Cluster feeding nightmare

[Terracottasaur]

My 6 week old baby has been feeding virtually nonstop for five and a half hours now. He is clearly absolutely exhausted and totally overtired now, but every time he drops off he wakes up minutes later seeking food.

Can I ignore his hunger cues now and do something like take him for a drive to send him off to sleep? Surely after 5.5 hours of feeding he needs the sleep more than the milk now? Not to mention I am wrung out and desperate and just don’t think I can keep on feeding him like this.

Guessing he doesn't have a dummy? Could you use your little finger to simulate nipple and get him to drop off that way if he doesn't take a dummy? Probably tried everything I'm sure by now!!
Or feed with cup/syringe and he might get fd up of it being so effortful and give up!
Alternatively is he in any pain/teething etc - could try Calpol, my LO used to do this for pure comfort when something wasn't quite right

Too young for calpol at 6 weeks!

I would love for him to take a dummy but sadly he spits it out instantly! I will definitely try with a finger though.

I do wonder if there is some pain or discomfort that means he’s just nursing for comfort. Stupidly I don’t have calpol yet - will definitely get some tomorrow.

Thank you for commenting! A voice in the lonely night is a comfort...!

Ah ok - scratch the calpol plan!

Crap yes, sorry just read again - get some in anyway as you'll need it for first vaccinations and it's only a few weeks until they can have it. Good job pp noticed👍

I remember those evenings and nights very well!xx

It's so hard! There is a growth spurt at 6 weeks which wont be helping but if you think he is overtired have you tried swaddle/ pram/car/ rocking by someone else to see if he will go over. It gets better soon

Also.. ..do what you have to do! If that means the odd car ride for the utterly draining days then go for it

We just got him all wrapped up in his car seat for a drive and he seems to have finally nodded off - if he manages to stay asleep for 10 minutes I will transfer him back to the cot, or if he wakes I will take him for a drive.

Thank you for the helpful suggestions which I’ve made note of

Good luck. Dont forget to sleep any chance you have and eat and drink plenty.

My DD did 11hrs straight cluster feeding once, that was the worst eve/night ever. I nearly lost the will to live.
Stick with it, you are doing brilliantly and there is an end to it. It isn’t like this forever but baby is having a massive growth spurt and is preparing your body to make the milk required.

Thank you so much for being so kind

How you doing op? Things any better?

Thank you for checking in! He had a better night last night so feeling a bit brighter now. We had our 6-8 week HV check yesterday and he’s gaining weight brilliantly, so think it is all growth spurt related!

Well done! Great stuff.

This is the time that a lot of women give up on BF as it is a slog. But it is honestly worth hanging in there. It will settle. There will be other growth spurts where the feeding is nonstop, especially at night but there will be weeks in between when it is much less. It doesn’t get harder than this bit.

Just dig deep, the rewards are huge when they are bigger, once lockdown eases and you are out and about you’ll be so grateful for the ease of BF vs bottles and it’s the instant soothe for all the bumps and scrapes to come as baby gets mobile, not to mention teething.

Hang in there it will get better. DS1 was an absolutely relentless cluster feeder - 6-8 hour sessions every evening which started to ease up around 12 weeks but he still did 2-3 hour sessions for a while longer. As far as I could tell this was normal for him even if it seemed far too much to be normal. He did jump up to 99th centile and stay there for a long time so think it was just how he was. He had a dummy as well and accepted it well for daytime naps but still wanted to cluster feed all evenings. It was HARD but I just tried to accept it and go with it and the advantage was it did ramp up my supply and he started to sleep well once I embraced the cluster and let him feed until he was 100% done. He would cluster feed for 6 hours then sleep for 8 once he got into the swing of it. Hang in there!