Sleeping too much and feeding too little?

[brightcindy]

My baby boy is now 9-weeks old - he has a rather funny sleeping/feeding pattern. Like last week, towards the eveniing he would become completely fussy and refuse to sleep for a long stretch - waking up may be every 30 minutes and was very clingy. This left us rather exhausted. We first thought that it may be because his dad loves to play with him at 10pm and he got over-stimulated, so we stopped doing that after 4 days and starting from the 5th day he miraculously (almost) slept through the night. However he could go without feed for 8+ hours and we start to get worried about his feeding pattern. Up till now he's only taking 100-120ml of breastmilk (I usually pump everything out cos it's really inefficient to feed from breast) per 4 hours - at 9 weeks isn't this amount too little? I don't have a weight at home so I cannot tell if he has gained weight after the last visit to the doctor, but when I hold him I can tell that there isn't much of a difference in weight. We are worried because he's taking about the same, if not less, amount of milk as compared to his newborn days (he had a good weight gain for his 1st month). Anyone had similar experience?

 

[carang]

1) why do you think it is inefficient to feed from the breast? you actually produce A LOT more milk than can be pumped! if he fed directly from the breast, he would most likely get more milk. (my opinion)

2) for me, i NEVER woke up my kids to feed them. i let them sleep. i always figured that they would wake when they were hungry. this is even though both of my kids were only in the 2% when they were born (one was 2.5kg and they other was 2.47kg).

3) you are right, if your husband is playing with the baby so late at night, it won't take much for your babies internal clock (which is just starting to be developed) to get all messed up.

4) most newborns feed more often than every 4 hours. if you feed more often, baby will more than likely put on more weight.

5) how many wet/dirty nappies are you getting in a day?

6) if you are unsure of how much weight baby has put on, then take her to a well-baby clinic...they wll weigh baby for you.

 

[yonge]

Congratulations! What a great baby to sleep through so much. Enjoy it while it lasts, because it may not!

I pretty much agree with Cara on all points. I will also add that it's good exercise for your baby to drink milk from you instead of the bottle. Once those cheek muscles are developed, he'll be able to drink much more quickly from you instead of being limited by the teat at the bottle, usually by about 12-14 weeks.

My local MCHC knew to expect me just about every week to weigh my first baby. They're really great, so just make an appointment over the phone.

 

[brightcindy]

Thanks Cara and Yonge. The reason why I resorted to bottle feeding is that my baby would feed for 5 (or if I am lucky, 10) minutes any one time and then get either drowsy (and I tickle him, burp him, change his diapers...nothing wakes him up) or will just stop taking milk with his eyes wide open. So I will put him down and 30-50 minutes later, he asks for more milk... at first I thought in order to pump up my supply of milk, I would do anything...and then exhaustion kicks in and my baby seems not to be content at all. When he was a newborn, he was able to at least stay on the breast for 20 minutes. Now he cannot... and I don't know why. Is it too late at this stage to get a lactation consultant?

If I feed more often - would he take in more milk? What I am seeing now is after the 100ml (or sometimes, 120ml) mark, he will stop automatically and not take any more milk.

In terms of diapers: he's getting 2-4 dirty ones (with 2 of them being majorly dirty like mudslide), and pretty much 6-8 wet ones. But since he's taking less milk now, he's actually producing less soaking wet diapers.

 

[carang]

well, sounds to me like he's having the right number of diapers which suggests he's getting enough milk.

as babies get older, they become more proficient at sucking. they won't take as long at the breast as they did when they were first born. my two rarely took more than 10 minutes per feed (never mind per breast!).

your baby is still VERY young. my second used to feed every 2 hours until she was about 12-15 weeks old. (every 2 hours is from start of feed to start of feed, so even there it doesn't seem like your baby is too far off.)

pumping instead of feeding directly WILL NOT increase your supply, if anything, it could decrease it.

never too late for a lactation consultant. it might be a good idea.

 

[LeahH]

Agree with Cara, maybe see a lactation consultant and get him weighed - just to put your mind at rest.

My son only ever took 120mls max from a bottle reach time (no idea what he was getting from BF) but his weight was always fine so I didn't worry.

Also, the composition of your milk changes and becomes richer as the bub get's older (whether BF or pumping) - so the quantity does not need to actually increase over time.