust.

If she is hungry feed her. Your milk will have not long come in and babies have regular growth spurts. Though it can feel a bit overwhelming at the time, it will pass and she is also only a week new, and needs to be close to you. If she is gaining weight, you're doing the right thing x

Oh, just noticed the sleeping all day. I would wake her at least every 3-4 hours and offer her the breast. She could just be overcompensating at night?

Thank you! I did think maybe I should be trying to get her on more often during the day but I had no idea if that was ok.

I'm in the same position OP, DD is 11 days & overnight she feeds for 1hr every 2hrs. I, shattered but trying to catch naps as much as possible & take every day one at a time. A few days ago I nearly gave up as was painful, she was screaming a lot & tiredness was winning but just keep telling myself I'll see how tomorrow is & so far each day has been better. I read the Isis information listed above too & I have to say that helped. My main reason for switching would have been to get some more sleep but if I ad then hadn't got any more sleep I'd have been gutted & felt terrible. Lets just hope this all gets easier!

It is so hard at first but this stage does not last forever. Once you get past about 12 weeks it is much much easier. In fact after 6 weeks or so the growth spurts calm down a bit.

A one week old baby does not know what "day" and "night" are. Newborns are 24 hour creatures. day and night gradually sort themselves out. In the meantime, for goodness sake sleep when your baby is asleep in the day. Take her to bed with you if she won't be put down. Sleep whenever you can. Do not use the time to get stuff done as you need to sleep to make up for the broken nights. If your OH is on paternity leave then he can look after baby between feeds while you sleep. If he is back at work he can take over part of the night. I found it helpful when mine took over the early waking - baby fed at say, 5.30, he took him downstairs while I slept in peace for 2 hours until a feed was required again and then he went off to work.

Definitely offer the breast more often in the day. That will help her to learn about day and night if she is getting tanked up more in the day. Unless she is sleeping happily, I would not let more than 2-3 hours pass without offering. If she isn't hungry then fair enough, just wait. But most babies will have a little snack if a boob is offered!

You are doing nothing wrong in offering the breast when she cries. If in doubt get one out is a good motto with a newborn.

Remember it isn't forever. This stage is so tough and you are also still recovering from the birth which makes things harder. It seems like it will never end and you will never get a good sleep, but you will.

Thank you for your help. I think I'll try doing more feeds during the day to see if it makes a difference. I'm mostly finding it difficult just because she's such a happy baby until she starts screaming for a feed and its so upsetting!

Good luck op. And remember, there's no need to wait for crying before offering the breast. Your little one will be using bf as food, comfort, stress relief, thirst quenching, and general happy-making time. There's no need to stint.