To express or not to express?!

[AgathaAsprin]

Hello all!

Ten day old baby, my first. Breastfeeding but really struggling because of relentless cluster feeding at night. Night time feeds last between five and ten hours and are continuous, not just every half hour/hour.

He is a healthy baby who is putting on weight and filling/wetting more than enough nappies a day. During the day he will feed for half an hour, be up for half an hour and then sleep for between two and four hours, and seems very content, which is perfect!

At night he is like a different baby, seems to get quite frustrated and just won't be put down or stop frantically feeding, leaving me to believe perhaps my boobs don't give him anything at night?! Is this possible?

I am keen to continue breastfeeding if poss but massively struggling with this. What do people think about trying to express (if I can!) when my milk is flowing in the morning and then giving him a bottle of it last thing at night to try and get another deep sleep from him to shorten the night time cluster feed? Or will this make it harder later on down the line? Worried his mouth will prefer the teat of a bottle as easier and worried about mucking up supply this early?

Any advice hugely appreciated.

I personally wouldn't do that so early on, as you are only ten days in it could interfere with your supply. Your little one is just trying to encourage more supply. Have you got breastfeeding support you can talk to ? I found them helpful, even if just to cry down the phone to mid way through a marathon cluster ! It is difficult I know, but power through. I hated the cluster feeds and used to sit there and think why am I doing this, I'm just going to swap to formula. But honestly 11 weeks in and I absolutely love feeding my dd.

Your doing a fab job, congratulations on your baby :)

I would try to increase the day feeds first, to a minimum of every 3 hours (from the start of one feed to the start of the next)

Thanks both. I will try to persevere for as long as possible! How long can I expect these cluster feeds to continue do you think?

Mine adjusted to the day/ night difference by 2.5 weeks, until then it was every 3 hours in the day and 10 continuous hours at night with the odd 15min break. He's partially doing it to increase your supply so expressing may hinder that. Also expressing is a faff- ages to do plus all the sterilizing.

JunosMum you are giving me hope! I can definitely do another week! I'm also pleased that you experienced the ten hours continuous feed thing (sure you weren't, sorry!) as none of the other mums in my NCT group or the breastfeeding support group seem to have the same problem and I was starting to worry a bit...

All babies are so individual, but it is hard to not compare to others and how they feed. I don't remember the clusters lasting much more than about 3/4 weeks in my case. It seems like an eternity at the time, but power through and it's all different on the other side.

Sounds normal, baby is putting in his order all night, so that you can deliver it the following day.
You will have the most wonderful supply, and you will be able to feed for as long as you want, long after most stop because they are worried they can't fill their baby
Congratulations...
Wonderful stage.

I remember this stage. I breastfed twins for a year. It was so hard at times in the early stages. One thing I did that seemed to help was feed myself through the day. I made a big plate of ham sandwiches, two Angel delights (I hate milk so only way to consume it) and a can of Guinness with lemonade. Put it all in the fridge and grabbed what I could throughout the day. Also slept when they slept - sod the housework. May have been pure coincidence but it seemed to work. Good luck - it's so rewarding once you get through the hard bits.

Ds still goes through phases of cluster feeding although usually in the evenings not in the middle of the night. He's ten weeks now and I think the cluster feeds happen when he's having a growth spurt.