Breast feeding help!

[ushuaia]

Ftm here and still learning. My baby is only 8 days old but i'm already on the brink of giving up bf! For the past 3 days she has been latching on ok but doesn't seem to be taking much milk. Basically she will feed for an hour or so but then is ready for another feed 10 minutes after. I just seem to be spending most of the day trying to feed. My mw said its ok and that babies like adults all feed differently! Do you think she's using the breast as a comforter or is this perfectly normal behaviour? I've just spent an hour and a half feeding her, she came off and was quiet for about 5 mins and is now screaming the house down!

Normal. She's getting your milk supply up.
Lots wet nappies?

Perfectly normal. It's called cluster feeding and happens for two reasons: the first is that in these early days, she's building up your milk supply, and the more she feeds, the more milk is made. The second reason is that she doesn't know this is the 21st century - as far as she's concerned, you live in a cave with sabre toothed tigers outside. When you're holding her, she's safe from the tigers, so all her instincts are telling her that she needs to be in your arms and attached to a boob. Plus, if you're feeding her you're sitting down and recovering from birth which is also a good thing. And a little baby's stomach is tiny and breastmilk is easily and quickly digested, so they're hungry again quickly. If baby is having plenty of wet and dirty nappies and has regained birth weight by about two weeks of age, they're getting enough milk.

It gets easier - really it does. For now, you need a supply of cake healthy snacks, lots of water, and a stash of DVD box sets. Feet up, get comfy and let everyone else do the housework. You've created a whole new person and now you're keeping them alive, that's enough for you to be going on with! Congratulations and enjoy - it really does go so fast.

First, congratulations!

It's totally normal. Get yourself comfy on the sofa with easy access to tea, cake and the tv remote. Your baby is feeding frequently to increase your supply. You're doing a great job and it will get easier.

Ok thanks everyone that's really useful. Will keep persevering. The hardest part is getting into bed at night and feeding for an hour or so - im literally exhausted and dropping off. It doesn't help that ive got anemia due to so much blood loss during the birth but hopefully it will get easier - I really want it to work!

Totally normal OP. Congratulations on your new baby. As everyone else says, feet up, nice cakes, the sofa is your friend.

Enjoy this bit - it passes all too quickly

Can you co-sleep? You won't squash her - your instincts not to are very powerful (it's what those cave women did). Feed lying down on your side with her nestled in to you. Keep the pillows and duvet away from her, and have her on your side of the bed (not between you and DH - he doesn't have the same instinct not to roll on her that you do). If you can, kick him into the spare room for a few nights - it does mean you're doing the night stuff by yourself, but if you're bf there's not much he can do, and if he gets a good night's sleep he can do the housework and take baby for a walk in the pram during the day so you can rest. Gives you and baby more room in the bed too. I did this with both of mine and got more sleep - I basically just slept through the night feeds once they were latched on.

Hiya I'm a first timer too. Had a similar thing early on. Long endless feeds. I don't know what you do but I found my work mentality was to judge sucess by how much I could get done in a day. Mummying and bf is not the same! Once I excepted that my day achievement was a whole different thing now and just gave myself over to it I was happier.

I found the early weeks so tough to keep going but then they learn to smile! Amazing.

Try to do something as a distraction while you feed. I wrote e-mails played on my phone overnight, or watched films in the day. Time goes faster.

My little one now feeds fully in 8-9 minutes flat at 3months and lasts 3-3.5 hours between day feeds and longer at night. I decided to worry about him not getting enough food but found out they just learn bf like any skill and he's now just really efficient!

One thing just to check if really long feeds persist is tounge tie. This happened to 2 of my friends and resolved quickly after a tiny snip. But most likely baby is just learning and wanting lots of mummy time. Good luck xxx

Same thing happened to me - I spent a few weeks sitting on the sofa with a baby attached to me and my partner bringing me food and water. It did start to settle down fairly quickly though and DD starting going longer between feeds, at first at night (thankfully!) and then in the day. She is now 14 weeks and feeding every 2 to 3 hours in the day and sleeping for 8 hours straight most nights.

I also had anaemia. Hate taking iron tablets so ate red meat and spinach/broccoli every day and my iron levels were fine when they were tested at my six week postnatal check.