Cluster Nursers--survival of the fittest - Page 2 « Back to Group Discussions

[CDsMom1031]

Originally Posted by Code Name Mama 

For the past few days Ailia has been cluster nursing. The bad part (other than my aching back) is that she gets SO SUPER frustrated - because, you know, after she nurses for hours, there's not a lot of milk. Go figure. So on top of her switching back and forth from side to side, she's snorting and fussing and I'm trying to bounce her and soothe her. Blah.

Conner does the same thing. As if my nipples didn't hurt bad enough, he's ripping and pulling on them because he sucked them dry. LOL

[Abraisme]

Coralie has been doing the same thing.  She doesn't do too much crying, but I have to nurse her, burp her, walk a bit, start over for hours in the evening.  Last night I was starting to get sore for the 5 hours of straight nursing...
 

Originally Posted by Code Name Mama 

For the past few days Ailia has been cluster nursing. The bad part (other than my aching back) is that she gets SO SUPER frustrated - because, you know, after she nurses for hours, there's not a lot of milk. Go figure. So on top of her switching back and forth from side to side, she's snorting and fussing and I'm trying to bounce her and soothe her. Blah.

[CDsMom1031]

Originally Posted by Abraisme 

Coralie has been doing the same thing.  She doesn't do too much crying, but I have to nurse her, burp her, walk a bit, start over for hours in the evening.  Last night I was starting to get sore for the 5 hours of straight nursing...

Yup. And once I get frustrated, Conner senses it and gets frustrated with me... Making it even worse. Scream, nurse, walk, rock, burp, sing, scream, nurse, walk, rock, burp, sing, scream, nurse, walk, rock, burp, sing, scream, scream, scream, scream, scream, pass out. There's a whole lot of, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT, CONNER!" thrown in there, too.

[jill the pill]

Audrey nursed all day yesterday...she only took a few 15 minute cat naps.  I was up with her until 3am and she finally fell asleep.  She's pretty much been sleeping ever since and it is 1pm now.  Trouble is she's only eaten a little bit twice today and my boobs are so engorged!  Is this normal after such a feeding frenzy for her to sleep so much?  Should I wake her up and try to feed her?

[Code Name Mama]

Originally Posted by TTCChloeOrConner 


There's a whole lot of, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT, CONNER!" thrown in there, too.

also "I don't know how to help you!!"

[Motivated Mama]

I am anxiously waiting for K to wake up. Yesterday she only took 2 - 1 hour naps that were not on the breast and spent most of the afternoon and evening attached to me. I keep thinking it's a growth spurt, but now I'm starting to think it's just a late afternoon evening type thing for her to cluster. Must be because I have less milk then? Seems like the intervals between nursing get shorter and shorter throughout the day until they're practical non-existent and then out-like-a-light and start over.

[seraf]

I'm happy to report that 6 weeks was a magical milestone.  We're getting more smiles, longer naps, longer awake times and more efficient nursing.  So less clustering.

Originally Posted by Motivated Mama 

I am anxiously waiting for K to wake up. Yesterday she only took 2 - 1 hour naps that were not on the breast and spent most of the afternoon and evening attached to me. I keep thinking it's a growth spurt, but now I'm starting to think it's just a late afternoon evening type thing for her to cluster. Must be because I have less milk then? Seems like the intervals between nursing get shorter and shorter throughout the day until they're practical non-existent and then out-like-a-light and start over.

I sure have less milk then.  Its the only time of day I feel empty, but I know he's still getting milk because he still spits up.

[Abraisme]

I have less milk then too.  I'm pretty sure it's because she nurses every 15 minutes at night.
 

Originally Posted by seraf 

I'm happy to report that 6 weeks was a magical milestone.  We're getting more smiles, longer naps, longer awake times and more efficient nursing.  So less clustering.

I sure have less milk then.  Its the only time of day I feel empty, but I know he's still getting milk because he still spits up.

[KayPea]

Originally Posted by jill the pill 

Audrey nursed all day yesterday...she only took a few 15 minute cat naps.  I was up with her until 3am and she finally fell asleep.  She's pretty much been sleeping ever since and it is 1pm now.  Trouble is she's only eaten a little bit twice today and my boobs are so engorged!  Is this normal after such a feeding frenzy for her to sleep so much?  Should I wake her up and try to feed her?

This sounds exactly like a growth spurt. Crazy non-stop eating, then a whole bunch of extra sleeping. Apparently it's during the sleeping phase of the spurt that they actually do their growing...

[xakana]

Water cup on hand and netflix available. Only Kat doesn't cluster anymore quite as much as she marathon nurses O_O She does a mix of both, though. I just can't stand when it happens in bed--I can deal with it if I can distract myself, but if my body is desperately trying to get back to sleep and she won't stay asleep, I start getting cranky and have a harder time dealing with it.

[Code Name Mama]

Originally Posted by xakana 

I just can't stand when it happens in bed--I can deal with it if I can distract myself, but if my body is desperately trying to get back to sleep and she won't stay asleep, I start getting cranky and have a harder time dealing with it.

Me too mama!! Last night I was using sarcasm on my 3wk old: "oh look! it's time for bed! mama is sleepy, that must mean it's time for you to wake up and not only demand to nurse, but to demand to nurse only while i am walking around or standing and bouncing you."

[xakana]

Kat wants to be lying down to nurse if we're home. Thankfully, she will accept sitting when we're out, but like I was saying yesterday, I can't do the standing/walking nursing and I'm jealous--I'm sure she'd love it, but we can't even do upright nursing unless I grow two more hands! lol

[CDsMom1031]

Here we go again... It's been 2 1/2 hours...

[CDsMom1031]

Still going, 10 minutes of sleep, 10 minutes of eat...

[birdhappy85]

Going on 5 hours of nursing over here... I've barely had a few 5 minute breaks this whole time. I don't see an end in sight. Baby won't let DH hold her without crying in his arms. She only wants mommy. All of this nursing has made for a lot of diaper changes! I'll be doing diaper laundry overnight. *sigh*

[CDsMom1031]

Originally Posted by birdhappy85 

Going on 5 hours of nursing over here... I've barely had a few 5 minute breaks this whole time. I don't see an end in sight. Baby won't let DH hold her without crying in his arms. She only wants mommy. All of this nursing has made for a lot of diaper changes! I'll be doing diaper laundry overnight. *sigh*

It will eventually end. I promise.

BTW, nice Thanksgiving baby! I've got the Halloween baby over here.

[KayPea]

nak. Sounds like a growth spurt. Is she approaching 6 weeks? You'll know it's a growth spurt if she has a day where she sleeps more than usual (that's when the actual growing happens.) The 6 week growth spurt is a big one - developmental and physical. So it typically lasts a bit longer and involves more screaming. Oren's 6-week growth spurt lasted 5 days, and it was nursing non-stop, and screaming if he wasn't nursing or sleeping. And normally he's pretty mellow. Hopefully this is the case with Sora too!
 

ETA - and it started when he was 5.5 weeks.

Originally Posted by birdhappy85 

Going on 5 hours of nursing over here... I've barely had a few 5 minute breaks this whole time. I don't see an end in sight. Baby won't let DH hold her without crying in his arms. She only wants mommy. All of this nursing has made for a lot of diaper changes! I'll be doing diaper laundry overnight. *sigh*

[mommy2sage]

It has been 4 days of what feels like non stop nursing (except for the two 3 hour sleep breaks at night).  My breasts are so empty and we are both frustrated.  I feel so bad when he unlatches and looks up at me with his pitiful little frown.  This has got to end soon.  I am just so exhausted and it does not help that I have a cold for weeks now.

[birdhappy85]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KayPea 

nak. Sounds like a growth spurt. Is she approaching 6 weeks? You'll know it's a growth spurt if she has a day where she sleeps more than usual (that's when the actual growing happens.) The 6 week growth spurt is a big one - developmental and physical. So it typically lasts a bit longer and involves more screaming. Oren's 6-week growth spurt lasted 5 days, and it was nursing non-stop, and screaming if he wasn't nursing or sleeping. And normally he's pretty mellow. Hopefully this is the case with Sora too!
 

ETA - and it started when he was 5.5 weeks.

Yep, my baby will be 6 weeks in a few days. Must be a growth spurt. I tell my DH every morning how much bigger she looks, lol. It's amazing how fast these babies grow! I hope the next growth spurt isn't for a while once we get past this one?