growth spurt - 12th week or 3rd month?

fennho

fennho

Registered User
Hi mommies

I've read in most books saying babies normaly have growth spurt where they suddenly want to eat more per day than usual and this happens at around 6-8weeks and then the next one is 3-4mth...would like to ask if we count by month or weeks? My gal is now 12wks but if u count by month, she's not yet 3month....I'm always curious how do we calculate actually? She has been sleepg from 9-ish to 6-ish, and her last feed is usually ard 9pm and will last her to abt 6am. Today she suddenly woke up whimpering and crying..and rooting for my breast (I do TBF) at 1am!!. Latch her on and she suckle vigorously! Which prompted me to question if she is hvg a growth spurt since she is already 12wks old. I know the La Leche group supports feed on demand and there's nothing wrong in givng her the breast as and she she demands for it but I dont wish for her to rely on my breast to fall asleep and making it a habit.


Your views pls, thanks!
 
When you are given a time with a baby it is always the average you are given. So babies feed for 30 minutes, they have growth spurts at 3 months or they walk at 13 months.

But the range is also important ? always plus or minus for every time given.

30 minutes becomes 15 to 45 minutes

3 months becomes 2 to 4 months

13 months becomes 9 to 18 months.

Remember that all babies are different. So the only guaranteed thing is that your baby will be different from the next.

Generally babies have growth spurts at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months. These growth spurts are the most noticeable ones. It is thought that babies have them about every three weeks. Remember the growth spurt is when the baby is growing physically ? he is still growing in between but you may not notice it so much ? maybe it is his brain growing rather than his legs.

So yes, it could easily be that your baby is having a growth spurt at 12 weeks.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
hi Sarah
tks for your input. I am not good in recognizing my bb needs to feed. I know the La Leche group advocates feedg as and when the bb needs even if its comfort suckg, my bb is rejectg the pacifier but I wan to discourage her using my nipple to suckle herself to sleep for fear of over reliant. I can see some symptoms now ie she will do suckg motion, rooting actions even after I've JUST fed her...otherwise she can't go to sleep! But on the other hand, I'm worried its a growth spurt and I misread her cues. If I missed a growth spurt, wat will happen? Does it mean she won't be in the targeted percentile? Sigh...so many things to worry! Sometimes I feel guilty but I don't want her to hv the habit of nursing herself to sleep..am I wrong?
 
btw, during a growth spurt period, do babies demand feeding whole day long or is it just an additional 1-2 feed on top of her usual routines? For eg. If her routines is always abt 3hour interval, during growth spurts, wats the characteristics like, is she gonna be feedg like 2hourly the entire day or will she jus add 1-2 feed here & there?
 
If you want to know if the baby still wants to feed again place her cheek on your breast. If she?s still wants to nurse she will start rooting and try to latch.

When babies are little if they don?t want to nurse they usually fall asleep but as they grow older, say around four months old, they will wriggle and try to get down or sit in your arms and smile at you.

One of the advantages of breastfeeding is that it makes babies sleep. If they aren?t tired they usually fall asleep for about a minute and then wake up again but if they are tired they?ll stay asleep. It is truly an advantage with an over tired baby who doesn?t really know what to do with himself. Five to ten minutes breastfeeding and he?s asleep ? and peace reigns again.

Why are you so against feeding to sleep? Some of my favourite memories are my babies asleep in my arms after breastfeeding.
 
hi barbwong
haha..i don't think my bb willl sit & smile at me cos I think my bb belongs to the bad temper category type hehe.

As for the reason why im against nursing to sleep becos I am afraid she will be too reliant on my breast to sleep, thus disabling her to learn sleepg on her own next time? At least dats wat I was told...wat if I'm gonna be away next time?
 
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remember, your baby isn't even 3 months old!!!
if she's hungry and rooting... feed her! it is as they get older, say 6-9 months you should start thinking about feeding until asleep.

my girl HAD to suck. after our first night at home, she sucked until my nipple felt like falling off! i gave her a pacifier. my son NEVER had one. but my daughter NEEDED it. I NEEDED IT.

now, she's almost 14 months and there are times that she refuses the pacifier. which i'm glad for. i didn't want her to become reliant on it either.

personally, i believe that a baby needs to feel secure. one way a baby feels secure is through feeding (particularly through breastfeeding). if your baby wants you, give in.

your baby will only be this young once. enjoy it and stop worrying so much! you have a lifetime of worries ahead of you. in 3 months you won't even remember this worry!
 
Hi barbwong
regarding feeding to sleep, I'm also worried becos my gal will STILL continue to suck ie nibbling at my nipple even when she has fallen asleep, she is really treating my breast as her pacifier hence I dunno when is enough and when to unlatch and put her down to sleep (stupid mommy) If she becomes too reliant, like a fren of mine whose bb boy treated her breast as pacifier, once unlatch (just like the pacifier drop off) he would woken up and cry. He was clearly tired becos was yawning and rubbg his eyes but jus cudnt stay asleep once his mommy removed her nipple and put him down...hence my fears of my gal behaving like dat. I love cuddling my bb as well (which mom doesn't?) but I'm just worried she becomes too reliant on the nipple for assistance to STAY asleep

Hi carang
thks for ur input too. Ure prob right but I'm worried now becos I don't wish to foster a bad habit that is difficult to readjustin the future. Also, with my milk ss being established, my breasts are no longer engorged and gull prior to a feedg session so now I hv a hard time knowing when she is truly full or if the feedg sesssion has truly ended. Last time it used to be my breast feels rock hard, she suckle and when I feel it became really soft I know she has had enough, more or less, and it is ok to unlatch her. But now that my breasts has somewhat soften abit, I hv no idea when to unlatch her! I certainly don't wish to feed by watching the clock but if not she can feed up more than hour at every single feed! Which leads me to start worrying (and kept asking Sarah if my supply is diminishing) cos she used to only feed for ard 30mins or so.

I love my bb gal very much, but having to let her suckle for more than an hour at every feed, not knowing when to unlatch, and now potentially becoming a human pacifier to coax her to sleep and stay asleep is draining my energy. Am I being selfish for wanting to minimise this so I can hv some time to myself and complete other things, and also to take care of my poor doggie (who has been neglected since the birth of my bb)? Oh well, rats a totally separate issue isn't it? But it is really like hvg to care for a toddler in the house. :p
 
When I was a new mother I had the same worry ?How would my baby get to sleep without me?? I was on my maternity leave but had to return to work soon and every time my daughter needed to sleep I feed her.

I went to my first LLL meeting when my daughter was five weeks old and a second time mother there said a throw away line but it was a lifesaver for me, ?Everyone has a different way to settle a baby.? And it is true. As a breastfeeding mother my way was to feed her to sleep. My husband would hold her up on his shoulder and talk her to sleep. My mother would rock her to sleep and my father gentle pat her to sleep (we lived together with my parents for six months while my daughter was a baby).

When I started work these other ways worked but when I was home I continued to feed her to sleep. This was more for me than anyone else ? I loved the excuse of feeding the baby to getting help with all the other household chores! There is no better way to get my husband to help than saying. ?I?ve going to feed the baby now, could you take over making dinner? I?ll come and help once she?s asleep.?

Little babies don?t have habits ? they have needs. Can your baby go to sleep by herself now? If not then she already has the ?habit? of needing you to help her get to sleep. She may or may not still need your help as she gets older. But wait until it is a problem for you before you try to change things. Babies change as they grow. Just because she does something at three months there is no guarantee that she?ll do it at six or twelve months.

Do you know about the arm test for sleep? Lift the baby?s arm up ? if it is a dead weight and falls straight down ? then the baby is asleep. If there is any resistance then the baby is still awake (even if she looks asleep).

Don?t worry about worrying. It is part of the motherhood package ? we?d question whether or not you were really a mother if you didn?t worry. And remember worrying works ? almost everything you worry about doesn?t happen!
 
of course every mother worries. all i was saying was that it seems that poor fenno (sp?) is worrying about everything (which is perfectly normal for some mums) and by doing so, she might be missing the "good stuff" and the enjoyment that comes with being a first time mum. you will NEVER have this chance again. don't waste it all worrying about every little thing that comes along.

some mums tend to read too much. they read so much, they forget to follow their own instincts. a mother's instincts are very strong. try relying on them a little more and less on books. i dont' deny the help the many garner from reading books, but many people seem to forget that the baby HASN'T read any of the books. they are a living breathing little being and have wants just like the rest of us.

again, ENJOY your baby!
 
I have to agree with cara...I read a lot about caring for a baby before my son was born, only to use very little of it once he arrived!

And why? Because I found that what worked best for me and my son was relying on my instincts.

I think it is too easy to get bogged down in what the books say and what other people recomend....I found none of it worked with my son, where his sleeping was concerned, for example.

My son had to be breastfed to sleep for the first 9 mnths of his life, and only when he was weaned at ten mnths did he sleep through the night......but that was what he needed to do....people kept telling us to try this, to try that to try and get him to sleep by himself, and for longer periods....but none of it worked!

I went with my instincts and am so glad I did. Now at 17 mnths he sleeps for 12-13 hrs a night, and is a happy, happy toddler!

Once you start relying on and trusting your instincts they become stronger and stronger.
 
I think the best way to know if a baby is finished suckling for milk is to see if they are swallowing after sucking. Initially my baby (10 weeks old) will swallow after every suckle once the milk lets down. However, as he empties the breast it turns into one swallow every 3-5 suckles. If he sucks while asleep, sometimes he doesn't swallow for 10 or more suckles AND he takes little breaks between suckling. There are many websites with videos that will show you the signs of a baby that is really feeding and not comfort sucking. Make sure you are in a quite room so you can hear the swallow. My son sometimes falls asleep while latched and will wake up if I unlatch my breast but that is ONLY during the day. At night he seems to have no problems staying asleep. He usually sleeps form 7pm till 5am.
 
Asleep from 7pm till 5am at 10 weeks old. What a good boy! I'm so jealous. I still had to feed my bub once between 7am-7pm until she was weaned at 6 months.
 
There are videos on Dr. Jack Newman?s web site at http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml
which show babies drinking. Look under the heading of Latching.

You should be able to see the baby drinking in bouts of large, slow jaw movements. If the baby is doing shallow, rapid movements, which only move her lips and not the jaw, the baby is comfort sucking.

Remember that comfort sucking is also useful for the baby and helps she develop emotionally. But if your baby is doing a lot of comfort sucking and you need/want to do something else then it is fine to cut down on the amount the baby does.

It is also helpful to have the support of a second non-lactation adult (usually the baby?s father) around. One problem breastfeeding mothers have is that they smell of milk. So whenever the baby is a little disturbed (like when you are putting them down in a cot) they wake up a bit, smell the milk and naturally want some more - just like we think of eating cookies when we smell them fresh from the oven.

If the baby is full and tired but not asleep give her to the non-lactating adult ? who doesn?t smell of milk. Then the baby is much more likely to fall asleep (or play) with out asking for more milk.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
barbwong_130 said:
Can your baby go to sleep by herself now? If not then she already has the “habit” of needing you to help her get to sleep.
Click to expand...

Barbwong
wow! So nice to have a baby that is so flexi to fall asleep thru so many ways (rocking by grandma, patting by granddad). And yes, to your question, my gal CANNOT go to sleep by herself, she either needs rocking OR nursing at my breasts to go to ZZZ land.

bekyboo
my gal is sleeping from 9-ish to 5-6am now. We're lucky. But it's the "getting to sleep" part that worries me. When u weaned him off, how did he get to sleep? By himself?

Sarah
Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, when my gal is tired at night, she doesnt like my hubby to carry her...she'll be screaming no matter how my hubby comfort her. Dunno if it's the way he carries her. The only other non-lactation adult i have in my house is my mom, but that option is now out as she has injured her hand from carrying my bb, so doc has advised her not to do it anymore, so that left me.

Now, can u all understand how stressed up i am? It's not that i dont want to enjoy this journey of early motherhood, just that sometimes i'm too tired. Having said that, there are moments i look at her and jus melt. :)
 
barbwong
oh yes, regarding the "arm test". yes i've heard and also tried doing it before. However, even when i've done the test on my gal and it's all limp, i tot she's in deep sleep, but the minute i unlatch her, she's woken up. I guess i have a light sleeper in my household now...funny cos both hubby and i are not. *LOL*
 
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