Feeding for 2hrs

[stegasaurus]

DD is 5 weeks old and EBF. She has always tended to feed for long periods, usually about a hour but will go 3-4hrs between feeds. Over the past coup;e of days she has spent up to 2hrs on some feeds. Is this ok? Yesterday my mum was here and mentioned someone she knows whose baby fed for 1-2hrs at a time because she wasn't producing enough milk as the baby got older. Is this likely to be the case? I got her weighed last week and HV didn't seem concerned by her weight gain and said to get it checked again in 2 weeks

Perfectly normal imo, Babies go through growth spurts and this is natures way of getting you to produce more milk. Don't worry, just get prepared before you start, with a drink something to eat and the TV remote and just go with it.

There may well be nothing wrong with your baby's feeding pattern but it would probably be worth while getting latch/positioning/attachment checked at a bfing group/bfc just to rule out any problems

When your DD feeds does she have a 'suck, pause, suck, pause' pattern with the pause is a mouthful of milk being swallowed or does she have a 'suck, suck, suck,suck, suck.....pause' pattern?

You would normally expect the first pattern to happen for the first part of the feed before slowing down and there being more sucks per swallow towards the end with some flutter sucking at the very end.

Does your DD have at least 6 wet disposable or 8 wet cloth nappies a day?

Has your latched been checked? Are you comfortable when feeding or in any pain? Are your nipples the same shape before/after a feed or are they lipstick or wedged shaped?

Has your DD been checked for Tongue Tie?

Stegasaurus on the issue of not making enough milk, it is very rare that a woman is physically unable to produce enough milk. I think it,s estimated at less than 3%.

Milk is made on a supply and demand basis. So as long as you feed your lo when they want it is unlikely that you are not making enough milk.

Alot of people talk about not making enough milk because they don't understand how bf works. It's particularly common in older generations ime. They were told to feed every four hours etc and so their supply was under stimulated and deminished. Had they fed on demand it's unlikely they would have had a problem.

In younger people i find the most common misconception is that their milk dried up at six weeks. Six weeks is a big growth spurt (there are others too. You'll have already been through several in the early days ). The baby feeds lots to tell your body to make more milk in future to meet its growing needs. People often mistake this sudden frequent feeding for a drop in supply. Often they then intro ff to "fill them up " and so their supply really does drop as they are no longer bf on demand. It night be this growth spurt that you are experiencing...are you at the six week end of five weeks? I don't know why mw's don't mention growth spurts more.

Some times a problem with the baby such as latch or tongue tie can mean the baby is not very efficient at getting the milk out and so can take a while. That's why truthsweet is asking about nappies etc. Though i would imagine that if weight gain is ok this is unlikely to be the problem...though i'm no expert. Having said that i thought the guidelines were to get weighed once a month...anyone know? It might be that your hv is a bit out of date on this. It's not unknown.

Sounds like you are doing a great job and are definatly over the hardest past ime.

Thank you for the advice and reassurance.
Midwife told me that she was latching on ok when she saw DD feeding, but then midwives told me she was feeding ok in the hospital and that wasn't true at all as she wasn't even sucking for the first 2 days so I don't know whether to believe her or not. I am using nipple shields to feed her as my nipples are too flat for her to latch on without them. I know a lot of people are against nipple shields but I would not have managed to breastfeed without them. Therefore, my nipples are a different sort of shape after feeding because sucking through the shield draws them out quite a bit. I have been intending to go to the breastfeeding clinic to find out if we are doing it right, but have to get 2 buses (or 1 bus and a long walk) to get there and only 2 prams are allowed on a bus at a time now so I have to work out what time to leave the house considering we might have to wait 20 mins for another bus if there are already 2 prams on one. Are these groups usually a drop-in thing or are you supposed to be there at the start time? If it is a drop-in basis, it won't matter if we have to wait at the bus stop. I am reassured that she has at least 6 wet nappies each day though so hopefully is ok.
I agree that no one warns you about growth spurts or lots of things about breastfeeding. Breastfeeding has been one of the hardest, most worrying, stressful things I have done and no one warns you how hard it can be. The breastfeeding class I went to antenatally was all about how it is the most natural thing in the world and didn't cover any of the difficulties that most women I know seem to have experienced.

ime the groups are drop in. You can call the nct helpline and ask for a number for your local breastfeeding councillor. They can come and see you at home. There is no charge and you don't have to be a member. And they have a lot more knowledge than mw's and hv's.

Bf can be hard at first but you really are over the worst of it ime. It just gets easier and easier from here. And of course you are doing the absolute best thing for your baby.