Hungry 4 day old won't feed

[BarrelOfMonkeys]

We had a rocky Day 1 but were feeding with MW help on day 2 as baby would not latch. Position was said to be fine but baby didn't quite get the idea for a bit. Day 3 seemed to have got the hang of it but she's been refusing to latch again since midnight. Waiting for MW to call and let us know when she can come round but desperate for any tips. Baby just gets cross when breast is in front of her now, won't take it at all, let alone latch... help!

Last night was rough - she fed from 2345-0300 pretty much solidly (is this what they mean by cluster feeding? She kept coming off but then ten minutes later was ravenous, she was definitely getting milk out though as I could feel it! And the shield had milk residue in too.) BUT at 0220 when I couldn't believe she was still hungry I offered her the breast with no shield and she took it! Both sides! Haven't managed to persuade her to do it again yet but yay!

Clinic might have to be postponed til the Monday as she's feeding around 8 times a day which is fine, but average length of feed is 1 1/2 hours so I'm a bit stuck in the house at the moment... only get half an hour or so between feeds so getting ready to go out and making car journey seems a bit beyond me at present. Midwife due later so will raise this with her, not sure if she is comfort sucking half the time or not but scared to take her off the breast in case she ends up under-fed...

Yay for her taking the breast with no shield!

The reason she's on so long is that it takes longer to get the milk out with the shield. If you can bear it then leave her on for as long as she seems to want it, and keep trying what you did last night with offering her the breast without the shield. You get much better stimulation without it which will help your supply get going.

You are doing fantastically