Help...

[BabyMaybe917]

My LO has started getting very fussy all of a sudden. I'm starting to dread nursing her. She wakes up screaming to the point of almost forgetting to breathe and doesn't stop. Even when I'm trying to latch her on she'll keep screaming for the first minute or so. She's also clawing at me and herself the entire time which makes it worse because then her hands are in the way. It doesn't matter if she wakes up on her own or I wake her. To top it off she's been falling aslelep at the breast and even if I try to relatch her she stays asleep until I lay her back down. This process repeats until I end up latching and her sleeping and relatching up to 4x. I end up topping her off with a bottle of bm because eventually she just won't relatch but she is rooting and crying for more. (She's a preemie and gets 3 bottles a day with extra calories so please no comments on the bottles.)

We're up for sometime's up to 2 hours just for her to nurse well for 15 minutes and her to still be hungry. Somethings gotta give. I really want breastfeeding to work but at this point it's almost traumatizing.

 

[hans2009]

How long has this been going on? Is it possible she's going through a growth spurt? My son always gets extra fussy and needs to be in my arms constantly when going through his.

 

[sheldonsmommy]

Does this only happen at night? If she's waking up very hungry it can be harder to soothe her. Maybe you can try shortening the length between feeds at night if she's doing this only when she goes long stretches without eating? During growth spurts and such they may need to eat more than usual.

It could help to swaddle her at first so it's easier to latch her, then open her up so and tickle her face so she stays awake.

Maybe she just wants to comfort suck or be close to you while she sleeps. Have you considered a soother or co-sleeping? I got so much more sleep when I could let my son suckle while I slept.

 

[Shandelion]

I don't know about the screaming when waking, although I circumvented a similar problem by giving my 7 week old a pacifier, and the first time it falls out I jam a boob in instead.

Do you have oversupply problems? Does she have green poop, or foamy explosive poop? One characteristic of oversupply is a love/hate relationship with the breast...my son arches and screams, beats at it, bites at it, fights with it. La Leche League has a great article on it. https://www.lalecheleague.org/faq/oversupply.html

 

[BabyMaybe917]

I had to start feeding her naked because she can't stay awake. If I swaddle her she falls asleep within a few minutes. I've been undressing her, nursing her, she falls asleep, changing diaper, nursing again, she falls asleep, dressing her, falls asleep again abd usually won't relatch. It's a good 40 minute process for 10 minutes of nursing. I am doing it this way to help her be awake. Prior to her sleepiness I would get her up, change her diaper, she'd fall asleep I'd swaddle her and she'd be done.

It's not just at night it's almost everytime I nurse her. Today she was so hysterical I couldn't hardly calm her enough to latch even with the nipple in her mouth she just kept screaming. She finally latched and ate but with intermittent cries out. I'm at a loss it's very upsetting and all I want to do is cry because I can't comfort or feed my baby without her getting so incredibly upset.

She sleeps in a bassinet. I'm not comfortable with cosleeping and she's on oxygen and an apnea monitor as well. And if she gets a bottle we have absolutely no problems. She eats and goes right to sleep.

 

[sheldonsmommy]

Hmm, it sounds like she may not be getting enough from you and maybe falling asleep trying?

I don't know hun, these are all kind of just guesses, do you have a lactation consultant or someone to bounce ideas off?

 

[BabyMaybe917]

Lc thought maybe frustration because of the bottles being so easy and maybe a growth spurt also. Only advice is to keep at what I'm doing and give her a small amount in the bottle before nursing to calm her and then switch over.

Sometimes it seems like she's transferring well and other times it seems like she can be on the breast for 30 minutes and get nothing. I can't do anything to help her transfer aside from compressions and a nipple shield which I already do.

 

[Kelskiii]

LO was like this but only after her injections & then around 4months she was screaming/fussing on me for about a week, I thought it was a growth spurt. The falling asleep my LO did that until just recently she was constantly at breast, not too bad during the day but I ended up giving expressed bottle on an evening for my sanity/sleep.

Have you had her latch checked to make sure she can transfer enough milk herself? I had to top LO up for a while until she perfected her latch.

Also I know it sounds stupid but my LO sometimes acts like this purely with a build up of wind that she's struggling to get up & it always seems to be after a sleep.