Hi, This is my first post, although I've been lurking since my son was born
4/2/03. This group has been very informational for me, and I thought I'd
ask for advice.

My son was born 8lbs 9 oz, as of last weekend, he was a little over 18 lbs.
so he has double his birthweight and then some, and he's not yet 4 months.
He has been almost exclusively breastfeed since birth (except for the first
few days when I was force to supplement w/ formula, due to my inverted
nipples, but thank god for breast shields, my BF savior, and he wean off of
those at 10 weeks, but now is refusing bottles of EBM but that's another
story.) .

I've been lucky that he has always slept through the night since birth, (4-6
hours) until he was 4 weeks then 5-7 hour when he was 6 weeks, and 6-8
hours at 8 weeks, and 8 hours+ for the last 6 weeks. Well now he is
starting not to sleep through the night, I'd say for the past week, he's
woken up 4 time at midnight or 3 am, starving, last night it was twice.
Sometimes he cries, other times he is just tossing and turning and sucking
his fist vigoriously, and is smacking his lips. I readily feed him, and he
goes right back to sleep after 10 min or so, but I'm wondering if milk is
still enough for him. I mean I know that it is, but I kind of like him
sleeping through the night.

I don't think it's a growth spurt, I've actually not notice any except for
the 3 week one. I have a really good supply, but I think he can't drink
enough in the day sometimes to meet his intake requirement. The few times
that he has sucked my dry, my body does really well and adjust the next day,
and I get engorged for several days. I nurse every 2-2.5 hours, but
sometimes he won't nurse for more than 5 min.most times he'll nurse for
10-12 min, but always refuses the other breast. In all I'm nursing about 7
times during the day. I'm debating starting solids.

I know about the allergies, but I'm worried that I can't nurse him enough
during the day for him not to be hungry in the middle of night. I know some
babies, don't sleep through the night til much later, but I'm spoiled and
don't want to give that up. Any advice for me to either get him to nurse
longer during the day? Part of the problem is I think I have OAL, and I've
heard that I should pump to relieve some of that, but that just don't make
sense to me, I mean if I pump won't I continue to produce more than I need.
And at what point should I start trying solids, what the largest baby in
this group who has gone exclusive BF, and had the baby sleep through the
night?

Maybe I should just suck it up, and do what's best for my son and just
exclusively BF until he's at least 6 months. Reading this I'm not really
sure what I'm asking but for some of you guys to share your experiences with
me. Especially those of you w/ larger babies, and how long you exclusily
breast feed for. I know I have enough and can produce enough BM to keep him
going but at what cost to me, and at the rate he's gaining I expect the
problem to just get worse.. And a side note Dr. Sears said if your baby is
taking 40 ounces of formula, you should (it might have could) probably try
to replace one of his feedings with cereal. According to my calculations he
needs 36-45 ounces a day (the 2 - 2.5 ounce per lb standard), so does that
apply to BF babies to? So I'm unsure of what I should do,
a. try to get him to nurse more during the day
b. try to add cereal to his diet
c. suck it up, and feed BM whenever he wants it even if it means not sleep
through the night anymore.

I know this isn't a problem compared to what others are experiencing but it
goes through my head about every day, weather I should start solid or not.

Thanks,
LuLu and my chunky monkey.