How long is a normal breastfeed and how long inbetween?

[shoobaloo]

DS is 6wks and has recently started to lengthen his feed times from around 10 mins up to around 15-20. Just wondered what is normal? Also, he is going around 3 hours inbetween feeds most of the time, but in the early eve and again in early morning it can be as short as 1 1/2 hours between feeds. When will it get longer during the night too as feeding every 3 hours is killing me!

totally depends on the baby I think. I used to write all of this down (obsessive, moi?) when DS was tiny. All I can remember now is that he had 11 feeds in 24 hours for a long, long time!

I think it really varies between babies and over time. My sister's baby would feed for 45 mins and was poor at gaining weight. My DD would feed for 15-20 mins and was piling on the ounces!

I remember that when she started feeding more regularly (every 1-1.5 hours) she started sleeping through the night shortly after (at 9 weeks).

It could be a blessing in disguise - fingers crossed for you

it really is the same as asking how long is a piece of string.
ds2 fed every 45-90 minutes, every day, for the first 6mo of his life. But at 5mo was sleeping 7pm - 5am (not that this continued, but he did it for a few months).
ds1 had been more textbook going 2.3-4 hrs between feeds.
Early evening is often a shorter time between feeds.

duh - 2.5-3 hrs between feeds

Hi Shoob,

As the other posters say, there isn't really a definitive answer. However cluster feeding in the evenings is very common in the first few weeks/months (do a search for 'cluster feeding' on here). Also I can def say that he won't be feeding every 3 hours through the night forever - but when it slows down who can tell.

Sounds like you're doing great so keep up the good work - it does get easier!