The Breast Feeding Support Thread

Pebbles81

Hi all, just looking for opinions and personal experience. I'm exclusively breastfeeding my 11 week old daughter and its going relatively well.
She usually only wakes for one feed during the night @ around 3 and including burping & nappy change, we're tucked up back in bed in an hour.
Does this seem like a long time seeing as its a middle of the night feed?

Thanks in advance!

dubstarr

No its perfectly fine my son used to wake about 4 ad then sleep till 8 or 9.Enjoy the few hours sleep.

Pebbles81

Thanks dubstar,
I've been pretty lucky with her sleeping patterns, now there are nights that she'll wake for two feeds, from what I've heard that's still good going!

CrowWoman

Sounds fine to me too Pebbles - my little man wakes about once a night usually and has from about 8 weeks.

Pebbles81

Duration wise does an hour seem like a long time to be up with baby?

CrowWoman

It seems in the normal range. I have LittleMan in bed with me so we don't really wake at all except very slightly. My friend, though, who exclusively breastfeeds her nine week old, is up for about two hours when they feed at night.

I know co-sleeping isn't for everybody but it really works for us.

0ctober

Depending on how hungry/fussy my daughter is when she wakes I can be up with her from anywhere between 20 mins to an hour and a half, so yeah I'd say an hour is pretty normal!

dubstarr

Id say an hour id perfectly normal they are quite effeciant at that age.Oh i miss the snuggles and the milky smiles.

implausible

Pebbles81 wrote: »

Duration wise does an hour seem like a long time to be up with baby?

Not really, but you could make it shorter by skipping the nappy change (unless it's horrendous, it only wakes them up) and feeding her in bed. I got to the stage with both of mine where I didn't even remember feeding them!!

dubstarr

Yes me too woke up many a time with them stuck to me boob in gob and they were fast asleep.Ah they are gas and i really miss that stage.

How Strange

I think I stopped doing nappy changes around 6 weeks when he stopped pooping every time he fed.

pushkii

ya id say leave out the nappy change too and usually i dont even burp my little one after feed but i have her n the bed with me too . lucky you thats good going only one or two feeds during the night my 4 mth old feeds every 2/3 hrs during the night but thankfully she doesnt wake to be fed Dubstar its the most wonderful feeling in the world the milky smiles and snuggles

dubstarr

I know i dont have it anymore sob.I really miss it.Ah me hearts melting just thinking of it.

emer_b

Pebbles81 wrote: »

Duration wise does an hour seem like a long time to be up with baby?

Hi pebbles, my 10 week old takes exactly an hr for her middle of the night feed (almost to the minute!). It's usually a nappy change and three sleepy feeds with burps in between.
As she only wakes once during the night I don't find it too bad, sometimes the hr flies!
My sister in law assures me she got it down to 40 minutes after a few months.

Pebbles81

Thanks for all the replies.
The middle of the night feed is actually my favourite one, I don't feel the time passing but someone mentioned that they thought that an hour was a long time !
I love that look I get, when it's just me and her in the middle of the night .......so trusting. Melts my heart

liliq

Pebbles81 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.
The middle of the night feed is actually my favourite one, I don't feel the time passing but someone mentioned that they thought that an hour was a long time !
I love that look I get, when it's just me and her in the middle of the night .......so trusting. Melts my heart

Awh that's so lovely!
I love the proper sleepy night time feeds too. And the sleepy morning feeds trying to convince him to stop throwing himself around the bed and go back to sleep for just half an hour. And I hate when he hurts himself but love how breastfeeding fixes it, his little teary eyes looking up at me and him gripping me like I can fix anything. Awh, you're post made me all mushy!
I love all feeds! except for the full night long ones like last night but that's just bold teeth

pushkii

Aww liliq. your post hit the nail on the head !! i also love how an extra bf gives us an extra half an hr in bed :-D and the look. of trust and love from the little one when mammy fixes upsets with bf is incomparable . i never thought i could have such a special bond with my girl :-)

dubstarr

Ah you are making me broody.I miss bf so much im thinking now i could have done it a bit longer.But he was 16 months old and i had been feeding for the guts of 4 1/2 years by that stage.I had 3 very close together and feed for 15/16 months on all.

0ctober

Aww these posts are making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! I also love those feeds where they catch your eye and then suddenly stop feeding and break into a big gummy smile! As if to say thanks mammy this is really yummy!

ariana`

0ctober wrote: »

Aww these posts are making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! I also love those feeds where they catch your eye and then suddenly stop feeding and break into a big gummy smile! As if to say thanks mammy this is really yummy!

Precious :-)

lazygal

I posted a while back about wanting to cut back on the BF. Well I decided to give it another while and I think I'm back to wanting to keep going. Just wanted to let people know not to quit on a bad day/week. I had a day where I had to make up a few bottles and the sterilising and scoop counting did my head in. Too lazy to get onto fulltime formula for the moment and solids are going really well (doing baby led weaning which is great fun!) so the feeds are getting far easier to handle.

lazygal

dubstarr wrote: »

Ah you are making me broody.I miss bf so much im thinking now i could have done it a bit longer.But he was 16 months old and i had been feeding for the guts of 4 1/2 years by that stage.I had 3 very close together and feed for 15/16 months on all.

Dubstarr I'm really interest in your post. Did you get pregnant while BF? And if so, did it affect supply or were there other issues? I'm still BF with one formula bottle at night but we're ready to try for number two (got my first post baby period a while back) and I'd like to keep going on BF another while.

dubstarr

Yes i got pregnant while breastfeeding and my babies didnt like the milk.Sometimes it changes when you are pregnant.But i got 2 months off if you like while pregnant from breastfeeding,but tehn when the baby was born went straight on to bf him.No it didnt affect my supply.

How Strange

I read somewhere this week that if you're pregnant and breastfeeding that your body starts to produce colostrum instead of milk at some point in the third trimester. So the new baby gets the liquid gold although the breastfeeding baby may then self wean if they don't like the change in taste/consistency.

The human body never ceases to amaze me.

dubstarr

Yes i know they self weaned so i never had the bother of engourged breasts,until ds5.When i weaned him i never knew such pain.They were so sore.

littlemissfixit

Im in a bitter sweet place at the moment, looking forward to getting my body back, wear clothes I like and a little more independence... but at the same time there is this mornful feeling. It was like this the first time, but I think its worst now because we think its likely to be our last child.

I have introduce the 3rd daily bottle yesterday, so he now BF at 7am, bottle feed at 10h30/1h30/4h30, BF at 7pm/11pm/3h30am. The 1h30pm bottle and the night feed are quite small but I've tried stretching the daytime feed and he is not having it. I suppose he is still used to little and often munching approach!
Has anyone successfully kept maybe evening and morning feeds, I wouldn't mind keeping going with those especially that he doesnt sleep through yet, But my supply isn't very abundant so I wonder will I be able to do that.

dubstarr

Your supply isnt great because you have bottle fed him.Drop the bottles and feed him yourself and your supply should increase.If nit fennel tea is your friend.
And yes i weaned from bf but my son was 16 months old and you have plenty of time for nice clothes and body back when your child is older.

Neyite

dubstarr wrote: »

Your supply isnt great because you have bottle fed him.Drop the bottles and feed him yourself and your supply should increase.If nit fennel tea is your friend.
And yes i weaned from bf but my son was 16 months old and you have plenty of time for nice clothes and body back when your child is older.

I actually think that breastfeeding helped my body go back to pre-pregnancy shape quicker than it would have if I was bottle feeding. I was back into my normal jeans after 15 days, and back to my pre-pregnancy weight and clothes size after 3 months. Win for baby, Win for mama.:)

CrowWoman

Neyite wrote: »

I actually think that breastfeeding helped my body go back to pre-pregnancy shape quicker than it would have if I was bottle feeding. I was back into my normal jeans after 15 days, and back to my pre-pregnancy weight and clothes size after 3 months. Win for baby, Win for mama.:)

I've never been able to shift any of the baby weight until I stop breastfeeding (this is my fourth). For some reason my body isn't interested in going back to normal while I'm feeding bubs, but it starts to shift without too much trouble when I do.

I think it must be a genetic thing, my mam was the same.

Julo12

littlemissfixit wrote: »

Im in a bitter sweet place at the moment, looking forward to getting my body back, wear clothes I like and a little more independence... but at the same time there is this mornful feeling. It was like this the first time, but I think its worst now because we think its likely to be our last child.

I have introduce the 3rd daily bottle yesterday, so he now BF at 7am, bottle feed at 10h30/1h30/4h30, BF at 7pm/11pm/3h30am. The 1h30pm bottle and the night feed are quite small but I've tried stretching the daytime feed and he is not having it. I suppose he is still used to little and often munching approach!
Has anyone successfully kept maybe evening and morning feeds, I wouldn't mind keeping going with those especially that he doesnt sleep through yet, But my supply isn't very abundant so I wonder will I be able to do that.

LittleMiss I gradually introduced 4 day time bottles and still bf during night if she wakes and first thing in the morning. Yes it affects ur supply but 2 months on I still have enough to keep her happy.
I would have loved to keep going as sometimes now I feel I have the worst of both worlds with prepping bottles and being the only one to get up at night! But baba just had gotten to a stage where she screamed if let down didn't happen quick enough and then just refused to feed, was v stressful for both of us! Had 2 wks of it before I started increasing btls which she was happy out with... Heard since it can be to do with teeth, at the time the nurses I spoke to just suggested my supply must not have been good...
Good luck with it!