Need help! New BF nervous mum

[Kieryysmithyy]

My little one is 4 weeks old. I've become quite worried with his feeding. I exclusively BF. He is going great with weight gain, has 8+ wet diapers everyday, and poos every 2 days the normal BF baby poop. He only feeds for a couple minutes each feed, which is only one breast per feed. I have a fast let down. He then goes on to sleep sometimes 3-4 hours during the day and 4-5 sometimes 6 during the night. In between he gets very fussy like he is overly hungry, cries and wriggles but when put on the boob he pulls away. Then cries himself to sleep. He does spit up very often. Just very concerned as to what is going on.

He sounds like a perfectly normal healthy baby. If weight gain and nappies are all there then he's feeding fine.

The crying in between may be wind, tiredness, overstimulation, or forever a mystery. If he usually falls asleep after a bit of crying that suggests tiredness. But newborns do cry a lot. It peaks about 6-8 weeks and then tapers off.

If you have a fast let down then its possible that he isn't liking it hence being fussy. He might also get lots of thirst quencher. It's good that he is still gaining weight and good nappies though.

Have you tried using a hakaa or removing milk into a muslin before popping him on? After your let down it will slow down and be the bit more fatty milk.

Sorry just to be clear, those hours are times between feedings.

I always hand express before every feeding, as well as pop him off after about 20 seconds when i notice him gulping too much then pop him back on. I always burp for a good 10 minutes afterwards, would this be a growth spurt?

Sounds perfectly normal to me. Both of mine cluster fed for hours in the evening which was basically feed, grizzle, nap, grizzle, feed, every 2 mins from about 5-10pm. With my first I stressed it was reflux or dairy intolerance or colic and read these forums to death. It wasn’t. Magically around 12ish weeks both of mine suddenly became happy little individuals.

As long as weight gain and nappies are ok and he has some settled time in the day then I wouldn’t worry.

Newborns are funny little creatures, I guess being thrust traumatically into the bright world from their warm, cosy, dark space takes some getting used to!

I have a fast letdown and it took a while for my little one to get used to it.
Leaning back feeding positions can help with fast letdown and using a clean(ish!) muslins to stem the flow when they pull away can help.