Breastfeeding suddenly gone backwards 5 weeks!

[Armo24]

Just wondering if anyone has experienced similar - my now 5 week old fed well from birth and breastfeeding had been fairly straightforward (aside from a sore nipple for a bit and preference for one boob). Now from evening time she’s so fussy - pulling off, banging my boob with her hands, writhing, going red in the face and yelling, only feeding for shorter bursts than I’m used to (5-10 minutes). This seems only to happen at evening and night/early hours - in the daytime she’ll do fairly placid feeds that are the time length I’m used to (about 20 mins). She started having a bottle (one feed of expressed milk in the evening every couple of days or so) over two weeks ago so assuming it’s not sudden nipple confusion (though have ordered some bottles that are supposed to be better for breastfed babies just in case!). Could it be cluster feeding (but would that last from say 8pm at night to 6am, when the fussiness period is?) or could it be that I’m causing it as I’m more tired and stressed in the evening/night time? And has anyone else had this? Really disappointed as I thought I’d cracked breastfeeding but clearly not!

I'm a breastfeeding councellor and this all sounds pretty normal for this age. If you have a drop in though there's absolutely no harm going a long for a latch check. Especially as things do change as they get bigger.

Plus with a bit of luck there will be other mums at a similar stage and you can compare stares and coping strategies 🙂 I loved my LLL group when I was nursing for the reassurance that I wasn't the only one and getting to see slightly older babies come out the other side.

And well done for getting to five weeks, those early days are tough

To feed lying down lie the baby on their side and you on your side facing them.

They need to be lower down than you think - line their nose up with your nipple so that they kind of look "up" to latch.

Pull them sort of down and in (closer to your body, their tummy to your tummy) as they latch rather than moving the boob closer to them.

Use the arm that's under you as a kind of barrier between them and the pillow. You can rest your head on it if you want to, bend your arm in a right angle as a kind of barrier to stop them rolling out of bed or just stretch it straight out.

Bend the knee of your leg which is on top, this prevents you rolling towards her, and also stops her wriggling down to the covers. Covers can go behind your back and up to your knees. If you have a cellular blanket you can lay this over you both.

Your upper arm is free to place on their back e.g. to pull them down and/or again prevent them rolling off or just stroke soothingly etc.

Leave some distance between you and the edge of the bed if you don't have a bedside cot attached. If you have a cot attached, it can be used as a kind of bed guard.

Wow I honestly have no idea how anyone does this with another child already! I hadn’t really realised how relentless it was or how tired I was until now - perhaps it’s the hormones wearing off! So reassuring to know it gets easier - I think I need to just do less in the day and try out lying down feeding to get me through these difficult weeks. Thank you so much!

Thank you for this, it’s reassuring to hear it’s normal for her age! I‘m off to the drop in shortly and looking forward to asking some questions but also just like you say being around others doing the same thing!

This is incredibly useful, thank you for taking the time to lay it all out - I really appreciate it. I’m going to practise today. We don’t have much space so no bedside crib, just a Moses basket, so I may need to send my partner to the sofa to have space to do it safely. But will give it a try, thanks again!

Yes, if no bed guard then the safest thing to do is if you lie on your side with your back facing the edge of the bed, so baby is in the middle and would have to roll over loads of times to get to the edge, you should notice if they do that so it's less risky.

If that doesn't give enough room for your partner then sofa it is :D and if partner is a smoker, then he's not allowed to be in the bed at all. But you may find that there is enough room between you and if you both feel comfortable with this, that's OK to do.

Thank you for this, have practised in the day time and it feels very comfortable! I think at least on the cluster feeding nights this is the way forward!

Basically my house looked like a disaster zone and toddler watched far too much TV for a little bit 🙈😂!!!

It's weird how you manage though.

And yes the adrenaline keeps you going for the first few weeks, round now is when the sleep deprivation really hits you. It gets better :)

This is what am doing right now :) and that's what I do use the cot as a bed guard and then a pillow along the edge of the bed just in case. I leave plenty of room around baby. And yeah dp sleeps on couch when he's here but he works nights anyway

Yes ok this sounds sensible! Struggling to find a lying down position that doesn’t cover her nose with my boob at the moment (they’re very big) but will keep working on it! Thank you for your advice - and I think this has been a growth spurt as she’s gone back to feeding for normal (for us) lengths of time at night again!

I just wanted to update and say thanks for the advice - it was a fussy growth spurt period in the end it seems! She was getting plenty and now seems happy with my supply (until the next growth spurt I guess!). But the tip to go to a breastfeeding drop in and have my latch checked was also a very good one as they helped me tweak it and improve positioning too. Thank you everyone for your advice and reassurance!

Amazing news :) x