evening marathon

[conorandjulianasmo]

Dd is 5.5 weeks and has been sleeping longer at night, a 6.5 hour stretch plus another 3 or 4 stretch.  When she wakes in the night to eat, she doesn't nurse very long.  I'm thrilled with this and hope it keeps up.  But, in the late afternoon and evening, she wants to eat non stop and is hard to get down for her naps, so EASY is out the window.  And, I can't tell if she wants to comfort nurse because she's overtired or truely hungry.  Do I just have to deal with this since she is sleeping longer or any other suggestions?  I feel like I"m trapped on the couch for hours and my 2 yr old isn't getting any attention, nor my hubby.  Thanks.

[jbepko]

SHe may be cluster feeding and by doing such actually ...sleeping longer at night. Our milk supply tends to dip in the afternoon also. Rushing around, not eating, not drinking enough, multiple feeds can all diminsh the milk by afternoon. Your LO is still really young and EASY sometimes needs to be flexible at that age.  I would allow her to cluster feed as she needs and then use her sleep time to focus on hubby and other child! Really make an effort to keep fluids up (lots of water) and make sure she is awake while nursing vs comfort sleeping. While you are cluster feeding is  a great time for DH to have 1:1 time iwth older child or put on a video and chat with him while nursing LO!

[M2L]

My DD was doing the same thing at around that age.  I now think that she was pacifying more than anything else.  She still takes a long time to nurse (up to 40 minutes), as she loves to be at the breast.  Back then, DD would be on the breast for 3 hours or longer.  I asked my doctor about it, and she advised that DD was full when her arms were "floopy."  So I started doing the "floopy child" test after I'd been nursing for 30 minute, and when her arms were like a rag doll's, I took her off.  It worked for me.

[BabyBsMommy]

The same thing happened with my ds around the same time as your lo.  At that point in time, he wasn't on EASY yet and wouldn't go down for the night until around 9:30 but did sleep for 5 or 6 hours from that point on.  Starting around 7pm, the marathon ( yup, I called it that, too) would begin and he would suck on my boob off and on for the next 2 hours straight.  He would doze off for about 20 min in the middle but then would wake up and get back at it.  If I tried to put him down to bed at that point, he would wake up 20 min later anyways and want to feed again.  This phase did pass so I think the advice you have gotten thus far is pretty good.  Just wanted to let you know that you were not alone!