LO eating every hour in the day and every 2 hours at night

mwsolis

is anyone else dealing with this? I'm going crazy with little sleep and no time for anything during the day. It's been going on for about a week and a half and DD is 7 1/2 weeks old. She eats (breastfeeding) 5 minutes at a time usually. My Ped just said she's an efficient eater. Sometimes she'll eat for 10 or 15 but never takes the other breast.

cachoque

How old is she? Could be growth spurt.

mwsolis

7 1/2 weeks old. Can a growth spurt last a week and a half? It seems like it's been almost 2 weeks.

MandMLeona

Unfortunately, yes, growth spurts can go a couple of weeks for some babies. My first did. Just remember "this too shall pass". It's my newborn phase mantra.

Cat&S

Mine eats about every hour in the day, but stretches it out at night. Is yours waking all the way up at night or is she just fussy? Sometimes Zoe will fuss but isn't awake all the way, so I wait a little bit to see if she actually wakes up or if she goes back to sleep.

mwsolis

I'm going to call a lactation specialist today. I have tried to get her to keep eating after 5 minutes And after burping but she refuses. She's been eating for 5-10 minutes for about 4 weeks now, the first 3 weeks she ate 20 minutes each side. She gains a pound every 2 weeks.

jendem8

Mine feeds similarly. I just make sure to block feed (offering the same boob at least twice in a row) so that she gets enough hindmilk, which I judge from the color of her poop. I have a strong letdown, so she's often done very quickly because she gets so much. We're at 8 weeks now and there's more space between feedings and she'll eat for longer stretches, but she still sometimes does the quick feeds every hour... especially before bed when she likes to cluster feed.

Edit: spelling

MC03

My LO eats about 5-10 min on one breast and rarely takes the second side. She eats about every two hours during the day, with a couple longer stretches at night. I have overactive letdown and I think she is just able to get a lot in a little amount of time. I can pump 5 ounces in less than 5 minutes in the mornings and LO has plenty of diapers and I think her weight gain has been good ( we'll see at her 2 month app tomorrow). It's weird but I think its just her normal. My DD1 would take 45 min to an hour to eat so I am grateful for my speedy eater this time.

esmith10

I know this might sound horrible, but sometimes if it has been less time than her usual schedule (feeds consistently every 2 hours during the day), I'll offer a pacifier first. If she's truly hungry, she'll reject it. If she's just looking for something to suck on, she'll stop fussing and it usually soothes her into a nap. She's 6 weeks tomorrow.

mwsolis

I talked to the ped again today and she told me to wait two hours no matter how mad she gets and only cluster feed in the evening. We'll see how it goes.

mwsolis

So she made it through the first evening spacing out feeding times in 2 hour intervals. We had to break out the white noise, the soothies, and DH did his best to amuse her and then she ate for 30 minutes! We'll see how tomorrow goes.

mwsolis

If you're interested......Update after day 2 of feeding every 2 hours during the day with a night cluster feed starting at 6:30. She took the pacifier pretty well when she got fussy. She ate for 10-20 minutes instead of 5. She slept for 4 hours after we put her to bed at 9. Sometimes she naturally waited 3 hours to eat instead of 2 after getting over the initial frustration of waiting.

The result is a much more productive day. I had time for Baby bonding paperwork, birth announcements, bought some nursing wear online, made oatmeal with all the fixings instead of plain and pumped 8 oz!

I was so against this at first and thought on demand was the only way to go but we are doing this based on my peds advice and so far so good. We'll see how long it can last.

esmith10

Great! I'm glad it's working out!

mwsolis

Thanks for the support!!

Erin0303

I thought you made this post for me My 9 week old massively huge baby does this She eats constantly and usually only one breast. Pediatrician said we're doing it all right but it's draining on the momma...