It's me again...baby constantly feeding when breastfed - settles with a bottle of EBM - ideas?

[StrikeUpTheBand]

I have posted before (twice) as have had a rollercoaster ride trying to breastfeed my DD. I exclusively expressed for my DS who was prem (9 weeks before his due date). He was very sleepy and never latched on - and my nipples do not come out at all (imagine like a rounded end to my breast with a hole in the end where the milk tends to pool - nipple is embedded somewhere underneath and cannot come out).

In the hospital I was left to it without help for 2 days, at which point I brought it to their attention that DD was sleeping through feeds and awake all night getting very frustrated. They took a proper look and decided bfing wasn't possible for us and pushed me into giving some formula to make up for the shortfall of my declining supply while I got on top of it again (she had latched on in the ward as soon as we were left alone but the midwife in the recovery room had thought it was hopeless too and supported me to express and syringe feed her 2mls at my request). I went home expressing as I had expected to have to do - but on the second night my pump packed in and as she had been feeding well (once she had some energy). But after a couple of days she was getting frustrated again and my supply was dipping again. At ten days she had gone from 7 and a half lbs to 6 and a half lbs. I could feel that the hand pump wasn't cutting it and I was now really struggling to express anything where I was getting 100mls when I left hospital and she hadn't been feeding much so I knew it wasn't that...so went back to expressing after every attempt to breastfeed. Her weight climbed up again very rapidly and she reached close to her birthweight after only 5 days.

Well, she's 3 weeks today and for the last 3 days I have really pushed the breastfeeding during the day but I am finding that although she is alert, doing wet and dirty nappies constantly and seeming to feed well (she feeds for a very long time but when I've tried to suddenly detach her there is milk pouring from both her mouth and my nipple) she is very rarely happy after a feed and will settle for half an hour at most after 45 minutes to an hour of feeding. Today this is a little better as she fed for an hour this morning but is now asleep in her moses basket quite happily. At night she feeds constantly which isn't as bad when DS is in bed and DP is at home, but in order to get her to sleep I end up resorting to expressing 2-3oz and feeding her that before putting her down and going straight to sleep. She tends to sleep about 4-5 hours then which I know is good, but she won't sleep at all if she breastfeeds and when I put her down she shows all the signs of hunger and very quickly gets upset (before I've even returned from the loo often).

I suppose what I want to know is, is this possibly normal and will it get better? I am still expressing whenever she settles at all and feeding her that if she hasn't settled for hours. I am not sore in the slightest, feel emptier after feeds and she is very happy breastfeeding and is getting better at it and latching on both sides now - I would be so happy if I wasn't so worried there was a problem!

HELP!

Thanks in advance for any replies. I'm sorry it's a ramble!

It can be totally normal for BF babies to feed every 1 1/2 hrs FROM THE BEGINNING OF A FEED so when they are little and less efficient feeders it would be totally normal for a young baby to feed for an hour, off for 30 mins, back on again! If you manage to get longer in the night by giving an expressed feed then rejoice in it!

My DD is still feeding like that at 10 weeks, although each feed is now more like 30-40 mins. I have just had to go with it.

I know my DD fed a lot at that age (we had days with 16 feeds in 24 hours and almost constant feeding in the evenings until about 6 weeks old) so it could well be normal especially if she's having plenty of nappies but given that you got off to a difficult start it might be worth seeing a breastfeeding counsellor or health visitor and also getting her weighed again to put your mind at rest.

Thanks both of you. She's being weighed tomorrow and I really hope it's been ok. She hasn't been feeding as well today and was feeding all night because last night there was no opportunity (short of leaving her to scream) to express so she just breastfed directly. I ended up sitting upright with her on a widgey pillow dozing in between short bouts of feeding until about 4am, and then when I woke and found her asleep I put her in her moses basket and expressed - by the time I had finished (15-20 minutes) she had woken so I fed her that (3oz/100ml-ish) straight away and she slept until about 8am (so about 3 and a half hours). UNfortunately DS (2.10) was awake by then so there was no sleep for me.

Today has been a bit of a nightmare with her constantly feeding and not sleeping at all. There is plenty of milk coming out but today she has kept stopping and pulling off, at which point she gets squirted in the face.

Any more help would be really appreciated.

Keep going if you can! Sounds like she's really stimulated your production and is now drowning in milk- ie pulling off because her mouth is filling uncomortably quickly. You could try expressing a little before putting her on or just push through - she will learn to swallow quicker, her tummy will fill quicker and feeds will begin to shorten!

She is likely to have a different pattern every day at 3 weeks. If you think what percentage each day is of her entire life you wouldn't expect someone to behave exactly the same for say 1/21st of their entire life! As she gets older each phase will be longer...

Thanks for the encouragement. It has cheered me a little after a hard day. I am hoping to visit a baby cafe tomorrow but the midwife is coming - think this will help?