Reassurance on two-month-old feeding

[petitverdot]

Hello! I don't post very often but just looking for some reassurance that I'm not doing this all wrong. I'm EBF my son who will be two months tomorrow, and he's wanting to be fed every 90 minutes or less at the moment, unless he goes down for a long nap. At night it's never more than every two hours and normally every 3-4 (we've had two blissful 5.5 hour stretches since he's been born which were amazing!). Now all the info I have says it should be every 2-3 hours but there's no way he'll last that long, no matter how much I try to distract him. Is this normal/ok? (And will he ever go long enough for me to be able to have a hair cut?!?!)

Are you getting lots of wet and dirty nappies? Is he putting on weight? Is he generally content and settled after a feed? Are your breasts and nipples pain free?

If the answer to all of the above is yes, then it could just be his natural pattern and the chances are it will stretch out a bit as he gets older (he is still very little). 3-4 hours at night is not too bad for his age, both of mine had a similar pattern at night. I would be trying to get as much as possible in at each feed by using breast compressions to keep him awake and suckling, and always offering the second breast.

Frequent feeding can just be a natural pattern, but it can also be a sign of other things (e.g. reflux) which is why it's important to look for all the signs of breastfeeding going well, not just the length of time between feeds.

Agree. Sounds perfectly normal. Mine were similar at that age. Babies vary so much more than the books suggest.

If everything else is going well, nappies, weight gain etc like Veet said, then you are not doing it all wrong. And even if those things are iffy, it is not because you are doing something wrong in feeding him when he wants and needs to be fed. That is exactly the right thing to be doing.

Your post sounded so familiar - it's so hard having a new baby, and the fear that we are messing it all up is often hovering in the background - but it sounds like you are doing fine. I was worried about it and tried to space out feedings for while - resulting in dh pacing for hours with a screaming baby. After we abandoned that approach and just followed her cues/demands (!) it was so much easier.

The feeds became much.more spaced out, although she never really developed a noticeable pattern or routine, so when it got to weaning onto food, i found the books' suggestions of dropping a feed at a time, say, baffling - but, although it was haphazard, she gradually ate more and had less milk, and ... the point is that the books describe some sort of simplified model of an average baby.

And you'll definitely get time for a hair cut one day!

Agree with the above. Also just a thought, is your 90 minutes measured from start of feed to start of feed, which is what the books mean? If you're measuring from the end of one feed to the start of the next then that might be why it's a shorter time.

I agree NoUnauthorisedParking, particulary re feeding on demand. Also with your reassuring words which I was too tired to formulate myself (up at 5:20 with the baby)!

(Sorry Vert to rename you Veet btw!)

what have you been posting about to autocorrect to that ?!?

tumbletumble you make a good point too about timing from the beginning of a feed, that's not always made clear in the books.

Thanks ladies. Yes, I've been timing from the beginning of a feed. Plenty of wet and dirty nappies, no breast or nipple pain and weight gain has been fine. He does have a habit of falling asleep while feeding which I'm sure isn't helpful so that's something I've been trying to stop but it's hard! Sounds like I just need to bear with it a bit longer

My DS went from every hour (arghh!) to every 2 hours, and now at 3 months we're getting towards every 3 hours or so, so hopefully your son will start to go a little longer. All sounds completely normal to me.

DS2 is 18 weeks and feeds every 45 mins during the day, then every 1-2 hours at night. DS1 was exactly the same from birth until I had to go back to work FT when he was eight months old. Even then, he kept up the 1-2 hours all night until he was well over a year Both very normal, healthy boys

It's nigh-on impossible for a baby to stay awake on the boob, BTW. Quite apart from the sucking which is incredibly soothing, breastmilk is full of tryptophans which are sleep-inducing chemicals. You can try and stop feeding to sleep if you like, but you're fighting some pretty strong natural sleep-inducers!

I think I'm also forgetting that it's improved loads since he was born, when he'd constantly feed for two minutes here and there. We really struggled to get breastfeeding established as well so my confidence has been quite low with it since.

I'm so relieved to hear others have had the same experience by the way!

Mine is just under 3 months and a little and often feeder. She can go 3 hr if she's napping - but when awake it's 2 hr max. At night she only wakes twice.
She's perfectly healthy and the Hv clinic this morning confirmed she's towing her line.

I think of it the same as any person - some are 3 square meals types, others graze.

Mine fed every 90 minutes until abou 7 months. It's just what he wanted.