10 day old-short feeds, windy=snacking?!

[sianipeters]

My daughter is only ten days old but I'm finding bf feeding her really frustrating. My older daughter was born feeding every three hours for 20mins at a time and had a very strong suck with settled naps inbetween.

This time around things are so different. She can be very sleepy to feed and the maximum amount of time she has ever fed for is 15minutes, but even that is slow going. She gulps lots of air and so needs regular winding taking over an hour to feed at times. Night time is particularly bad for wind and she can lie in her basket whining and grunting for hours. I'm really trying to eek her feeds out to a regular three hours but again I'm failing with that too. She sometimes happily goes three hours (if in a deep sleep) but other times she wants a feed every hour for up to four hours. I tried to cluster feed this evening giving her a feed at 3, 5.30 and then 7.30. However she decided she wanted another at 6.30, crying and routing but then only fed for five minutes! She didn't fall asleep, just stops feeding.

On the positive side she is gaining weight well (born 7lb 4oz and gained 9oz in five days!). I know my milk supply is good as I'm verging on being engorged (suffered very badly with too much milk last time). She is a more gentle feeder so my nipples haven't suffered so much this time around!

Everyone keeps telling me to give her a break and that she's only tiny. I know she's young but i don't want her to turn into a snacker and having some idea of when she next needs feeding would be really useful for planning our day with a busy toddler! Plus longer than an hours sleep for me at night would be lovely!

Any help would be appreciated as i don't know quite what to do.

[NoonieP]

Sorry I have no help to offer, just my sympathy and that I have the same issues so I'd like to follow this thread.

[Fiver]

At 10 days it's not unusual for LOs to need to feed every 2-3 hours.  This is the time where your supply for the future is being developed, so frequent feeding is really important.  There's loads of time for routine in the future.  There are also loads of growth spurts in those early days that mean that any sort of routine goes out of the window for a couple of days.

At 10 days, there's no such thing as a snacker, so you've no need to worry there, either.  Are you offering both sides at each feed or just the one?

[Erin M]

Just adding some (((hugs))) in.  Amanda is spot on -- my 3 LOs have all been so different in the early days -- and it's all been tough those first few weeks as things get established, but it really will fall into place sooner rather than later (as hard as it is to believe).  My ds was a really frequent feeder in the early days and it was hard, but things did come together. 

[NoonieP]

My LO was doing the same thing and I discovered I have too forceful of letdown and my LO was not getting enough of the hind milk (the fattier, keeps them full longer milk) I've only started this yesterday but it was a success, he slept peacefully for three hours. I feed him just on the left breast before bed, two feelings. This helped him get to the hind milk. When he woke at 3am, I fed him on the right breast, I could tell he didn't get much hind milk and he was super fussy, waking up after an hour. I feed him on right again and I think he got more hind milk as he's still sleeping peacefully and it's been 2.5 hours.

[Fiver]

I just need to caution using any block feeding too early in the BF relationship.  If you think you may have Forceful Let-Down Problems there are other ways of helping to remedy that in the early days in this FAQ before you start trying to regulate supply.  Many times oversupply/forceful letdown issues come together by around 3-4 months as the way the body makes milk moves from hormone driven to supply/demand driven.

[sianipeters]

We're now two weeks in and things are just as hectic! I feed off one side per feed as she not managed to empty one breast to move onto the next. I hope this is the right thing to do? Also if she has a short feed I'll put her back on that side next time. I expressed milk this morning for the first time to try and give her a bottle this evening that my husband can give to try and give me a chunk of sleep. Wind is still our biggest problem but I'm trying gripe water and a dairy free diet to see if that will help. I'm confused about starting easy routine as in Tracey's book it says to start when u get home from the hospital? At what age should I expect a feeding/sleeping routine? Thank you for all your replies!

[Fiver]

It very much depends on the baby - some naturally fall into a routine very quickly, others it take a few months for some sort of routine to emerge.

And one sided feeding is fine as long as she's content with what she's having.  Just bear in mind that at some point you may need to feed from both sides.

[Erin M]

There's some very helpful stuff here: Breastfeeding and EASY in the first few weeks

And definitely don't stress out about the "textbook" EASY straight out of the hospital (or really anytime in those first six weeks or so -- or after!) -- it will come as your LO gets older. 

[scruffymax]

Just a different perspective, we actually did follow the book's advice to start EASY from when we got home from the hospital and it worked really well.  I only fed DD on one side per feed for a few months.  Those first few days in hospital she did the hourly feeding thing and then the inevitable terrible wind pain so once we got home I basically just didn't feed her if it had been less than 2.5 hrs.  A dummy really helped too. 

[Erin M]

Just a different perspective, we actually did follow the book's advice to start EASY from when we got home from the hospital and it worked really well. 

Absolutely!  It does work quite well for some.