newborn feeding every hour?

[LaurenJade96]

My son is now 5 days old, and he was feeding every 3 hours up until 2 days ago. He gets fed more and more, sleeps for an hour, wakes up and screams and doesn’t stop until he gets another bottle. We’re exhausted and can’t keep up. He is currently drinking 60-70ml at a go, and then refuses to drink anymore. But in an hours time he’s absolutely starving screaming the house down again!
We’re absolutely exhausted getting up so many times in the night, and as a first time Mum I never knew what I was getting myself into :( is this normal for a baby of his age? He’s having that much that he’s just pooing constantly too. It’s a forever ending cycle of feed, poo, and cry.

Hi lovely, that sounds exhausting, you poor things!
If he has 60-70mls each feed it sounds like he is hungry, rather than just “snacking”, and unfortunately you will need to keep feeding him every hour if that’s what he needs just now. He is probably having a growth spurt, which babies tend to have on around day 7 of life or there about in my experience. Hopefully it will not last long!
If he starts taking less volumes, and I mean a lot less, like 30 or so each hour I would suggest trying to distract him for as long as you can, with cuddles, dummy, rocking etc, to increase the amount of time in between feeds and encourage him to take larger volumes, so he reverts back into a pattern of having longer periodes in between feeds. But at the moment you will just have to bear with him, I’m so sorry.
However: IT WILL NOT LAST!
All the best to you all, I know it is absolutely exhausting

Totally normal, sorry. I couldn’t believe it either, my daughter was the same. If you are bottle feeding and have some support, can you get someone else to take over for an afternoon or evening and get your head down and sleep?

It's such a shock to the system but quite normal. Just keep doing what you're doing and know that he'll gradually sleep for longer stretches. Just do whatever you need to to get through this part.

congratulations on your baby boy.

Implement normal. It does get easier and he will slow down but this stage is hard. Your body becomes used to no sleep.

His tummy is absolutely tiny so won’t be able to take much note and will digest the milk quickly and need more. Just a few days ago he was constantly fed via the placenta so feeling hungry is new and upsetting. It’s also a safe guarding against sids and biologically normal for babies to wake often to feed. It helps keep them alive. All the poo is also good. Shows all the plumbing is working properly. It’s all normal and actually all very good signs. Just tiring. And a shock when it’s your first.