How long does the craziness last?

[WorkingBling]

How long does the relentless feeding to establish supply last? I have just spent 3.5 hours with dd on the breast pretty much permanently. I am hoping she's finally stopped. It's day 5 so I understand this is what happens while getting things going but it's not sustainable. How long does it last for?

Hard to say unfortunately. It can be a few days or it can be 12 weeks! 12 weeks is very rare, though, certainly for 3.5 hour feeds.

Take it one day at a time at the moment, look to 2-3 weeks and also 6-8 weeks as milestones, as they are often change points.

Has your baby been checked for tongue tie? And how is she otherwise, 6-7 nappies a day, alert when awake, generally settled or screechy? All feeds like this or was it just that one? And are you still under midwife care or signed off to health visitor?

I'm at 6 weeks and had massive feeds like this day 4 and 5. Dd was feeding every 2 hrs until week 4 - with a feeding marathon once a week. Finding just as I reach breaking point things improved just enough. Now getting anything from 2-4 hrs between feeds (9 in a day) and feeding length is anything from 5 mins to an hour. So it should start to improve.

I'm hoping feeding will m get into more if a routine soon as currently making life with older child hard.

I'd say just take each day at a time for now.

Thanks both. I have good reasons to be concerned re milk production but also to keep trying. I had to give her a top up eventually (she took 30 ml) then she slept well. I have just given her one breast and will try the other in a minute.

Past surgery on my breasts means it's possible my milk supply is limited but it's impossible to tell and there is lots of good reasons to keep trying for now. But my capacity to do so isn't infinite! . I'm sticking with it for now though.

My 4.5mo pretty much spent all last night on the boob.

Let's just say that when it goes it also comes back on occasion...!!

Do you have good real life support helping with this? I'm concerned that given the typical NHS support you will end up getting incomplete information which doesn't necessarily tell you the whole story. I think that good support will be vital for you to enable you to succeed here.

Kellymom is a great online resource; all of their articles are well researched and evidence based.

This is also extremely detailed. Jack Newman on supply.

And here is a page with various links about feeding after different types of breast surgery. It sounds like you have done your research, but in case there's anything new there.

Good luck! I hope it all works out for you.

Thanks Bertie. Yes, I have great practical support in dh and the community midwives are being fantastic. I am refusing to go to any bf clinics though as last time they displayed zero knowledge or interest in the unique challenge of post surgery bf. Thanks for the links - I have seen some already. I had an excellent NCT bf counsellor who gave me some great resources too.

I am still topping up as needed and both ME and dd are happier. However, the good news is that I don't have to top up every time so it seems production IS slowly increasing.