9 weeks old, feeding 2-hourly in the daytime

[tenar]

It seems like I'm spending an awful lot of time feeding DD at the moment. When I think about it, she's been feeding 2-hourly almost on the dot, during the daytime, for the last several days.

She's sleeping longer at night now - up to 8 hours (yay!). Well, she only did that once so far but I have hopes of repeat occasions. I'm not surprised she needs to feed more during the day, but this seems very often, and I'm wondering if I'm doing something a bit wrong?

Today she went to sleep at about 11pm, woke at 5.20 for a feed, then 7.30, 9.30. 11.30, 1.30, 3.15, 5.00. I expect she'll need two more feeds this evening before going down for her long sleep. That's 9 feeds in one day.

I always offer her both breasts, but she rarely takes both. She's pretty spewy at the moment, so seems to me to bring a fair bit of each feed right back up. She's gaining weight and has lots of wet nappies.

I'm worried that she isn't getting enough good sleep during the daytime. She used to feed 3-4 hourly, not often 2-hourly. I'm not bothered that she's changing, and very glad of the longer sleeps at night, but wondering whether this all sounds alright to you.

[Trillian]

That's completely normal. Some babies feed upwards of 12 times a day and that's normal too. She is sleeping longer at night so she needs to feed more often during the daytime to get all her nutritional requirements. If you feel that the vomiting after feeds is becomming a problem, try burping her halfway through the feed, then when the feed is finished, just prop her upright a bit and not burp her at all to give her tummy time to settle.

[Novella]

Sounds like my dd2. She slept throughfrom 9 weeks too and had the same number of feeds as when she was waking during the night, just in a shorter time frame. Aimee would tend to have one 3-4hr break in the day but have 2 or 3 feeds an hour apart before bed. Good luck, if she is happy and feeding well she is probably getting enough sleep.

[Barb Glare]

Hi,

It's normal to wonder what's going on when their pattern changes, - but she is also behaving completely normally. It's an interesting exercise for adults to count how many times food or liquid goes into into their mouths. They tell us to have 8 glasses of water per day, 3 meals. A couple of snacks are normal. Already up to 13 feeds. Yet, strangely, a little baby, who needs to grow and who has a very little tummy is expected to get by on 4hrly feeds - just doesn't stack up.
Enjoy the longer night-time sleeps.

[~Raven~]

My bubs were feeding more frequently during the day when they were sleeping longer at night too!

[tenar]

Thanks everyone, that's very reassuring.

Now I can spend what remains of my evening wondering about the thing she just did, which was, at her last feed before going down to bed for the night, she took a little from one breast, then absolutely screamed when I put her to the other. Which I tried twice, then again after I'd changed her nappy. That's a new one to me, and I have no idea what the problem was. She's been cranky before, of course, but never cranky about the very idea of feeding.

Well I guess it keeps us on our toes, the way they keep changing.