is my baby getting enough milk?

[mcflumpy]

I've been mixed feeding since pretty much the start (1 ff a day) for various reasons. My DD is now 16 weeks and I'm not sure if she is feeding more efficiently or if she is not getting enough milk but her feeds have virtually halved in length and whilst she seems happy after a feed, she doesn't last as long between feeds, she's gone from feeding approx every 3-3.5 hours during the day to every 2 hours since the length of feed has shortened. She has also started doing something very strange over the last few days: She will feed on the breast for around 5 mins then unlatch then relatch then unlatch this happens like every 30seconds, she also turns her head right away from my breast after unlatching. I can't tell if she is just becoming nosy or if there is not enough milk for her. If I give my breast a squeeze, there is definitely milk. I also change sides to see if she's happier on the other breast and same thing happens.

To be honest, it's becoming such a process to get her to feed I am considering giving up bf altogether and I'm really disappointed I feel this way.

Any suggestions?...

Thanks

Bless, you poor thing - everything is completely as it should be for 16 weeks. I can't think why Health Visitors don't advise new Mums on what to expect when your baby is due a growth spurt. Did you and your baby experience 'frequency feeding' from time-to-time in the first few weeks? Well - you've hit the big one now!

Your baby is about to enter a very active phase in her life - she needs to boost your milk supply to get more 'fuel' to boost her energy levels. This will enable her to start rolling over; sit up; learn to crawl etc..

She is likely to frequency feed for perhaps 2 weeks, basically feeding little and often. The distracted behaviour is very common, too - she's a lot more alert now and easily disturbed by minor noises etc.. It's very important that you carry on feeding on-demand as this is the most efficient and quickest way for your body to learn it needs to produce more milk to meet your baby's growing needs.

I didn't even consider this as a growth spurt! We had one at 2-3 weeks then one at 8 weeks, but both of those she basically fed all the time in the afternoon,sometimes with very little break between feeds it was fairly continuous for about 5 days at both of these. This seems so different.

I'm just worried as she's feeding for such short periods that she's not getting enough. I usually always give her a bottle (ebm or ff) at night and the last 2 nights she's had 8 oz and then needed to feed on me, so I was worried she'd not been getting enough during the day.

The latching unlatching thing is not only very frustrating - for both of us, sometimes she ends up crying as she's continuing to do this - but also quite painful as she's latched on but just 'sucks' off my nipple. Is this all part of the growth spurt?...I guess I just figured she'd want lengthy feeds like last time.

How are her nappies? Growth spurts do tend to come with increased fussiness as well as more feeding. There's also a lot going on developmentally around this age so feeding can change and fussiness is more common.