Baby Breastfeeding for 2-3 hrs

R

Reuben

New member
Hi,

I need sincere advice from all the members. My 27 days old baby is breast feeding for 1-2 hrs and sometime 3-4 hrs in one go with intervals of 5-10 minutes approx. And he sleeps for only 8-9 hrs and most of the time he looks here and there. Please help me and guide me if anyone have got a same baby behaviour or if someone gets some solution for this???

I am waiting for your response

Reuben
 
Normally babies feed between 8 to 14 times in 24 hours. This is phased this way and not once every three hours or once every two hours because babies are not regular. A normal baby will have different patterns during the day.

Part of the day the baby will feed quite regularly – maybe once over couple of hours. Part of the day the baby will sleep a little longer between feeds – maybe three or four hours straight. Of course we hope this is at night but usually it is during the day while the baby is very young. And part of the day the baby will cluster feed. This means having 5, 6, 7 or 8 feeds in just a 2 or 3 hour time slot.

The way you describe your baby is typical of cluster feeding. Please don’t worry that something is wrong it is a very normal baby behaviour. Although it does mean that you can’t do much else but sit and feed your baby at this time.

You might be interested in the following web pages,

Cluster Feeding and Fussy Evenings
... My baby nurses and fusses all evening! What's wrong?
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/fussy-evening.html

How often should I nurse my baby?
http://www.llli.org/FAQ/frequency.html

Your baby may also be experiencing a growth spurt. This is a time when your baby grows very quickly and, of course, needs lots of food to fuel this growth. The only way a baby can get extra food is to feed more and if breastfeeding this means breastfeeding a lot more than normal.

You might also be interested in the web page,

Why does my baby suddenly want to nurse constantly?
http://www.llli.org/FAQ/spurt.html

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Also, some babies just like to suck (particularly on momma, which can be very exausting). You may want to assess whether your baby is really eating or just sucking for comfort. When the baby is really eating you can see a big wide mouth followed by a pause. The pause is when they are getting mouthfulls of milk. The best breastfeading book I've ever read is Dr. Jack Newmans Guide to breastfeading.
 
to make it easier, maybe u can feed lying down, but make sure no pillows or big comforter on the bed, and also get someone to come in & check u once in a while. if not, find some where comfortable to sit & rent some DVDs. good time to catch up on those "24" "friends" or "Sex & the City".

(my personal record of 90mins. watching DVDs sure help time flies)

Happy breastfeeding! U'll certainly be very glad you spend the time to bf your baby when he/she turned one!
 
I second Erin's point about many babies wanting to suck a lot of the time, rather than actually feed. My little one was like that and after a while, I learnt that he was often just as happy sucking on my husband's little finger as being on my breast - which was much easier for me! The other option is a pacifier, which we generally only resorted to when out of the house (to avoid the baby sucking on unwashed fingers). But I think pacifiers are not recommeded until babies are a bit older for nipple confusion reasons (though from memory, we started using the occasional pacifier around 4 or 5 weeks, and didn't experience any problems).
 
Like Joannek, I would advise you to make do of these time to relax.
Taking some naps or reading or watching TV are good examples. For my part, I have never read so many books since my teenage years ! :bump:
After 9 months of pregnancy and child birth, you are entitle to have some time for you !

Breastfeeding laying down really is the most restful position, especially when we know that breastfeeding release hormones that help relaxing ;-)

Have a nice breastfeeding !
 
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