diff --git a/sqlx-postgres/src/connection/stream.rs b/sqlx-postgres/src/connection/stream.rs
index 7559cb4f..59d8f878 100644
--- a/sqlx-postgres/src/connection/stream.rs
+++ b/sqlx-postgres/src/connection/stream.rs
@@ -53,13 +53,14 @@ macro_rules! read_packet {
         loop {
             read_packet!($(@$blocking)? @stream $self, 0, 5);
 
-            let mut header: Bytes = $self.stream.take(5);
+            // peek at the messaage type and payload size
+            let r#type = MessageType::try_from(*$self.stream.get(0,1))?;
+            let size = (u32::from_le_bytes($self.stream.get(1,4)) - 4) as usize;
 
-            let r#type = MessageType::try_from(header.get_u8())?;
-            let size = (header.get_u32() - 4) as usize;
-
-            read_packet!($(@$blocking)? @stream $self, 4, size);
+            read_packet!($(@$blocking)? @stream $self, 5, size);
 
+            // take the whole packet
+            let header   = $self.stream.take(5);
             let contents = $self.stream.take(size);
 
             let message = Message { r#type, contents };