Please tell me this is a growth spurt

[Swaliswan]

My gorgeous DD has had me up pretty much non-stop since 01:40 wanting to feed once an hour for 40 minutes. She is 19 weeks today but is feeding like a hungry newborn. I've been trying to tank her up in the day recently to get her to sleep longer at night but she is so inquisitive that she is constantly distracted. I'm so tempted to shove some solids into her but want to exclusively BF until six months. Please tell me this will pass!

Sorry, but I had to vent my frustration. DH is on exercise with the Army this weekend so I'm all by myself and look like a zombie! I bet that DD sleeps through church this morning when I have to be awake [zombie emoticon]

Yes, it most likely is a growth spurt. There's usually a big one about now that lasts for a couple of weeks! Solids aren't likely to help - they have less calories than milk, and you really want to save yourself the hassle of weaning for as long as you can!

Oh bum! I'm not sure whether I would've prefered to have known before or not. Ah well, bring on the chocolate and DVDs. It looks like I'm gonna live on the sofa for the next week or so.

It's a hard life eh?

take her somewhere quiet and semidark to bf during the day, when you can. it keeps them more focused. also, have you heard of a nursing necklace? if they have something close at hand to fidget with, she may be less interested to turn around.

here and here

Help! My husband and my mum are both trying to convince me that now is the time to start weaning her. What do I do? I'm so exhausted I don't know what to do.

As far as I am aware breast milk actually has more calories than other food.

So if you start supplementing with solids now, you might actually find your dd is more hungry rather than less hungry.

My ds went through a growth spurt about this time.

Also to minimise distractions why not try taking her upstairs and feeding her on the bed lying down with the curtains drawn and the radio rather than the TV on so there are no bright flashing images to distract her?

I do this with ds when he is too interested in everything going on around to feed.

Only drawback is that I am now addicted to radio four.

Here you are you can tell them to shove their solids and that it isn't you telling them, it's the World Health Organisation.