dear god, will the feeding never end!

[RachaelandAgatha]

Waaaaahhh! I am pinned to my baby. Get this kid off my boob!

DD 24 weeks old has been breastfeeding almost every hour (I kid you not) during the day for the last week and 3 times at night. Yesterday she managed 14 times in the 24 hour period .

In between feeds she is very fussy and shrieks or cries within a minute or two of being given a toy, laid on her playmat, put in a chair...it just goes on and on all day. She is getting mega-frustrated at everything and throws her toys around. She has been teething but this has let up in the last couple of days. I am wondering if she is starving hungry? Despite all the mummy-munching she has put on no weight this week (presently a healthy 16lb 7oz). She is well latched though with big gulps of milk and frequent wet/poopy nappies.

I try to get her to take both boobs at a feed but she is not interested and worse, with two little gnashers on the bottom, force feeding gets me nipped on the nipple. Surely she would go longer between feeds if she took both sides? How can I persuade her to do that??

DH and I are off on a bank holiday trek to relatives in Poole and MIL in Devon. Do not long relish journey and making polite conversation for 3 days while excusing shrieking rather than cute baby and explaining why she is feeding so much. Sigh

To me (and I don't claim to be any sort of experience) this is the sort of thing they do at about 6 months and is a lot less about feeding than a sudden frustration that they can't get around on their own (hence the shrieking when she is not being held). My three children have all done this and it's pretty hard going although calms down a bit when they can sit unsupported and gets gradually better as they crawl, cruise and eventually walk. Is she OK if she is not being held but being engaged by you playing with her or taking her for a walk or some such? I wouldn't worry about one week of not putting on weight.

That doesn't explain the night waking though. If it is hunger, then in a couple of weeks I suppose you will be introducing solids so that might help - not much use when you are visiting your rellies this weekend though.

expert not experience

thanks lalalonglegs.

The shrieking is definitely frustration a lot of the time, she is happy if i give her my constant and undivided attention, which is not always possible. With all the feeding she seems to move effortlessly from hungry to windy to bored to frustrated and back to hungry again in the space of 1 hour.

Its good to know it will sort itself out in a month or so. My mum suggested the same thing over the weekend.

Now I just need to survive a month without industrial soundproof headphones and an Inspector Gadget ability to produce toys from every sleeve.