What is your breastfeeding 'schedule' like?

[Glowz]

I'm BF my newborn and loving the crazy journey. I couldn't feed my now 2.5 year old for multiple reasons so I'm loving that I've got to 3 weeks and we are really in the swing of things..

I was wondering what people's routines are like once you get past the 6-8 week mark. During the day she feeds every 1-2.5 hours for 5-20 minutes. She'll have a final feed between 8-9 then sleep until 1am where it's back to every 1-2.5 hours.

I don't mind at all the up and down at night or what feels like constant feeding, but I am wanting to know if it gets less? I feel like I'm neglecting my toddler and she always seems to want feeding right when it's time to go to nursery or pick up or when I'm about to eat my tea.

For a self confessed control freak, does it get a bit more routine as time goes on? With my son being FF, it was same time every day.

Personally it varied a lot as you just feed on demand. It doesn’t matter though as you can feed whenever. Inside, outside, on a walk - doesn’t matter! Just pull your top down. 😂 Once they start eating it slowly reduces.

Every 2.5-3 hours and I aim for at least 20mins on each breast. I also have a toddler so if that gets disrupted then I'll go back for a top up but it mostly works.

Big long feed at 7pm when toddler in bed and down for the night at 8pm.

Baby wakes up at around 2am and then again around 5am.

Congratulations!

I have one baby, I wanted to get into a routine and by the time he was 6 weeks old he was feeding every 3 hours (from approx 7am until 10pm bedtime - took him a while to learn to go to bed earlier in the evenings!). Each feed took about 30 mins then.

I had a lot of problems BF at the beginning so didn't want to feed while out for a while, and my husband was away a lot for work so a routine really helped me, for example knowing that once I'd fed him I'd have at least a couple of hours to go to the supermarket, walk the dog etc.

Obviously in the night I fed him as much as he wanted/needed, but from around 6 weeks old he was down to one feed in the night most nights (although he was always a big healthy boy, size probably helped!).

Sorry to hijack the thread, but @Pickles23 please can you tell us a bit more about how you got your 6 week old into a routine? My 8 week old is in no kind of routine whatsoever and I'd love a bit more structure to our days!

@overwork Sure, although maybe I got lucky!

I think when he was very young he'd normally go at least 2/2.5 hours between feeds anyway (apart from very occasionally cluster feeding), then I very gently try to stretch out the gaps between feeds, for example with walks around the garden, nappy change, any kind of distraction really. Of course if he was desperate I'd feed him sooner! Gradually the gaps got up to 3 hours and that suited us both. I stuck with feeding every 3/3.5 hours for a while then realised at 5 months old he was happy to go 4 hours, so since then he feeds 4 times a day between 7am-7pm (and have recently started on solids!)

I agree with PP who said it varies a lot with feeding on demand although when I was breastfeeding my now 3yo I did find that feeds do start to fall into more of a routine when baby falls into a routine with naps which from memory was around 3/4 months.

I’m currently breastfeeding my 8 week old and he’s starting to go longer between feeds than the early days of every 1-1.5 hours day and night although we’re not really in a routine as such. Last night was a fairly typical night and he had a long feed at 9pm, then fed at 1am, 3.30am, 5am and 7.30am. He’ll probably have another good feed about 9.30am and have a decent nap, another feed around 12ish, then it’ll be something like 2pm, 4pm, 5.30pm (just as we sit down for dinner without fail!), 7pm and 9pm. Some days it’s more and some it’s less. Most feeds last 10-20 mins but the one before bed is usually longer.

It is hard with a toddler at home as well. We’ve tried to get some activities I can do with the toddler while I’m feeding the baby like the mess free colouring and reusable
stickers. I also make sure my toddler gets 1-1 time when the baby has finished feeding so I’ll put the baby in the sling after a feed and he’ll nap so I can do an activity with the toddler like baking, painting, the park etc.

Youre doing great and it does get easier as time goes on!

I fed on demand but always made sure I alternated breasts when feeding.

Thanks @Pickles23
Same as a previous poster our last feed before bed has got longer over the last few days, so maybe he is starting to get himself into a routine without me realising!

DS is 20 weeks now and still feeds on demand… he can go three hours at an absolute stretch but the norm is most likely every two hours (apart from overnight when it can be hourly, hello four month sleep regression). However he is very efficient now and a full feed only takes around 10-15 mins.

I basically usually feed him every time he wakes up, then just before his next sleep. And any other time he seems to need it, by now he makes it very obvious when he doesn’t want it.

Well done for getting this far, you’re doing great!

From my experience it varies child to child, my first LO fed continuously without more than 3 hours gap right until the age of 1 where as my second LO slept from 9-7 overnight without a feed from 6 weeks. Both breastfed, both same amount of feeding during the day.

My third is 4 weeks old and EBF, I don't have a schedule but tend to feed (even if for a snack) once an hour during the day and every 2.5 hours or so at night. But generally don't watch the clock. I just do what feels right. Was the same with my previous two.