EBF baby feeding and sleeping habits - advice for new mum please!

[avocadoaddict]

Any advice/thoughts appreciated please - i'm not sure whether what i'm doing is for the best

I have a 9 week old dd. She is EBF and has put on weight really well since birth. However, during the day she doesn't feed every 2-3 hours (or whatever is considered normal!). She will grizzle because she's hungry and then just feed for a few minutes before detaching herself. I can't get her to feed any more, from the same breast or the other, but then she wants to feed again soon after. This happens regularly when she's awake during the day so sometimes she's grazing every 15-60 minutes rather than having a 'proper' feed. If I don't feed her straight away when she's hungry then she'll get upset very quickly!

She naps well during the day, three to four naps of 30-120 minutes. We don't have any kind of daytime routine for her as she's so young, we are just led by her.

She takes rantidine for silent reflux and this has worked really well. She's no longer uncomfortable and doesn't have any reflux symptoms so I don't think that this is the reason.

At night her approximate sleep times are 9:30pm to 1:30am, 2am to 4am and 4:30am to 7:30am. We can't get her to sleep earlier than that! She has large feeds during the night which is why she can go 2-4 hours without feeding. It's just during the day that this seems to be the problem. We have a bedtime routine of feed, bath, massage, feed again and into the cot. She normally drops off to sleep easily, but sometimes cries for 10-30 minutes

She's my first DC so I have no idea if i'm doing something wrong. Does anyone have any ideas please? Also, what do people think of her night time sleep patterns - is this normal for her age or is there anything else I can do to help her sleep longer?

Thanks in advance

(I have also posted this in the beast and bottle feeding section )

Can't speak for normal, but we only got DS into a "bedtime" of roughly 8-9pm just before he was 4 months (with 3 daytime naps). When he was really tiny his "bedtime" was 12-1am, then gradually moved forwards.. He did a lot of cluster feeding in the evenings and just wasn't ready to do a proper sleep till then.

The night sleep sounds good to me!

I too think your night time sleep is enviable! Looks like you're doing lots right to me, and that you are v lucky to have such a reliable ish pattern from an ebf daughter!

Good luck.

I'm not sure which bit of the above you're querying ... Sounds alright for a 9 week old to me.

Also, I love the idea of a beast feeding board.

Lol at beast feeding! Much more appropriate for my 4 wo at least :)

Ha! Beast feeding! Ooops

I guess I was querying everything as I have no idea what I'm doing really. Guess it's all just first time mum doubts. There are always lots of people rushing to tell you that their babies sleep through the night at 6 weeks (for example) that I wasn't sure whether my dd was sleeping normally. I appreciate that 'normal' can take different forms though.

Thanks everyone

Hi,
My 9 WO is very similar in the day and will have a good 10-15 mins in the morning then graze most of the day she will have 1 good 2 hour nap if just me and her at home (to nisey when others around and will maximum 1 hour then-even when do at home) her bedtime routine I'd bath,feed,bed from 7pm and will wake bout 1am then maybe 3.30am and then 7am. This is my first and I wondered if she was feeding well as so bittyin the day but I suppose as long as they are putting weight on its fine-my lo was 11lb13oz at 7 weeks (born 7lb 12oz so doing well) hope it helps x

Another 9 week old grazer here. Feeds every hour or so during the day, not great on naps, maybe one decent one of an hour and then half hour catnaps. Bed between 9 and 10 (really looking forward to her bringing this forward!) and wakes 1ish, 4ish, 6ish.

I'm so glad you posted this- I was beginning to worry about DD's frequent feeding and our baby-led "routine". There's nothing like other people being in the same boat to reassure you all is well!

It sounds like you have a good baby led routine that suits you.

I noticed a couple of things:

Have you tried winding her part way through a feed? It may be that she is uncomfortable and needs to burp before she can continue. Sorry if this is something you've already tried!

Also, she cries for 10-30 minutes before going to sleep in her cot? Is that with you holding her or leaving her alone? I personally wouldn't leave a 9 week old (or any baby) crying for that long. Again, apologies if I have misread your post.

Your baby is still so little. Try not to worry too much and enjoy her!