How long?

jillychris

My first few weeks BF were awful. Turns out LO had tongue tie. I've been EP the last week or so since finding out to avoid further damage to my nipples. Procedure was done yesterday and LO went right back to the breast, no problems.

How long should she be feeding though? The first few weeks she was nursing for more than 30 minutes on both side and then obviously still hungry. What's normal? Yesterday and today I'll put her on for about 15-20 minutes and then offer her the other side? Is this typical? She is a baby that loves to suck to soothe herself, so I'm not sure if she's still sucking to eat or just sucking to suck?

TJ1979

It really varies from baby to baby and depending on age. E takes anywhere from 15 minutes total when I drop her off at DC to 45 minutes before bed. I know the longer sessions are a lot of comfort sucking. I would say for the most part, she averages around 15 minutes per side now, whereas up until 12 weeks it took her a full hour to nurse. Not a lot of help, sorry.

jillychris

TJ1979:

It really varies from baby to baby and depending on age. E takes anywhere from 15 minutes total when I drop her off at DC to 45 minutes before bed. I know the longer sessions are a lot of comfort sucking. I would say for the most part, she averages around 15 minutes per side now, whereas up until 12 weeks it took her a full hour to nurse. Not a lot of help, sorry.

 

I'm just having trouble knowing when she's done. Today I unlatched her ,and she immediately fell asleep on my chest, with milk drooling down her face. I took that as a sign she was done!!  Not always that easy. I'm going back to the LC tomorrow to do a weighed feeding, so that will make me feel better once I know what she's getting. As much as the pumping and feeding through a bottle sucked it was nice to know exactly what she was getting each time!

pb_bride

I agree every baby is different.  I'm still trying to figure out my LO!  The last several days he spends about 15-20 mins on first breast, though sometimes it is 15 mins of active sucking & swallowing, sometimes it is 5 mins of sucking/swallowing + 10 mins of napping!  For the second breast, it varies a lot... sometimes it's <10 minutes, sometimes it is as long as the first breast.

Since my LO doesn't unlatch himself most of the time, I will unlatch him if he doesn't do any active swallowing (but he'll still comfort suck).  Then I get him up to burp.  If he's still hungry, he'll wake up immediately and start rooting, so I know to put him back on the breast.  

Since my LO falls asleep at the breast a lot, sometimes I'll do a diaper change after he's done on one side.  That wakes him up and I'll offer him the other side.