12 day old BFing every 3-4 hours, is this normal?

[ick1efeet]

My DD2 is 12 days old today and is only feeding every 3-4 hours and even then I have to wake her to feed. She seems content and sleeps soundly between feeds, once feeding she appears to empty the breast (in about 15-20 mins) before coming off herself, nappy change then onto the other breast for about 10-15mins. Winds well then back of to sleep for a few hours. She fusses a bit during the night and feeds from both breasts a few times taking about 2 hours to settle then asleep again.

She's put on about 80grams since birth so I know that shes feeding well and getting all she needs but I worry that she should be feeding more frequently.

DD1 fed every hour for the first 4 weeks and I was expecting much of the same from DD2. Therefore just wanted to check if this was normal for a 12 day old?

Has anyone else experienced this and should I be waking her sooner to feed?

Also will my milk dry up if I only feed 3-4 hourly?

That sounds fine to me. It's on the slightly spread out side of normal, but still within the realms of normal, easily. You're lucky!

I was told with DS to wake after 4 hours in the day and leave him at night.

If she is having plenty of wet/dirty nappies (6-7+ per day), she is alert in the short times she is likely to be awake at the moment, and she is putting on weight then you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You just have one of the babies that the routine books are written about

xposted - no absolutely not, your milk will be fine :)

You only get problems with supply when feeding 3-4 hourly if you're pushing the baby to do this, if they're doing it naturally, then go with it because your body is programmed, if you like, with a set of hormonal responses which will "synchronise" your milk supply with your baby's demand. You come up against problems if you try to change the natural pattern your baby falls into. Not if your baby happens to fall into a "desirable" pattern naturally.

If that makes any sense at all.

Perfect sense, thanks for the reasurance, obviously if she wakes for a feed sooner then thats what she gets, I was just a bit concerned that it was all going too well!! Especially as dd1 was such hard work.

I'm lucky that she's such a good baby, but I doubt that it will last long!

Right well am off to wake her for a feed before bed. thanks again.

DD was like this for teh first few weeks. Then she upped her feeds to two hourly.....my milk seemed to cope.

I've had the same worries. DD1 is 19 days. Eats every 3-4 hours for 10-20 mins

Breast feeding people said 20 mins or longer is a 'good feed' which got me concerned. But then the midwife said as long as she's gainin weight (which she is at a scary rate!) and there's plenty of wet n dirty nappies it's fine

So guess every baby and mum is different

My DD did this. Put herself on a little schedule. I was really surprised and unsure if that was ok but she was fine.

I think my DS was similar at that age (at least in the daytime). I remember I wanted a maternity support worker to come and help me with his latch but was worried that if she came he wouldn't need to feed for a few hours. His weight gain was also fine.

The one question I would have, about a (relatively) infrequent feeder like this, is, how much is the baby pooping. If he or she is pooping at least 2 times per 24 hours (ideally more) with each poo at least the size of a £2, then I'd say, yes, this is fine.

My DD was a bit of a slow feeder to start with, I kept asking everyone who knew stuff "How do I feed on demand when my baby doesn't demand", but it all sorted itself out, especially when the growth spurts started coming thick and fast. I threw the clock out and it was one of the best things I did.

In reply to notquitecockney my DD was always healthy and put on lots of weight (only lost 3% of birthweight) and we only had poos every 2-3 days. All bf babies are different, as there is not much waste in breastmilk some babies even go a week without a poo. There is no rule, unless the baby is straining and showing signs of constipation.