breastfeeding - when does it change from two hourly feeding to bigger gaps?

[rainbowdays]

My ds is 3 weeks old and I was having to wake him every two hours to get him to feed due to jaundice. But my nipples are sore and now he is demand feeding every two hours and taking half an hour to feed, I need to know how long this will go on for as I am so sore and tired - please advise me!

How long is a piece of string?

From memory, ds fed every 2 hours in the day until he was about 16 weeks old. But from about 6 weeks onwards he fed about every 4 hours in the night.

That might sound awful, but they get more efficient at feeding, and the feed times don't take so long.

If you've got sore nips, have you tried Lansinoh? However if they are sore for an extended period of time and/or bleeding and cracking, you need to get your latch looked at.

This won't go on forever and it will all change. So hold on in there, you can do it!

it did really vary with my dd too - and it wasn't like once she'd got into a certain pattern of eg 3hrly feeds she stuck to it, but instead each pattern only lasted a week or so!

at 20 weeks she is now back at 3hrs-ish (day and night) but there have been times in between when it's been hourly, at other times 4.

can you get someone to check your latch? i was in so much pain at 3 weeks, then someone from the BFN adjusted my latch just by a tiny amount and suddenly it didn't hurt anymore!

I really wasn't enjoying bf-ing at your stage, but it's getting better - you just have to get through it - sleep when you can, eat plenty of chocolate, watch TV while you're feeding etc. My dd took so long I could watch an entire episode of something like ER for each feed, my Sky box almost exploded! but it helped, and now she is much faster.

My Ds2 is 7 months old and still feeds every 2-3 hours, sorry! He is small for 7 months though and I think he can't go any longer because he can only take small amounts

my ds fed every 2-3 hours during the day and 4-5 hours at night until he was on solids when he could go through the night and immediately cut down on daytime milk feeds

Thank you for all the replies.

Right now, three hourly gaps between feeds sounds like heaven to me, or at least if the feeds reduced down from half an hour. I know I will get past this time, I guess I am just tired more than anything as I have a three year old and a four year old to be dealing with too.

It is good to know that I am not alone in this, I guess the tv is my best friend at the moment, helping to pass some of the time during feeds.

I know the latch is an issue, he has not got the idea yet of how to get on, and is taking quite a bit of pursuading, I had mastitis and think that has thown us a little as one side is so much larger than the other, must be confusing for him! I will pursevere and just keep trying.

Thanks again for the assurance that what I am experiencing is normal.