supply issue or just because its hot? Barb??

[NaeNae]

The last few days our house has been an oven. We have air con in the living room only and pedestal fan in our room and an evap cooler in DD,
DD has been a shocker and wanting to feed all day and all night, waking every 1-2 hours crying for boob but sucking for only 5 min before drifting off.
She has been punching at the boob she is feeding from after 5 min (over the past few weeks) and keeps punching and pulling back with her head even if she is swapped to the other side.

we are still getting between 6-10 wet mcn in 24 hrs but i am wondering is my supply dwindling, over the past 72hrs is her constant need for feeding because its hot? I have heard her tummy gurgling even after she has been on for 30-60 min and am so worried i am no longer producing enough for her.

she is quite a happy baby and is quite alert but does get really grizzly if i cannot get her on fast enough her skin is good, she seems to have nice mottling, i think she has good covering but she is a lot less chubby then other babies her age that we know.

is it me?

is it weather driven?

is it just a phase?

help please ...........

[Olive]

hun are you keeping up your fluid intake??
id say its just the heat and shes feeding to quench her thirst.

[STARRYSKY]

hi nae, I would say its probably a combination of the heat and maybe a growth spurt, her out put still seems ok. dont forget to keep your fluid uptake up as well. xx

[Kitt3n]

I find that I need to drink LOTS more water than I usually would to have an adequate, ready suppply.

She is also probably just grizzlycos of the heat hun

xx

[rufalina]

Hun, I would think it could be a combination of the heat, and being thirsty, and a pretty common 3 month growth spurt. I had a similar thing happen with DS1 and at the time had a lot of girls let me know they were going through the same thing at the same age... I know it is hard, and I remember doubting my supply and feeling quite bad about things, but I know I got through it, with lots of feeding over a few day my supply caught up and we were back into the swing of things in no time.

So, I would think, just keep on offering when she wants it, and your bb will catch up...

Also, I know if it is hot, I prefer to drink smaller amounts more frequently, so maybe your DD is like that.

Hang in there... You are doing so well. xo

[Tecopa]

Elliott is doing similar things! One nipple is really quite sore from the pulling off over and over thing where he has grazed me! And I've been pumping milk for storage in the mornings and have dropped from being able to get 150 mls in a session down to this morning only 30mls and he's feeding every two hours too. This thread has reminded me to go drink a bunch of water! I just think it's the heat mostly - it's an oven here too. Plus bub getting to the distracted stage a bit with feeding. Last night I warned Gunkle he wasn't to laugh or talk while I fed cause DS kept rolling toward the noise with boob in mouth. So he did his best then coughed by accident and Elliott pulled like crazy to look toward the cough. Gah! Pain!

Also Elliott can scream blue murder and arch his back if he doesn't get on quick enough too now and I was told it's cause the let down slows down a bit around now? You could try expressing a tiny bit to get let down to happen then latch bub - maybe not so much screaming and pulling??

Right off for massive water consumption and will report back ha ha.

[~me~]

I would say it's the heat. The heat at the moment isn't just hot it's muggy here in Melbourne, so you probably need to drink more water?? I ended up with a thumping headache last night which I attributed to not drinking enough often.
Yesterday Tess fed alot during the day. Lot's of one side, happy, rest, another side. She fed frequently and only one side at a time.
Shae is also nearing 3mths so would be having a growth spurt.
Try (it's not easy) to compare her to other babies, she could be just petite.
And the impatience on getting on the boob...yep!! Tess get's excited and cranky all in one
You are doing a great job Nae, your judgement is spot on.

[MantaRay]

You are doing a great job Nae. It is common for babies to feed more often in the heat, and the wet nappies show she's getting plenty of milk.

Even if your supply was struggling to keep up, which I'm sure it's not, the frequent feeding would build it back up again.

Keep up the great work hun.

[~Raven~]

How is she today? I agree it's probably the weather making her like this because mine have done similar. It's frustrating I know

You might notice in a day or so you are more engorged too as your body reacts to the frequent stimulation.

[NaeNae]

How is she today? I agree it's probably the weather making her like this because mine have done similar. It's frustrating I know

You might notice in a day or so you are more engorged too as your body reacts to the frequent stimulation.

OK so its not the weather !! after a not so bad night, night before last, last night was horrid! Every 2 friggin hours she woke up and was starving, would suck ravenously for 5 min burp then go back to sleep. She is becoming more and more grumpy and I think it may be a supply issue - that or all of a sudden she is insatiable

Barb if you read this - how do I know if it is supply issue? How much water should I be drinking to make sure I am producing enough milk? I don't drink a lot of water period would be lucky to get 1litre in a day.

I am sick to death of having such crappy nights and grumpy days I am fed up with it and what I thought was weatehr related turns out to be something else that I don't know

grrrrr

[sloane]

i hope barb or MR pop in, but i think how much water you drink doesn't hugely affect supply...i remember something about the comparison to women in 3rd world countries who get very little to eat or drink & they successfully BF for long periods of time??

it may just be that shae is feeding some of the time for comfort or for a growth spurt etc. my DS has gone back to feeding every 2 hours (and sometimes every hour) overnight for the last 2 months.l in his case i'm sure it's not supply - for him it's comfort & help to get back to sleep when he comes out of a sleep cycle - not sure if these things apply at 3 months? i have founds times where he seems insatiable & i'm pretty sure heaven had a thread recently where he DD was feeding constantly during the day for a while & she's older again!

[MantaRay]

Nae, this can be a difficult age Many mums find that their babies start feeding more frequently at around the 3 or 4 month mark. For a long time it was unclear why, but recent research suggests that babies undergo a period of intense neurological development at that age and it is thought that they need the proteins etc from the milk to fuel this. Also at this age babies often become more alert and aware of their surrondings, so sometimes feed for shorter periods during the day when they are distracted and more often at night.

Nae, how many feeds would you say Shae is having in 24 hours at the moment? How do the feeds go - does she feed for a long time or get distracted and pull off?

There are some things you can try, but unfortunately I don't have a magic fix for a better night's sleep. If Shae is disstracted during day feeds feeding in a quiet, darkened room, or in a relaxing bath might help. Often mums find that feeding their babies while they are sleepy or in the light sleep cycle works best, so perhaps a dream feed during a day sleep, and one at night might help. A breastfeeding necklace might also help.

Another thought I have from your post is that her sucking at night might not always be hunger, but wind. Sucking helps babies to move wind through their systems, so it might be that Shae is having wind pain and that's why she sucked voraciously for a few minutes and then burped. If this is the case, one option if it hasn't been long since the last feed, is to try a dummy first to see if that helps.

How do you go these days with napping during the day (you, not Shae ). Rest for yourself is still important even as Shae gets older.

If you don't think any of things will help you, post again and we can think of some other ideas. All the best hun.

PS I know this doesn't help you right now but it does get easier

ETA you don't need to drink lots of water to produce milk. Just drinking when you are thirsty is fine.

[briggsy's girl]

Nae - have you read up about wonderweeks hun? week 12 is a wonder week (give or take) and one of the key signs is needing to be close (feeding lots, but short time, waking and needing boob again immediately just so they know you are close)...

E has been a right PITA during wonder weeks. if you want more info, i can grab my book and give you some info if you want. i doubt it is your supply if Shae is growing and still having sufficient output - i'm guessing it's more likely to be that she has been impacted by the heat a bit, in combination with a wonder week...

[NaeNae]

BG - Yeah i have the wonder weeks book here which I have been referring to, I was hoping it was just a phase but wanted to be sure it was not supply related

MR - I really couldn't tell you how many feeds Shae has in a 24hr period because each day is different. She actually had a good night last night and slept from 8pm-4.45am, so far she had her early feed at 4.45 which was 10 min good sucking 10 min sleepy sucking (not including burping time) before I pulled her off wrapped her and DH put her to bed, the she woke at 7, did 10min good sucking then 15 min playful sucking which is her looking at me, smiling, letting go, mouthing back on, sucking a few then repeat then at about 9.30 she fed 10 min before falling asleep, woke 20 min later and she spent the last 5 min on and has dropped off again ........... a day like today has been so far we may get 5-6 morning feeds then 4-6 afternoon evening feeds, 2 of the evening feeds she stays on for an hour each side as if she is stock piling for the night

I wouldn't say she is overly distracted through the day feeds its the nodding off part. We change her bum before a feed rather than in the middle because she was squirming when her bum was wet and would lose half her food over the change table and mostly we'd need to change her after a feed as well.

As for the dummies lol. We resisted giving her one earlier in the piece and now she just spits them out after gagging on them, we have 4 different ones here and she does the same thing with each. We were advised by the ABA to pull her off the breast every few mins to burp her to help get rid of the bubbles which we do at 5 min intervals. I spose i miss a few though as you suggested It could be wind pain but it has eased off considerably since we started doing this.

No napping through the day for me I just cannot sleep during day time and lately Shae will not stay asleep more than 20 min unless she is being held, may be a bad habbit but its nice to have her quiet and not demanding attention, plus i keep boobs out and when she is sleeping sometimes she latches on for a bit of a suck ........ is this dream feeding????

heaps of info here I hope it makes sense

thanks again
Nae