Cluster feeding or just comfort?

biancakoz

I'm a STM, so you would think that I know this, but I don't. The first few days home from the hospital were good. DS ate every 2 hours or so and we were waking him every 3 hours at night to feed. At almost a week old, he was only 2oz shy of his birth weight so the ped told us we could start letting him go longer at night. Well that evening he started cluster feeding from 6 to 10 and then wouldn't sleep for long stretches overnight. This continued through the next few days all day and evening, to the point where I was considering throwing in the towel on breastfeeding because I have a toddler to take care of as well and can't be strapped to the couch for hours on end. Finally, for my own sanity, I put him in the swing so I could get something done. After fussing for a minute or so, he fell asleep. So I'm wondering if it's me. He doesn't really sleep on me, but if someone else takes him, he'll be out pretty quickly. If i hold him, he'll wake up most times and start rooting again. My husband keeps reminding me that if he is truly hungry, he wouldn't fall asleep and would keep fussing. My daughter wasn't like this, but do you think it's ok? The last day or so has been better since I've started handing him off to someone else or putting him in the swing or rock n play.

NLB2009

My pediatrician told me sometimes babies "graze" meaning they think they should eat whenever you hold them. I'm only a FTM but my kid only cluster fed for a day at a time. Your LO might be grazing. If so, try holding him with his back to you so that he doesn't look for the breast and after a while he'll ban the habit (@ least according to my Ped)

ccarrozza1

This is exactly what is happening to me right now. She doesn't sleep for long spells during the day and just roots and coos and grunts so I feed her what she takes but it's not 2 hours between feeds...more like 45 minutes or less between feedings and she won't go long or drink much for each feed like she did before....very frustrating. Now she is konked out for like 3.5 hours.

biancakoz

He stopped and is back to eating about every 2 hours (even slept a 4 hour stretch last night!), so my conclusion was that he was going through a growth spurt.  Now we have a secondary problem in that he spits up after almost every feeding and the pediatrician and LC that I spoke with on the phone believe I have an oversupply and overactive letdown   Now trying different methods to see if anything helps with that.

CanadaMom17

My LO is also a suck to soothe kiddo, so she's on the boob allllll evening too for the most part.  I know she's not that hungry, but that's all that seems to calm her down.  I hope it will pass as she gets older, and can self soothe.