Fussy at the breast in the evenings?

[MEPride]

Over the last couple weeks my DD has 'woken up' and has become increasingly fussy in the evenings. Witching hour, colic... whatever the reason.

She has also gotten VERY fussy at the breast. She pulls away, cries, claws or bats at it. It's making nursing her in the evenings very stressful. She's still producing plenty of wet/poopy diapers and is gaining well (as of a week ago at last weigh in). I don't think it's related to low supply. But I don't know why she is so fussy? Any theories? She's 6 weeks and 5 days old.

Also, seems like the last couple days she just won't go to sleep. She used to have her fussy evenings until about 10 or 11, then nurse and fall asleep until 1 or 2am. Now we struggle to get her to fall asleep at all and she is waking every 1-2 hours and is restless most the night. Thoughts?

 

[noon_child]

Sounds normal, even formula fed babies do this too and bat their bottles away sometimes...

 

[MEPride]

Sounds normal, even formula fed babies do this too and bat their bottles away sometimes...

Oh good grief. She does okay with a bottle vs my breast so I was thinking that my letdown reflex might not be as strong in the evening, which may be contributing to her crankiness. Will probably do a bottle of expressed milk at her 6-7 feeding and pump to see if that's any better.

Good to know it sounds normal. Two of my friends don't remember their kids doing that (over 2 years ago though) and a friend who had a baby 5 days after me isn't experiencing this so I wasn't sure if it was normal or not.

 

[jessmke]

Both my kids have done this, my son is still doing it and he is nearly 4 months old, but now it is because he is so easily distracted. Every nursing session today has been in the Ergo carrier, I walk him around until he is super sleepy, then I can drop him low down in the carrier so he is at boob level and slip a nip in his mouth without him noticing. I had to do that last night at bedtime as well because he was fighting sleep so hard and wouldn't nurse. Sometimes you just gotta do whatever works!

 

[Jesse7]

Its difficult to figure these things out at this age. Both my children did this at this age and it was more often than not just gas or that i wasn't getting out the 'burps' well enough. could you be eating something different that could be causing her to feel uncomfortable? Try google foods to avoid while breastfeeding. there is also a possibility that your breasts are not releasing enough milk while she is sucking and she could be getting frustrated which will make her wake up if she isn't full and needs to feed more often. Also it wouldn't hurt to contact a lactation consultant, they usually are so good with the breastfeeding and can even offer tips about the sleeping.

 

[RaquelDee]

Mine did this, she was basically too impatient to wait for let-down and the more she cried, the more I stressed and the longer it took. In the end, I started to get evening feeds going by pumping (just a manual hand pump) until I had a let-down while my husband soothed her, and then would pop her on straight away. After a few weeks of this routine, she settled down in the evenings, I stopped stressing and my let down happened more quickly, and I didn’t need to use the pump anymore.

 

[sandrablake22]

Our baby had gas so bad and was spitting up after feedings. Would cry for hours. We tried everything. Changing bottles, formula, gas drops, gripe water. Then I came across Babies magic tea. I read the reviews and was skeptical, bc we tried everything!!! This was our last hope! Within 2 feedings we were holding a different baby. His passing of gas. He was burping better. And.... No more crying after he ate! We use it 3-4x a day.