Did I just dry up?

[@llli*apifera]

I can't seem to go a few days without needing to ask for help here!

Last night my son nursed for eight hours straight.

In the beginning he seemed somewhat satisfied. He didn't burp and he didn't seem to be getting full, but he did spit up occasionally. But he kept demanding to eat and couldn't drift off. He kept getting more and more frantic as the night went on... began slapping and clawing at me and popping off and on. I stopped seeing evidence he was getting anything and he couldn't sleep- was wide eyed and got more and more frantic. Finally around two am I was in tears and just coudn't figure out what was wrong and DH took him and he passed out eventually... again this morning he doesn't seem satisfied, won't stay latched and refuses the nipple like he has no idea what to do with it. The slapping and clawing is SO FRUSTRATING.

He pooped and peed a lot all night. Had a poopy diaper this morning and just pooped again but he doesn't seem SATISFIED. Plus he grunts and groans and strains over god knows what nearly CONSTANTLY like he's frustrated and straining. He's on zantac for reflux.

Did I dry up yesterday? I do't understand what's going on.. we worked so hard to get here and now to just dry up like that would devastate me

[@llli*auderey]

NO mama, you did not just spontaneoulsy dry up yesterday. think about how ridiculous that sounds from a biological perspective - milk does not spontaneoulsy dry up for no reason, or babies would not survive.

it sounds a lot more like normal newborn behavior. frustrating, for sure, but normal. maybe a growth spurt.

many babies never burp or spit up (mine didn't). most babies go through nights like this (mine did). pooping and peeing all night means he WAS getting milk. keep him on the breast all day today as much as he wants, keep yourself hydrated & nourished, and you'll be fine. get a TV show or book you like to while away the time you're going to spend nursing.

edited to add: it is also never too early to teach polite nursing behavior. my LLL leader told me that nursing is hte very first thing we ever teach our babies, and so it's ok, even necessary, to keep taking them off and putting them back on with a better latch. i think the same thing applies to the clawing & scratching. obviously a little baby is not really aware of what it's doing but you can restrain the arms and do other very gentle behavioral cues about the things that drive you nuts.

[@llli*sprocket]

I am not the expert that some of the other mamas here are, and I'm sure others will chime in but I wanted to quickly reassure you that you almost certainly did not completely lose your milk supply just like that. You can't really dry up over night, it doesn't work like that. And, if your baby is pooping and peeing (and spitting up for that matter), he's getting milk, period. He can't produce those kinds of outputs without input.

I don't have a lot of advice but in my experience the best thing you can do while you try to figure out what is going on with him (or while you wait out this frustrating time--it may just be a passing thing) is just keep him close and offer him the breast as much as possible. IF in fact he's not getting as much milk as he'd like, there is no better way to increase your supply than to try to get him to nurse as much as possible. Unless there is something you didn't mention that you think could have impacted your supply (hormonal birth control, not nursing on demand, supplementing, etc) I would say you're definitely making milk and lots of it. When you say your baby pooped and peed a lot last night through his seeming unsatisfying nursing marathon, that makes me think he was getting plenty of milk.

How old is your baby? How has his weight been until now?

[@llli*apifera]

His gain has been great. He's 7 weeks today.

I did EP for a month but now he's EBF on demand. He eats every hour around the clock, occasionally going 2... no BC and nothing else I could think of that would ruin supply.

I'm going in for my PP this morning actually... but I will BF him for the rest of the day.

Thanks for that point Auderey... I KNOW he's not being a butthead but I wouldn't take that kind of behavior from an older baby! I have scratches all over my chest!

[@llli*sonogirl]

I used to gently hold the scratchy/punchy hands to keep from getting dug up. Or put my hand up if she was smacking my breast to catch it as a high-five. The scratching and punching behavior was always the worst during growth spurts for us!

[@llli*mommal]

Any chance that he's not feeling well? Or that maybe he went through his 6 week growth spurt and outgrew his dose of Zantac?

[@llli*apifera]

That's a good question. He was a little better today. I'm starting to wonder if he doesn't get as full from laying down because he's been doing better when I tank him up sitting up in the cross hold today.