Baby breastfeeding for 1-1.5 hours at a time.

nicholemhughes · January 2013

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. He's 8 days old and his diaper counts are fine. It's just a LONG time to be feeding. The last two days have been the worst. He will fall asleep at the breast after about an hour and then when I set him down to sleep, he will wake up in another couple of minutes and want to be fed again. I know hes hungry because he will suck on his finger and search for a nipple. PLEASE tell me it gets better. He did pick up breast feeding really well, but because of how long his feedings are, I only get 1-2 hours of sleep at a time.

Kristen050 · January 2013

I hate to tell you but it's normal. If its been worse the last couple days he may be gong through a growth spurt which can happen at 7 to 10 days old. Eventually he will get more efficient and won't take as long. Have you tried unlatching him yourself and see how he does? DS1 never popped off the boob himself but if i took him off he was fine. But 1 to 2 hours of sleep between feedings is definitely even though its super hard. Hang in there because it will get better!

nicholemhughes · January 2013

Kristen050:
I hate to tell you but it's normal. If its been worse the last couple days he may be gong through a growth spurt which can happen at 7 to 10 days old. Eventually he will get more efficient and won't take as long. Have you tried unlatching him yourself and see how he does? DS1 never popped off the boob himself but if i took him off he was fine. But 1 to 2 hours of sleep between feedings is definitely even though its super hard. Hang in there because it will get better!

The lack of sleep doesn't really concern me much, it's the amount of milk he's consuming! Its crazy! I just fed him for an hour three hours ago and I'm already an hour into another feeding! I know you can't over eat on breastmilk, but I guess Im just concerned he's not getting enough milk or his latch is wrong so he's getting a very small amount. We fed him formula ONCE today because I hadnt slept in two days and I was starting to fall asleep when holding and caring for the baby, so once I fell asleep, my husband just gave him some back up formula we had just incase. He said he drank 3 oz in about 10 minutes and fell asleep for four hours! Ugh!

shotzie · January 2013

Is baby actively sucking/swallowing the whole time he's nursing? It is normal for newborns to take a long time to nurse at first. They get more efficient with time. It's also normal for them to suck for comfort once they're done feeding. If LO is comfort sucking, you could try letting him suck on Dad's pinky, or a paci while you take a nap.

If LO's diaper count and weight gain are good, he's getting enough.

3 oz is way too much to feed an 8 day old baby. Newborns have a strong need to suck, and they can't stop the flow of a bottle. So that means they empty the bottle, even if they're full after 1 oz.

If LO gets a bottle of formula or breastmilk, you need to pump to replace that missed feeding. Otherwise your body doesn't know it needs to produce more milk.

The best way to find out how much LO gets when he nurses, is to do a weighed feeding. You can go to your hospital's bf'ing support group for that. You weigh LO naked, nurse, then weigh him again. That tells you how many oz he got. The LC there can also check his latch. If he's not latched properly, that'll effect his ability to remove milk from the breast.

I highly recommend checking out kellymom.com and read about "Normal Newborn Nursing Behavior," and the section on how to tell if LO is getting enough.

Hang in there, I promise it gets easier. I nursed DD1 for 16 months, and I'm still nursing DD2, and she just turned 1. The first several weeks are the hardest.

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Baby breastfeeding for 1-1.5 hours at a time.

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