What to expect bf-ing 3m old

[ASmidgeofMidge]

My DS is 13w now, and to my amazement I have managed to ebf so far (with occasional bottle of expressed milk, maybe once a week). Over the last 10 days his feeding pattern seems to have changed; he's feeding more frequently than he was (maybe once every 2hrs) and is poo-ing a lot more too. On the breast he can be quite fussy, eg pulling off and crying, or appearing to graze over quite an extended period. He currently goes from 9/10pm til 6am sleep-wise, although I'm hearing of a '4-month sleep regression' which is giving me the fear! DS was weighed at baby clinic last week and has dropped from 75th to just above the 50th centile. HV didn't seem overly concerned.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone can give me a sense of what to expect when bf-ing a baby of this age. I felt fairly prepared for the newborn cluster feeding etc, but have struggled to find as much info about older babies and how things work...

Bump - meant to add before that whilst his night time sleep seems ok, his daytime naps have dried up a bit too ...

If you look at a book or an app called the wonder weeks it tells you when to expect growth spurts (like now!). You can expect them to feed more frequently during these spurts and sleep less.

In general BF babies from around 12 weeks will feed roughly 3 hourly, with a longer feed in the evening but not a marathon like the early days. Have confidence in yourself and your knowledge of your baby to identify his hungry signs and follow his cues. In hot weather, for example, he may be thirsty and want to feed more frequently but for shorter lengths of time.

The 4 month sleep regression is where they figure out how to sleep by themselves (or with the help of boob/a dummy/rocking etc).

Well done for getting this far!

Hi asmidgeofmidge I'm going through exactly the same as you, dd2 is 13wks and feeding every 2.5hrs. I'm putting it down to growth spurt. I'm trying to forget the hideousness of 4 month regression from last time!

Thanks both. Don't remember the 4 month sleep regression from last time around with DD (now 6yo) but with her Id started ff by now. I've heard about the Wonder Weeks book and did think maybe the behaviour above was linked to a growth spurt, but it seems to have been going on too long for that, I thought!

There's a leap 11,5-12,5 weeks and 14,6-19,5 weeks after due date give or take. If early or late you need to adjust accordingly.