New to BF and I'm confused ....

[Supermom]

Babies should nurse every 2 hours right? Well say she starts to nurse at noon, she'll nurse for 5-10 minutes on one breast. We burp and take a little break for maybe 5-10 minutes. Then she's ready to go again on the other breast. Same pattern repeats itself for the better part of an hour. 40 mins or so ... give or take. So we're looking at 12:45 -ish before she's finished. about 1:15 she'll wake up and want to nurse again for about 5 minutes. I don't think she's really hungry and its more of a comfort. Then at 2:00 she's ready to start back at the beginning. Also, she never seems to sleep more than about 10-15 minut spurts in between these feedings. All day long. In some cases, all night long as well. She falls asleep and then just suddenly wakes up with a kinda of 'scream' cry ... like a bad dream or something woke her. I'm exhusted! I haven't slept more than 3 hours in the last 24. Any tips? Any ideas? Why won't she sleep longer here lately?

It might help to mention she's 3 weeks old. :) This is the first child I've BF so I don't have any expirience with this.

TIA! :)

[Amy_G_]

3 weeks is a common growth spurt, so if she was starting to have any kind of sleep pattern, it's out the window.
nurse, nurse, nurse.
remember a bit of swaddling helps when you do try to set her down, or wearing her in a sling may help you feel like yo've done something for the day as well.
but it's pretty normal.
they say every 2 hours, meaning baby should have a full nursing session about 12 times a day. Some babies are just not long sleepers anyway, my second son was like that. Encourage her to finish eating before snoozing by changing diaper, burping, tickling toes and loosening clothes. also consider breast compressions to get more milk flowing for her to help her get full and hopefully stay full longer. If you switch from one side tot he toehr in a feeding, she may not be getting a lot of hindmilk which will help her stay full longer, so try to stay on one side for a feeding, or stay on the first side much longer than the second one.
oh you measure from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next to get 1.5-2 hours between feeds.

[Supermom]

Thank you! Lots of great tips there!

What are 'breast compressions' and what's 'hindmilk'?

Thank you!

[Amy_G_]

http://www.kellymom.com/newman/15breast_compression.html

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/milkproduction-faq.html

foremilk is the beginning milk that is let down. lower in fat and calories but the bulk of the nutrition and liquids that baby needs. as baby breastfeeds longer on the same breast, the milk changes to higher fat hindmilk which is higher in fat and calories and keeps baby full longer. switching from one breast to the other at some time on the clock may mean baby gets full of the foremilk. let baby stay on one side as long as they want so they get foremilk and hindmilk in the right % for baby(with some nudging and tickles thrown in jsut to be sure they are done) then burp and change diaper before switching to the other side if baby wants the other side. during a growth spurt they'll usually want both sides to stimulate a higher milk supply in mom.

[Supermom]

wow .... this really describes her (“open mouth wide—pause—then close mouth” type of suck)..... then she gets mad b/c she can't "find the nipple" and I've been concerned there might not be any more milk coming after a certain point in her feeding ....

[pumpkinhead7]

I remember when my first was born. The nurses told me he'd want to nurse every 2-4 hours. Well, that child wanted to nurse every 15 minutes for 4-6 hours of the day. He'd space out to every 1.5 hours and sometimes he'd go every 2-3, but essentially he wanted to nurse all the damn time with no real schedule until he was 6 weeks old. Then he hit another growth spurt, but the good news was that it lasted overnight and he went back to every 2-3 hours.

My only advice is to watch your baby and not the clock. When she's hungry, she'll let you know. Just because she just ate 20 minutes ago does not mean she can't be hungry again ;). Breastmilk is digested very completely and very quickly. A baby's stomach is about the size of her fist. It takes some time before her stomach will grow enough to hold enough breastmilk to carry her through a longer stretch. It will happen, but it will take some time.

Congratulations on your new baby girl! AmyG gives excellent advice!

[Supermom]

The links posted have helped tremendously! I don't think she has been latching on right. My biggest clue was where it instructed that if you have to hold the breast away from baby's nose its not the right position! I've been holding her in a better position and have begun to try the breast compressions as well. I think I'm getting more successful already (just 3 feedings since my post last night!) at getting her the "hindmilk". I had no idea! She's a very content baby that's already sleeping better than what I described before. In fact she's been laying in her swing awake and content and fell asleep all on her own. That hasn't happened in almost a week! She doesn't even care where the passi is! I'm elated!

We have an appt w/ the midwife that delivered her this afternoon. I'll be sure and discuss these things with her and let her watch what I'm doing to make sure I'm doing everything right. I can't thank you enough for your help. I finally got some good sleep last night!

It's nice to know my baby's not the only one that doesn't stay on a schedule. Sometimes she sleeps more than she eats and then the next day she'll flip on ya! She eats all day and sleeps very little.

Thank you again!

[StElmosFire]

I love this place!
So glad Amy G was able to help :)