I am going insane. I am breastfeeding and have tons of milk. I am feeding my 1 week old every 2 hours or less and he won't sleep very well in between. After her comes off the breast he is in la la land for a few minutes and then when I go to put him down he starts rooting again and fussing. It eventually ends up in a full our scream and I try nursing again. He takes it and drinks a bit but then falls asleep. Then the whole routine starts over again. :confused:
I am going crazy. He is screaming his head off right now and I just had him down for about a 5 min nap from his last feed. I don't know what to do. My lactation nurse said I have tons of milk and when I was there yesterday she sat with me through a whole feed and he was an angel and passed out right afterwards for several hours. I don't get it.
Has anyone else had problems getting a schedule or some kind of routine with their newborn with breastfeeding?

My 5 week old son does the EXACT same thing. People criticize me for feeding him so much but he is just ALWAYS hungry!! He rarely goes longer than 2 hours between feedings. Dr. told me that as long as he is actually eating then he is probably hungry....I have started using a pacifier to hold him off a little longer. It works sometimes. It helps him to suck for a bit and drift back off to sleep for a little while longer. It doesn't gain you too much time but when he is eating that often, every few minutes helps! Good luck!

If he is full and starts rooting after a full feed I would try a pacifier. Some babies are just "sucky" babies and need to comfort themselves. If you nurse him everytime he is hungry and everytime he comfort nurses you will go crazy . It does get better though hang in there. BTW when my babes were 4 weeks and under they nursed every 2 hours but this meant started feeding at 1:00 finished 1:25 maybe longer for DS and then fed again at 3:00 so I might get a hour and a half on a good day.

My dd is now 7 months old so those days seem so long ago, yet I remember them all too well. Nursing was very painful for me for the first couple months and my dd was a comfort nurser. I remember it felt like I was nursing every minute.

There is probably a couple things going on... Number one, baby is probably doing some nursing for comfort. And number two, since you are feeding on demand he is probably not getting his fill when he nurses as he is drifting off.

My lactation consultant and doctor recommended a couple things. #1. only allow 15 minutes of nursing at each side per feeding. #2. if baby falls asleep do what you can to wake him back up (take off his clothes, rub his cheeks, etc.) until 15 min on each side it done or he actually pulls away before drifting off. #3. try a pacifier between feedings ("The Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD provided some very helpful tips on getting baby to take the paci).

Feeding every 2 hours is not atypical at that age though. But he will probably sleep more soundly and for longer stretches if you can help him stay awake enough to really fill his belly.

Good luck! It will get much, much easier before you know it.

oh.. and pay attention to positioning. Try to get set up exactly as you were at the consultants office. It is amazing how simple little things like that can make such a big difference.

He may start doing a lot better now that your milk has come in. After you feed him try having him sleep in a different position or place other than flat on his back in the bassinet or crib (if that is indeed the way you have him sleeping). Most babies do not sleep well or for very long like that and a change in position or place can be nothing short of miraculous! Try him on his tummy if you are comfortable with it, propped on his side, in his carseat or swing with the headrest (you can put the carseat right in the crib), swaddle him or sleep with him. I can almost guarantee that while he probably still won't be able to go more than three hours without a feeding at this age, you will get a lot more sleep in between feedings than you are getting right now.

Nancy

Hi baby 2 - my little one was the same for the first couple of weeks - I ended up using a pacifier to try and make the time between feeds longer. It worked a bit and he now goes 2-3 hours. Although he is 4 weeks now and i was hoping he would be at 4 hours in between but nooooooooooooooooo he likes to make sure mum has NO sleep still :)

My milk flow hasnt been that great and i am now doing half breast and half formula. Most days he will go for 2 -3 hours between feeds but the past week or so he has been really fussy after feeds and wont settle at all. Especially at night time (of course :)) Today he has eaten non stop and i onlyjust manged to settle him for bed after giving him a long bath and another feed. Dont worry too much - i ended up ringing a help line as i was getting so stressed but i am sure your man will get into more of a routine in the next week or so.
Goodluck

My milk flow hasnt been that great and i am now doing half breast and half formula.

That is probably because you weren't allowing him to feed enough. At 4 weeks and younger they should feed 8-12 times in a day. That's every 2 or three hours.

I would also caution everyone about using a pacifier on a newborn. That comfort nursing will help to establish your milk supply, and help keep it up for the 3 week growth spurt.

Baby, you said you have a good supply, but using a pacifier can interfere with that, and as he grows and needs more your body won't be able to compensate because he'll be telling the pacifier to make more milk, not you.

All this comfort nursing now will ensure a steady supply through all the growth spurts. My DD, also a comfort nurser, is now slowing at 6 weeks and sleeping for 4-5 hours a night. It gets better.

Thanks ladies for all your advice and tips.

My ds won't take a pacifier and I won't push it. I know there is a chance to cause nipple confusion by doing that and I have worked way to hard to get myself to b/f. He seems to cluster feed during the day, every hour to hour and a half and then go longer at night.

Last night after I posted I fed him before my bed time and he slept from 11:30pm to 5:00am! I was so amazed. He went back down from 5:50am until 8:30am. I got about 7 hours sleep last night in total!

Now, he is napping in his bouncy, not very peacefully though. I suspect I will be feeding again in about a half an hour (at 1:00pm) and I just fed him for a half an hour from 11:00 to 11:30am. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining as he is on a great night schedule! I just never thought I'd be able to sustain such a big baby. He was 9lbs 15 ozs at birth and as of 2 days ago was at 9lbs 9ozs. The nurse said he was right on track.

Guess it's a "one day at a time" situation. I feel better though knowing that I'm not alone in this. Thanks again all. :D

Are you wrapping him tight? We went through exactly that for the first few weeks until we got the wrap right. If our dd got even one arm out she was awake in minutes. If she was wrapped up tight with both arms held in place she would sleep for hours. She doesn't like getting wrapped up, she gets grumpy while we are doing it but it works wonders. We are still wrapping her at 3 months.

My ds is 8mo and just now sleeping sleeping until 4am and wakes for a feeding, some days he will wake up earlier too. The first few months were the hardest. I cried and thought I was starving ds but I wasn't. He wanted to eat every 1.5 hours and he did. I nursed, pumped had about 15 min until it all started again. Like North said it is soooooooooooo important at this stage to get your supply where it needs to be be for him. He was large and larger babies need more since they can only take in a bit to start with and bm goes through them so fast they are hungry again. I am very grateful that my ds was a demanding little guy since it gave us lots of time together. If he slept all the time then we would have missed so much time (ds hates sleeping and never napped well until 7months.) I still have not had 7 hours of sleep in a row and it is amazing how month after month the body has a way of dealing with the lack of sleep until one day you just do not feel so tired and you miss the middle of the night wake ups.

That is probably because you weren't allowing him to feed enough. At 4 weeks and younger they should feed 8-12 times in a day. That's every 2 or three hours.


I was and still am feeding him every 2-3 hours. But still my milk supply is average. And have seen a lactation consultant and he was latched on properly and feeding about 20 mins on each boob.

My little man just doenst want to sleep. he is awake for about 5 - 6 hours a day just starnig at the world go by. Last night he was up every 2 hours for a feed. I just need some sleep desperatley. :yawn: