Comfort or growth spurt

[Shell820810]

My lo is a week tomorrow. For the past 24hours he has been sucking almost constantly. I am exhausted. He falls asleep on the breast but as soon as I unlatch him he starts rooting and won't settle until he is on again.

 

[noon_child]

Sounds all very normal for a newborn! Growth spurts can happen any time although the typical 1 wk, 3 wk, 6 wk, 3 months is followed by a lot of babies.

If you are worried he falls asleep too quickly you could try breast compressions to get the milk flowing again when his sucking starts to slow down, or tickling his feet, ears etc to get him awake a bit longer.

Even if it is partly for comfort there is nothing wrong with that! It's an important part of breastfeeding. It wont last forever!

 

[Literati_Love]

Growth spurt. In my experience, the one week growth spurt was the absolute worst and I am so glad I survived it! Don't worry - it doesn't last long! Soon it'll be smooth sailing.

 

[Shell820810]

Yep it was a growth spurt though he still is cluster feeding and can be on and off most of the time from early afternoon to bedtime. He gained 50g from day 3 to 5 and 110g from day 5 to 8, so I am happy. My lg was very very slow to gain and we had a difficult first 6 or 7 weeks.

Just harder this time round with a toddler to look after too, and hubby at work.

 

[Literati_Love]

Yea my DD cluster fed all evening until 3 months. She still does a longer feed before bed but much better now. Hopefully he will slow down soon so you can keep up with your toddler too!

 

[Mrsb3]

First of all (hugs) we have all been there and you doing a brilliant job! Yep it's normal. My lo fed every 30 mins for 40mins my ds was just 12 months and I felt terribly guilty it was the most depressing and hardest time of my life - but I stuck with it and around about 3 months it got a bit easier she was feeding every hour and half for 20 mins. Now she is 6 months she feeds every 2 hours and even up to 3 hours at night for just 5-10 mins so it does get easier and I actually enjoy it now too my mum keeps asking me when I'm going to quit and I tell her never! My babies are starting to interact now and ds loves her to pieces. It's chaos but life is great now and I feel so blessed