Exhausted - need advice!

[MrsPtobe]

Hi Ladies!

I have been breastfeeding my LO since he was born seven weeks ago, he's always been quite a hungry baby, feeding every 1 1/2 - 2 hours. This would be fine if he would sleep for any decent length of time, but he seems to only sleep for 30-45 mins at a time, and then he's awake again, and most of the time he starts wailing, and the only thing to calm him is feeding him. I've worked out the last couple of days he can't have slept more than approx. 3 hours during the day, and he's constantly grizzly.

The trouble I'm having is, now he won't settle for anybody but myself, and occasionally my OH (and sometimes even that doesn't work!). I'm completely exhausted, and I'm getting no time to do anything basic i.e. brushing my hair, getting dressed and brushing my teeth! Some days I can be feeding him every half hour (most of the time it's a comfort thing, as he usually falls asleep within 5 minutes of latching on, but once he's asleep if I try to put him down he wakes up and I have to do it all over again). The problem isn't that he's not getting enough milk, I know I'm producing plenty cos he usually throws some of it back up (he's quite a sicky baby)!

I'm at a point now where I'm seriously considering switching to bottle feeding. It sounds completely selfish but I'm completely frazzled and need a rest! I'm not getting a chance to express any milk for someone else to feed him because I'm constantly feeding him from the breast!

Any advice/encouragement would be great ladies!

C xxx

 

[cat lover]

Hun I am in a very similar situation and look foward to the advice of others on here (see my post 'Baby wants to feed all the time...'?

I hope the lovely ladies on here can help us!

 

[MrsPtobe]

Lol! I just replied to your thread!

C xxx

 

[cat lover]

Haha I look forward to the replies! xx

 

[CeriB]

Have you thought about reflux? From the way you say he is quite sicky might suggest a toush of reflux. This might be why he is waking up quite soon after a feed too. Reflux (sorry if you already know this ) is where the stomach acid comes back up the aso .. asof ... astho ... food pipe ( ) which can be painful for LO. Normal symptom is crying/screaming during/shortly after feeds and quite a bit of sick. However, there is also Silent Reflux, which is the same thing but without all the sick.

It is quite hard to diagnose as obviously LO can't tell us what is the problem, but doctors can normally tell from your description of symptoms. They can try LO on infant gaviscon if they think it might be that and if that doesn't work, they may try different meds. One way to help LO at home is to keep them upright as much as possible, especially after feeds and by prooping the head of his crib up slighltly so it is at an angle rather than lying flat.

Constant feeding at your LOs age is very common though! Sorry He will be cluster feeding, which will be his way of filling himself up for a sleep. He probably won't sleep very long in adult world as his stomach is so tiny, the BM is digested quickly and he needs filling again. This does get better, I promise!! Once he gets a bit bigger (watch out for the dreaded growth spurts too ), he will take more BM which will fill him for longer.

You are doing fab and it would be a shame to stop now! However, you can start expressing and bottle feeding after 6 weeks which will help you get some rest if someone else can give him a bottle? Good luck!

 

[MrsPtobe]

Thanks so much CeriB! I forgot to mention that I had LO to the doctors a couple of weeks ago because I suspected he might have reflux. They advised me to try him on Infacol which I did, but it only seemed to work for a few days. He's definitely improved, i.e. not throwing up as much, but he doesn't appear to be in any pain, just grizzly! He always quietens down when I pick him up lol! He's piling weight on as well, he was 6lb 12oz born, and when he was weighed last Tuesday he was 10lb 8oz! So he's definitely feeding well.

Thanks again,

C xxx

 

[2016]

My LO has reflux and I wouldn't give Infacol for it - in fact it made it a bit worse! We use Infant gaviscon and Domperidone because it was quite severe. He also used to feed constantly and it was made worse by him always bringing milk up then needing to be re-fed. As your LO is now over 6 weeks perhaps you could try him with a dummy. we use MAM dummies and have never had nipple confusion. It really helps him go longer between feeds and also helps the reflux by producing extra saliva and the swallowing keeps the milk down better.
I used to take LO for long walks in the pushchair to get him to go longer between feeds.

Hang in there if you can as another has said cos there is a massive growth spurt around this age and it will shortly get easier. I would go back to the docs about the reflux though and you might have to be persistent to get them to listen. Here are the symptoms of reflux:
https://www.babyreflux.co.uk/knowledge/questions/3/What+are+the+symptoms+of+baby+reflux?