u/DJ_Crybaby

Feeling discouraged! My daughter is 4 weeks old and will currently only sleep for 30 minute - 1 hour stretches at a time overnight in her Moses basket next to our bed. This means we’re having very fragmented nights and as I’m exclusively breast feeding (no expressing or bottles yet), I’m not getting much restorative, joined up sleep.

She happily sleeps for up to three hours at a time in our arms for contact naps during the day but won’t manage longer when separated from us.

We’ve had a few comments this week (including from a midwife) that have made me think this is especially ‘bad’ and she should be managing longer.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

My daughter is three weeks old today and I’ve been exclusively breast feeding. I feel we’ve had a positive start to this journey - she seemingly latches well and I have a good supply, she regained her birth weight without issue and nappies are consistently as expected.

Three weeks in, I’m starting to get some nipple pain when she’s cluster feeding. No cracks or bleeding but they definitely are sore and it can feel overwhelming. The tiredness is also catching up on me and I really struggle to stay awake for night feeds. My husband has suggested we should explore a plan for introducing bottle feeding so it’s not all on me but I don’t feel I’ve had much support, a quick glance at my daughter’s latch at our day 5 appointment and that’s it, so I don’t really know how to do that.

When did you introduce a bottle or start pumping / collecting let down? I really want to stick with exclusively breast feeding but does the actually mean no bottles at all or just no formula? It would really help to have some insight from other parents as I just don’t feel very informed.