16 week old really fussy and I'm losing confidence.

[FlopemOut]

DD, who is EBF, is a day off 16 weeks. She's on the 91st centile for height and just under 50th for weight. I feel like it's been hard work getting thus far - unplanned CS, CS scar infection and mastitis.

She has always fed a lot, day and night, (at least every 2 hours) and is still cluster feeding in the evenings. I also wouldn't say that I'm confident that I have an overabundant supply.

To top this all off, we've just got to the phase where everything is a distraction during feeding, so it feels like it's taking even longer to feed her than usual, especially in the evenings.

Do you think expressing in the morning and giving her this at night would make a difference, or should I just ride with it and accept that this is just a short phase in our lives? Is it really OK to be on the 91st for height and under 50th for weight or should she be plumper? I think I'm really too lazy to express and also worry that she'd prefer a bottle as it's probably easier for her.

Please can someone alleviate my silly thoughts that I'm starving not satisfying my baby and that's why she's so fussy?

4 months is a difficult age - they are so interested in everything AND often having growth spurts too so they feed little and often and lots through the night when its dark and there are no distractions. Both my DSs were like that. It is just a phase and will pass. Am not sure that expressing and using a bottle will help (though never tried it with my sons) as they're more likely to want to play with the bottle too but if you think it will help you maintain your sanity through this phase may be worth a try. Oh yes - their sleep goes crazy too around now. But it will pass...

p.s. both my boys are tall and long - if she's on 50 percentile she's fine and your milk is doing a great job in giving her everything she needs. Have you tried feeding with a shawl over her/in a quiet dark room?

TBH I'm too lazy to express, unless someone tells me that it will make my baby plumper and less fussy.

I tried the shawl thing and she just used her helicopter blades arms to swipe it away.

If it weren't for co-sleeping I think I'd be a walking zombie.

It sounds like you're doing a fantastic job I would just carry on, this phase will pass. It gets much easier very soon I promise! I wouldn't bother with expressing if you don't really need/want to as it is extra work that you don't need to be doing. During the day could you take your lo to a darkened, quiet room for soom feeds? E.g. the bedroom with curtains drawn to avoid distraction? This may help. I found my ds2 did a lot of his feeding during ths night at this stage as was just too distracted in the day.

C0-sleeping has helped us greatly too Ds2 is currently going through a growth spurt (he's almost 6months) and I have a 21month Ds to contend with during the day. But I remember by the time Ds was 9 months it was just soooo much easier and he started sleeping properly then too

MamaSunshine - I've also got a DS who's 2 yrs 8 months who's just decided he wants to wear pants so I totally feel like my hands are completely full! There's simply no spare minute in the day! I look forward to this phase passing...

When does it get easier ? My 15/16 weeker won't stop fussing in day and therefore not really feeding and dfeeding every hour at night!!!!!

This time I think it got easier from 18ish weeks until about 24 weeks!

DS2 is about 16 weeks (I am a terrible mother who's lost count) and is 98th percentile for length but just under 50th for weight. He's also EBF.

DP is a big old worrier but I'm in no way concerned. I keep pointing out to him that he's tall and skinny (as are his entire family) and DS1 has always been light for his height.

You only really need to worry if your baby isn't gaining weight consistently. If she's always been around the 50th percentile, there's definitely no problem. It'd probably be worth seeing your HV if she was on the 91st and then went down to the 50th between scheduled weighings. Even then, it may not be a problem. During a growth spurt they can get longer quickly but their weight takes a while to catch up.

You've done really well to have come this far with feeding. I'm sure you do have plenty of milk, particularly if your lo is feeding so often. The advice about a dark quiet place for feeding really does help with distractable babies too.

Dark quiet place for feeds did seem to help my DS - we went for it in his darkened room as soon he woke up from a nap.

Monkeyfeathers - she's been consistently on the 50th so that sounds good. It's just that she's so long and thin in comparison to many plumpy babies I know.

We just had a good feed in a darkened room and I've handed her over to DH to attempt to settle her for a while.

I look forward to her getting through this phase as it's driving me less than slightly mad.

I really could have written your post - in fact, I thought I had! Except that my DD (17 weeks) isn't doing so well for weight gain and has dropped from 98th to 2nd!! Seeing paediatrician tomorrow, but think all is well physically and she's just meant to be little, but still scary. I find the night feeds best of all as she's less distracted and so calm, but she's decided to sleep all night, so we don't even get those now! I try to feed more often in the day to make up for it, but it's pretty stressful. Hope things improve for you. Are you finding she's fretful (or more like really loud and screamy) after a feed. We are, but just as bad after a bottle (or more) of EBM.

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BE - hope all goes well with paedIatrician. DD is quite screamy if I try to feed her when she's not interested, she certainly knows her own mind. She doesn't scream after feeding unless she's windy.

Seems us moms of 4mo'thers are all going through the same thing.

FWIW-my DD1 is also 91st for length, yet just recently crossed 25th for weight. A stringbean,but otherwise v healthy.

For various reasons we have started to introduce ff (returb to work non compatible with br-f) Can' t say it' s made a difference...yet.

Good luck with the paeds belinda