Newborn BF questions

[Expectans]

Baby is 9 days old. I had not planned to BF, but now am.

A few questions. He already seems to be much quicker at eating. How long did it take your baby of this age to take one breast?

He fusses for ages before latching on at night. Any tips?

Lots of hiccups. Again, any tips?

Screaming. When he is clean, warm, cuddled etc. to the extent he will not feed. Can I do anything?

Thank you for any advice. Am a zombie today after basically feeding all night.

Expetans, lovely to have a new baby :)
All the things you list are well on the normal spectrum for a baby of this age.
Not sure what your Q is about screaming...you mean sometimes he gets himself into a distressed state and won't/can't calm down sufficiently to feed? This happens sometimes too - nothing to do with breastfeeding, it's just what babies sometimes do. They sometimes need to be calmed down gently in order to get themselves 'organised' sufficiently to feed.
Any of the breastfeeding helplines will support you and will help you with your questions.

First of all congratulations! And well done on the BF- tis hard work in the early days.

Try not to worry about feed length- babies vary enormously and how long another baby takes really isn't relevant to your baby. What's important at this stage is feed frequency (at least 8 in 24 hours), wet nappies (at least six), dirty nappies (every day) and weight gain. If all the above ok, then he is ok.

Hiccups- my DS had them constantly when tiny. Nothing I could do- he grew out of it eventually. It's not fun but it won't do him any harm.

Fussing and screaming are trickier I'm afraid. With the night time fussing is he latching on and off? Flow is slower at night so it may be he's frustrated by that. Is the screaming a nighttime thing too? Trapped wind? Colic?

My DD has also been very quick at feeding, she is 5 months now and takes both breasts in about 10 minutes for her night feed. I think all babies differ so I wouldn't be worried about that

With the fussiness, mine used to do this so I ended up switching to the other breast and she'd latch on straight away, not sure why she did this then we'd go back to the first breast!

Not sure about the screaming though, but you have my sympathy. Baby screaming is one of the worst sounds ever

*always, not also!

And I remember the hiccups very well, she just grew out of it. But it was very annoying when she'd get them at bed time or after a night feed!

Giraffe you say flow is slower at night. Never heard this. Are you sure of it?

tiktok The flow is slower at night thing is mentioned on Kellymom here. My recollection is of there being a full explanation of it which I can't now find. Apologies if it's misinformation- I shouldn't rely on recollections of things I read when breastfeeding a newborn at 3 in the morning

Giraffe the mention on Kelly mom relates to evening fussing not over night. There is no reference for it and I can only think it relates to the fact that cluster feeds mean the breasts are not chokka block full and so a fast let down is unlikely.