Emptied breast? Or impatient wee monkey? What to do?!

[luckysocks]

DD is 15 weeks old today (how?! I have no idea where it's gone). She is gaining weight in line with her percentile and, very much unlike DS, the breastfeeding is going well.

Since the three month mark, her feeding patterns have changed - her sucking is much stronger and her feeds are generally longer.

But the question I have is about the way she behaves at around 10 minutes in. She used to feed for about 6 minutes on one side, but then have massive feeds in the evening, so I assumed that she wasn't emptying the breast during the day, but just taking what she needed at that moment.

Now however, after about 9 minutes she starts making these little impatient grunts and pummelling both me and the side of her head with her fists. I assume this is the point at which the flow slows down but should I keep her on anyway? If I change sides she usually has a few more minutes.

I suppose my question applies particularly to the evening, she drinks for longer than 20 minutes (up to an hour), so do I keep swapping sides or try to get her to persevere on the same side for longer? Or doesn't it really matter?!

TIA

Oh, she keeps pulling away at this point too with my nipple still clamped between her gums.... ow

Swap sides. I remember having to keep my little finger poised to pop DS off when he'd do the clamp and yank, much empathy.

Sorry, I am missing a 'problem' here :)

Just put her on the other side....sounds like this is what she is asking you for. Why would you want to keep her on the same side?

Nope not a problem - just a question :)

I wonder about it because she seems to be on for such a short amount of time and the fattier stuff was supposedly at the end of the feed when I learnt about bf. I don't want to keep switching if that means she doesn't get enough of the hind milk (or whatever the more concentrated part of the feed is called now). Does that make sense?!

Glad it's nothing to worry about anyway!

You don't need to worry about foremilk/hindmilk, honestly - this is something the baby sorts out for herself - no need to keep her on one side any longer than she herself wants to be :)

Thanks tiktok :)