Shares in my soul if you can help- breastfeeding will be the end of me

[ShowOfHands]

7wk old dd is draining my life force. She is exclusively breastfed and is officially the hungriest baby in the world. She does not stop. I am not exaggerating. We can perhaps manage 20 minutes of smiles and alertness before she is demanding to feed again. Add to this that she doesn't sleep at all during the day and I feel a lot like I'm swimming uphill through blancmange. I thought it would get better at 6wks but it's getting worse. She did at least manage to sleep at night for 4 hours at a time but she hit 6wks and decided that she needed feeding every 1.5/2hrs overnight.

I had an emergency cs after a difficult labour and am still quite anaemic and have very low blood pressure. Also have flu at the moment. Have slept 2hrs in the last 36. DH works very, very long hours so have no help, no family nearby.

I have tried stretching out feeds, she will not have it. I jig her, sing to her, rock her, put her down, put her in the sling etc and she screams and roots. She is not comfort sucking. Weight gain is extraordinary. She is happy, alert, very smiley and absolutely beautiful but I am going to flush my head down the toilet.

Please please please help. Or at least tell me when it gets easier.

Blimming 'eck, 4oz by hand in 20 mins!!! Took me 45 mins hooked up to an industrial Medela to get 3! You definitely have a good supply...

Have a good rest

Just a thought and I could be way-off, but do you think it's possible you could have an oversupply issue? Typically baby gets a higher proportion of foremilk and puts on more weight than would be expected and as it's lower in fat I guess it might be digested more quickly leading to needing to feed more frequently. There's some information on kellymom Hope things improve soon.

Two packs of nature baby disposables arrive on Tuesday. Would be rude not to use them, you hear? When they run out you should be feeling better and M more settled. x

Oh and feck the wedding and if you can't bear to miss Joan Baez, then just go for the day and don't camp.

if it's a foremilk issue (Tiktok!? Yo-hoo!) maybe expressing a little before you feed would help, so that she is instantly into the richer milk?

Oh SOH you quite obviously wonderful but incredibly tired mummy!

To repeat what others have said, it will settle down.

Ds fed every 1.5 hours during the day and every 2 at night. Well, every 1.5 hours during the morning anyway, afternoons more. Still does feed more in the afternoons but hey ho. He did that til around 3.5 months. Then gradually went longer at night, dropped down to 3 feeds, then 2 and now at 5.5 months varies between none, one or 2. Still feeds very frequently during the day.

BUT

My Dp is (technically was now ) a fellow student and so was around lots during the day to let me have a few naps and feed me etc.

You don't have that so please do look after yourself, use those disposables that are on their way to you, the world will not implode if you use them for a few weeks, eat properly and if you can get your Dd to take a bottle or cup feed then do pass her on to someone when you can. Mine never did take a bottle the cheeky sod.

Do give a dummy, I really didn't want to give one but cracked when trying to write an essay and all he wanted to do was suck. It really did help, especially at night. Then a month or so ago he found his thumb and has refused the dummy ever since. You don't need to use it all the time, ours never even left the house.

Oh and pretty please e mail me on Indith _ underfire @ yahoo dot co dot uk before I lose my internet! Else I shall be pottering around the festival asking every baby if they are called Matilda. Unless you want me to sod off of course then feel free to do so ;)

Will have to buy you that pancake now though, you deserve it!

Oh TYG I owe you more than my soul by now. Will be seeing you on the 10th so will throw myself at your feet then.

Indith, I am emailing you atm. Of course I still want to meet at Cambridge. Don't need to arrange it though, you'll spot me right enough- I'll be the sack of potatoes, norks out, wailing baby, vomit-stained and muttering to myself.

Oh God Big Brother's on, must turn over the TV, that really will tip me over the edge.

Big Brother! Argh! Is Dr Who not on now? Much better option.

Please don't feel you fail if you give DD a dummy. My DS desperately needed one - it was a source of great comfort to him. Once he was a six months old he only wanted it at night - and one night when he was a year old I gave it to him and he handed it back with a smile and never wanted it again. He knew what he needed - my DD refused to have a dummy when we offered her one. It would be worth offering it just in case it will make life easier for you.

SOH - at 8 weeks with ds1 I cracked and used a dummy. It was much better. It saved me (and him) from me throwing him out of the window.
And nobody came and took back my Lentil Weaver membership badge and Earth Mother t-shirt.

Is the family wedding £250 miles in my direction?? I'll have M for you And cook for you and wrap you in a nice blanket and make you sleeeep...

Also, look out for
''Nature nappies are made mainly from recycled material, they biodegrade and you can also get biodegradable nappy sacks to go with them. After all what is the point of putting a biodegradable nappy in a non-biodegradable bag! Nature nappies come in all sizes from Newborn to Junior.

The biggest advantage to these nappies is that you can buy them in leading supermarkets, so you don't need to worry about mail order, you can pick them up with your normal shop. The price is extremely comparable to the leading brands of disposables at £5.65 per pack, regardless of size (although numbers in the pack do decrease as size increases).''

info from here

you can go back to using hand-woven hempen nappies fastened with bits of twig when you are feeling strong and better! Ok?

You owe me nothing. Like I said before, it's all selfish because I want you back on MN, entertaining me.

If you're planning to be in London on the 10th, perhaps you could make an appointment at the Osteopathic Centre for that day? Even one treatment could really help Mathilda. It's based near where your brother lives, in Clerkenwell.

SOH please don't go to the wedding unless you actually want to, it sounds like one more stress that you just don't need.
Plus, use a dummy if it helps - I've been known to have a small suck on DS's - it's very soothing and I'm 27! Seriously, you can worry about getting it off her by 6 months when things have calmed down, that's what I'm planning to do.

With DS I mean, not your DD, now that would be interfering

If you're passing by 12yg on the 10th I could just pop in and say hi to all of you

Lol Katy! I still suck my thumb sometimes if I'm really tired

I can't offer any advice on this, show, but I hope it does get better for you soon

Doctor Who now on... gah, saw about 30 seconds of Big Brother and I'm still shaking. Indith have emailed you ya big thumb-sucker.

Visiting said Osteopathicy place on the 10th sounds like a good idea and would love it if you attended the meet-up Mars so I can throw myself on your mercy too and beg that you tell me where I'm going so wrong oh wise one.

FMF am going to leap completely into lentil weavery, have run out of dry hemp nappies and twigs so dd will be wrapped in leaves for the next 12 hours until I can get to the shops.

Katy44 if you promise to come and remove the dummy at 6 months a la tooth fairy I'll consider using one!

Indith
SOH, sorry if this has been asked / answered / is completely irrelevant, but any chance your DD has tongue tie and so is struggling to get milk?

Tell you what - you tell your DD my DS needs her dummy as he's such a big baby
And I'll do the same, but in reverse

I don't think she has tongue-tie- presents with heart-shaped end to tongue doesn't it? Her latch seems fine tbh but I could be wrong. Honestly, in my sleep-deprived state I saw an elf on my balcony earlier so all sorts of things could be happening that I am not aware of.

8wk check next week so will ask the GP to confirm that all is well with dd.

Call and make the appointment with the OC asap honey. And could I just say this really really gently...............

YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hear that babies often don't need or want dummies after about 4 months anyway, as they don't get the same relief from sucking.

I hear that babies often don't need or want dummies after about 4 months anyway, as they don't get the same relief from sucking.

Tongue tie doesn't always present with heart shape at end. That's just one way.

twelveyeargap, so how do you explain this 27 year old?
SOH, I don't really know a lot about tongue tie, just that one of the ladies on our AN thread had major bf problems until it as snipped- 1st feed after that was easy! Sounds like you've already considered it though and it's not that

well, as long as the leaves are compostible, and not too, y'know, woody-stemmed, it should be ok...