Cluster feeds
Show your support
@Danielle this! It doesn’t help that for two nights now he’s gone straight from 1am to about 7/8am straight sleep so he’s trying to catch up on that during the day while also just being a normal baby and being hungry 😭 my partner has physically sent me to bed so I can just chill as I was getting so worked up 😭
About the cracked nipples, my boy was in intensive care for the first week of his life so I had to pump in hospital, hospital pumps are MEAN and occasionally my son would also feed from me to learn how to latch and such properly, Long story short by week two my nipples where f**ked, scabbed and bleeding, I ended up ordering some silver nipple shields and in about 3 days my nips where healed and feeding was no longer making me wince, was sceptical but the results speak for themselves, the ones I have are the Koala Care nipple shields x
Olive oil on them and air those nipples out! It'll help I promise!
@issy even pre cluster feeding I only get 3 hour stretches max! It’s so overwhelming though I felt very touched out
Hang in there, you are doing a great job and it does start to get easier around 6 weeks! You can try silver nipple shields to heal and your own breastmilk. However you need to look at why your nipples are cracked - has baby been assessed for tongue tie? And has anyone checked your latch?
The cracking will stop just hang in there and try side lying so you can get some rest!!
You’re doing great, this is very important for your supply, use dummy but dont abuse it. It’ll pass. Babies can cluster feed whenever they go through a spurt and their milk intake needs to increase, this is the only way they can tell our bodies to keep up ♥️
Week 2 was the week I bought nipple balm, Coconut oil and silver nipple shield things. It was sooo painful, but I didn't touch the balms/covers after about a week. It'll was definitely the hardest week of them all (and baby was tongue tied until 4mo). If it's something you really want to do, persevere through because it really does get easier. I'm pretty sure my nipples are never gonna feel pain again, I say as my 10mo hangs off them while doing yoga and looking around 😂 The silver nipple shields were lifesavers though, I'd highly recommend.
My first was like this - he was a huge hungry boy. Feeding allllllll the time, so regularly and so long. On the boob all day and night with very little time spent de latched. Caused a lot of pain for me. Lanolin or silverettes helped a bit. It’s gruelling but keep it up and fight through if you can - breastfeeding will get easier in the coming months and it will be worth it, speaking from my experience. You are a STRONG mama 💜💜
Cluster feeding feels like it will never stop- but it does get easier, even if it doesn’t feel that way now. My daughter had a tongue tie so feeding was incredibly painful at the start. Lansinoh nipple balm was a life saver. You can also get hot/cold relief beaded pads which you can put in your bra to help engorgement and sore nipples. I think for us, cluster feeding was at its worse between 2 and 5 weeks, and gradually reduced and stopped at around 8 weeks (there have been periods since where she’s fed a lot more, but nowhere near as much as the early cluster feeds). If you decide breastfeeding isn’t for you, that’s also fine! Personally, I don’t think I really appreciated just how tough breastfeeding is until I started.
My little one is 16 days old, we had two nights of awful cluster feeding (days13/14) It was constant and there was no break at all. I completely get it, it’ll pass and become easier. I know it doesn’t help right now but hugs!