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.

Did the elf bring you any food or do any housework? If not, I hope you booted it off.

check your EMAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You poor thing. Some babies seem to be like that. I found our first was worst. She was a bit like yours. Some evenings she'd cry all evening (it got better at 3 months) and i'd go to bed at 10pm and then her father would hold her until 12 or 1am and then come to bed and hten I'd feed her. We were lucky I could feed her at 8am and hand her still screaming to the nanny and go off for my "rest" at work until the 6pm feed.

Things that helped us with her was letting her go to sleep with a tape of "white noise" playing.

Carrying her in the sling a lot.

Going out for a drive in the car.

I think most babies that age don't need to feed may be as much as she is so you might want to think about having some gaps in the day between feeds even if she's enjoying sucking so you get a rest. I think I let the first one feed more than I needed because I interpreted every cry as a feeding a cry. She would have liked to be hooked up to it 24/7 like to an intravenous drip and who could blame her, nicest feeling in the world close against your mother with milk. Try if you're really fed up feeding her for 20 mins then put her down in the cot safely and go off and do something else for a bit even if she cries or strap her in the sling but don't feed for an hour or two even if she cries.

I like the try a cranial osteopath idea as sometimes that does help.

The elf was singing Bobby Goldsboro's 'Honey' and dancing a jig. He was neither use nor ornament.

Xenia I have tried spacing out the feeds but she gets so distressed I can't bear it- she screams at a relentless, earshattering volume until I feed her.

I am now determined to learn how to drive as it's the one thing that calms her down.

Definitely a dummy then (sorry to be pushy and tell me where to go if you like) but when DS gets like that sucking does soothe him (have you tried your finger?)
Also, she will spit it out to begin with you need to hold it in gently until she realises there's something in her mouth, in between screams iyswim
Feel free to bite my head off

You learning to drive calms her down
Does she test you on your Highway code?

She will suck my finger for about 17 seconds, spits it out, glares at me, I feel suitably chastised for trying to fob her off with anything other than a nipple and she stares pointedly at my chest again and opens her mouth until I put the appropriate body part into it. We have got to the stage where when she sees me unfastening my bra she starts grinning like a loon and flapping her arms. She knows what she wants. She's lovely really and a very smiley baby. She just has her father's appetite.

Being chauffeured is the only thing that calms her down I mean! We can stave off feeding for half an hour if we drive down an unsurfaced road!

Well she sounds very intelligent - which I'm sure is a great comfort at the moment
DS screams until I've actually unhooked my bra, then the penny drops and his little eyes light up!

SoH do you use a breast pump to express?? Try expressing early in the day it does help if you can give her expressed milk, or your dh can which would give you a well earned rest.

That's what the hv said! She's been smiling since 2 weeks, can roll over and roll back again, can wriggle the length of the living room, lock her legs out and makes all manner of new noises each day. It is the only thing that keeps me sane, knowing that she's progressing very fast and putting on enough weight to guarantee her a place as a 2012 shotputter.

SOH, there isnt really anything that i can add that hasnt been said by all the ladies below. All i can do is just echo that you are doing a fantastic job, you have not failed Mathilda and you do need to start taking care of yourself.

Please do use the nappies that TYG has sent you and dont worry about your lentil weavers just now

It will be lovely to see you on the 10th and would be equally nice if Mars came too.

Take care of yourself and if there is anything else you need please do not hesitate to ask. x

I do have a breast pump fuzzywuzzy and when I've un-addled my brain and found two minutes I'll unpack it and assemble it. Have been putting it off really as if she won't take a bottle I really will have exhausted all options and will be stuck as the human dummy forever more.

Oh we do the little finger. You have to rub the soft part of the finger quite far back along the roof of the mouth, nail on centre of tongue. I find she takes it if she's tired and fractious, but spits it out and goes nuts if she's hungry.

AM, I blardy love you.

Can't wait to properly meet you.

Cross the bottle bridge when you come to it, hun.

Breastfeeding cup and before you get busy with the expressing machine.. hand express first.

DD1 wouldn't take a bottle so we(ie dh) fed her ebm with a cup.
She might take ebm from a bottle if she gets delicious milk.

Give the advice here a whirl hope it gets easier for you, your dd is abosolutely gorgeous

DH tried sticking his finger in her mouth this morning and had the gall to turn round and say 'that's quite sore, she has a firm suck doesn't she?' I was mildly less annoyed than when he stubbed his toe during the second stage of labour and told me 'I had no idea how much it hurt'.

She does suck her thumb if she's just comfort-seeking. It's rare but she does do it. Usually she's after milk.

I took Ella (11wks) to the weighing clinic on Monday and spoke to the hv about how on the occasions that E has been given a bottle of either formula (only once) or ebm she has not wanted to take it and then been sicky for a day afterwards. She said that babies are not daft and will not starve themselves. She may not like it but if she is hungry and that is all that is on offer then she will take it eventually.

Oooh your poor DH.
Honestly, how do men cope?

Men

Love it when he tells me how hard ds's gums are getting

Almost as good as complaining that he hadn't slept well for a while 3 days after Ds was born, because he was up all night when I was in labour dontcha know

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