Nursing question

angelsnight

LO wouldn't latch, so after several unsuccessful tries I gave up and she was bottle fed.  If we ever have another, I am not sure if I would even attempt nursing again because of what I've read on here, so just looking for a little education on it.

When LO was a newborn she ate 2 ounces every two hours, so I'd give her a bottle and she was good to go for another two hours.  But I read many posts from women who nursed who said their baby was on the boob round the clock, they never got any sleep, etc.  So this kind of has me scared from even trying next time.  Why the difference?  Was it comfort nursing?  What is the equivalent of comfort nursing for bottle fed babies, a paci?  My LO never would take a paci until about 3 months and she was sleeping through the night by 2-3 months so I'm just a little confused by it all.

Is it possible to just nurse for 20 minutes or whatever and then be done till the next feeding?

katka512

FarmBoysWife said:

The first two months you are establishing supply. There are a combo of things going on.

First- pacifier- they are comfort nursing for some of it. But being that paci builds supply. So literally first 6 weeks with Ethan I sat on my sofa and nursed.

Second- they have small stomachs and need to nurse frequently for this.

Third- they nurse slow- Ethan can do an ounce in 2 min or less, but when he was a new born an ounce took an hour. It takes time to build the muscles to get that time down.

Combine those three and you wind up on the sofa except to pee and eat.

With James he had no issues with sttn but Ethan does. The whole "up all hours" thing is dependent on the child.

Yes, all of this. LO also frequently fell asleep nursing so I'd hang out and enjoy the snuggles while she slept.
My LO also STTN very early on, so not all breastfed babies are up every few hours for months and months. And not all formula fed babies STTN within a few weeks or months.

MeggsM

Gotta say the first 8 weeks were a lot of nursing pretty much round the clock but she slept 6 hrs at about 8 weeks. She rarely comfort nurses unless she had a really bad night and she only cluster fed a few times. I found the comfort nursing great for her and I - if she's having a really bad night or whatever I know that I can nurse her to comfort her when nothing else helps. She has used a paci since day 1 only to help settle for sleep

I have a friend who Ff her first and tried to bf her second. She had a few problems and had to pump (like I did) and found it too frustrating with a 4 year old so went to ff last week. This week her daughter was diagnosed with a tongue tie (which my LO had) thus making nursin difficult. But she was glad she tried as it was something she always wanted to do.

Pearlvirus

I was just thinking the opposite the other day! I don't know how you bottle feeders do it. There are some times when she gets so worked up and nothing will calm her except nursing. I don't think I'd want to go without that failsafe if I didn't have to.

angelsnight

Thanks all, good info.  I guess I'll decide if we're even going to have another before I decide if I'll try nursing again.  But it's good to know it's an individual experience.

huskymomma94

I think they are all different. Both of my boys have been speedy nursers pretty much from the beginning. Christian now at 6 months takes about 10 minutes to nurse every 4 hours or so.  

Hdhtk4

Definitely just depends on the baby. My LO never nursed super often. She was also a sleepyhead though and we had to wake her up every 3 hours to eat throughout the day because she wouldn't wake up on her own. In the beginning a nursing session was 45 minutes because LO couldn't completely figure out the nursing thing for the first 2 months. After she got it figured out, nursing sessions were 20 minutes. Now we're down to 10. She has slept through the night since 6 weeks, so breastfeeding did not affect that.

memo9

My babies nursed very frequently for the first week, but not for long durations.  Both of them only ate one side and for no longer than 10 minutes a feeding starting very early. 

dancer7889

We had to use a nipple shield and it took 5 months to wean her off it. She'd nurse for 30-45 minutes at a time, which slowly got quicker, but once off it, she can eat in 5-10 minutes. She comfort nursed some as a newborn, but only a couple times a day if that, so when she was done eating, she was off the boob. She did take a paci easily which might have affected that. I never really felt "tied down" due to breastfeeding. Overnight she ate at 12, 4, and 8 right from the get go (she did that herself) and she'd immediately go back to sleep so overnight was pretty easy for us