Problems with feeding HELP

[shezza]

Hi there - my baby..who is now almost 4 months... wakes up and then I feed her - this takes only about 5 minutes - I can then feel that my breast is still full-ish and that she has not finished feeding.  SO i have tried to finish the feed after 10 minutes - she won't take the breast...then 20...again won't take the breast and this goes on until...the end of activity time and only THEN she takes the rest of her feed...which of course happens to be just before bedtime....What do I do - this has been going on for about 1 month now...it was about this time that she also started sleeping so well - she normally naps very well when I put her down during the day and sleeps from dream feed until around 6am...is it really bad that she is eating just before the sleep?  If so what do i do...I tried today to not let her feed before sleep and she would not go down at all...she was still hungry and then feed again for about 10 minutes after I could not take it no more.  She is fully breast feed - and is rather big - almost 4 months and almost 8.5 kg's!!!

[jbepko]

A couple of questions- is she nursing herself to sleep for nap/bedtime or nurses and then you put her to sleep? How long between nursing when she awakens and prior to bedtime/naptime? Some kiddos can be very efficient and 5 minutes is enough. Plus the way your breasts feel isn't the best indicator for the quality of nursing? Are you doing 3 hour or 4 hour easy?

[shezza]

Hello - I am nursing her, then swaddling and then putting her down...she feeds for about 10 minutes when I do this...definietely swallowing...when she starts to "suck" on me I bring her off.  My baby does not stay up very long...I am trying to extend...but is currently doing about 45-1 hour activity...so there is about a 35-40 minute window between when I start feeding and "finish".  Iam currently doing the 3 hour easy.

[daisymelan]

I knwo this may not be the answer you want to hear, but you may just have to go with it and keep encouraging her to take more. Hopefully she will catch on.  I don't think there is a problem as long as you aren't putting her down if she falls asleep on the breast.  If she does fall asleep, gently wake her and then do wind down with her.  It will likely save troubles in the future with sleep troubles.

Also, it sounds like she's doing pretty well, what happens if you don't offer after her A time?  Will she make it through to her next feed?  Maybe you need to drop down to a 2.5 hr EASY or something for a bit until you can stretch her to the full 3 hours.

[shezza]

Thank for the advice    I was also wondering whether I was actually feeding her too much...as she weighs quite heavily (putting it lightly) for her age...she was, a week ago, 17.6 pounds.  But surely seeing as if she is exclusively breastfed that she would not take more than what she needs??  As in earlier post...she hardly takes anything at the start of the first part of the feed (straight after she wakes up).  Is this possible?

[daisymelan]

She is not getting too much or too little. She's getting just what she needs.

Why not give a little A time right when she wakes up?  Then do a feed and then back to some more A time?  That way she has woken up and may be more interested.  do you think that could work?  Then maybe you could stay on the 3 hour EASY.  It almost seems like she wants the breast to get nice and sleepy.  But I really don't know.

[shezza]

Thank you - I will give that a go - I suppose I have to work with what works

[daisymelan]

How's it going?