Nights getting worse - any ideas?

[Swizzler]

DS is near;y 3 weeks old and has been bfing about every 2 hrs, day and night. The last couple of nights have been horrible: he feeds, then gets v distressed, after much pacing up and down eventually burps and goes back to sleep but wakes an hour later (sometimes less). Not sure how long I can take this . He feeds quite quickly - about 10 mins before pulling himself off - is he getting enough hindmilk? If not, what can I do? He also won't take the other boob at night (will sometimes do so during the day). He's also getting worse at settling in his crib after a feed, so I'm lying awake waiting for the yells to start...

During the day he's much better -will sleep for 2-3 hours, though he feeds more frequently in the last afternoon/early evening. Why is he turning into a monster baby at night?

Hi Swizzler

I only have the one baby myself, so I am sure someone will come along who knows better, but it sounds to me like your DS may be a bit windy and so lying flat is uncomfortable. Do you keep him more upright after a feed in the day? If so, that may be the difference. Mine was like this, and I found that it helped to swaddle her for naps and at night, prop up the end of her cot and to wind her both before and after a feed.

When they are very small, it can feel like you are constantly winding them and it seems like an absolute miracle when at about 6 or 8 weeks they suddenly start bringing the burps up themselves!

If you think it might be that he is getting some colicky pain after feeding, then infacol, which they sell in Boots might help.

The other thing that helped DD was spacing her feeds out a bit more. This is hard when they are little because their stomachs are so small they need to feed a lot, but the Baby Whisperer books (by Tracey Hogg) are useful here because the advice in there on body language and "routine" can help you to tell when the baby is hungry etc. I found that windy and overtired can look very like hunger and that I was tending to produce a breast whenever DD cried. Once I got that sorted, it got a lot easier.

I'm sure it will get better soon.

Hi

They have a growth spurt at 3 weeks, so your baby may be building up your milk for that.

From one month, you can use gripe water for colic/wind and I always find that excellent - much better than infacol.

Good luck - it does get better I promise!

it's completely normal - growth spurt at 3 weeks and cluster feeding in the evening.

agree with trying to bring wind up - i find infacol helpful - others prefer colief.

Thanks for all the responses - we had a much better night last night as DS only woke twice Trying feeding from one breast only while he's cluster feeding, which really seems to help with the colic.

Swizzler, if he has colic I would recommend osteopathy. It may sound like a strange thing to do but it really does work.
Good luck with the feeding, it does get easier as your baby progresses.