Three week old still feeding every hour

[CJ1990]

Hello,

My three, almost four week old is still feeding every 1-2 hours. I’m exhausted..! I’m wondering if there is anyway I can help her get longer in between? Most babies at this age are feeding almost every three hours :(

I’ve been to feeding support groups and her latch etc is fine. And she did have tounge tie but that’s fixed. I am breast feeding but did have to top her up with formula until a week or so ago because of her tounge tie.

I just don’t get why she’s feeding so much :( she seems to get her fill but an hour later we’re at it again...all night all day :(

No, that's normal I'm afraid, especially for 3 weeks. Neither of my babies went longer than 2.5 hours between feeds until they were on solid foods. And in the evening, they would cluster feed, so pretty much be on solidly for 2-3 hours.

To add, this is one of the reasons I ended up co-sleeping with DD2. You can probably stretch her to longer than an hour though - how long are you feeding her at a time? Mine used to take 45 minutes for the first few weeks. I would feed one side, then switch sides, then switch back to the first side again.

Totally normal I am afraid!
She will be upping your milk supply too, so think of the frequency as her putting in her orders for later.

It takes several weeks (about 6-10 I think) for your boobs to know how big your baby is and how much to produce and there will contine to be episodes of more frequent feeding and cluster feeding to around growth spurts.

It does get easier though, honest .
The first few weeks are incredibly tough, but you somehow as just somewhat..

Also make sure you are not expecting too much of yourself in terms of getting much (anything) done around the house.
You are doing plenty just keeping get pair of you fed.

Do you have help? Someone that can make sure you have a box of supplies topped up and nearby for you? Drinks, snacks, remote control etc.
I used to get my OH to make me a packed lunch before he went to work and it was his job to make sure my drinks and snacks were topped up for the day and night.

Have you looked on the Kellymom website?
Lots of useful info there I think?

I have #2 Due in the next week or two so I am trying to prepare myself for this bit all over again.

I would see a good lactation consultant just to rule out any milk transfer issues as poor milk transfer can mean they need to feed frequently.

It could be that her tt has reattached or not been fixed completely (not uncommon) or that it’s taking time for her to become more efficient due to the initial tt.

It could be a growth spurt.

Some babies are just more effective feeders that others.

What is quite likely though is that she’s working hard to get your supply up due to the formula she was having. So when she was having formula you weren’t making as much milk, now the top ups have stopped, she needs to feed frequently to increase your supply. If this is the case ad now other issues, it should settle down but I would get her assessed by a proper LC.

Thank you :) if Its normal that makes me feel better! I was at the feeding support group and heard a lady with a baby younger than mine say she was feeding every three hours and sleeping well. Just got me down :( I’m trying so hard to keep going with the breast feeding - I’ve got this far! Just finding it very overwhelming..many tears at night! Day time I’m not so bad.

Luckily my family are close so they can come help. And my other half is great helping out when he’s back at work. Poor man gets a lot of grief off me at night! I cried last night as she’d been on for almost an hour on and off and still wasn’t done. He woke up and offered to make her a bottle which was met with a very angry no off me..poor man doesn’t know how to help! Can’t do right got doing wrong ha.

I have a next to me crib but don’t trust myself to co-sleep with her. A next to me seems a good compromise. She does sleep better in our bed but I just can’t do it. I’m a fidget at night and the bed is quite soft so she does roll about if we move so I’m worried we’d smother her.

Oh god the tears!
I remember the night times tears very well..especially about 2-3 am.
I think my most repeated phrase was " I knew it would be hard, but not this hard!"

And yes, poor OH couldn't do anything right here either.

We had a cosleeper cot similar to the babybay and it was definitely preferable to having to get out of bed etc.
It's was about 4 months that we figured out lying down feeding (tried it when he was tiny but niether of us could get the hang of it and I then forgot all about it) it worked for us so I could feed him to sleep in his sleeping bag then slide him across in to the crib. I knew that others co slept with baby in bed, but I was just too anxious.
Once he was too big we swapped the crib for the full size cot without the 4th side on (attached firmly to our bed with level sleeping surface).

Going a 3 hour stretch at that age would be very unusual. My first did only because she pretty much had failure to thrive and we struggled to get her to eat at all and had all sorts of weight gain issues and then my supply dried up at 10 weeks! My 2nd probably still feeds every 2 hours during the day unless we’re out (then he doesn’t want any at all usually) and he’s 7 months, but he does often go long stretches at night 5-6 hours or sleeps through and has since 10 weeks. More than likely this mum just got lucky with a less demanding baby or more likely is supplementing with bottles or is making things out to be easier than they are. It sounds like you’re doing great.