Possibly a daft question but!

[finallypregnant]

Many of you say feed on demand with your new born - usually around every 3 hours for example.

Does that mean feed baby and then you have 3 hours or is the 3 hours including the feeding time so for example if baby takes 30 minutes to feed you only really get a 2.5 hour break? Does that make sense? I know every baby is different though so just looking for a rough guide.

Feed on demand means exactly that - there are no real timings involved for a newborn! DD fed pretty much non stop for the first few days - I got toilet breaks but that was about it.

Its counted from the start of each feed.
So if baby starts feed at 2pm then next feed would start at 5pm on 3 hourly feeding..

Yes, start--> start
so if baby feeding every hour and feed takes 45 mins you get 15 mins
It's not as bad as it sounds

But yes, feeding on demand does vary a lot with how often they feed!

My DS2 (4 weeks) feeds on demand and I would say goes 3 hourly on average, but that can vary from 2 hourly to 4 hourly really... (luckily he seems to be feeding more like 2 to 3 hourly during the day and then going 4 hours at night now, which is nice )

my DS could feed, need another one after half an hour and then fall asleep for 4 hours!
They don't always feed because of hunger so I suppose that's part of the reason why it's so haphazard. Even now at 11 mo my DS still has a feed an hour after his last one if he's tired and fancies being fed to sleep/

Ignore the clock. Much better to follow the baby's cues & offer a feed when they show signs of wanting to. If you aren't sure if they want a feed then offer one...

If the baby is especially sleepy or having trouble feeding then offering the breast at least every 2-3 hours (timed from the beginning of the feed) is preferable. But you might well find that a newborn feeds more often than that as they will want to be close to you (breastfeeding is not just about food ) just as they have been in the womb and because they have such small stomachs

These links might be useful FP:
www.kellymom.com/bf/start/basics/hunger-cues.html
www.llli.org/FAQ/schedule.html
www.llli.org/FAQ/frequency.html
www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/frequent-nursing.html

I can't answer the question because I don't look at the clock! I just go with the flow, so to speak.