The time it takes to breastfeed!

[LifesQuestions]

My baby is 10 weeks now and takes on average an hour to finish a feed. When does it get shorter?

I hate to be one of those people but honestly when they are 10 months old and completely wrecking place, trying to kill themselves all day long and you’ve cleaned the highchair for the third time you will pine for an hour sat down feeding with a biscuit and a movie.

There’s a sweet spot between about 4-6 months where they’re quite efficient feeders and you’re not weaning yet, but you then discover quite how stretchy your nipples are as your baby will be incredibly interested in everything going on around them and will just take your nipple with them while they’re looking about. So that’s fun.

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And again 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I know it feels annoying now, you feel unproductive and you’re looking around at the washing piling up etc but the washing will still be piling up a few months from now, you need to entertain them relentlessly. Baby will get more efficient in a couple of weeks, until then try and view it as a break and enjoy being able to sit.
At 5 months mine would only feed with me standing up and swaying 🙄

Depends on how efficient a feeder your baby is I guess. My DD was down to a few minutes at a time at about 3 months I think.

That does seem very long for 10 weeks. My first took ages but I subsequently realised he had a bad latch (made a clicking noise as was taking in air) and feeds were 'only' around 40mins. Second child was done and dusted in around 15-20 which made life a lot easier!

I was you, took ages and I felt a bit down that so many people got so much more "done" (decorate, make amazing dinners, do 100 press ups) because they weren't sat down feeding a baby.

But really, what is there to do, that really and truly matters? Baby isn't leaving their toes, shoes, coats dumped everywhere that need clearing up. And when they are older, you rarely get the luxury of having to sit down cuddling them. Soon, baby will be in distracted stage where they begin to find a world beyond the boob.

Are they definitely still awake? It took me a few months to realise but my baby was falling asleep, while still latched, after finishing their feed. I had been sat there for hours+ thinking, wow another long feed, when they were actually asleep! I went to a breastfeeding group as I was getting a lot of pain and that was the first thing they picked up on.

Believe it or not she's actually awake throughout the whole feed. When I see she's fallen asleep, I blow on her face and that either gets her going again, or she falls asleep again within seconds in which I take her off or she comes off herself, but that will be at least after 40mins has passed. Note that feeding both breasts takes 40mins to an hour overall, not that amount of time per side.

I think it's partly down to temperament, although admittedly that's based on a sample size of 2 :)
DS used to feed for an hour at a time and I honestly can't remember when it got shorter. It felt like forever. But he's still like that with everything (he's 5 now) - on his own little planet, busy with his thoughts, just calmly meandering through life.
DD came along and would feed for about 7 minutes and be done. It took some getting used to after DS! 😅 She's 2 now and barrels through life like a little machine, sleeves rolled up, rushing from one important thing to another.
Both are charming personalities in their own way, but I do remember the frustration of being trapped endlessly on the sofa with DS. I wanted to punch anyone who told me to "just enjoy the break!" 🤣

I would say by 4 months things were definitely much quicker. Maybe 20/30 minutes tops.

I cannot echo the others enough though. You feel like you are sick of sitting down and just want to be done so you can be off doing things. Enjoy it. Because it comes to an abrupt end and then you literally will not sit down again. Mine are 7 & 12. I literally have not watched a tv series since the youngest was a baby 7 years ago, until recently, but only because I have cancer and am off work and physically cannot do much most days. Truly you will not sit down and watch a series or read a book regularly for a long time so do it now.

You could always try to get the hang of feeding in a sling and then you kind of go about your day with them feeding, just like a kangaroo.

Or enjoy sitting down and watching the TV you want in peace.

I chose the former, but every years is not getting a moment to myself and the kids dominating the tv with cbeebies, perhaps I made the wrong decision 😂.

Mine was a 5-7m a side feeder though from birth, but did love a good contact nap.

Have you ever tried a few breast compressions to see if that will speed things up a little?

Watch a good boxed set op x

If this is your first then enjoy the time you have to sit down and breastfeed. If you have more kids you’ll discover breastfeeding whilst looking after other children. I realised that I never be able to breastfeed sitting down. I held my baby in my arms as I did everything apart from cooking pasta and ironing.

Accept it and settle into the lazy life of breastfeeding and watching some movies/TV. They do speed up (around 5months for mine) and I remember being a bit upset that it didn’t allow enough time to stream a whole episode of bake-off anymore! Had to watch it in 2 parts 😒