Night time fussiness. - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

debating · 03-24-2006, 10:31 PM

Our daughter is 3 days old (born Tues) and is such a content baby - during the day. It seems as soon as the sun goes down she becomes owly, cranky, and attached to the boob. My milk really only started coming in today so I thought she was just hungry, however, she is really fussy again and litterally wants to stay latched on. I can't put her down or she WAILS (she's in my arms now).

Is this colic from the change in milk (from colostrum to milk)? It's killing me that I don't know whats wrong so I can help her.

Kiedy · 03-24-2006, 10:51 PM

I think it's very normal. Many people posted threads on this. It's common for babies to be more cranky at night, probobly b/c they are tired. My DS starting from about 7pm and would want to eat every half hour otherwise he'd fuss and cry. This is called cluster feeding, when babies eat more at night to store for later and w/ time are able to go longer between feedings.

Other sources say that babies want to eat more often in the evening b/c your milk supply is lowest during this time so they need to eat more frequently. Yet others still say, that it has to do w/ baby remembering that around this time during pregancy you were active moving around alot, so for that reason they want to be rocked and held more, etc.

Bottom line is babies do this and I would just recommend breastfeeding more frequantly so that at least she is not crying. They do outgrow this stage when they start sleeping longer at night. For my son it was around 6wks. Good luck.

Gayle0000 · 03-26-2006, 07:23 AM

I agree with what Keidy said. I remember the first couple months of life, it seemed like I was feeding DD every 45 mins to every hour in the evenings...while the days were every 2 hours and that was fine (except during growth spurts where she'd eat every hour or so around the clock).

Your baby may also be just wanting to suck for the sake of sucking. Sucking is very soothing to them. It may not even matter to baby whether your milk is coming out. Since you're breastfeeding, you can decide if/when you want to introduce a paci to baby. I didn't introduce a paci until baby was about 5 weeks old. I personally felt I waited too long to give a paci...because I was her human paci and it was a 24-hour a day job. My breasts were sooooooo sore from all the sucking. The paci was a relief to me.

However, since your baby is only days old and you're breastfeeding, I personally would refrain from a paci for at least the first couple weeks (until you see the Ped at the 2 weeks visit, maybe...this is just my opinion), so the baby keeps eating and learning to latch on well. Once you know the baby knows how to eat/suck well off you, and you know baby is gaining weight, and your milk supply is going well...then I would think about paci's & when it's right to try it. That's just based on my personal experience

My DD had the colic pretty bad. I wouldn't worry about colic just yet. Give it a couple weeks.

Hope everything goes well!

debating · 03-26-2006, 10:09 AM

Thanx guys. She deffinitly seems more hungry at night. I also don't want to introduce the pacifer just yet. Maybe later, but right now she's just getting the hang of latching on, and now that my milk is in full swing I don't want to sabotage it.

Funnily enough, just her crying lets my milk down. I was wearing a night shirt without a bra this morning and with her crying my milk was shooting out and running down my belly!!

I am going to attempt pumping and letting DH feed a bottle at night to share some of the burden, but I'm affraid with my good let down that she'll cry and I'll gush, and if she gets a bottle and doesn't empty my breasts that my milk will slow down, and I don't want that to happen during the day. It's purely a selfish motive that I'm going to pump (so I can hopefully sleep at night). I wanted to stay strictly breast. I already feel that I've let myself down.

feb06baby · 03-26-2006, 05:53 PM

North-
Don't feel like you let your self down b/c you would like to give her a bottle of EBM. At first nursing is A LOT harder than you would think. You should give yourself props for choosing to nurse and sticking with it while your milk came in. I personally wanted to quit b/c I thought my body was failing me when it took a few days for my milk to come in. The first two weeks of nursing were horrible for me, and I was SO tired. Let you DH give her a bottle and get some sleep. You'll feel better!