21 week old suddenly feeding every 2-3 hours - 24 hours a day..

[Hangingbellyofbabylon]

DD is 21 weeks old and has always fed little and often throughout the day - she has expressed breastmilk, around 3-4 oz every 2-3 hours. She was napping well by day and sleeping more or less from 7 till 7 with just a dream feed at midnight.

This last week she has started waking every 2-3 hours throughout the night and is having a bottle of breastmilk each time. She sits at the high chair at mealtimes and looks on longingly. BUT... I don't want to wean her. I want to do baby-led weaning and really do want to wait till 26 weeks.

My first 2 children never slept and in fact still don't now really at 5 and 3. The fact that dd3 was sleeping was more or less the only thing keeping me going. I don't know what to do - am even considering a big fat bottle of that horrible sounding bedtime formula because I can't cope with this constant hunger and me not being able to keep her sustained for long enough to get some sleep.

I have tried to give her more milk in each bottle but she really won't take more at a time. I know there are loads of people out there thinking that some babies have never slept well at this age and I should be grateful for what I had. I get this but feel like this is really harming me, I have two other dd's with health issues and I have hypertension which has got worse since all these nights of broken sleep.

Any ideas?

You can do baby led weaning before 26 weeks - but if you do want to wait that is a good thing too - just didn't want you to think you had to start with purees if you did choose to wean early.

Sorry to ask - but is there a reason why she has expressed milk from a bottle? It must be exhausting to express every feed so I congratulate you on that

She just is needing extra milk for growth. Well done you for providing breastmilk for this long. By feeding more, you need to express more, just as if you were feeding her directly. She may start to take larger amounts at each feed to help her go back to sleeping through the night. My babies would take 6-7oz EBM at this age when I was working.

Am also interested as to why you need to express instead of breast feeding if you don't mind sharing?

Thanks Mears and Bertie - dd did breastfeed at first and I was not aware that she was not feeding well although she wasn't really gaining weight. I think as she's my 3rd she just kind of slipped through the net. At 5 weeks she got swine flu and just stopped feeding. She was too weak to survive on the little bit of breastmilk she was getting out and kind of gave up. I took to the pump immediately and for a while she was almost too weak to even bottle feed. I fed her every 2 hours 24 hours a day and she began to thrive.

Going on the breastpump was easy for me as I produce loads of milk, at one stage I was freezing around 25oz a day. I tried every day to get her back on the breast but she would not comtemplate. One day after 6 weeks off the breast she decided to breast-feed again. It was lovely and I tried to go back full-time but she really couldn't cope. Now she mainly has EBM but usually breastfeeds once a day which is just dreamy for me and for her. I'm now only on the breastpump 3 times a day and still getting at least 30oz a day. I'm weaning of the pump as I have enough in the freezer to last dd till she's a year old. I hope to keep breastfeeding her for as long as she would like to and as long as there is milk.

She is still feeding loads - I think the crux is that she won't take more than 3-4oz at a time. This evening I tried to give her as much milk as she would take - she had 3 x 4oz bottles in the space of two hours and has now been asleep since 8pm...

I'm going to hold off solids for as long as poss, I love my little milk pup and I know I tried to wean my first dd before she was really ready and then it just becomes stressful and crap. Any tips for getting more milk into her in one go or do I just accept that she's a grazer!

I think you just accept that she is a grazer! But one thing to remember is that the milk you express when a baby is 10 weeks old is different in composition to milk that you express when a baby is 21 weeks old.

Are you giving her stocked milk or milk freshely expressed? That might make a difference to her.

Would she breastfeed at night? Then you could feed and sleep at the same time?

Well done you for continuing to provide breastmilk for her

my dd is 23 weeks now and a couple of weeks ago started feeding (at her behest) every 3 hours EXACTLY around the clock day or night - i didn't even have to look at a clock, it was spooky! Before that she had begun to go longer between feeds but i figured she was getting bigger and just needed more to fill her up - like you i want to blw so want to hold off weaning her yet.
She wasn't sleeping thru before, but she has maintained the 3 hour thing in the day but the last few nights had done a 7 hour stretch.. hope that is some help to you. Sounds like you have done amazingly after a difficult start

wow, hanging, respect to you for being able to expres that well, that's an amazing amount of milk! i struggle to express the 7oz i need for dd's dream feed!
she was exactly the same a coup;le of weeksago, now 22wks, was feeding at least every 3hrs, if not more frequently. she has just settled back down to about every 3 hrs during the day and back to once a night.
HTH, good luck.

Last night was better, she slept so much better and today she had proper naps too. I think it must have been a week long growth spurt and I'm really glad I held off weaning her as we're fine for now - hopefully things will stay a bit calmer for a while now. Thanks for the supportive messages, I've been really lucky as expressing has been relatively easy for me and really a blessing as if I had given up when dd first refused to breastfeed I would never have known that 6 weeks later she would go back to breast. It's more for comfort now than nutrition but we had a lovely snuggly feed in bed this evening so I do still get the best bits of breastfeeding.

That's good to hear. Have you ever thought of donating EBM to a SCBU near you? I did that with my last baby and was proud of myself for providing a really important and valued service

link here

I did manage to donate with my 1st dd but can't this time as I'm on medication - hence the freezer full of milk!