Breastfeeding ALL the time!

[Kodit]

Hi all,

our DS is coming up to 8 weeks old and my wife bf's him every hour or 2, and I am starting to become convinced that he is not getting enough and we should maybe start topping up. he rarely sleeps during the day and will only sleep on my wife, and co-sleeping at night. I realise the sleeping thing can be normal but he rarely sleeps during the day, maybe an hour here and an hour there, always on my wife and by around 6-7pm at night he seems really over tired and frustrated. My wife takes him to his nursery and feeds him in the dark, which seems to calm him down after a while, and once he is settled from that feed she takes him to bed and where he sleeps for around 2 hours between feeds and only really wakes up for feeds. I am mainly concerned that he hardly sleeps during the day, and this turns to frustration in the evening, and also that he is not getting enough from the bf'ing, please could you set my mind at rest.

Thanks!

Utterly normal behaviour for an 8 week old.

Is he gaining weight? Weeing normally? Pooing? Alert?

He barely knows he's separate from your wife and has a tiny tummy still

very normal. they fall into proper day time naps later, as they need to feed less often.

it's a good sign he knows day from night too as he's just waking to feed at night, not waking and staying awake

Thanks for the replies, yes, I agree that he knows the difference between night and day defo. With his pooing and weeing, he doesn't poo that often, he seems to wee a lot, plenty of wet nappies but we haven't had a good dirty nappy for a couple of days, he is just producing skid marks at the moment. We haven't had him weighed since just before Christmas, that was when we wee signed off from our health visitor. I have mentioned to my wife about taking him to a drop in centre tomorrow to get him weighed (weather permitting!)

Echo above. This is entirely normal at this age. My daughter was exactly the same and I did start to feel like there was no end in sight! At around 10 weeks she started going much longer between feeds and would even allow me to put her down so I could rest up.

In the meantime I really found a cup of tea and a biscuit being provided with each feed made it much more bearable ;)

this site is your bible

Hi Kodit

Know its not quite the same but i have a 4 week old and she is still feeding up to 17 times a day at the moment. Again lots of wet nappies. At week 2 and 3 she had about 5 poos a day but now down to only one, sometimes not at all. I am feeling pretty shattered with it all but the midwife is really happy cos she's gaining loads of weight. She told me to look out for: lots of wet nappies, alert child (when she's awake which isn't often!) and weight gain.

Feel your pain!

My DS did this when he was 2-9 weeks or so - and he cluster fed too, bloody nightmare! We tried top-ups, and they made not the slightest difference - he still only slept 2 hours, then woke to feed. he's 14 weeks now, and we occasionally get a 4 hour stint, but it's rare. however, co-sleeping has been great for us - we've just got a bedside cot, which I can lean into and feed him in, which is even better

I was advised by the HV that its really normal for breastfed babies not to poo very much. My dd sometimes would only poo about once a week. Think its because breastmilk is so efficient there is not much wastage. My two also fed all the time it is tiring but was advised that it is normal. Good luck!

brilliant, thanks Ruddy!

thanks for all the replies, really appreciated, you have set my mind at rest!

I was also advised by HV that bf babies poo less, and not to worry if DS starts pooing less than he was, apparently they get more efficient at using more of the milk, so there is less waste.