cluster feeding?

i wasn't sure if this is what another poster was asking but i didn't want to ask my question in her question if it wasn't...

is cluster feeding a real term?  and when does a baby usually do this...  like during a growth spurt or something maybe?  my ds is 7 days old and has been eating an awful lot today!  he's still sleeping great though...  although he may have gas now so he might not sleep as well tonight!  i was just wondering if his eating that much today would be considered that or do newborns just do this?

[pertykitty]

yes its called cluster feeding (im not sure if its just in the evening though) when they eat and eat and eat and then they sleep more but i think 7 days is a bit early for that.  i think its just that you have a newborn and he is hungry lol.  anyway feed on demand and i hope he doesnt have a fussy night with a tummy problem :(

[meiram]

I always understood cluster feeding to mean they bunch up a few feedings in a short amount of time, mostly in the evening to prepare for not eating so much later.  For example, my daughter eats about every 3 hours until after 6:00 p, then it may be every hour or so until bedtime.  She has been doing that just about every day since she was about 6 weeks old.   Before that it was every hour or two all day long :)

[kennedydp5]

well, he ate like every 2 hours yesterday and then it seemed like last night he was latched on to me constantly before i upt him down for the night...  and then during the night i set my alarm to feed him and i swear he only ate for like 10 minutes on one side and then like 3 minutes on the other and didn't want anymore.  then dh messed up my alarm and i ended up sleeping for 4 hours.  i woke up about an hour ago and woke him up to feed him and he only ate for like not even 10 minutes on one side again and then didn't want anymore and i tried putting him on the other side and he did the same thing!  i now i should be happy that he wants to sleep so good at night but w/ me trying to be successful at breastfeeding this time i want him to wake up and eat and i don't want my breasts to get too full and hurt like they did when we woke up a little while ago b/c of going 4 hours instead of teh usual 2-3.

so then they don't cluster feed in the beginning at all for any reason and its just him being a newborn?  i was wondering if it was him trying to bring more milk or something...