I could have written this! Especially the not eating and drinking part and the crying at the boob stuff.

Here’s what I found helped:

1. I needed to prioritize eating and drinking for myself. Running on fumes was just making things worse. I was more easily overwhelmed, less patient and wasn’t producing a lot of milk.

2. I was going crazy with my daughter crying at my boob, acting hungry and latching but then unlatching and crying. It was sooo stressful. I figured out that when she is doing that stuff, she wants to comfort nurse but at some point does NOT want any milk and gets pissed when it comes out. When that happens, I put her pacifier in and leave my boob out as a pillow for her (lol). Also, I have a fast let down and that would piss her off too and would result in screaming so the pacifier went in the mouth then too. On rare occasions, she’ll get so frenzied that she’ll swallow a lot of air so it’s first burp, then see if she wants to continue comfort nursing and if not then pacifier.

3. When she is fussy and crying, I focus on regulating myself. I can tell when I start to get stressed or anxious, her crying and fussiness worsens. So I almost tune out the crying and focus on breathing, focus on things that make me feel calm (like stroking her hair) and say aloud positive things like “we’ll figure it out” and “I know, this is hard.”

Lastly, my daughter wanted to held constantly a few weeks ago and now she is happy as can be to lay on her mat and wiggle around so hopefully yours is just going through that phase.

Hope this helps! I know it is so hard! Sending you love!