How to measure time between feeds (bf)?

[Clueless79]

When do you count from when working out how long baby has gone between feeds? My 3week old can be feeding anywhere up to an hour (is this normal?) and I don't know whether to count time to next feed from when I start or when I finish. I'm feeding on demand but would like to monitor how long he's going between each one.

Yes, normal afaik to feed for that long at this age. I think you time feed from the start of the feed.

In terms of monitoring feeds, I was quite anal about this at first used to make notes like "fed from 18 minutes, LHS" etc, but then when I forgot about that I found it a lot easier and les stressful - as someone said to me "watch the baby, not the clock". Now I couldn't actually tell you how often ds feeds during the day - its like asking me how often he has smiled, farted or scratched his face! But everybody is different and if you do like to record it, my friend has an app on her iphone where she keeps track of her feed times etc.

If you are timing, it goes from the beginning of one feed, to the beginning of the next. So if you fed 12-1pm, then 2-3pm, that would be a 2 hour gap. Lots of mums get confused by this and think their baby is feeding more frequently than others, because they are timing the gap between feeds.
It's normal for little ones to take a long while at their feeds, and feed very frequently. DS used to cluster feed (nursing repeatedly with only short gaps) every night when he was that size.
He may not be taking in much milk for a lot of the feed, small babies need their mummies close and nursing isn't just about the milk, I think that is why you time from the start, as it would be hard to spot when they actually stop feeding, I know DS used to stay latched on and snack very slowly.

The Jack Newman vids (you tube and website) were really good for showing what actions they should be doing. My lo used to snack a lot.

I use the 'ibaby' app on my iPhone. It analyses daily, weekly & mthly feeds. Duration and time between feeds. Also tells you which side to use & based on duration between feeds sends you a text 10 mins before you might be due to feed. I like this feature as if I'm out and about I can start to look for somewhere to feed.

I just can't find a spare hand to get on here to reply as often as I'd like these days...can't imagine why! Thanks for replies. It just seems that with baby often taking 1 1/2 to 2 hours for feeding and also frequently cluster feeding at night it doesn't allow for much of a gap in between for anything else. Am I the only one? I've got the app suggested thanks and will endeavour to remember to use it to see if this can bring some organisation at least to my understanding of what's going on.

If you are slightly un-hinged then you could write down every feed in a note-book, time, length of feed and which side for 3 months.

I found it useful when I was shattered and couldn't remember what day it was, let alone when I last bf.

(I still have the book)