Newborn - feeding erratically...? And lots of other questions from a newbie :(

DD was feeding and continues to feed for more than 2 hours if I breastfeed her and will wake up hungry within 1 hour, "In the early days, hunger is driven partly by a hormone called CCK - the same hormone that induces relaxation and sleep. After a feed baby has a high level of CCK, which tells him he’s full, but it drops again after another 10 or 20 minutes, so he thinks he’s hungry again. He may go through this loop several times, in what’s known as “cluster feeding,” before dropping into a solid, longer sleep."

Maybe this article might help you as well, its not exactly answer for your question but good to read . Its good idea to see LC. this is a link :http://www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2010/09/baby-is-using-you-as-dummy-its-just-for.html Mine baby is 5 weeks and also is hanging on me most of the time, he is nursing for sometimes 1 hr, with short 5 mins breaks in between.He is gaining weight very well so im not worry that there is not enough milk. Also i want to add that the pumping it will not show you how much milk you have.Baby is getting more than machine. As kiwiwispers said try to see diferent dr. sb who i an expert in BF. edited by evelyn2000 on 23/12/2012 <em>edited by evelyn2000 on 23/12/2012</em>

Am in the same situation here. DD is 5 weeks old now, I had planned to BF exclusively till 6 months but things did not go as planned. DD was feeding and continues to feed for more than 2 hours if I breastfeed her and will wake up hungry within 1 hour, needless to say I could not keep up with the timings as I was barely getting any sleep, so had to top up with formula after 1 week and still feel guilty everytime I make her a bottle. I tried pumping milk and at times i would get 3 oz milk per session at other times barely 1 oz. The doctor I talked to told me to give 10 mins per side max and the top up with formula. I feel so bad for not being able to give her the best start but feel like my body is failing me. Is it normal for a newborn to be sucking at the breast for 1-2 hrs and still be hungry soon after? She sleeps for a good 3 hrs if I top up with formula. It worries me if I keep giving her formula my own supply will diminish :( lilypad have you seen an LC? The most likely reason your baby is taking so long to feed is that she is not feeding effectively, as in she isn't co-ordinating her mouth/tongue movements in a way that effectively gets to the milk this could just be bad technique or it could be something like tongue-tie that needs to be fixed. You are right in thinking that topping up with formula will result in less supply but you need to figure out why your baby is feeding so slowly in order to fix things. Frequent feeding is perfectly ok, but I suspect there is a latching issue at play. Your Dr doesn't sound like he/she wants you to be successful in breastfeeding, I'd consider a different Dr or don't ask them for breastfeeding advice. edited to add link to breastfeeding consultants: [url=http://www.expatwoman.com/dubai/monthly_pregnancy_babies_Breastfeeding_Support_In_Dubai_8935.aspx'>link[/url'> <em>edited by kiwispiers on 23/12/2012</em>

Am in the same situation here. DD is 5 weeks old now, I had planned to BF exclusively till 6 months but things did not go as planned. DD was feeding and continues to feed for more than 2 hours if I breastfeed her and will wake up hungry within 1 hour, needless to say I could not keep up with the timings as I was barely getting any sleep, so had to top up with formula after 1 week and still feel guilty everytime I make her a bottle. I tried pumping milk and at times i would get 3 oz milk per session at other times barely 1 oz. The doctor I talked to told me to give 10 mins per side max and the top up with formula. I feel so bad for not being able to give her the best start but feel like my body is failing me. Is it normal for a newborn to be sucking at the breast for 1-2 hrs and still be hungry soon after? She sleeps for a good 3 hrs if I top up with formula. It worries me if I keep giving her formula my own supply will diminish :( I believe in 'supply & demand'. Most mothers can make enough milk for their babies. I don't believe in 'topping up' with formula, if anything, that will make things worse, I had first hand experience.

Am in the same situation here. DD is 5 weeks old now, I had planned to BF exclusively till 6 months but things did not go as planned. DD was feeding and continues to feed for more than 2 hours if I breastfeed her and will wake up hungry within 1 hour, needless to say I could not keep up with the timings as I was barely getting any sleep, so had to top up with formula after 1 week and still feel guilty everytime I make her a bottle. I tried pumping milk and at times i would get 3 oz milk per session at other times barely 1 oz. The doctor I talked to told me to give 10 mins per side max and the top up with formula. I feel so bad for not being able to give her the best start but feel like my body is failing me. Is it normal for a newborn to be sucking at the breast for 1-2 hrs and still be hungry soon after? She sleeps for a good 3 hrs if I top up with formula. It worries me if I keep giving her formula my own supply will diminish :(

Tnx so much ladies for all your responses. It really is very much appreciated! One more question - ppl have been giving me conflicting advice on this so would be good to hear your opinions. At this early stage would you suggest feeding from one breast per feed and emptying that side when possible or is it better to do eg 10 minutes each side? What do you think? Tnx so much! neither really, ideally you would feed on one side for as long as she wants (a breast will never actually be completely empty) and then offer the other for as long as she wants that (she may not want it at all and thats fine too). Feeding on one side only may more fully empty that breast, but it will leave the other engorged, so one breast will get a signal to make more milk and the other to make less, pretty much no different than if the same amount of milk was taken but from each side equally. Forcing a baby to suck for along time on a relatively empty breast may also result in less milk taken overall, as she may not be getting much for her efforts and will fall asleep out of boredom/fatigue, restricting feeds to only one side can lead to a a drop in supply. On the other hand switching to one side when she is still happily feeding on the other may result in her getting more foremilk and less fatty milk (the milk gets progressively fattier throughout the feed) which can lead to an upset, gassy tummy in some babies as there is more lactose in the milk towards the start of the feed. In a nutshell, best to let your baby decide when they are done with one breast and whether they need the other side too. No one can really give you times for how long to leave your baby on the breast, some babies get all they need in 10 min or less and pop off content, others might take up to 30 min each side, especially as newborns. If your baby never pops off by herself (i.e she'd suck for an hour on one side if you left her there) then its a good idea to get a well qualified lactation consultant to observer her feeding as sometimes there are latching issues that mean they are not getting to the milk as quickly as they could.(some babies do just need that long though, its just better to sort out any potential issues as early as possible) re the grunting, it could be a bit of reflux/gas. I found it helped if I let my baby sleep on her tummy for a bit after the 4am feed, and only offered her one side for that feed it seemed to help, BUT of course tummy sleeping isn't recommended due to SIDs risk. She grew out of it after around 6 weeks so we didn't medicate. (at 12 weeks she still spits up an awful lot though, just with a smile ;) ) Try not to stress to much about what other people say you "should" do, there are many many different ways to parent and you are the one observing what works and what doesn't work, listen to her and you will become the expert on YOUR baby.

Hey Mmmmm most of what you've said, as other posters have confirmed, sounds perfectly normal. Just wanted to say though that the grunting could be of concern depending on how loud and long. All babies make little noises while they sleep. Some are even quite loud. I'd ignored mine when she grunted. It eventually got quite loud and she squirmed and cried a lot. Told my doc about this and a few other symptoms and it turned out it was silent reflux and she eventually had to go on meds. Don't mean to frighten you just letting you know it is one of the symptoms doctors look out for because they rarely run all the invasive tests on an infant to diagnose reflux and its often spotted based on your description of symptoms. About your other question, my LC said to feed her on one till empty and then put her on the other if she was still rooting. It's to do with the hind milk being higher in fat so they need to that which may not happen if the baby is switched every 10-15 mins. Hope that helps.

One more question pls ladies - she often has her knees bent up close to her tummy - I've read that this can be a sign of trapped wind.... Are newborns prone to often having their knees close to their tummys pls? babies like fetal position (knees to tummy) its how they were in the womb, they will also bring their knees up if they cry, its not a reliable sign that there is a gas issue. Its also common for them to get red faced and grunty when passing gas or pooing, without being in any discomfort, its just that they are learning to coordinate the right muscles and that is hard work, new mums stress far to much and intervene far too much (IMHO) over gas, bowel motions and spitting up. My wee girl (12 weeks) make little "eh eh eh" noises when falling asleep, it took me a while to realise I needed to leave her be, she does have a little reflux and I think it does give her discomfort from time to to time but not enough for me to medicate. re the burping, I know what you mean with the spitting up, with my first baby by around 5 weeks I stopped burping him at all, because it didn't make him spit up less and often made him spit up more. I did sometimes burp halfway through and the most effective was burping right before a feed but it depends how hungry they are. You don't actually need to pat them on the back to burp them, if you hold your baby upright against your chest with a straight back(put your hand flat on their back to support it) and just stand still any gas will usually come up, if not, try the same but walk up some stairs. Too much patting/rubbing on a baby who is prone to spitting up can result in quite a mess! A said below try and hold off on the EBM, better to let your supply establish and get breastfeeding well on track before introducing pumping and bottles. Sometime between 6 and 12 weeks is best if you want to introduce the bottle at all.

Hi Mmmmmm, as others have said, sounds perfectly normal and as Doctors will tell you,as long as they're gaining weight and their skin is in good condition (and by that I mean plump and "humid", not spot or rash free as in fact such skin conditions are common in the first few months) then it's all good. Mine went from sleeping almost all the time in the first 10 days, to not at all during the day for almost 2 months and now that she's 14 weeks she's sleeping relatively well during the day. Every baby is different and in the first few months they go through so many changes that it's hard to pinpoint one type of "normal" behaviour. As for the knees to belly, is this a new thing or has she been very active in terms of movement since birth? Mine was and still is so in our case it's not trapped wind, but I suppose if it is a new occurrence then it might be. Is she crying though and exhibiting other signs of distress? If it is trapped wind it can cause quite a bit of discomfort and I think you would be seeing more that just the leg movement. As for burping, if she tolerates burping her half way that's excellent, but if it makes her upset and she cries then it's not worth trying to do it. I had to introduce bottle very early on due to low supply but if you're exclusively breastfeeding it's probably too early to do so, they generally recommend waiting about 6 weeks when BF is well established before introducing a bottle. Best of luck, it really does get better and more and more amazing as they grow a bit older (and I'm just at 3 months, imagine what's to come next:-).

Mmmmm, i don't have answers to all your questions but here's what i can share with you: - I used to drink loads and loads of camomile and anise seeds tea to help the mummy and the baby to relax and enhance the baby sleeping patterns and help with the colic. - Up till 6 months or maybe older my baby used to sleep in my arms, then i put her in her cot; only relatively recently she started sleeping on her own (just after she started on solids and lately weaning her off my milk, 14 months) - i found this book very very very helpful and it became on the top of my gift options for all new mummies, i followed it so closely and i read the early weeks sections many many times, try to find it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0091910552 The early weeks with my new baby were the hardest in my life, so I can relate to you, but thing will be better very soon xx <em>edited by Swissroll on 15/12/2012</em>

Mmmmmm , i know all what you feel right now, my daughter is 4 weeks , still feeding times messed up, but believe me its better then when she was 2 weeks, so just wait a bit :) About spitting milk.... after feeding i always put her on my shoulder straight to let air go out, its takes 5-10 min max, then chances of spitting are very low. I was also worried that it was all milk out, but when i went to clinic & checked her weight it was all ok, gaining as it should be. She doesnt go to sleep by herself, i need to hold her, head on shoulder or chest & walk around, after put her down. So i guess you are doing just fine :) All the best!

Don't worry Mmmmm, everything you've said sounds totally and utterly normal and Kiwispiers advice is spot on. At 2 weeks things are going to be constantly changing and generally the only thing you can confidently predict is that you can't confidently predict anything! The spitting up sounds normal but just check that you are winding her properly, I found with mine that if I didn't wind them properly they were more likely to spit up. My children all liked to be held to sleep when they were tiny. I got lots of the 'you don't want to make a rod for your own back' etc comments but I enjoyed them falling asleep in my arms and none of them had any problems getting off to sleep on their own once they were a bit bigger. You can't cuddle a baby too much.

all are normal newborn behaviours, she is just starting to develop day night rhythms and will become more alert but will still sleep a lot. The clusterfeeding is common, especially during a growth spurt as it boosts your supply. The spitting up is normal, they actually don't bring up nearly as much as it looks (try spilling 10mls of milk across your bench and you'll see it looks like more) so don't feel like she just brought up a whole feed and rush to feed her again unless she actually seems to be rooting around looking for food. Try feeding her as soon as she wakes and after around 1 hour of awake time (including the feed) swaddle her and give her a chance to go to sleep by herself before she gets overtired, once they are overtired its much harder for them to fall asleep and then they might be more likely to need to feed again to wind down. Sometimes they make little grizzly noises (not crying) as they are falling off to sleep and you can be a bit quick to rock or pick them up and actually that wakes them up, after a while you figure your own baby's sleep signs and it gets easier to time it right. All babies are different though and this is especially true of newborns, they don't tend to follow a set pattern. Some need a lot more help falling asleep than others, my son fell asleep by himself from the day he was born but my daughter had to be held a lot and rocked to sleep for most of her first 6 weeks and now (at 12 weeks) easily falls asleep on her own, give your daughter a chance to but don't feel like you need to leave her in distress, she is very young (and far too young for sleep training), you won't do any damage by being there for her :).