Week 4 Postpartum: Cluster feeding and 3 weeks growth spurts

Monday, July 29th~Sunday August 4th

The week started of good with baby sleeping 4 hours at a time at night and moderately during the day. She wasn't too fussy and I could do some household chores while watching her in the kitchen.

Unfortunately this did not last long. From around 4pm on she wanted to get fed ever hour. I didn't think much of it yet as feedings were still short and it didn't bother me much. I was also still well rested from the 4 hours continuous sleep I got that night. 

We went for our usual walk that evening and I washed her face with a washcloth afterwards. She still had a lot of baby acne, but the white spots on her forehead started to disappear. I was hoping the baby acne would disappear soon too. I read that putting  breastmilk  on it could help, so I tried rubbing some in it whenever she was feeding.

When we went to bed at around 9 pm she started to get extremely fussy and wanted to drink constantly. My husband was watching her so I could sleep, but since she wanted to feed ever 40 minutes I took her with me to the bedroom.
Around Midnight she finally got tired and fell asleep. She thankfully slept for four hours straight again. She just woke up to feed, fell asleep and slept for another two and a half hours and then another three hours. 

Tuesday went by without any bigger issues.
She still had very short feeding spans, but as long as she was sleeping well at night it wasn't too bad.

Wednesday was when it started to get really bad. After sleeping 4 hours the last couple days that night the longest she would sleep was two hours. And once she woke up it was hard getting her back to sleep. She would move her arms and legs and cry as soon as I put her down. My husband had to help me out taking care of her at night, because I was so exhausted I fell asleep holding her.
I eventually had to put her next to me in my bed to calm her down. I fell asleep like that and when I woke up she was still next to me.
I noticed how dangerous that was (my mattress is really soft and she could have suffocated) and promised myself to never let myself get that tired again.

Things did not improve during the day. She constantly wanted to feed (at least every hour) and when she wasn't drinking she was crying for no reason. She wouldn't even calm down when we were holding her.
It was a really tough day mentally. 
I read online that babies go through growth spurts at around three weeks, so I assumed that she was cluster feeding to increase my milk supply. She also started to feed significantly longer than usual. While before she was drinking less than 10 minutes per feed she started drinking up to 15 minutes and also sometimes drank from both sides.

I went to bed with no expectations for it to get better, but after having the worst day on Wednesday, we had the best day so far in Thursday. As soon as the clock showed midnight baby fell asleep and slept for four hours, then another three and another three!
I got the longest sleep so far after giving birth.

During the day she also mainly slept. It went so far that I was considering waking her up every two hours to feed. I was scared that she wouldn't sleep at night when she was sleeping so much during the day. In the end I let her sleep though and enjoyed the me time. I would deal with her fussiness later. She continued sleeping during the day and woke up every 2 hours or so to feed. Feeding time is still very long for her (around 15 minutes per feed).

I would be proven right about my fear of her not being able to sleep at night. The night from Thursday to Friday the most she slept was a two hour span and she woke up frequently to poop. She tends to get very fussy when she has to poop. I helped her get everything out by moving her legs and pushing them up to her chest.  I also massaged her stomach. It made her feel better and eventually she would fall asleep again, but it took an hour every time she wake up to get her back to sleep.

On Friday we did our first trip outside to a shopping mall, because I needed to take pictures for my new passport.
I was worried that she would cry or get hungry, but she was mainly sleeping the whole time. It took us about an hour to get back. 
It felt really good mentally to get out of the house again. I was really looking forward for her to get bigger, so that we could go out more.

I had pumped some milk before leaving, just in case, but we hadn't needed it. I gave it to my husband to feed her when she got hungry and went to bed to get a nap. Unfortunately even with the bottle she wouldn't calm down and wanted to drink more soon after. She continued to be fussy for a bit, but she slept for a while in the evening, so I could eat and have a shower in peace. We also went for a walk with her  where she was mainly awake, but quiet.

The longest she slept that night again was  two and a half hours. She continued to feed around every two hours that day with a three hour nap during lunch time. We only 12 feedings that day which was better than the usual 14.
In the evening I went for a walk with her and we gave her a bath.
Her skin had cleared up a lot compared to the days before. I had rubbed breastmilk on her acne the day before after every feed after reading that it helps online. It seemed to have worked. She also started to get cradle cap, so I decided to put breastmilk on that too.

After the bath my husband took care of the baby, so that I could get some sleep.
He brought her to me once two hours later to feed. After that she had the longest sleep yet, with almost 5 hours!
Unfortunately after she woke up it was back to feeding every hour again. In between feeds she would fuss and cry. She would always try to turn onto her side and if that didn't work (which 90% it did not) get frustrated and start to scream. I was reading online about reasons for babies arching their back like that and I was thinking that either she was gassy or had acid reflux, but I didn't know what to do to help her. I was feeling really helpless.

The fussiness continued into the evening with her only longer period being quiet when her grandpa held her and when we went for a walk. She was only sleeping really short periods in between, even though she must have been tired. I really didn't know what to do to calm her. The only thing that kept her quiet for a few minutes was my boob. I started to wonder again if my supply was not enough and she was just hungry, but she was pooing and peeing sooo much that it was unlikely she didn't eat enough. She also felt significantly heavier.
That night I had to get help from my husband, because I was so exhausted from trying to calm her down. We both tried, but nothing worked. Every time we would lay her down she would scream. She was also comfort feeding a lot.
Eventually around 1pm she would calm down enough to fall asleep, but she would wake up again every hour to feed. I fed her so much that my nipples started to hurt again.

That night I barely got any sleep, but surprisingly I was in a good mood in the morning. Probably because baby was sleeping and there was no screaming.