9 weeks and still feeding ALL the time

[BeeSmall]

Hi everyone, going to be a moany post I'm afraid, need some advice/support.

My LO is 9 weeks old and has always fed a lot, particularly mornings and evenings (afternoons the only reason he's not feeding is because he's asleep!). He has weeks of classic evening cluster feeding where I get no gaps between feeds at all, maybe a few minutes here and there, but I guess these are growth spurts so I can deal with them. Mornings he's just such a grump unless he's constantly fed which makes getting ready and going out hard. We go to a baby group on a Tuesday morning and he's just miserable every week, if he's not feeding, he's crying or grizzling for a feed while all the other babies lie on the mats and kick around for the 2 hours! He's putting weight on brilliantly - born on 75th centile and been following 91st centile since then. Plenty of wet and dirty nappies too so I'm assuming my milk supply is ok. Latch has been good from day one, I've never really had any pain, cracked nipples etc which I'm really grateful for.

I was so determined to feed till at least 6 months and now I just feel like I can't. Today was the first day I've even considered formula. If it would make him a happier, more content baby I'm so tempted which makes me so annoyed with myself. The only other option is to never go out for the next 4 months and resign myself to just constantly feeding. Anyone had any experience with this? Will it ever settle?

Sorry to be so soon and gloom, just getting fed up of constantly having a baby attached to me, hubby literally has him for 10 minute bursts before he wants to be back with me for food

 

[knopk@]

I do feel for you hub but it does get better. You are doing a great job and he is still very little. Soon he will become noticing things and will be interested other things. My youngest would cluster feed/want to be next to me all evening when he was little, sling helped a lot. Some of it is just comfort or if they have tummy ache they want to feed too.
I can recommend going to the nearest sling meet/library and picking a carrier
Also make sure he gets enough sleep as it can make them grizzly and in turn they want to be on the boob. Does he have a dummy! (neither of mine did though and i am glad that they dont now but was a lot more difficult in the early days)
There was an article recently about bg babies being fussier but its part of the package -they learn to communicate with you and as i said breastfeeding isnt always about food. I decided to put my children first as they are little for such a short time and I want to meet their needs. I love the bond it created and dont regret nights spent cuddling them and not going out having a drink(i have done once in a while).
Being a parent isnt easy esp the early days, but it is rewarding
Have you tried expressing some during the day so you(or oH) can feed that in the evening to give you some rest? xxx

 

[BeeSmall]

The sling is great for getting jobs done during the day but when he's hungry he just screams and screams no matter where he is, sling doesn't seem to make a difference.

Have been expressing a bottle for an evening but it doesn't last long... Usually buys me enough time for a quick bath. I don't even mind the feeding when we are at home. Like you say, they're only little once and I want to just go with whatever he wants. It's more when we are out that I'm finding it hard. I'm happy to feed in public but when he's crying for a feed so often it just makes trips out so miserable I feel like I could cope fine if we just stayed in on our own but obviously that's not going to do me any favours in the long run

 

[Tigger87]

Beesmall I know what you mean. Jake feeds for aaaaages in the morning, and from about 5/6 all he wants is boob. We get a few hours respite in the day, usually, to be able to do stuff. I pass him off to his dad after feeds when I can, just so he's not smelling my milk and demanding more! I also find feeds when out are way shorter - he's too busy trying to nose at whatever is going on!!

Formula is unlikely to satisfy him more than your milk. Your milk is the best thing for him, and if he's needing a lot, it's just that he's digesting it better, the way nature intended keep up the good work, your doing such an excellent job xx

 

[Mum2betash]

Hi, I could have given up so many times in the early days and it's now gone a year and I'm still going. I've read loads of posts that have said how their babies were still as grumpy and miserable once switched to the bottle, so I don't think that would make any difference. I can assure you it does get easier, He's still so young, I remember my lo that age and she was just the same. It was a nightmare but eventually it got easier, I wish you all the best in whatever you decide to do. Xx

 

[BevG]

poppy is like this too between 8 and 11am and 5/6pm til 8/9pm and she uses me as a dummy too so when shes tired she wants boob too. it does improve wih age hun at 11 weeks poppy is sleeping 5/6 hrs from 10 til 4/5am and then going back down til 8am ish and shes starting to show signs of 8pm being her bedtime as shes falling deeply asleep then and sleeping all evening quite often now but at 9 weeks she was just ike your lil man. i dont tend to pay attention to clocks now, i feed her when she wants feeding, she either feedsproperly or uses me as a dummy and falls asleep. i find it less stressful if i cant tell if shes fed twice in the last hour or if shes been feeding for hours lol i just get on with it. i know it'll get better over time as she needs less and as she gets a routine. they get much easier after 12/16 weeks and really even 6 months isnt such a long time. if you do decide to give a bottle of formula i can tell you it wont fill him more, poppy has a 4 oz bottle off her dad when he minds her on thursdays sometimes and still wants to feed on me when im back even if its only been minutes since having the bottle (i know she dosent need it cos shes usually comatose or sick afterwards lol)