Feeding feeding feeding

[gettingupearlyzzzz]

Hello Mners.....

Looking for some advice.....totally at witts end.

Had second baby a couple of weeks ago, first baby didn't sleep brilliantly and was generally pretty hard as a newborn.
DC2 also EBF and his feeding is out of control. He will feed for an hour (normal yes), but sometimes up to two.....will be put down during this time and will wake instantly for more. Then after finishing feeding & finally down in cot will sleep anythingfrom 45 mins to 1.15. DC2 then asked and starts whole process again! This is day and night! I therefore am basically feeding constantly, struggle to spend anytime with Dc1 and getting max. 2 hours sleep a night in bursts of an hour each, boobs are making loads of milk so this isn't issue and he won't Taje the bottle!
This is not sustainable for any of us! I know these phases are temporary but this is now extreme!
Thdbj you for any help!

My DH thinks we should take him to see someone but I can't see what they'll be able to do?!

It really does sound completely normal and it’ll pass. Your baby is 2 weeks old, just go with it. Tell your husband you don’t need to take him to see anyone You sound like a first, not second time mum. How old is your first?

That sounds really hard. Feeding can seem endless in the early weeks, especially the first 4, and feeds of more than an hour are normal, hard as it is for you. If you want to cover off all bases though you could get him checked for tongue tie, as that may mean he’s feeding less efficiently than he could otherwise. My third dc had it and feeding was incredibly painful until it was sorted. If you’re not experiencing any discomfort though I don’t know if it’s likely. Maybe have a search. There are private practitioners who can help or (in normal times) people who can check at breastfeeding cafes and the like. On the NHS it is a fairly drawn out process. But he will settle down, it is normal to be little more than a feeding machine very early on though. I think my memory blurred it out though as it was surprise again with each subsequent child!

Thank you both......

He had a bad tongue tie but that was done a week ago which is good.
He's got ALOT of wind too!
Oldest is 2 1/2 yrs old.

Dc1 was a frequent feeder but this seems extreme.....he's basically barely sleeping at night as he's feeding constantly! He's at least putting a good amount of weight on and already over birth weight!

Check whether he’s actually drinking or just sucking. While you want to feed on demand, you may not want to be his “pacifier” the entire day. Look at his throat to see if he’s actually swallowing milk. Swallowing would mean his throat will move as he passes the milk from his mouth and down to his stomach. Sucking, on the other hand, only needs his mouth to move. Listen for a swallowing sound. You’ll likely hear a small swallowing sound as he takes in the milk, as opposed to simply sucking with his mouth.
I was adamant about not using a dummy. I had heard of nipple confusion and didn’t want yet another obstacle to make breastfeeding harder. And I had also heard of parents struggling with weaning their toddlers off dummies. Except I later learned that my fears were bigger than they needed to be. For one thing, if your baby wants to breastfeed constantly, he’s probably at a point where he won’t be confused between dummy or breast. If you want to make certain though, I’ve heard that three weeks is a good time to introduce either a dummy or a bottle. And second, even if you do have to wean him off of dummies down the line, at least you’d have saved yourself hours of lost sleep before then. Because you can always sleep train him out of these habits—no need to suffer all these months in the meantime.

@Fivemoreminutes1 I totally agree that a dummy may be a good idea......I was just worried, like you were, about introducing it too early. I did try one the other night but it was a bit of a disaster as he kept dropping it out every could of minutes and then would get upset again. He does seem to be a very sucky baby so this might help.
I didn't use a dummy with DC1, sounds silly but what do you do when they spit it out all the time? Seemed like I was swapping one problem for another one ??!

I used a dummy with my first now I remember, to avoid being used as a human one. She wasn’t eating all the time so it really worked for her. She didn’t spit it out anywhere near as often as I’d have been feeding her so it was still better. But with my ds he just spat it out all the time and had no interest. So I don’t know if you can make it work as a solution if the baby doesn’t seem to want it. Re dummies, my MIL is a breastfeeding expert and really anti them due to nipple confusion etc. She was the one who suggested it two weeks in! She was with us for the first few weeks of our daughter who was a real struggle to get feeding. It took all her expertise and she said it was really humbling to see the hour by hour reality of what it’s like and how some of the things they recommend against like dummies or nipple shields can really help. BF is so hard early on!!!

Where I live the breastfeeding cafes and support have moved to zoom, might be worth looking into? It does sound within the realms of normal but as he is very windy and feeding a lot, there may be an issue with latch that you could be helped with to encourage him to be more efficient and take in less air.

Regarding the dummy - I used one from early on with my eldest and never had any nipple confusion problems. It helped keep us all sane!