bit of encouragement to persevere needed

[Tartanstatin]

DS is 3 weeks. Since early this morning he has not come off the breast. I have had to have him attached all day. My nipples are sore. He's still going. Screaming crying if I take him off. Once he gets on he sucks a bit and then falls asleep. But if I remove him, he screams. It's literally been 20 hours.

I just managed to give him a pacifier so I can have a shower and brush my teeth and he is sucking it furiously and has fallen asleep. Don't know how long this will last.

Am I right this is a growth spurt? When will it stop?

I am not a BF expert but your post caught my eye on the active list. Assuming you are not exaggerating, I would think 20 hours solid goes way beyond cluster feeding or growth spurt and I would be worried that your baby isn't transferring next enough if he needs 20 hours to so it. You must both be exhausted and his clearly isn't sustainable even for a short period. Could you try to get expert BF or medical help urgently tomorrow? Hopefully a better advisor will come online but I just wanted to say that this is not, I believe, something you need to accept without trying to change it. Whether that change is getting latch checked, new position, using the soother or perfectly legitimately supplementing with formula if required, neither you nor your baby can continue this for any length of time. Whatever about you, he must be utterly exhausted also. It does sound like the soother is helping though, so maybe that needs to be a bigger part of your toolkit in the future.

Providing you are confident he's getting enough milk perhaps he just needs the pacifier in between feeds to help him calm? I avoided it with my daughter and my breast became the pacifier which was really exhausting. Getting the dummy off them apparently isn't easy but is probably easier than getting them to not suck their fingers / thumb. Watch out for reflux or a dairy allergy (they can get that from your milk) too - mine didn't have it but I think sometimes they feed to soothe the reflux feeling. It's such a puzzle and you will work it out - be nice to yourself xx

I had to use a dummy for my daughter as she was always attached. Turns out she has a tongue tie, has your little one been checked? The dummy wasn't hard to get off her, just one sleepless night when she was 2 so don't worry, it doesn't always have to be hard :) agree with the others 20 hours is extensive, you have done amazingly x

How are his nappies? How many in 24 hours? How wet? How many dirty nappies?

I would go with growth spurt. My DD was exactly the same at this age too. It's hard but just remember it's just a phase and it will pass. The best advice someone gave me is don't give up on a bad day xxx

I would agree with growth spurt, assuming you're getting lots of wet and dirty nappies.

I gave all mine a dummy, they just wanted to suck constantly! Pre-kids I swore I never would!!!

If this is your first and you have no other 'responsibilities', give in to it; both settle in bed, clothes off, box set, phone/tablet, cake, tea in a flask and lots of water. Just snuggle up and feed and your milk will soon adjust to the amount your baby needs.

Be careful with the 'sit on the sofa and just feed' advice. I did exactly this (not for 20 hours though) during a cluster feeding spell at 3 weeks old and I ended up with deep vein thrombosis as a direct consequence. Your blood is significantly more prone to clotting in the first six weeks after birth so you need to take the same precautions as if you were on a long flight - no sitting in cramped positions without moving around regularly, get up lots and walk about, etc. I had never heard of this complication until it happened to me and I have heard many other women experience similar since then. DVT is a horrible condition that can be fatal, and has life-long consequences. So make sure to take care of yourself also while concentrating on feeding the baby.