8 week old bf baby feeding every hour?!

[Excited85]

My 8 week dd appears to be going backwards! At 3 & 4 weeks she fed every 3-4 hours in the day, fell asleep around 9.30/10 and would wake around 2/3 and then 6/7 for a feed - happy days.

For the past week sleep times have been getting later and later (now usually falls asleep 11.30/12) and wakes nearly every 2 hours for a quick feed. Today she has fed every hour since midday.

She hardly naps in the day but whenever she does and then wakes up the first thing she wants is a feed, even if she's only been asleep 10 mins and fed just before. Is this normal? Has anyone any suggestions for getting her back to larger breaks between? She always takes herself off the breast or falls asleep on it so I'm not cutting feeds short. Also have tried giving 4/5 oz of formula in an eve to help satisfy her but she still cries for the breast straight after... Help!!!!

I think they have a growth spurt about 8 weeks so that's probably it. She's upping your supply with the constant feeding.

Stick with it. It will settle again. They go through spurts like this.

Totally normal, stock up on crisps and cake and put your feet up for a week or so. Absolutely no christmas lunch cooking either.

Yup, completely normal. With DS2 it got down to every 30 mins for a day or two!

I wouldn't bother with the formula if you are planning to continue breastfeeding, as pp said by feeding more often she is increasing your supply - if you supplement with a bottle then it won't work as well.

Get a comfy seat, a book or the TV remote, and make sure you have someone to wait on you hand and foot for a few days.

Are you sure she's hungry and not just sucking for comfort?
Maybe try a dummy (or is that an evil word round here?) or encouraging her to suck her fist?
Might at least test her hunger levels.

Wow such quick responses, thank you! Glad to hear its normal albeit frustrating! Definitely no Christnas dinner cooking for me queen on the plus side we're having a big family Christmas at my parents but on the downside it looks like I'll be spending most of it holed up in a bedroom with the little one! Kirsty unfortunately I need to start back at work soon so she needs to get used to formula anyway but looks like now is perhaps not the best time, maybe I'll leave it a few days whilst she sorts my milk out!

Twins I think part of it is comfort to be honest, particularly in the evenings - we've tried her with a dummy a number of times but she just isn't interested and cries if we persist with it! I figure I'd rather let her have her comfort if it's that or screaming but most of the time she does seem to be hungry - she sucks on any hands or shoulders that get near when she's in hungry mode! Unless I'm interpreting her hunger signals wrong - first time mum so not really sure what I'm doing!!

Excited sounds like you're doing brilliantly :)

Oops I hot send too soon! I was going to say cluster feeding (to up supply) is often in the evenings, sounds like your baby and you are doing everything you should be :)

Yep, it sounds as if you're doing great - keep it up!

Couple of ideas - it sounds as if you're reading the hunger signs right, but bear in mind that babies often show some of the same signs when they've got wind. To them, hunger and wind are both just a pain in the tum, so they seek the same solution to both.

Personally, if LO is showing signs of hunger at an unexpected time, I always try and make every effort to ensure it's not wind before offering food - if you're too quick to add more milk to a windy belly, the result can be nothing better than yet more wind.

It can help if you can pass LO to someone else for soothing - she knows full well that you are the milk bar, so will always be looking for milk when she comes to you. Dad, or someone else, might well have more luck settling her.

Definitely ditch the dummy, especially if she doesn't like it - if she's having a growth spurt and trying to build your supply up, she needs to be doing all her sucking at the boobface in order to stimulate the production of more milk.

Erm can't think of much more...hope it's helpful, it's only the product of bf one baby though, am open to corrections from better informed posters!