baby fussing on breast...but only in the evening

[curlyLJ]

my dd is 8 wks old today and has recently (last few days to a week) started to claw, push away, cry, knead my breasts and generally fuss - but only between say 8- 10pm. She tends to feed quite a lot in the evenings - which i presume is cluster feeding (?) to set herself up for a longer sleep, but i don't know what this recent issue is.

Does the quantity of milk drop off in the evenings? I know (or i'm pretty sure) the flow's not too quick (as per the Kellymom website suggests) as i never see milk coming out or never leak etc. i do think i'm producing enough tho as she seems to be gaining weight well and the nappy-filling seems to be as it should.

Any ideas?

Maybe she's tired? My DS fusses when he's tired - so I rock him in a dim/dark room to calm him down (which makes him drowsy) then he'll feed. Can you put her to bed at 6/7pm and see if that helps?

DS2 (6 weeks) wriggles and growls and pulls on and off around bedtime. He still wants it because he immediately gets back on, he also "paws" at my breasts.

Will do this for an hour or so. It seems to work for him though, he goes down about 8ish every night and I won't hear from him until 2am or so.

If its any comfort, ALL of mine have done this. I have a 4 week old who is wriggling about in his cot as I type getting ready for another short, grunty, wriggly feed!

I have always just sort of gone with it as they tend to grow out of it as they settle into a routine.

This is really common and if you stick with it your baby will get over it. It may be a mild form of colic or just an overtired baby but it's unlikely that you haven't got enough milk. The longer you feed the less leaking you experience anyway so I wouldn't worry about that.

It is frustrating but so worth getting through.

Thanks for all the replies. I will persevere and see how we go.

Igglybuff I would love to put her to bed earlier, but I have just posted on the sleep thread to as she will not go down and stay down before 11.30pm - last night 12.15 . I would dearly love to get her to bed earlier - even 9pm would be good - but don't see how I can do this while she is cluster feeding??

Those of you who say your DCs go down at 7 or 8pm, is that in a moses basket, their bedroom, your bedroom or downstairs in the living room with you until you go to bed? and how did you get into this routine??

Ds (5 weeks) does the same. I think it's because he's tired, but he will not go to sleep unless he's on me and I'm not ready for bed at that time!

curly I feed DS to sleep in our bed while reading to DS1, he then gets transferred to the moses basket (or not if I go to sleep as well).

My problem atm is that he appears to think 2am is an excellent time to start the day - he is wrong in this assessment.

curly I used to lie in bed with DS from 6/7pm ish and feed in a dim room, usually bedroom - the living room was too exciting for him past about 8 weeks. He'd fall asleep at about 8pm then wake at 10/11pm for a few hours that stopped at about 12 weeks and he'd fall asleep for longer.

We used to put him in a moses basket before that from 7-9pm in the living room until he became more alert.

To be honest, the time has flown by so fast I can't remember much (I was very tired most of the time). It will get better, I promise!