Breastfeeding going well but think i need more of a routine..

[5feralloinfruits]

Im only asking because my 5th baby is 4 months and 1 week old and exclusively bf.this is the first time ive managed to feed this far,3 of them i only lasted a couple of weeks and gave up becaus ei was so sore,the other time i managed about 3 or 4 months but gave a lot of top ups of formula too.

Im really enjoying bf,but im finding it hard to juggle that with looking after the other 4,who are all 6 and under,and who i home educate too!

I co sleep and she feeds on demand,which sometimes is okay but just recently there has been days where she has been feeding nearly all day.

The good side of this is that she never wakes in the night and never has done form a few weeks old,im not sur eif this is because she feeds so much in the day,or becaus eshes cuddled up to me.

Im finding it hard but i dont want to give her formula.Is it possible to breastfeed and have some kind of routine?

I (loosely) used the gina ford routines with my last baby from about this age,but i just cant imagine doing it while breastfeeding?

sorry i forgot to check that post-lots of errors!

Don't worry about the errors, I'm amazed you remember how to post with all of that going on.

How long has she been feeding almost all day for? Could it just be a growth spurt?

And if you do want more of a routine, one that should suit you and your baby, try Babycalming by Caroline Deacon.

Unlike GF Caroline Deacon is a mother and a BFC. Her information is evidence based too

Yes i think it was/is a growth spurt,its got slightly better the last few days,but i think she does suck for comfort too,which i know is natural and i dont mind it in theory,but sometimes i need to be doing other things.

If i gave her a dummy do you think that would affect the breastfeeding?

Not sure about the dummy. Have you tried speaking to a BFC? Have you got the helpline numbers? Perhaps give them a call in the morning?

Will she feed in a sling? Might help you get on with other things

Thanks i will have a look at that

Ive tried slings but i think maybe my boobs are too big for feeding on the go because ive never go on with them,maybe ive just not tried enough though,i love the idea of them.

Slightly at the mention of big boobs. Mine grew to a whopping C cup when I was ebfing

Is there a Bfing Support Group, like the La Leche League, near to you? They might help with the bfing/sling thing

Firstly, I'll declare that I'm a full on bf on demand mum because routines pin me down and make me feel like I'm suffocating. That's whereabouts I'm coming from.

Right, are you possibly in the four month sleep regression/growth spurt? Is she holding things? Grabbing confidently? Trying to sit or roll? DD is 26 weeks and I remember 15-20 weeks being one great big unsettled patch where she woke up with a new skill or noise almost every day.

I think it gets much easier really quickly from here. I think from about 20 weeks we lost the "feed me now!" screams and I could feed her a bit more in my schedule than hers. Or there was at least a negotiation or I could out her off for half an hour.

We've been weaning onto solids for a good month and she's down to 4-5 feeds with 3 naps per day. Not a set routine but a definite pattern.

You sound like a superhero by the way, and congrats for feeding this far.

Yes i think she could be going through a growth spurt.She really has grown a lot the last couple of weeks,and is a lot more alert.she is grabbing and rolling and all that kind of stuff.

What is weaning like with a bf baby,i did blw with all my others,s im guessing she wont be cutting down on feeds til shes 9-10 months if my others are anything t go by.

Hedge - have you named changed? I'm a bit lost ...

I'll be honest, weaning has been great. For the first 3 weeks or so she just had a touch of breakfast and something to sick/chew/drop at dinner time. After about a month she was definitely hungry for solid food so we introduced lunch too. We've loosely followed blw but with some loaded spoons too.

I think she must be taking less milk as I've been a little enforced recently, but this settled without any action. She has started needing a feed at about midnight but I'm not sure if this is weaning related or because of the 6 month sleep regression as she's generally more unsettled at night.

I love a routine and it is possible to have one while bfing, but probably not a rigid GF style one. I found once naps fell into a routine (and GF style 2 hours awake/one hour nap/3 hours awake/2 hour nap/4 hours awake/bedtime does work for a lot of babies) feeds fell in around them. I tended to offer a feed about every 2 hours in the day, and before every nap.