Uber growth spurt - hungry baby...

[floppit]

At least I know my tits are working!! Freya has put on almost 1lb in weight in the 10 days since she was born. She was 6lb 5oz birth weight on the 5th and yesterday the midwife weighed her at 7lb 4.5oz!! That has been through the time it's normal to lose weight or stay the same!

Has anyone else had a hungry/growing baby? What did you do to keep yourself going and your attitude positive through constant feeds?

But her appetite is REALLY hard work to keep up with, she feeds sometimes constantly from tit to tit for an hour, through the day it's about every half hour and at night we can sometimes get an hour or two sleep in between constant feeding.

On the positive side I know it's not because we have a problem attaching or with her not getting enough milk because the uber weight gain is there. I'm not going to switch to formula because she is putting on so much weight with breast milk, I'd only be doing it for my convenience - there's nothing wrong she's just growing at one hell of a clap!

Also my nipples aren't sore so feeding is comfortable, so comfortable that last night I dozed off almost every time she fed - that was the only sleep I got.

She's in the sling today, and has fed in it but not as easily as out of it and I've never worn it on my other shoulder so I need to master that before it becomes a feeding solution - still, we've at least made a start.

 

[loz]

Wow - that is amazing! I thought it was good that my bab had put on 3oz since her birth 2 weeks ago!!

I am the same as you - Emma feeds loads during the day and night. She will just cry until she gets boobie again. We have ended up with OH in the spare room and then I can breast feed her in our bed at night without too much disruption. I try and read or watch tv whilst breastfeeding and think that this wont go on for ever, but now she needs all this feeding so go with it.
I am trying to nap at times during the day to keep my energy up. Sometimes I'll phone someone while breastfeeding as well!!

It must be a massive encouragement that your bab has put on so much weight, I think that would keep me going knowing that things are going so well, as loads of people have problems with BF.

Well done you are doing brilliantly.

 

[purple13]

connor was a really slow starter and i posted about how skinny he was and the pressure i was under to formula feed him...

this is how his weight gain & feeding has gone:

birth - 6lb 9oz
12/03/08 - 6lb 2oz - feeding every 4 hours
18/03/08 - 6lb 8oz - feeding every 4 hours
31/03/08 - 6lb 12oz - feeding every 4 hours
then
07/04/08 - 7lb 12oz - feeding every 2/2.5 hours
14/04/08 - 8lb 8oz - feeding every 2/2.5 hours

in 2 weeks he's put on 28oz

it was as if he woke up over the easter weekend and got hungry! i didn't top up with formula like the hv's wanted, tho i have used it on a few occasions (when out and bf-ing not really possible, not for me anyway)

its really tiring tho, and made worse for me by the fact that my tear from birth has opened up again and i can't sit for long. he feeds for about an hour each time.

soooo, we feed lying down, which means i get to sleep when he's munching. we co-sleep, so nighttimes aren't really a problem cos i only have to latch him on before dozing off again. and whenever i'm feeding, i make sure that i've got all the things next to me that i need to stop me from getting bored - food, drink, book, telly remote & phone! i'm dreading my phone bills now!!

tbh i'm just really happy that he's finally gaining weight, and that keeps me positive. it can get frustrating, but after all the problems i've had bf-ing, i'm just soooo chuffed that its working

you're doing a fab job honey - well done

 

[floppit]

I have been really lucky not to have any feeding problems or sore boobs, the only thing I'm left contending with is tiredness beyond belief. I'm going to stick with breast feeding because I know for all this is hard, things are ok, she's not there all the time becuase I'm not making milk or because ther's a problem - she's just growing fast!

I struggle to get chance to nap for long in the day, they seem filled either with 'stuff', visits, midwives etc - add to that I've never laid in bed come morning so now my body is trained it doesn't seem to want to let me, I can lay there but not sleep and eventually I get up.

Accepting that she's going to live on the boob seems like a plan - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................

 

[weenik]

Dylan fed constantly for about 6 weeks (he had a lot of weight to catch up on) and it was sooo tiring. Make sure you eat lots of carbs and drink gallons of water because that's what I didn't do at the start, and when I did I noticed that I was less drained and he also seemed to be more content after feeds x