Newborn struggling to latch on half way through feed + time between feeds

[LovelyLilyandJack]

For a few weeks now my almost 5 week old has been pulling back and fussing or crying when i try to latch him back on to the first breast after about 20 minutes feeding.  He normally latches on ok if I switch breasts so i take it to mean he's had enough on one side,  even if there's still milk in there (though admittedly probably not much). Has anyone come across this before and does my interpretation sound right? I will always have winded him by this point and wind him again if he fusses but nothing normally comes out that second time.

Also,  while I'm here,  how do i know when to stretch time between feeds?  I'm currently feeding every 2.5 hours and normallyhave to wwake him for feeds in the day.  The plan is to get feeds in during the day instead of at night.  Last night was the first time it worked I'm not in a rush to change things if nights are improving but how do i know when it's ok to leave 3 hours between feeds? And as a reminder,  does that mean 3 hours from the end of one feed and the start of another? As opposed to feed start to start times I mean.

Thank you!

[shivi]

Its start of feed times, so 7am you start, 10am you start the next, then 1pm and so on.
Have you ever tried leaving him longer to see will he wake on his own, hungry? What happens at night? How long does he go from start of one feed to waking hungry?

My DD was very impatient with milk when we got to the end of feeding on one side, so I used breast compressions to try and encourage her to take more from that side. We got some foremilk hindmilk imbalance otherwise....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJrBRYxDNSE

HTH and hugs x

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Aah ok,  so I've actually been feeding every 3 hours already then! If i leave him he was doing one longer stretch of 3 -4 hours and then played catch up afterwards and fed 1.5 - 2 hours later. I started trying to even out the feeds a bit in the hope that he'd move his long stretch to night time. He's only just sussed the difference between day and night though i think, which I hope means he'll carry on going longer at night. He was going about 3 hours at night (start to start) but last night went 4.5 hours twice

I have tried compression before but forgot about it so will try that again, thanks!

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Just thinking about this fussing at the breast (cos it's worse at night and we've just had an episode of it) and although he may be coming off the breast cos of the slower flow I'm not sure it's causing his fussing cos he doesn't actually latch on.  He's basically opening his mouth but not closing it round my nipple. He then seems to get very frustrated and then starts writhing around, arching his back and squirming.  Sometimes he'll cry a bit but tonight it's lead to a full on screaming fit which he suddenly stopped then started again after i offered the breast again.  He had another screaming fit and then stopped and latched on ok, fed a bit and now is screaming every time i offer the breast again.  He really hardly ever cries so something must be going on

[Fiver]

Could he have wind rather than still being hungry?  Or tired?  Both mine used to do something similar.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Yes,  could be tiredness - he was up a loooong time before bed last night and in the end fell asleep on me but it took him a while and a few false starts to do so.

[ZacsMumme]

Hugs.
Any signs of reflux other than the back arching and crying on the breast Hun? Something else to consider YK?
Reflux 101 - General reflux information

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Thanks for the link.  J does do some of those things but generally is such a contented little boy that I don't think he does have reflux. I did wonder the other night though! He seems to do it now when he's had enough and is tired.  If I swaddle him he'll sometimes go back on the boob and will fall asleep within 5 minutes - or he'll fall asleep on my shoulder (still working on independent sleep at bedtime - one thing at a time! )

[Fiver]

He's still tiny. There's plenty of time for independent sleep

[sueyloo]

The arching and fussiness sounds like tiredness to me. My DD1 did the same thing when she was little. I was so clueless I thought she was hungry. Caught on quickly enough though.