FF advise needed and Intro

Cadg0986

hey all! I have been a member of the December '14 Birth Club. I've loved being a part of that group and now that I have my LO I will continue to be on that board but ice also decided it would be beneficial to branch out to situation specific groups too!

I am a FTM and my LO, Emma, was born on December 3rd! We originally exclusively breastfed LO for her first week of life. Then I began to supplement because at 5 days old she had lost 14% of her birth weight (8.7 lbs to 7.4). It was heartbreaking because, just like my grandma--mom--and sister, I wasn't producing enough. Once we began supplementing she became a totally different baby...happier and full. It was wonderful. And although I had beat myself up for a bit about it. I knew she was happier on formula. She is now pretty much exclusively on formula, aside from the .2oz I can pump out throughout the day.

Anyways, she has developed quite an appetite. As I said before, she is 3 weeks and 4 days old. She eats 3-5oz every 2-4 hours. I am nervous she is eating too much. She rarely spits up, maybe a little bit once a day. And by little bit I mean a teaspoon after burping. She has burped more than that but it's pretty rare (maybe 3 times since birth?). There are times when I'll feed her 4 oz and then an hour later she's crying and takes 1oz and then sleeps for 3ish hours. I am just so surprised she's eating as much as she is. She's gaining steadily. At birth she was 8.7, then a week later 7.4 (at 1 week old), then we added formula and she was at 8.5 (at 2 weeks old), then this past week (at 3 weeks old) she was at 9.4 lbs.

My question is can anyone relate? Is she going through a growth spurt? Or does she just have a healthy appetite? I'm just afraid she's eating so much that soon she will reach that max 32 oz formula limit and still not be satisfied. She averages about 28 oz a day for the last 3 days. Also, she has a pediatrician appt Jan 6, so I will be asking the pediatrician then. But I don't want to call them and ask and be THAT parent lol especially if there's nothing to worry about and it's normal.

mindfulmama14

My LO (4 months) has cluster fed since he was first born. He has a big appetite and eats a lot. I EPump and I don't make enough for how much he eats. So we supplement 1-3 bottles a day with formula. His doctor says he's a big and healthy baby! I don't think babies could eat/keep that much milk down if they weren't really that hungry.

ConversationFear

It sounds like a growth spurt to me. But what she is normally eating sounds about right. In the first month or so, our pedi told us to assume he will eat about an 1 oz. an hour. When it starts getting more frequent than that on a regular basis, bump up his food by another oz or so. Eventually (around 3 or 4 months) they will get to a point where they are regularly eating 2 oz. per hour.

yodasmom

That sounds a lot like how DS ate at 3 weeks old--he did have a growth spurt somewhere around that time. Like PPs said, LOs won't keep down any more than their little tummies can handle at that age. If she seems satisfied and isn't bringing a bunch of it back up, keep doing what you're doing (or when you hit a point when she doesn't seem happy with her usual bottle, it's probably time to give her a little more at a time).

Cadg0986

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the advice and help! So now LO is eating slightly less than the last almost week. Must be growth spurt is over and she's not quite as hungry anymore? lol. Being a FTM means a whole lot of "is this normal?!" And "is my baby okay?" moments.

harmonicbabe26

I will add one more thing to this. My new baby does a similar thing as far as first she'll eat, then hang out for a while and then she starts crying, making her 'hungry' sound (sounds like 'neeeeh neeeeh', I hear it's pretty universal in small babies so maybe yours says the same). And at first i would feed her (she's actually BFed only, my first DD was a formula baby). But then i realized she wasn't hungry, she just needed to comfort suck while falling asleep, so i started giving her a paci. And she goes to sleep right after that short crying spell and chewing on the paci for a bit. See if that might work for your LO if you're worried they're eating too much.
Though I doubt a baby can be overfed. If they don't want to eat, they will push out the nipple with their tongue or stop sucking.... This is my second baby and she and her older sister did that, so I feel like I know what I'm talking about....