My two babies are 4 weeks old today. Over the last few days, they have changed from going 3-4hrly during their day feeds to 2hrly feeds in the afternoon and evening, until I give them a bottle (cos I feel so drained) and finally they sleep, usually for about 5hrs. We have had some nights where they go 5 or 6hrly on a breast feed. I am not sure why they suddenly need feeding so frequently. Nothing has changed in me and the feeding just keeps going on and on. It is really hard with my other two kids, having to do pick ups from childcare, cook dinner, etc.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this? Surely it isnt a growth spurt with this kind of pattern...

It is called cluster feeding. There is heaps of information on it online. It becomes far less stressfull when you recognise it is happening and just go with the flow.

Mine used to do it from about 3pm to 8pm- about evry 1.5 hrs

At about 9w old (2w corrected) my girls fed every 90 minutes around the clock. It almost pushed me over the edge but just as I was about to hit the wall they stretched out again. We did still have the cluster feeding of an evening but that seemed so much more bearable lol.

Hang in there. It is sooo draining.

Hey LM

My girls usually feed around 2pm, 5pm and 7pm, and drink a lot at that time (they are 17 weeks now). This was the same with DD2 as well, and I go with it, I figure I'm tanking them up for the night-time. Having said that, there feeds are only 5 or so minutes long, so it doesn't take too much time. Otherwise they generally feed every 3-4 hours during the day.

Night-time is so random. They can sleep from 5 hours to 9 hours without waking for a feed. Generally around 6-7 though.


I hope you have a bit of help to get you through!

Cheers
Michelle

Thanks for the input everyone. My other two did cluster feed but it was only 1 'extra' feed

Bec, it was def draining yesterday as DH was packing to go away for the week, DS1 was sick, and I have some stupid cold that is driving me nuts.

Michelle, I am envious of how fast your two feed. We take about 20-30 mins per baby. I am hoping soon we get into a better routine so it makes it easy for drop offs/ pick ups etc with the other two kids.

I have also watched the Dunstan Baby language CDs today as I am not sure they really are hungry. Today they have gone better:
4am, 730am, 1130am, 3pm, 530pm (just as dinner was served) and it's now 8 and they are still asleep (though DD has had to be resettled a few times with wind). Now just gotta hope it doesnt affect the long stretch that I usually get after this next feed.