January 2016 Moms

How many nursing sessions?

just curious- now that we are at 9 months.. How often are your LOs nursing? 

Re: How many nursing sessions?

  • I recently added a nursing session in an attempt to reduce nighttime wakeups, and it seems to have helped. So now he nurses 6x per day and typically once at night. 
  • We're still at about 8, usually once, sometimes twice a night
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  • I'm curious about this too!
    She had been getting up only once at 3 but lately it's been 1 and 5 :(
    Depending on the day we are still between 7-10 sessions in a 24 hour period.
  • Usually around 7-8 a day, with at least once usually at night, but sometimes twice. When we went for her 9 month visit yesterday, the pediatrician asked about the night feedings and remarked it was probably out of habit. But she eats when she wakes and is at 26% for weight so being on the small side, it's not like I can magically make her not nurse at night! Hate the sleep questions these days...
  • So glad someone posted about this! Usually around 5-6 during the day for us, with 1-2 wakeups overnight. He nurses when he wakes for the day, before both naps, between his last nap and bedtime, and at bedtime. He may not need to nurse at night, but it works for us for now, so I'm sticking with it! I know some babies are only getting 3 bottles at this point so I was thinking i was doing something wrong, so glad to know we have similar schedules to others. 
  • We are at about 4 per day and 3ish times at night. Once for sure between 10pm-midnight and again around 5am before getting up between 7-8. The ish at night is that he will go down at 6:30 for bed, then wake up 1-2 hours later to tank up a little more. 
  • I EP so we're a bit different but it might be helpful for comparison since we're the weird in between of nursing and formula. Right now LO usually eats between 4 to 5 5.5oz bottles of BM. Once at wake up, 2 to 3 times at daycare and then another bottle before bed (sometimes two in the evening depending on how much and when she ate at daycare) and no MOTN feedings. Based on how much I pump and how the amount varies throughout the day I could see how LOs are nursing more often. 
  • Usually 5-6 times during the day and 1-2 at night. I'm getting really sick of nursing, TBH. He used to sleep through the night after his dream feed but hasn't for the past couple of months, except for random stretches of 2 or 3 nights that get my hopes up. Lots of people told me nursing would be easier once he started eating solids, but he doesn't seem to nurse any less. I'm especially sick of pumping, and of struggling to corral him when he'd rather be racing across the room instead (and bites to let me know). 

     I keep wondering if switching to formula would mean he'd start sleeping through the night. I'd be totally willing to do it (or just to regularly supplement a bottle or two a day). But if he didn't stop waking at night and I had to make him bottles instead, I know I'd be kicking myself. Then again, maybe DH could just take the next 8 months of night duty ;) 
  • LO nurses 5 times a day. Just dropped his MOTN feed last week
  • @SDaniels19 did he drop the MOTN feed on his own?
  • We nurse in the morning, 3 4oz bottles at day care and nurse to sleep. LO usually wakes once at nighy but only nurses a few minutes.
  • We are at 7-9 a day, with at least one of those during the night... sometimes up to 3 at night. She's basically nursing as much as she did when she was a newborn. Not sure how to cut down, especially since she's in the 9th percentile and she loooves nursing. 
  • @klbh I know what you mean about being sick of nursing.  The only time it isn't a battle is when he's nursing himself to sleep.  And if I never have to look at my pump again, it'd still be too soon.
    If I thought formula would help him sleep past 4:30, I'd switch in a heartbeat
  • So glad I saw this thread. It's helpful to see the variability betweeen kids and know there is a range of normal for BF.

    My girl is starting to self wean and it's been weirdly hard on me. She will nurse once in the morning, once at night, and she wakes up once overnight to eat. She refuses the breast and bottles during the day. I was so worried when she started refusing that I brought her to the doctor! She is huge and off the charts for height and weight and the doc said some kids wean early and we have nothing to worry about. 

    I thought I would relish this moment, but it's been hard to realize that she is growing up so fast and she won't need me like that much longer. 
  • We are still nursing 5-8x/day. Lately it's been 3x at night and I'm SOOO over it. I read there's a 9 month growth spurt so I am hoping that is why, and I'm hoping he's over it soon. Anyone have any advice for helping a very distractible baby to nurse during the day? It just seems like he has better things to do than sit still to nurse haha

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  • nackienackie member
    edited October 2016
    @kvacmak sometimes it helps if I nurse him in a dark room with the sound machine on.  That usually gets an extra minute or two of cooperation
  • Popping in from feb group. My little girl will be 8 months next week and is BF'ing probably 5-6 times during the day and 3-4 times at night.. yuck to the night feeds. She's never been a sleeper and for the last two months has been sleeping with me (dad had to move to the couch) because she started standing up but can't sit down and will fall and hit her head in crib. So annoying-dreaming of the days when she can sit on her own. She used to like the crib, but now hates it and just cries and will stand up and fall back. I tried laying her down every time but that got tiring. She also would cry so hard she'd make herself projectile vomit :( I know once we try the crib again it'll be even harder b/c she'll be even more aware she's not sleeping next to me. Any suggestions?  I haven't had   more than 3 hour stretch of sleep at one time in 8 months and even that doesn't happen often. 


  • 8ish times during the day and none at night, I don't think he will ever self wean though I think he would nurse 100 times a day if I offered haha currently I love it and am enjoying the extra snuggles though since he never ever sits still otherwise! Lol 
  • kaym6 said:
    8ish times during the day and none at night, I don't think he will ever self wean though I think he would nurse 100 times a day if I offered haha currently I love it and am enjoying the extra snuggles though since he never ever sits still otherwise! Lol 
    Haha, yes! My LO would spend every waking moment nursing if I let her. Instead I offer her the breast 3-5 times a day, and 3-4 times in the night, including bedtime snack and dream feed.
  • SDaniels19SDaniels19 member
    edited October 2016
    @mestokes sort of on his own, but with some help. He slept through till 8 (instead of waking up to eat between 4-5 as usual) one night and was just as happy as usual that morning, not starving like I thought he would be. He also nursed so much better that morning and wasn't all distracted like he had been so we decided to send DH for his wake up the next night instead of me going to feed him. After about 3 nights, he STTN for about a week (first time he's done that ever!) The past few nights he has been up once or twice but I think he's not feeling well and/or cutting teeth so hopefully will STTN again soon.

    ETA: sorry for late reply, I don't get tag notifications I guess :neutral:
  • My baby nurses 2-3 times during the day and 1 or more at night.  Day time, as others here have experienced with their babies, she is usually too interested in other things to stop and nurse but she will nurse a bit after she wakes up.  I was wondering whether that was enough and if I may need to supplement as it seemed like few and the nursing sessions are usually pretty short, but a medical aide recently told me that at this age babies don't need more than 3 nursing sessions in 24 hours.  Anyone else heard that?  It was the first time I heard it and I found it helpful as I always wonder if she's getting enough...  
    For the longest time baby would not take bottles, now she will drink a bottle even if she refuses the breast, but I would hate to have to pump her milk supply everyday, I find pumping such a hassle.... (Currently trying to build a little milk supply in case we need and it's quite a pain to do...) so if 3 nursing sessions is really enough then I could keep on breastfeeding and hopefully reach the 1 year mark without supplementing and then see how it goes from there.  
    Do you have a goal for how long you would like to breastfeed or are you following baby's cues and taking it as it goes?
  • @juliaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa at our 9 month appointment I asked the pediatrician about if he nurses enough and she basically said at this point, as long as he's getting enough protein and calcium he's fine.  if he isn't getting it in liquid form from milk, he needs to get it from his food.
  • For those of you still nursing, how many times a day is your LO nursing? Anyone planning to start weaning soon? My guy is still nursing 3-4 times a day but takes whole milk from a bottle fine when I'm not with him. I don't feel like I'm producing much milk anymore but feel like he would nurse forever if I'd let him haha. 
  • I'm only nursing the once before bed, but it's been like that for a few months now. I need to break the habit but it makes bed time 100% easier.
  • We are still nursing 4-5 times a day, but it's maybe 3-4 minutes at a time. We can't give milk because of an allergy, so we do a lot of water. We have also had some setbacks with sickness (we are currently on our second round of the hand foot mouth rodeo, Yay!) so he nurses more right now because eating solids is uncomfortable. I think when the time comes I will switch nursing sessions during the day to a snack instead. 
  • We still nurse once before bed and once around 4:30 in the morning. My goal is to have her weaned by 18 months because this mama really needs a night away. 
  • Still around 4-6 on non work days depending on the day though the days where the number is 5-6 they are brief times. I tried to start weaning a couple of weeks ago and LO wasn't haven't it. She is doing fine with whole milk in her bottles at daycare.
  • I'm still nursing 5x/day and sometimes once at night, but I think my supply has dropped a fair amount because I only get 1-2 oz pumping. He's tried and liked whole milk so I give him some every few days and plan to give that when I'm not with him since I'm out of frozen breast milk. And in the meantime we continue to nurse!
  • We're still doing 6x a day.  I'm planning to start weaning this week though.  He turned one on Thursday
  • We are down to 4 ( morning, bedtime, and before 2 naps) but I think I'm going to try dropping our afternoon nap one this week. I'm really hoping she will be able to nap without nursing! This will be the first one we drop without LO initiating it. My mom will be babysitting when we try so we'll see how it goes. 
  • @fishee333 we were doing the exact same as you! Morning bedtime and before two naps and just dropped the one before his morning nap this week.I had tons of worries about it and he didn't even notice!!! I just made sure his belly was full and he had a drink before I laid him down and he went down just as he usually does. I was shocked because I was so worried haha 
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