How are you breastfeeding?

Question

I am breastfeeding my week old baby girl every 2-3 hours. If she is sleeping by hour 3, I wake her to eat (which sometimes takes a while and I end up feeding her a half hour later). I plan to wake her to eat until she gains her birth weight back. My question is, are you feeding from one breast and alternating b*****s at each feed? Are you doing 15-20 minutes on each breast during each feeding? I have been feeding from each breast during each feeding but wonder if she's getting enough back milk. I'm a little confused as a first time mom. I am the first in my entire family to breastfeed, so I'm kind of on my own in terms of learning. Thanks in advance for your help!

Answer 1

I have yet to have a baby, but I have read up a lot on breast feeding and I learned that it is best if you allow your baby to empty one breast before switching to the other so that they can get as much back milk as available.

Answer 2

I just feed from one breast at each feeding because my baby didn't want to nurse more. It worked well, and I always knew which side to nurse from next because one side was smaller than the other! LOL!

Answer 3

The current advice is this:  Offer the first breast, then wait for baby to unlatch herself or fall asleep.  If you want, you can try to use breast compression to wake baby back up.  Always offer the second breast, even if baby doesn't want it.

It sounds like you need some support.  Find a La Leche League group in your area.  They have the knowledge it takes to get through those little problems that come up--and the big problems too.  A certified lactation consultant can help you too.

If your baby is slow to gain weight, then you can wear her in a sling all day.  The sling will help her remember to nurse more often.  You're right--offering only one breast per feeding can help her gain weight too.  Use breast compression to help her remember to keep sucking.

You're doing great.  Keep it up!

Answer 4

When my son was that age, I woke him to feed until he woke on his own every 3-4 hours.

My son was also hard to wake (we spend a lot of time hanging out in the recliner!).  I had heard about feeding baby for certain amount of time from each breast, but once my son latches, he doesn't let go until he is ready, so to save myself pain, I start him on one breast until he lets go himself.  Then, I offer him the other breast (he may or may not take it).  At the next feeding, I start him on the breast that was offered second..

I'm glad you chose to breastfeed!  You are giving your baby a greas start to life.

A handy breastfeeding website is: www.kellymom.com

Also, remember that there will be some tough times ahead, particularily growth spurts (the first one will be abound 6 weeks old).  Just keep reminding yourself that you can do it!

EDIT:

You are doing great!  My son was small too (born at 4.10, went down to 4.02) and I woke him every 3 hours for a couple weeks.  Once he started waking me up before the alarm clock did, I stopped setting it because he knew to wake up every 3 hours!

edit2:

To help myself remember which side I last nursed on (especially in the middle of the night) I put a hair tie around that my wrist!

Answer 5

My baby never really took the second breast.  She breastfed for 11 months and 3 weeks and she took the second breast a few times total.  I would let her nurse until completely satisfied on one breast and then try to give her the second one.  Good Luck and trust me it does get easier and better in just a few weeks.

Answer 6

My lactation consultant told me to try to get the baby to eat as much on one breast as possible, to get the most hind milk. Unfortunately after three weeks of breastfeeding (and multiple trips to see my lactation consultant) my daughter started to refuse the breast so we had to use a bottle. Good luck.

Answer 7

You should wake any baby less than 4 weeks old to nurse every 2 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night (or one 6 hour stretch and every three hours) OR every three hours night AND day. *lol* So you can see there is a lot of variability about the rules.

Never switch arbitrarily, that will cause problems.  Basically you nurse on one side until the baby is done and then OFFER the second side.  But in a newborn done isn't always done, particularly when the baby is sleepy (from being too small, jaundiced, etc).  I would offer the first side until the baby stops actively suckling, then do some breast compressions to see if baby will keep on.  If that doesn't work burp baby and then try offering the first side again.  If she seems fussy offer the second side.  

However with some sleepy babies it works best to keep switching back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth.  To keep the flow fast and keep them interested.  

Honestly if they are having enough poopy diapers and the p**p isn't bright green and frothy I wouldn't worry too much about hindmilk/foremilk.

Skin-to-skin contact is also very important for gaining weight and mom's milk supply.

I'll be back with some links apparently its "nap time"

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/foremi...

Your b*****s don't "flip a switch" at some arbitrary point and start producing hindmilk instead of foremilk. Instead, think of the beginning of a nursing session as being like turning on a hot water faucet.

The first water you get out of the tap isn't usually hot, but cold. As the water runs, it gradually gets warmer and warmer and warmer. This is what happens with the fat content in mom's milk - moms's milk gradually increases in fat content until the end of the feeding.

Since fat content is is directly related to the degree of emptiness of the breast, it is possible, depending upon nursing pattern, for fat content to be higher at the beginning of a particular feeding than it is at the end of some other feeding.

! Now think about the hot water faucet again. If there is a long period of time before the faucet is used again, then you go through the "cold to hot" process once more, but if you turn the water on fairly soon after it was used then the water is either pretty warm or still hot, depending upon how long it's been since the faucet was last on.

This is how it works with mother's milk too - the longer the time between feedings, the lower the fat content at the beginning of the next feeding. If feedings are closer together, you're starting off with a higher fat content.

As a particular feeding progresses, fat content increases, milk volume and flow decrease, and milk synthesis speeds up. Because every baby varies in the amount of time it takes him to receive his fill of the higher-fat milk at the end of the feeding, it is important not to switch b*****s while baby is actively nursing.

Answer 8

you're in the same boat as I was...I didn't have much help because no one in my family could explain breastfeeding to me as none of them did it.

What I did when my daughter was a week old, was to wake her up every 1-2 hours to eat (she was also born 3 weeks early, but she weighed in at 7lbs 6 oz - so that's not the same as your little one). Anyhow, I would wake her up and feed her for up to an hour, alternating b*****s. She would start on one, and fall asleep so I'd wake her up and kept doing that for about 20-30 minutes. Then I'd also pick her up and burp her inbetween and after feeding on one breast, and then switch to the other side and do another 20-30 minutes. After about an hour, if she was asleep, I would let her sleep and wait until she woke up again in another 1-2 hours....For the first two weeks, it seemed I was feeding her on an hourly basis because of all the time it took to wake her, burp her, change her and get her back to sleep.

Now that she's 8 weeks old, she'll only feed from one breast for about 10-15 minutes. At times, I'll alternate if I see she's still hungry so that my b***s don't get too full, or I'll just pump the other breast (I think produce a lot because I can pump about 6 oz in about 10 minutes).

The only thing you have to remember is that if you're feeding her and she's sleeping for a while after (about 2 hours max), then her belly is full and she's getting enough milk...also keep in mind that she has to have about 6-8 wet diapers and 3-4 poopy diapers (don't be alarmed if she goes a few days without pooping, that's pretty normal until their system matures).

Answer 9

i haven't had my baby yet but i did go to a certified lactation consultant before so i can be as prepared as possible and she suggested that we feed from one breast until the baby lets go or stops actively sucking. then to stimulate the baby a little bit (if he or she falls asleep or seems drowsy) then to switch to the second side. then at the next feeding start with the breast you finished with and repeat.

congratulations on breastfeeding!!! good luck, i hope it all works out well for you.

Answer 10

Let her eat on one side until she acts done or falls sleep then switch b*****s. It's ok if you need to wake her or if she won't wake that's fine too. Offer the second breast first at the next feeding. Don't stress too much over it and don't worry about timing feedings. She will eat what she needs to when she needs to. I just fed on demand and my son was back to his birth weight at 1wk. He had times when he would go a while without eating but would make up for it later in the day by eatting more often.

Answer 11

It sounds like you are doing great!! I breastfeed my boy who is now 2 months old and the first couple weeks are really hard but then i promise it gets easier!! I actually didnt have the problem of having to wake him because he was ALWAYS eating...My son didnt lose any of his birth weight and I was doing like you and nursing from each breast at every feeding..Best of luck and congrats of breastfeeding!!