Breastfeeding 2 month old

[SecondhandTable]

Hi, I am breastfeeding my 2 month old and he still spends between 3-5 hrs a day feeding. I would have thought the time spent feeding would reduce as he gets bigger but it isn't...is this normal?

The other issue I'm having is the evening cluster feeding feed - nap - wake - feed - etc routine that begins about 6pm and ends somewhere between 10pm and 1am when he finally conks out for a few hours, it's really starting to get me down now. He's clearly tired from about 9pm (yawning) and any feeds after about 9/10pm are never more than 10 mins and often a lot less than this. He will fall asleep during it, then wake about 5-10 minutes later and cry and root and this goes on for hours and hours. He's also started having a 30-40 min nap once we get him in bed between say 8 and 10.30pm and then he wakes up wide awake then too and I have to start over. I know cluster feeding is normal but given his age and the repeated tiny feeds, signs of sleepiness etc I don't know whether I'm doing the right thing by him when he clearly wants to sleep? I am wondering whether I should be giving him a dummy and focusing on getting him into a deep sleep when he's clearly tired once he's had a good couple of hours of feeding. Rather than this rigmarole going on for like 4-6 hrs an evening...he does take a dummy, we just use it very sparingly at the moment.

This is my second child, but my first was already mixed fed at this age and had already stopped the cluster feeding and was spending a lot more time sleeping in the evenings/overnight by now.

That seems pretty normal to me for his age. And he is just the right age for cluster feeding. How long does he go between feeds? I think I was probably feeding every 1.5 to 2 hrs at that age still.

Oh really? I'm in a local breastfeeding support group and I've seen lots of posts recently with babies a similar age to mine drastically reducing the number and length of feeds and being told by the breastfeeding support workers that this is normal etc. So I was starting to worry my boy should be doing the same!?

In the daytime he still feeds very frequently as a general rule yes, usually every 1.5-2hrs as you've said. Very occasionally if he has a long nap (almost always induced by a decent walk in the pram, or a car ride) he will go 3-4hrs but that probably happens only once or twice a week as he's not much of a napper (another frustration of mine hah. He is dozing on me now but he stirs every 5-10 mins and I have to pat him back off again so I can't put him down or he will wake!). He feeds less overnight, between 10/11pm and 7am he will usually wake twice for short breastfeeds.

Normal I'm afraid. Ds fed constantly until about 5 months. Hang in there!

Completely normal - my baby is coming up for 3 months and is feeding 3-4 hours a day. Middle one was similar but my eldest was clocking in 6 hours a day minimum. She was an absolute unit though. “Normal” is a very wide range!

Thanks everyone - that's really helpful just to have the reassurance that it's normal and it will change eventually when he's bigger!

I cant remember ages or times between feeds but my boy (now 16mo) was attached to my boobs for the first few months, particularly in the evenings as you've described. At 4 or 5pm I'd just have to set myself up on the sofa and feed for hours. He would drop off to sleep for little bit then be at it again.
Over time the length of cluster feeding reduced and one day he kind of signalled that he was really tired around 7pm so i took him upstairs to bed and that then became a new routine.

He did have horrendous sleep issues at 4 month sleep regression so I do now wonder whether he had tummy problems or silent reflux. We eventually cut out dairy. Or perhaps the feeds weren't long enough/efficient as he would normally feed to sleep so not sure how much feeding vs sucking was going on. I was definitely being used as a comfort.
In saying that, he was definitely taking on board milk, he shot up the percentiles and was an absolute chunk until he started crawling/walking.

Could you get in touch with a breastfeeding specialist?

If you phone the National breastfeeding support line they will be able to reassure you further.

One thing that I tried to good effect with my second, was expressing in the morning and then DH gave that bottle in the evening. The goal was to finish a feed, leave the baby downstairs and I'd go up and get some sleep. Having one feed's worth of real rest helped reset things for overnight feeeds.

Highly recommend this approach to anyone who's got the support to do it.

Both mine had witching hours. Up until around 3 months old they'd scream the house down between 7pm and 9pm.

Every night without fail. All I could do is eat before hand and then sit in front of the TV and feed them. It was harder with number 2 and we had to get toddler to bed before she kicked off too.

If it helps, number 1 was combi fed and number 2 EBF and they both did it so I don't think how you feed makes any difference. Number 2 slept better at night as well.

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. I can't complain too much about overnights, he's not that bad once he's actually down in bed. I go to bed soon after him and he usually wakes twice before we get up at 7ish, and the night feeds nowadays are only about 10-15 mins on one side and he falls straight to sleep again and I pop him back in his bed again without issue. So lucky on that score. Just was worrying that there was something wrong with the evenings still being so long and drawn out and if anything that seems to be getting worse, like it's getting harder and taking longer to get him conked out in a deep enough sleep for the night.

My husband does 3 night feeds a week with a bottle (mostly expressed breastmilk but sometimes a small amount of formula too if I haven't pumped enough). Those really help me have some extra rest. Although so far he's mixed the formula with breastmilk, and I asked him to stop doing that so that if there's milk leftover it's forma being wasted not breastmilk. So last night he offered breastmilk first, baby drained the bottle so he offered small formula top up which baby barely touched and didn't seem keen at all eek! May have been he was just full but panicking a bit that he won't drink formula as I definitely want him to drink it for odd occasions here and there. I am resuming driving lessons soon for example (only 1hr lessons) and I can't pump enough to cover all those night bottles plus that time etc so if he's hungry then he will need to have formula!

I was feeding for approx 12 hours a day until about 4-5 months; mine was a little and often but would also fall asleep regularly and wake up to feed, and would wake up every couple of hours overnight to feed.

I think I was naive to feeding but I didn't mind / worry about this much. The PP's idea about calling the BF line to chat is a good idea.

It's nature's way of building your supply. It's completely relentless and hard work but it does calm down eventually and then it's a breeze and you get to fully enjoy all the breastfeeding benefits / convenience without feeling shattered. Well done on getting as far as you have.

When does it get easier...?! I'm feeling fairly positive about breastfeeding so far as it's much better than it was with my eldest, but I'm definitely not enjoying it and looking forward to spending less time feeding...!

Around 12 weeks when they grow out of the newborn phase.

4 months is golden time. They've likely settled into a rhythm and you're feeling more alive too. It's when you really see the benefits of just picking baby up and going without having to worry about bottles etc

5 months is the breastfeeding wall where the physical nature of it can start to get a lot. Keep going through this wall.

6 months and weaning starts. They start to drop feeds and by 9/10 months you could be down to 2 feeds a day. Then you can just keep going and going