baby at the breast all the time

For the last 9 days my baby has been at the breast all the time. It
started when she was 5 weeks 6 days old, so I thought growth spurt,
but now she is 7 weeks 1 day old, and still every waking moment all
she wants to do is nurse. I can get a little break with the swing or
with dh holding her here and there, and she does sleep occasionally.
I have measured her and she grew 2 inches in 6 weeks and she seems
fatter, but we have not weighed her. Her diaper counts seem fine.

Because I have had serious supply issues in the past, I am worried
that maybe I cannot really make enough more milk for her since this
growth spurt happened and that she now has to nurse nearly non-stop to
get enough milk.

Or, could it be that she is just using me as a pacifier, which I don't
mind being, but 100% of waking time is a little unreasonable since I
have to go buy groceries occasionally :-) and my poor older dd isn't
getting much time from me.

I already take domperidone and fenugreek, and eat oatmeal too.

So, what do you think? Feel free to give support and encouragement.
I'm not ready to give in and give supplement yet, but this can't go on
forever.

KC - so envious of the people who get to feed every 2 to 3 hours.

It WILL pass. Growth spurts can sometimes last a while. Hang in there!
"KC" wrote in message
om...
For the last 9 days my baby has been at the breast all the time. It
started when she was 5 weeks 6 days old, so I thought growth spurt,
but now she is 7 weeks 1 day old, and still every waking moment all
she wants to do is nurse. I can get a little break with the swing or
with dh holding her here and there, and she does sleep occasionally.
I have measured her and she grew 2 inches in 6 weeks and she seems
fatter, but we have not weighed her. Her diaper counts seem fine.

Because I have had serious supply issues in the past, I am worried
that maybe I cannot really make enough more milk for her since this
growth spurt happened and that she now has to nurse nearly non-stop to
get enough milk.

Or, could it be that she is just using me as a pacifier, which I don't
mind being, but 100% of waking time is a little unreasonable since I
have to go buy groceries occasionally :-) and my poor older dd isn't
getting much time from me.

I already take domperidone and fenugreek, and eat oatmeal too.

So, what do you think? Feel free to give support and encouragement.
I'm not ready to give in and give supplement yet, but this can't go on
forever.

KC - so envious of the people who get to feed every 2 to 3 hours.

Just wanted to add that DD's spurts lasted around 2 weeks...
"KC" wrote in message
om...
For the last 9 days my baby has been at the breast all the time. It
started when she was 5 weeks 6 days old, so I thought growth spurt,
but now she is 7 weeks 1 day old, and still every waking moment all
she wants to do is nurse. I can get a little break with the swing or
with dh holding her here and there, and she does sleep occasionally.
I have measured her and she grew 2 inches in 6 weeks and she seems
fatter, but we have not weighed her. Her diaper counts seem fine.

Because I have had serious supply issues in the past, I am worried
that maybe I cannot really make enough more milk for her since this
growth spurt happened and that she now has to nurse nearly non-stop to
get enough milk.

Or, could it be that she is just using me as a pacifier, which I don't
mind being, but 100% of waking time is a little unreasonable since I
have to go buy groceries occasionally :-) and my poor older dd isn't
getting much time from me.

I already take domperidone and fenugreek, and eat oatmeal too.

So, what do you think? Feel free to give support and encouragement.
I'm not ready to give in and give supplement yet, but this can't go on
forever.

KC - so envious of the people who get to feed every 2 to 3 hours.

"KC" wrote in message
om...
Or, could it be that she is just using me as a pacifier, which I don't
mind being, but 100% of waking time is a little unreasonable since I
have to go buy groceries occasionally :-)

Hang in there, KC. She can't possibly keep that kind of a nursing binge up.
I had a nonstop nurser, too, and it took more than the promised 6 weeks for
him to cut me a little slack, but not too much more. I wouldn't supplement
if I were you, or you'll wind up in that nasty downward supply spiral. Keep
up the good work!

Beth

(KC) writes:

I have measured her and she grew 2 inches in 6 weeks and she seems
fatter, but we have not weighed her. Her diaper counts seem fine.

Get her weighed. If she's gaining even somewhat well, then maybe just do
what you're doing, but, if she's totally stopped growing or started
shrinking, you may have to go over to the dark side.

"Beth" writes:


"KC" wrote in message
. com...
Or, could it be that she is just using me as a pacifier, which I don't
mind being, but 100% of waking time is a little unreasonable since I
have to go buy groceries occasionally :-)

Hang in there, KC. She can't possibly keep that kind of a nursing binge up.
I had a nonstop nurser, too, and it took more than the promised 6 weeks for
him to cut me a little slack, but not too much more. I wouldn't supplement
if I were you, or you'll wind up in that nasty downward supply spiral.

a) My baby nursed pretty much constantly for the eight weeks before we
started supplementing with formula, probably because I wasn't making
enough milk. Nursing more isn't always the best answer.

b) For me, supplementing just led to my baby being happy and starting to
thrive. It hasn't done any noticeable damage to my supply. It seemed as if
I was making enough milk to handle about 90 percent of my baby's demand
before I started supplementing, and on days when I'm home with her full
time, the same is true today.

KC writes:

: KC - so envious of the people who get to feed every 2 to 3 hours.

Oh, you mean mothers of older babies! :-) No normal newborn (less
than 3 months) nurses on this schedule. OK, maybe just a few.

Larry

Al Bell wrote in message news:

b) For me, supplementing just led to my baby being happy and starting to
thrive. It hasn't done any noticeable damage to my supply. It seemed as if
I was making enough milk to handle about 90 percent of my baby's demand
before I started supplementing, and on days when I'm home with her full
time, the same is true today.

I am wondering how you supplement. Do you give her a bottle a day, or
top her off after each feed? I read on a supplementing board that
giving 1 or 2 bottles a day didn't hurt supply, but that topping off
after every feed did.

KC

(KC) writes:

Al Bell wrote in message news:

b) For me, supplementing just led to my baby being happy and starting to
thrive. It hasn't done any noticeable damage to my supply. It seemed as if
I was making enough milk to handle about 90 percent of my baby's demand
before I started supplementing, and on days when I'm home with her full
time, the same is true today.

I am wondering how you supplement. Do you give her a bottle a day, or
top her off after each feed? I read on a supplementing board that
giving 1 or 2 bottles a day didn't hurt supply, but that topping off
after every feed did.

My routine:

- Maybe I have weird breasts. Yours might be different.

- I nurse on demand whenever I'm with my daughter, and I go to nurse her
at lunch when I'm at work. Plus I pump whenever I'm away from Pooka for
more than three hours, so my breasts still get a lot of stimulation. Just
not ALL the time. (Also: DD doesn't have to spend all her time nursing.
She has time to babble and crawl.)

- I almost never give a bottle. My husband and the daycare folks do the
bottles.

- We started giving Pooka an occasional bottle of pumped milk at 4 weeks
because the owner of a baby store told us that would make her flexible.
The advice seems to have worked.

- The daycare folks give one or two bottles in the morning and in the
afternoon.

- Before we started solids, we gave Pooka a 4 ounce bottle of formula at
bedtime, partly to see if she was really hungry. (Usually she took 2 or 3
ounces.) Now, we just offer a bottle at bedtime if she seems frantic about
nursing.

Al Bell wrote in message ...
snip
Plus I pump whenever I'm away from Pooka for
more than three hours,

you get to go away from the baby for a whole 3 hours, lucky woman,
mine is set to every half hour and I can't find the dial to retune
him.

teapot