3.5 week old fussy feeding in evenings

[pamelat]

Hello

My 3 and a half week old daughter feeds well (and frequently, every 2 hours or so for half an hour) but the last few days have seen her very grouchy in the evenings (from 7ish until midnight usually, but actually until 5am the last 2 nights) - she wants to feed all of the time and will cry unless held/fed.

I have noticed that her feeds from about 7pm until 2am ish are not very satisfying for her. At the other feeds I can see the milk flow in to her mouth and she has a creamy milky look to her lips, whereas at the 7pm feed she flails her arms, doesnt calm/fall to sleep and pulls on and off a lot - which I think could then explain the grouchiness .. ? Just fed her for an hour and she was grouchy throughout, normally she would relax and sleep.

Could it be that my milk supply is poor at this time of night .. ? Or is colic/wind to explain - she is windy baby and suffers badly with hiccups in the evening too.

She is sat now being winded by hubbie but has started the crying already, only way to stop it is to feed her some more, but I really dont think it fixes things for her and I cant see us getting any sleep until 5am again!

Not sure but thought I would bump - am interested as having similar prons with my 6 week old, knackering isn't it!

I don't know the answer ... but both of mine were like this from about 3/4 weeks - unsettled from about 7ish, wanting to feed & be cuddled all the time, very grunpy. Mine never reallly got to a level you could call colic - they could usually be comforted. it was just knackering.
The solution? Damned if I know but both of mine settled down around (I think) 8/10 weeks or so. Sorry, I know that sounds like forever away

yes very!

am thinking it cant be colic as she can be consolded by being fed, at least later in the evenings

tried all the moves for trapped wind too, may try infacol?

Hello..

I think small babies often 'cluster feed' of an evening (esp bf babies), i.e wanting to feed v frequently.

Both mine were what you would call "settled" babies, but both were more cranky in the evenings and wanted to feed more.

She might be going through a growth spurt? I would say carry on feeding on demand at this stage.

My personal experience (with my 2) was that they were both very 'sucky' babies. I introduced a dummy quite early on with both (with dd2 by about a week!) to deal with this. It seemed to soothe and pacify them, and didn't interfere with breast-feeding at all.

Dummies aren't everybody's thing though.

Good luck, it does get easier

defn worth giving infracol a whirl - can't hurt
I used to kid console myself with the idea they were cluster feeding - ie stocking up on food so as to have a nice, long sleep afterwards...

I also used to feel that having a nice nap in the afternoon (whilst they snoozed) might help make my milk richer and make things easier for us - again, defn worth a try

This is normal behaviour for a 3 week old, please don't worry . Lots of people notice a growth spurt at around 3 weeks where the baby is unsettled, not satisfied by feeds and seems to feed almost constantly. It's just how they build your milk supply up to meet their needs as they get bigger. It generally doesn't last more than a few days then settles back down again, once your supply has caught up. Please don't feel that you don't have enough milk or that you need to top up, the more she feeds, the more milk you will make.

The evening feeding (7 - 12) is classic cluster feeding. Nearly all newborns do this until they are around 6 - 10 weeks. Again, it's a way of boosting your supply to meet their needs. The easiest way to deal with it is to settle in front of the telly and accept that your evenings will be like it for a few weeks yet. Do you have a helpful dh/dp who will wait on you hand and foot and do a few of the household jobs?

Learning to feed lying down also saved my sanity during the early weeks as I'd head off to bed about 10pm, tuck ds2 in beside me so he could feed to his heart's content while I dozed. It really made life a lot more bearable, especially during the all night sessions!

Growth spurts tend to occur around 2-3 weeks, 5-6 weeks, 10-12 weeks and 6m, I think, just to forewarn you!

Hope that reassures you a bit.

my dd is 9 weeks and has been doing this for a fortnight now...it's exhausting! 5/6pm to midnight-ish everynight. previously she fed at 6ish, then 9ish, then 12ish, and she would always settle inbetween, so we had one or 2 upsetting nights not understanding why she wasn't settling anymore. It's been much more bearable since i started to just accept it, sit on the sofa and watch videos etc. It won't last forever apparently!! (although it feels like forever at the moment...)

she doesn't seem particularly windy, just hungry hungry hungry.

there was another thread about this recently, it seems to be the normal way of things!

here it is... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/1364/472552

how's it going?

getting there, thanks fingerwoman! having 10 mini crises (crisises? sp?!) a day, mainly just in my own head, but still bf so I guess that is the main thing. concerned re my supply, had in fact just come on to ask yet another question!

how are you?

I am fine thanks. not enjoying the 2 hourly feeds all night, but them's the breaks I guess lol
just remember, the more you feed, the more you make

thanks all, another bad night with her but not as bad 2 until 6am this time.

however because i am mhome alone today smelling of milk! she has fed from 9am to 1030am with 15 minute rest and then another hours feed!! how big does she think she needs to grow to?!