Tired out by exclusive bf to six months

[Defeatedbypoppers]

Hi everyone, this is my first MN post

My dd is 5 months and I've been bfing her exclusively since birth. I'm hoping to keep it up for another month and then continue to bf till she's one. But am finding it increasingly demanding....Since about 3 months she has insisted on lying down (me and her) for most feeds - something to do with high-pressure flow I think. This makes it tricky to go out - if I try to feed her in a cafe she shouts and pulls away, leaving me exposed to the world! I'm finding the milk production/feeding pretty physically tiring too & either for that reason or just bad luck have spent a good proportion of the last month in bed with mastitis followed by throat infection followed by food poisoning. She's a big baby and of course is getting hungrier & hungrier as she approaches 6 months, tho so far has been sleeping through (so I can't claim to be too unreasonably exhausted I spose! ) Can anyone reassure me that it gets easier & less tiring once they've started on solids and you can cut back on bf?

Yes.

Well it was for me anyway. My supply went down a little bit (I produce a lot of milk)and DD was nursing alot quicker as well. She was in and out (so to speak) in 5/10 mns.

My ds2 is 5 months old too and his feeds are quite quick now (though also more frequent as a lot of it is him being so distractable) I'm hoping not to wean until 5 months but I know what you mean about it being exhausting - my ds is waking twice a night and has been since his 16 week growth spurt!
As I recall from ds1 it took a while once we started weaning for any big difference to be noticeable, but I weaned him much earlier (18 weeks )

I had the same experience defeated. With both mine I had some nasty infections when they were around 4 months (with ds an infected toenail that wouldn't heal, with dd a nasty sinusitis I needed antibiotics for).
Check with your GP if you can take Zinc supplements, as it is very good for your immune system.
I noticed that indeed it got easier once they were on solids. (I'd honest and confess I stopped b/feeding mine when they were respectively 10 months and 7 months)

I'd be honest

Hi, can really sympathise with you, especially about the feeidng lying down. My dd did this & then one of a day stopped & would feed sitting up, it was fun feeding when we where out. I expect you are run down from the mastitis which often occurs when we do too much & tummy bug. Do you manage to get much rest in the day? Have you had your iron levels checked since birth? You could try taking something like Spatone/floradix which are good iron & vit supplements & something to boost your immune system.
Its also normal for them to have a growth spurt about this age so you maybe feeding more because of that.
Things may improve when solids are introduced but it may not be the magic answer you are looking for- sorry. Think that you need to try & get yourself checked out & look after mummy.

Thanks all so much for the advice - am having iron levels etc checked out and will try to take it easier! And keep trucking with the bf.

Dd is almost 7 months and a feed takes less tha 10 mins (how I long for the 45 min feeds when you could watch crap tv all day)