7 day old cluster feeding/ sleep

[delurked]

Dd is a week old and for the last 2 nights she has cluster fed from early evening - by which I mean that she wants to be on the breast pretty much constantly for most of the evening. The rest of the time she feeds roughly every 3 hours butwould probably go a bit longer between feeds if I let her.
Is cluster feeding normal at such a young age? And should I let her have a longer sleep overnight following a cluster feed or should I be waking her to feed (and if so, after how long)?

Evening cluster feeding totally normal for teeny tiny babies and based on my experience will continue for a good couple of months! At this stage I would let her feed whenever and for as long as she wanted, partly to establish supply, partly because her tum is so tiny she will be hungry often, but mostly because she needs the comfort and cuddles.

Have you discovered KellyMom? I found it a good source of BFing info and support.

kellymom.com/parenting/parenting-faq/fussy-evening/

Can't advise you on waking to feed, DD is 7mo and still wakes up screaming hungry every three to four hours, the pudding. My mother does always say let sleeping babies lie though!

Thanks for replies. Yes, the nappies seem ok. Re the 8?12 feeds in 24 hours, how would you categorise the cluster feeding? If it was counted as just one feed (as it is pretty much continuous bar a few short breaks when I hand her to dh whilst I go to the loo/ eat) then she would prob only just make 8 feeds in total over the 24 hours - but as she is on for so long I can't see how there are enough hours in the day to fit in any more feeds!
One final question - her daytime feeds are often quite short - 10 mins or so. Are these shorter feeds balanced out by the evening cluster feeds? I do try to encourage her to take more but she doesn't seem hugely interested.

Cluster feeding normal. Personally I would never wake her to feed unless I was v worried about lack of weight gain.

Keep encouraging her to take more during the day as it may stop her needing so much in the evening. If she's not interested there's not much you can do though!

Ask the midwife to weigh her - this adds another piece of info to the picture.

Her feeding sounds normal.

Thanks everyone, that is v reassuring.

Sounds like my little one. Cluster fed from 6-10 from
Birth till about ten weeks. But all that food early evening meant she started sleeping for 8 hours at night straight! As her weight gain was good I didn't wake her.