any thoughts on this problem? Am phoning a bfc this afternoon anyway, but any opinions appreciated!!

[hopefully]

Am going to phone a BFC today, but was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/ideas as well?

I really thought we were beginning to get on top of BF following the brilliant advice on here, but solving one lot of problems has caused a new batch.

I don?t know if I?m being naïve in my expectations, but basically DS (9 days old) is feeding all the time, without ever going down for a proper sleep. As I am not prepared to co-sleep (am a heavy sleeper even now), this means I am just not sleeping. DS will generally feed solidly from 7-8am until 3-5pm, when he goes down for a 2-3 hour nap (with much settling and shushing, even though he is essentially falling asleep at the breast before we put him in his basket). He will then feed solidly again until around midnight, when he will go down for about 60-90 mins, then feed solidly again until he goes down for another 60-90 mins around 5am.

I think the problem is that he is dozing during/immediately after a feed for a few minutes at a time, but as soon as I make any move to put him in his basket he wakes and demands feeding again. I am swapping sides around every 30-40 mins in an effort to keep him awake and feeding. He has also become more fussy in his latch over the past 36 hours, going on and off and muttering to himself as he does so (grumpy so and so ). He is also spending absolutely no time awake and not on the breast ? I know it?s early to be worrying about this though.

I am really at my wits? end, and am increasingly thinking that I would be better off expressing full time and giving it to him in a bottle, so at least he would get a full feed in one go, and might at least be content, and possibly go down for a sleep afterwards.

I have stuck with this since Tuesday morning, thinking that as my milk seemed to come in late (5 days, on Monday), it might take a while to catch up with his demands - he was a big baby at 9lb 8oz.

I know this is very early days, and perserverance will help, but I am truly going spare from lack of sleep, and there is nothing DP can do to help, as all he does if he?s not ready for one of his mini naps is scream when DP takes him.

We haven?t had a pooey nappy since Monday, although he is wetting them a reasonable amount. He is clearly in low level discomfort from the lack of poo, bringing his knees up every couple of hours and straining, and passing quite a lot of wind.

Any thoughts much appreciated, will be phoning BFC for advice this afternoon as well.

Sorry I meant 'with DS I saw the gp.'

Spoke to bfc yesterday, who was v busy, but I can speak to her again/see her next week if I want, and things are improving I think.

I think following her advice and all the advice on here, I'm learning a bit more about when it's useful to swap sides etc, and DS is occasionally actually coming off the breast awake, rather than feeding to sleep.

I'm still absolutely knackered and feel we've got a long way to go, but feel that we're just about managing to cross the hurdles in front of us.

In other news, we finally got poo this morning! 5 full days with nothing, and it certainly wasn't explosive by any stretch of the imagination, but it's nice to know that his guts actually work. Think that might make him a bit more relaxed as well, as he was definitely suffering last night.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, doubtless I'll be back with more minor and random worries soon!

Congratulations on the poo! If he's awake and content between feeds too then that's great. Hope he starts sleeping longer and good luck with the weigh in.

How did the weigh in gp?

hopefully - that could have been me! (I remember the complete feeling of hopelessness when he'd been on the boob from 4pm till 1am without a break other than for screaming nappy changes.

Things did get better, and what really helped me was mumsnet telling me it was normal and (yes I know this sounds trite but it really was true) accepting that this was how it would be for a while, and that it would get better.

I can't remember how long it lasted for exactly, but now DS is 8mo it seems a blink in time. All of my worries at the time that I was doing the wrong thing were staved off by my DS's weight gain of 1/2lb a week for months (I always reckoned we had a 5 month long growth spurt ) and all the "ooo you must have double cream in there" comments (I could have replied "no, I just feed him ever 1/2/3 hours (depending on when it was)

It really does get better. The frantic all-the-time feeding was gone within a few weeks - and I survived and was going out and about pretty much every day by 5 weeks, and the cluster feeds stopped entirely at 10-12 weeks.

The sling was definitely a lifesaver (I'd recommend a ring sling or if your baby is bigger, a stretchy wrap sling) as it was the only place DS was happy other than on me or DH. If you can get the hang of feeding in the sling you can go anywhere and do anything. I went out to dinner more in those first few months than I ever did before I was pregnant :-) (DS got passed around the table while I ate, and fed pretty much the rest of the time. - you get funny looks with a (small) glass of wine in your hand and a baby latched on )

Also I found that I could, after those initial few days, get a couple of hours if DH stayed downstairs watching the telly - he could get DS to sleep on his chest.

Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you that it was normal for a perfectly healthy baby, and that you'll get through it!

My son was a nightmare to feed at first, but for the opposite reason, he'd obviously sleep on the breast and wake hungry a few minutes later. Sounds like your LO is dozing on the breast and sleep feeding

I was given advise to gently tickly his face, neck and feet to wake him so that he'd continue to feed properly. This worked fine and he went from several feeds per hour to feeding every 2 hours, then 4 and was sleeping though by 6 weeks.

Each feed increased from 5-10 mins to 45..

Have you been admitted? If so let me know when you get back out. There are ways of getting breastfeeding back if formula has been introduced.