Almost 10 weeks old - feeding has gone haywire

[Ready]

Help. DD is 10 wks on Friday, last 3 days (afternoons and evenings) she has been irritable while feeding.
Since birth I have always fed off one side each feed, except on the odd occasion when I thought she was still hungry - but mainly only on one side... BUT the last few days she has fed off one side for about 10 mins then pulled away, I have burped her, offered more, she takes a few mins more then pulls away and cries, I have offered it a few more times - she sucks one or two times then cries and pulls away.
I then switch her over and she happily feeds for 10 or so more minutes, burp, then a few more minutes still.

Is this normal to suddenly go from single side to both? She doesn't do it when waking in the night or the first day feed. So I am confused.

I am fine with her taking from both breasts, if that is what she needs, but I worry that she might be getting too much fore milk? Or won't be draining me fully.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

It might be that she's now draining the one side a lot quicker - is still hungry and getting frustrated trying to tell you she wants more. If she settles straight away on the other side, then she probably just wants the extra. Also it may well be a growth spurt and she's just telling your body to make more milk. As you are more rested at night and first thing in the morning, she's possibly getting a fuller fat feed. I think it's normal for babies to start to want both sides round about the 10-12 week mark.

If this suits her and her nappies stay normal, then I'd say go with feeding her on both sides, but wait for her cue to swap.

• There is a possibility at this age that her teeth might have started rumbling too, but then that would mean she wouldn't be happy to take the other side too. Sounds to me like you're following your instinct and doing the right thing though .

sorry, should have said up there the reason for this is that babies become a lot more efficient feeders at this stage, so can take a lot more milk in less time.

Thank you, I have friends that have always fed off both each feed, so I assumed you either did that always. I had read that babies get more efficient around about 3 months, so I hadn't really thought about that.

Thanks, I will keep offering both sides if she seems to need it.

i think this is the age DD started wanting both sides - I always just fed DS one side and assumed I'd do the same with DD, but she sometimes wants both now (she's 24wks) and I always offer the second at bedtime, just in the hope she'll sleep that little bit longer!

That post didn't really make a lot of sense. I meant, I assumed if you started out doing both you continued, and if you started out one then you continued.

And I hadn't considered the efficiency thing so soon.

Well last night it was awful at bedtime, she got really frantic and neither side seemed to satisfy. I was switching back and forth and back and forth for about 30 mins. Lots of tears (both of us ) and then she finally seemed to get what she wanted and settled on one side and slept til 2am!

I meant my post didn't make sense, not yours... can you tell I am not getting huge amounts of sleep! Thanks for your advice.

yes, with you on the lack of sleep. maybe it is the start of teeth rumbling then, as feeding just seems to settle down, then teeth start up. I remember telling my friend how things had just started settling down into a routine with DS and things were going really well, and she said oh you wait, you just get used to one thing then they go and change it. At the time I thought, oh how mean to say that to me - ahh, how true eh?!! If only babies were predictable, would save a lot of tears.

I like that, dd has definitely done that in the short time she has been here, just when we think we know her she springs something new on us.
As hard as it is, I wouldn't swap her for the world.