Difficult night feed - par for the course or downhill from here?

[berolina]

In my short bf career so far, the night and early morning feeds have been the best ones - ds is at his most efficient, gets a lot out in a short time and is also satisfied afterwards and will go to sleep, whereas in the afternoon and evening he will feed constantly and seem to be making a lot of effort for very little. Tonight though I've just had a very difficult feed, the reasons for which I don't quite understand. It had taken me a while to settle him after the last feed. Anyway, he woke up at 3.50 (I'm an hour ahead of you) and I put him on the boob, he drank for a few minutes then was suddenly sick - more posseting than anything, but it was very surprising as he was still in the middle of the feed IYSWIM. He was still hungry so I put him on again, he sucked away and seemed to get basically nothing. I was in a real state as I was more or less falling asleep over him (haven't mastered the art of feeding lying down), was very sweaty (used to happen a lot in the early days when I was stressed at feeds) and whatever I did, could not get comfortable. I had to put him down a couple of times because of this. Anyway, I put him on the other boob, which felt a lot fuller, and he was a lot happier and more efficient on that, though it still took a couple of goes at it before he was seemed to have had enough. Then the poor mite got hiccups so we had to wait before he could go back on the boob, which he'd decided he still wanted to. I've just got him off to sleep - it's 6.00, we were feeding for 2 hours so I'm dreading him waking up hungry again very soon. To make matters worse, while I was stumbling about tired I caught his head slightly on a clipboard we've got hanging on his moses basket with detals of his bfs. He protested briefly but seemed OK after that - I'm still worried I've hurt him, though.
As I've only just managed to get bf established (see lengthy thread!) and my worst fear is him starting to refuse the breast again, I'm worried tis could happen after this experience. Is it normal for a feed to be this difficult once in a while after it seems to have been going well - or am I going to carry on struggling?

congratulations - looks like you have turned that corner.

Hope you don't have problems with thrush - search on here - there have been lots of threads about it and lots of useful advice.

It's me again... this time with a technical q about positioning.
At the last feed I noticed he was making a lot of clicking noises which I know he shouldn't be. When we swapped breasts I paid particular attention to position and heard hardly any clicking noises - but still a couple (at least I think they were). I did hear a lot of swallowing and saw waggly ears though. What might I have been doing wrong - and is the very occasional 'clicking' noise OK if everything else seems to be? How I hold him: I try and follow the tummy to mummy and body in a straight line advice. I sort of 'cup' his head in one hand and support the rest of his body with a feeding cushion, my thigh or the other hand.
Also, I read on a site (think it was babyworld) that feeding for 10 mins or less might mean baby is not getting enough milk. ds has been feeding in 10-15-min bursts for a fair bit of the last two days (particularly in the afternoons), then generally falling asleep and wanting the breast again an hour or so later. Is this too short, or is it OK if he feeds again a relatively short time later? (In other words: is it a cause or a consequence/'symptom' of not getting enough milk?)

some babies never feed for more than 10 minutes at a time. Others like to feed for ages. And maybe he is just quneching his thirst and not really hungry.

Oh Berolina!! You and your questions! You do make me laugh, in the nicest possible way of course. Your baby is so, so, SO normal. He's a lovely, normal, breastfed baby. It's hot, so he wants to drink more often and feels sleepy. Don't you want to drink more often and feel sleepy when you are hot? My dd is definitely sleepier during the day atm. I'm sure he is fine. He's putting on weight, going three hours between feeds at night and I'm sure he's utterly gorgeous, edible and wonderful. Enjoy him!

berolina - just a quick one to reassure you about short feed times. my ds (5 weeks) rarely feeds for more than 10 mins - in fact it's usually only 7 or 8 - but is putting on weight really quickly - he's gained just short of a lb in the last week!

sorry to bang on about the clicking thing - just fed and he did it again (on one breast, not the other) - plenty of swallowing, breast felt 'emptier' afterwards, positioning OK as far as I could see - does the clicking matter under these circs, and if so, what's going wrong?

experiment with positions on that side - maybe try the rugby ball hold (body under your arm so that baby comes at the breast from the other direction to normal).

If he seems happy then it is probably not a problem though.

This pretty much goes from the sublime to the ridiculous... ds had his last feed yesterday at 10.30pm, with break between boobs it must have taken about 45 mins. Anyway, he next woke me up at 4.30am...!!! It's fairly normal for him to go 4 hours at night, although of course sometimes it's 3 or less, but 6 hours?! That's sleeping-through territory! I'm sure I didn't feed in between and forget about it, because my breasts were full and leaking when he woke me up. I'm worried I maybe didn't hear him crying before, although we co-sleep so I think that's rather unlikely! Anyway, I don't know whether to be pleased or horrified - surely it's much too early for this - although he could have just had a good sleep, as he spent literally the whole day either feeding or crying. Because of relatively recently established bf (although I did express before) I wonder wheher such a long break will have an adverse effect on my milk production - or is that cancelled out by the very frequent/non-stop feeding of the last few days?

bumpity bump

Berolina - he probably went so long because of the very frequent feeds he had before. Just be led by him and he will demand more milk if the supply starts to wane. Wait and see, today, tomorrow or the next few days it will seem as though he is permanently latched. Enjoy the time between feeds when you get it . My DS1 slept 10 hours at night from 9 weeks and continued to thrive. None of the rest went through the night so young. You are both doing fine

And yes, you answered your own question. He was topped up on milk do didn't need any for 6 hours. The frequent day feeds will more than make up for the lack of stimulation for 6 hours.

ta mears. he's still sleepy today so I reckon he was just exhausted. Oh, and the sleep did do me good - particularly as I'm facing a weekend with my PIL here
He's now done a foamy poo so I suppose he'd had a lot of foremilk in the heat, which I don't think can hurt.

berolina - my baby is the same age as yours and that has been her night sleeping pattern for a week or so now. It's not so bad is it?

berolina - your baby is normal. Some babies click all the time. It's not a problem unless it's a problem - I have seen and heard loads of clicky babies. A few of them showed by their weight gain and behaviour that this clicking was associated with poor positioning. Most weere just normal babies who clicked.

Stop timing feeds - either their length or their frequency. It's not helping you in any way

You have a lovely, thriving breastfed baby who you respond to very lovingly and who is feeding effectively and approproately to his needs.

You will be helped if you stop looking for things to worry about - hope that happens soon and you can feel proud and enjoy your success