Advice/Help needed

[ScaredNewMum]

I am a first time mom and I had my daughter one week ago. I decided to breastfeed my daughter, and I really want to stick with this decision.

When I was in the hospital, the nurses had me feed her every four hours, 20 minutes on each breast.
Although another nurse started to get me to feed her whenever she wanted and not wake her up to feed as the other nurses. We had some difficulties in the beginning and the nurses had me feed her 25ml supplement after each feeding if she was still crying and making sucking actions.

The last few days at home has been better, with my nipples recovering but now she wants to feed every two hours for quite a long period. This afternoon she was drinking from my left breast for almost 50 minutes. She'll fall asleep during feeds occasionally, but as I make to pull away she'll start drinking again. Is this normal? Should I just let her drink for how long she wants whenever she wants (we struggle to get her to sleep otherwise)?

The nurses at the hospital told me not to exceed 20 minutes per breast, but she'll start crying if I stop after 40 minutes and I don't want to continue with supplement.

Also, her nappies need to be changed quite often. Sometimes 30 minutes after a previous nappy change. She isn't very windy on top and only occasionally will spit up some milk or give a very large burp.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi there. :)

Congratulations on your dd and for doing so well with bf so far.

I think you've been given some really bad advice by the nurses in the hospital! It's really important that new babies can feed on demand, as often as they like. Only they know when they're hungry - feeding to a 4 hour schedule and for restricted times is what they told woman a generation ago and it led to lots of women failing to bf due to "inadequate milk supply"! You need to feed, feed, feed as your baby demands to get your milk supply going. Things will settle down after a few weeks.

Sounds like your daughter is doing brilliantly - long and frequent feeds are normal at this age. Just go with the flow and it will all sort itself out! Put your feet up and get someone else to look after you. And it's perfectly normal to be changing LOTS of dirty nappies at this stage - my dd was producing 10+ a day in the early weeks! Again, this will settle down soon.

I'm sure that the other ladies on here will have a lot more helpful advice. But I just wanted to say that it all sounds perfectly normal and please don't restrict your daughter's feeds in any way.

Good luck with it and if you need any further advice, there are lots of experienced breastfeeders on here!

Ooh, and giving formula top-ups will affect your supply too. Should be possible to gradually reduce these and go to exclusive breastfeeding, if you feed on demand. I'm sure some other mums on here will have experience of this! Hth

Congratulations on your dd

Just want to echo everything MumofEmily said. You need to let dd feed as often as she wants, for as long as she wants. It's also a great way for you to rest and relax. Get comfy on the sofa with a glass of water and some dvds and go with the flow.

I second what Mumofemily says. The early weeks are all about establishing supply and the best way to do this is feed feed and feed again. It sounds like you're doing brilliantly. If she feeds until content and then falls asleep then that's fantastic, it means her little tummy is full.

Babies don't all follow the same routine so to tell you to stick to a particular pattern and time the feeds is stupid. They're all different and with breastfeeding you let the baby establish the pattern unless they are very sleepy and not feeding enough.

Lots of wet/dirty nappies is also an excellent sign that she is getting enough milk.

Well done you! Congratulations :)

Congratulations on the birth of your DD!
My DD is 9 weeks and is still feeding every 1.5/2 hours for at least 30mins at a time so this sounds very normal to me.

ScaredNewMum- where are you? You sound like you could be outside of the UK- is there any support like a breasfeeding group you can get to?

"Throw away your clock" was the best piece of advice that a mw gave to me. Feed when your DD makes the first signs of being hungry- a little squeak or rooting movements for example and don't restrict the time on the breast.

Congrats and good luck. Keep posting if you need more advice or help.

I have to agree with everything here. The first few weeks of feeding are very intense, where it feels like you've just finished a feed and they are hungry again.

My DS would feed on and off for an hour and then be hungry again an hour later. He used to get through a lot of nappies as well.

However, 9 weeks down the line and it's calmed down. He goes through maybe 10 nappies a day now and feeds every 3 hours during the day but sleeps for about 6 hours straight at night.

Yes...to all of the above. It is normal, and the nappy situation is a sign that all is going well!!!! That's great. I had a low supply at the beginning as DD was in SCBu for ten days so after all the frequent feeds had to express to increase my milk supply. I also topped up but as my supply increased I didn't need to use them..Try to avoid it if possible.

Bf is hard and takes all your time at the start. My DD fed for over an hour a time for the first three months, now at six months it takes her ten mins each side.It can be very frustrating as you really don't have time to do anything else,except feed feed feed. The housework must be thrown out the window. It will and really does get easier. Now is the big test.....:)

Congratulations. Totally agree with Fifilottie, breastfeeding is hard work and can take up all your time. My dd had very long feeds as well and very often. But in the end it all worked out fine. Good luck!