Breastfeeding exhaustion.

[Louise2013]

Hello ladies.

My LO is a week hold and feeds almost hourly it seems. I will feed from one breast generally until he falls asleep (happens every time) for about ten minutes and he has a great latch and some really fab swallows accommodate that. Once he falls off the latch he often re rouses so I will either reattach to the breast he has been feeding from if there is still a lot of flow of I will offer the other side. All in all it will take about 45 minutes to an hour per feed and then he goes down. Is this normal?

As soon as he is done and I lay him down, nine times out of ten he starts lip smacking and hand sucking again within minutes. I am exhausted. I am managing about one hour sleep in every eight at the moment and I fell at the end of my tether. i haven't felt a 'let down' etc. yet and my milk only came in two days ago so we're very 'new' on this at the mo.

Mw seems happy with weight gain, nappies etc. and his technique etc. but I am utterly cream crackered.

And I'm only six days in!!

Any advice, thoughts welcomed.

Xx

 

[cam]

hi congrats on your newborn, sounds like you are doing well with the feeding. The first weeks are very tiring as your baby builds up your milk supply and feeds loads, it does sound about right for that age you could try changing your babys nappy when he falls asleep as that wakes them up fully and then offer him more might make him feed quicker. I felt like those first weeks was spent sitting on sofa feeding i would snooze whilst he was sleeping on my chest ( not recommended i know but i felt he was safe the way i did it) it was very tiring but he soon learnt to feed quicker and now at 6mths he feeds within 10 mins every 3hrs so it does get better and is worth all the hard work. He maybe likes comfort sucking and could be why he stirs when you put him down, ive never used a dummy but know some bf mums who do and they found it helped. Hope you get some rest soon x