Last night was so bad - i need someone to hold my hand

[rubyslippers]

DD fed from 1 in the afternoon and finally crashed out at 11 pm

give or take the odd nap on my lap she fed and fed and fed

she then woke every hour during the night

this is on the back of 6 weeks of broken sleep = she is exclusively breast fed but i can't do a night like that again

she normally cluster feeds for 3 - 4 hours in the evening then sleeps but this was awful

she wouldn't settle unless she was on the breast

I am on my knees with tiredness and feel like quitting breastfeeding - it is not enjoyable in the slightest

oh - and DH tried to get her to take a bottle which she utterly refused

she is just over 6 weeks old

is this usual???

Ruby, you are doing sooo well, it is exhausting. I dont know if it helps, but mentally I always thought of breast-feeding in terms of every feed, (or on bad days part of a feed) was a bonus and never ever planned to do it for a set length of time. This kind of took the pressure off, and I also used a dummy and gave DS the occasional bottle of formula, to give myself a break. I know this flies in the face of all the breast feeding advice, but for me it took the pressure off me, and meant that I stuck with BF for much longer that I would have done if the expectation had been set that I needed to do EVERY feed for a set period of time.

thank you all - you are wonderful

DD is currently asleep on DH's lap ...

am going to ring the helplines

interesting about cranial oesteopath

DD was very quick - 7 hours of labour from start to finish and only two pushes to get her out ... she is quite windy/farty

hmmm

brill advice from everyone

If you are in SW London v happy to recommend cranial oestopath. I am the least alternative type but worked for us. DD1 - under 3 hours; DD2 under 2 hours! Same problems for long births I believe. Best £27 I ever spent, imho.

Good luck! 6 weeks I think in both cases was one of the worst weeks, as typical growth spurt and your milk has to catch up!

Am now just at 3 months on DD2 and it's worlds apart.

thank you K - am too far from SW London but we have a good alternative health clinic near us so will give them a call