3.5 months and still BFing, all should be well, but fuss fuss fuss!

[ChubbyScotsBurd]

DS is a big hungry 91st centile porker who used to feed every 2-3 hours and would constantly comfort-suck and feed to sleep (thank feck, or he'd never sleep!).

Last week or so he's feeding less frequently, 3-4 hourly only cos I'm offering. He gets most of the way through side one but while there's still plenty swallowing he starts pulling off, shouting, bobbing on and off, getting a bit hyper. As a result getting him to sleep is taking hooooours. He still feeds back to sleep ok at night (co-sleeper).

Weird ... any ideas?

Chubby have just had this too fussiness at this age is very common mine has settled down now

Normal. Frustrating, but normal. If you're happy for him to feed through the night, then you don't need to worry that he's taking in less milk during the day, as he'll make up at night. Also they can get very efficient and take plenty of milk in a short feed.

You could try and feed him in very subdued, boring environments, and even build in a pre-feed winding-down routine. Not really practical, I know. Do you trap his underneath arm under your arm when you feed? You can then catch hold of his upper arm with your lower hand. Sometimes they fight that, and it's perhaps counterproductive, but sometimes they relax and feed after an initial resistance.
What about a feeding necklace?

Now is the time to start stopping any behaviours you can't bear - eg if he's twiddling your skin, or pinching you, or insisting on holding the other nipple while he feeds. Right now it's not too painful, perhaps just a bit uncomfortable, but in a few weeks, 'uncomfortable' will become 'excruciating', and the behaviours will be so ingrained, and so connected to feeding, that it will be difficult to stop them.

Thanks all. Yes, life is WAY too exciting - this is definitely impacting negatively on both sleep and feeding. He's also always fed quickly, even when we had our L-plates on he would be done and dusted on both sides within 20-25 minutes, now much faster still (already I'm nostalgic for those sofa-bound feeding frenzy days ... can't wait for the next growth spurt ).

Good to know it's to be expected though, thank you!