Feeding is just not fun

[*Liz*]

Another wriggler here as well. I TRY to embrace it as it part of her growing and being interesting in everything but TBH it drives me nuts when she is feeding.

I give up at least half of her feeds as a bad job, and she doesn't seem bothered at all.

It just is so different from a bottle isn't it?? I hang in there as I don't want to quit - but I kind of wish I liked feeding her more. But she kicks, pops on and off, strokes my arm, whips off to see what J is doing, scratches her head etc etc etc. I will say that J was very similar BF at this age (I fed him until 6 mths - then bottle), and he was still a fussy pain on a bottle. Just that you can follow a wiggler with a bottle but you can do that with a boob.

M was out of the swaddle by 10 weeks 

[~Emma~]

Well she really needs the swaddle I think but a huge part of me wants to wean it too. She is really trying to get her fingers in her mouth the entire time she's awake and when the MB is in the wash and I use a blanket she wakes at 45 min ( does this often though) and she always has her fingers in her mouth. I dont want to be stopping any form of self soothing she might be doing kwim?

 Then again the scratches on her face are awful despite her nails begin short as I can get them.

 The best feeds at the moment is the feed before bed and the morning feed both of which I do lying down. She still wriggles lots but I dont have to hold her! Hanging in there too but I must admit the bottle ws so much easier for many, many reasons. She is having a bottle for her DF(ebm) so I do have hope that she might take the bottle at some point even if its just for going out and about.

 A quick Q re the empty left boob. She will go on to it and suckle at every feed for 5-10 mins despite there being next to nothing coming out. Shouldn't this help my supply on this side? Starting to get worried as it noticably less full than the right side.

[LizzieN]

Sweetie,
Yes technically if your LO takes a good feed from the bad side it will increase how much it produces, but bear in mind your breasts may only increase to their "level" if that makes sense, I can see that one of my sides has a much better blood supply than the other so it makes sense to me that it doesn't produce as much.  The thing to remember is that your other side WILL compensate, your body WILL be making enough with both sides together to nourish your baby...I understand this is stressful, I get really worried about my supply all the time but look at your bub, she is active and healthy, yes?

Huge hugs Emma
xx

[~Emma~]

Wise words Lizzie my lovely. Thankyou. 

 Feeds actually gone better today. She is stretching out until about 4.30/5 from her DF and quite hard to settle afterwards. Not sure that she thinks this might be wake up time or what. I'm pretty happy about it though as it could be alot worse. She's a trooper.

 From 12 noon today she only had a 45 min nap and was still smiling at the world at 6.30pm before bedtime. I think I might just have an angel on my hands here. 

[*Liz*]

My 6/7 mth old Megan is an angel. Sleep isn't perfect but you really wouldn't know she was here she is  so calm and happy. They sound similar as teenies with their wide eyed no sleep nonsense so you are probably right 

[LizzieN]

I am constantly amazed how long C can go without a sleep and still be smiling at strangers...funny little baby!
xx

[~Emma~]

M was out of the swaddle by 10 weeks 

 Liz, why did you ditch the swaddle at 10 weeks? Did you do it gradually? D was awake alot last night and each time she woke she had bust out. I fed her for each waking and she even came into bed with me for a couple of hours. I am so tired.

[*Liz*]

She was just waking constantly and breaking out. I did switch to tummy sleeping at the same time though as she was much better that way. If she had stayed on her back
I would have had to persevere as she was a jolty baby.

Even now she wakes everytime she gets onto her back though. She hates it there  . Sometimes she rolls back now though.

[~Emma~]

She wont sleep on her tummy. 

 Ugh, fed up now. Really fed up with it all. Feeding is a nightmare, sleeping is a nightmare.  I dont know if these wakings are down to the DF or not. The problem is when she wakes I just dont know how to get her to sleep again without feeding, nothing works.

 I would drop the DF but if she wakes at 11pm I will feed her anyway kwim? I am so tired and so confused and I just *know* that these NW'ing are going to get alot worse before they get better.

 I think the problem is she needs to suck, not necessarily feed. Thats why I dont know about the swaddle.

 Rambling now. Heads a mess. I'm tired and Brodie is sick....yes he was awake last night too. I have actually had NO SLEEP.

[*Liz*]

((hugs)) Emma. Been there and it is awful.

How often is she feeding at night now?

[Shiv52]

I think the problem is she needs to suck, not necessarily feed.

Still no luck with the dummy? 

{{{hugs}}} 

[~Emma~]

Well it was just once at about 3am ish, she even did 12 hours 3 x. Then I thought I'd intro the DF as my thinking was I knew she could do those long stretches and perhaps she'd start going through from DF consistantly. The DF never made a real difference, although twice in the last 10 days she did sleep through until 6. For the most part though generally waking at about 4. NIght before last she woke at 2 and 5 as well as DF. Last night she woke for the DF and at 2 (v.v upset and had escaped swaddle) and again at 5, again escaped swaddle. I tried both times reswadding and resettling but she was having none of it. I fed her to sleep both times. Feeding to sleep only works at night.

 Thinking of ditching the DF.  

 Posted at the same time Shiv - nope, no luck. She gags and chokes on it. Not tried for a couple of weeks now though.

[shivi]

hugest hugs Emma }}}{{{{

my Emmusia became a great tummy sleeper too but I still used the swaddle for naps for a long time more and also for any OTd messes she'd get into thanks to the struggles of keeping both of them happy.

S x

[*Liz*]

Feel free to kick me but that sort of night is pretty typical for an ebf babe at this age. All the growth spurts tend to mean they don't do long stretches consistently. I found M settled to 4hrly NWings at 16 weeks or so, and now is pretty reliable about 1 long stretch, then another 4 hrs to morning.

But she also did 8 hr stretchs at 8 weeks, then they vanished for a bit.

Her first tooth cost me 1 hrly wake- ups (and yep - she wanted a comfort suck on a boob). But last week she has been great, sleeping until 2ish or so.

It DOES suck, and it is def worth trying no DF. Shame to miss something with an easy fix. But it might be perfectly normal really.

It is a sad fact of life that a BFing mama has to work really hard for the first 6 mths. And that is why every bit that anyone manages for is amazing

The thing that helped me was knowing how good this all was for her. So on the days when I was so tired and wanted to strangle both of them Megan was fine as she always got her share of Mama, just from us feeding together iyswim!

[~Emma~]

Feel free to kick me but that sort of night is pretty typical for an ebf babe at this age.

No kicking from me! The thing is her entire life she has only ever woken once a night to feed. In hospital I had to wake her!!  Before I started the DF she was practically sleeping through and even did a couple of times. I had geared myself up for plenty of NW and they never came then I seen that 12 week mark coming and thought that they might just never come.....then they did. I guess I just have to suck it up.

 I will not be doing the DF tonight. I'll give it 3 days of not doing it and see how it goes. Quite nice not pumping today I must admit.

 Shiv - I really wish she would tummy sleep but she hates it. Maybe once she is in a cot she might like it a bit better. Going to try and get her in a cot after Christmas.

 I am so glad today is over and I hope that tonight isn't too bad. I just panicked as she's never woken more than once I really did not know what to do.