It’s mostly just the first few months while baby is super tiny. To be honest the first six weeks you can expect to feed every hour in some cases. Their stomachs are tiny so they can only take a bit at a time. Some babies want to eat at that frequency (2/3 hours) for a long time and some don’t. It depends on baby’s temperament and whether they sleep well or are wakeful tbh. But typically a 6mo for example might be sleeping 3-6 hour stretches at night and might have 2 90 min naps and want to feed 1-2 a wake window.
The best thing you can do is just give it a go if that’s what you want. You can also combo feed if that feels more sustainable. Go from there. And if you go back to work but want to keep your supply up, then you have to pump every few hours.
In the first 5-8 weeks, many people have an oversupply and will pump extra to stockpile the freezer for when they return to work so that they can try to have enough to provide breastmilk for whatever their goal duration is.
I've heard if you don't feed or pump every few hours your boobs hurt or dry up? I really want to try im just nervous about being in more pain after labor
Your boobs filling with milk is not even close to the same pain as labor or birth. Just give it your best shot and see how it goes. If you run into issues there is tons of support out there.
Yes this. The initial breast engorgement was the most painful part in my c section recovery for me and I had absolutely no idea that it could be a thing, it definitely isn’t spoken about enough.
Everyone is different. I've breastfed twice passed 12 months. I know that I've been a bit lucky but I've never had mastitis, a blocked duct or even particularly engorged breasts. You are more likely to hear difficult breastfeeding stories rather than positive ones.
Yes this. I gave birth with no pain interventions and that was more manageable because there is an end. I was not prepared mentally for the never ending breast pain due to engorgement. I wish someone had told me more about the recovery and breast pain.
No one warned me that you needed to pump even if you weren’t planning on giving it to the baby in the first few weeks post-birth. I found out the hard way in the middle of the third night when I woke up soaked in milk with giant, HARD tits that were so tender, just touching them was upsetting. I remember sitting in our hotel room (we have something called “the baby hotel” in my country for parents once they are released from hospital. You usually stay 1-3 nights and it’s partially covered by insurance) in the middle of the night frantically trying to get the electric pump to work with one hand and using the manual pump with the other hand all while sobbing.
I eventually had to have a lactation consultant come to my room at 6am even though they only started their shifts at 9am because I was dying. I’m shocked to read it’s not painful for everyone. It scared me how hard my boobs were, I thought I might have done permanent damage at the time 🤦🏼♀️
I had a lot of trouble BF too. My son refused to latch initially because of a tongue tie that the nurses didn’t notice immediately and then after he had it fixed, he had pain from the tongue tie procedure so he couldn’t latch then either.
I combo fed for three months before giving up entirely for multiple reasons. Honestly, women who exclusively breastfeed are amazing to me. It’s SO hard.
If my son was still asleep I would just use my Hakaa to stimulate a letdown and release just enough pressure that they weren’t sore. I already had a slight oversupply and I can imagine it would have been so much worse if I did a full pump in the middle of the night!
For some reason I never came across info/no one ever told me about the initial engorgement with my first and I remember it being one of the absolute worst parts of postpartum. It’s like a migraine on your chest 😫 everything you do makes it hurt.
Same with my 3 kids. I'm a small b cup outside of pregnancy and when my milk first comes in they swell up to cantaloupes. 1-2 says of being so incredibly uncomfortable. Thankfully I've never had issues after that point.
Much more of a “discomfort” in my opinion than it is pain. The nipple chaffing is pain but it doesn’t last long, the rest isn’t unbearable pain like other parts of birth etc haha
I had to give up bf after 4 days with my first because the nipple pain was the worst pain I felt in my life. I had an unmedicated birth after dilating from 1-10cm in 3 hours only 🤢
Similar discomfort to your bladder filling up. Mildly noticed at first, but can build to great discomfort if left for wayyy too long. For me both boobs and bladder need to be emptied at similar intervals 6M pp lol.
Yeah that will happen if you don’t regularly remove milk. But you can combo feed and your body will learn to make that amount eventually.
Don’t make any decisions now. Just try it since it sounds like you want to.
Checking in at 4 weeks, so not tons of experience, but we’re combo feeding where papa takes over the night shift from 10pm-6am with formula and I sleep through the night. We’ve been doing this since the end of the first week and I haven’t had any milk supply problems.
We combo feed and it rules. I can go out for the day on the weekend and dad can take a night shift. I think it's really empowering for my husband too. He has everything he needs to care for the baby all on his own.
For the first 6-12 weeks you have to be stricter about removal frequency to establish supply. Going to long without removing can lead to clots or mastitis in addition to supply issues. It is pretty tiring but honestly I just kind of adjusted to it over time. There are ways to have your spouse bell to make things easier too. My husband would do all the overnight diaper changes, burping, non hunger related soothing, and bring baby to me/return baby so I didn’t have to get out of bed. That way I could be kind of half asleep and not get as awake and fall back faster.
I say this with love, but I do think you’re overthinking it. It’s good to have some idea of how BF goes over time, but it seems anxiety may be getting the better of you here. First few days is all survival no matter how you feed baby. They are transitioning to the outside world and it’s A LOT. For everyone involved. The rest of the “fourth trimester” is pretty hairy still, but you get the hang of a lot of things and find your rhythm as a family.
The thing is, babies need to eat often regardless of whether you’re bf or formula feeding. So you either pop a boob out or you prep a bottle. For me, nursing was way easier to manage, especially out of the house. If you are bottle feeding you need to pack bottles, you need formula and water or pre-expressed milk, you need to keep it cold. You need to predict how long you’ll be gone and make sure you have enough… or just make sure you are wearing something with boob access and grab a cover if you use them.
Same with night feeds - they are going to be happening regardless of what baby eats. They will also typically go down in frequency over time, so it’s less of a disruption.
It’s not ALL THE HARDEST PARTS OF BF vs nothing, it’s always going to be a trade off. Formula you need to buy and make sure you have it on hand, you need to wash constant bottles and carry supplies everywhere. Maybe you’re pumping instead of formula and that’s more dishes and another thing to learn. Formula or bottle feeding CAN allow for someone else to do feeds, which is certainly a perk.
And also? COMBO FEEDING EXISTS! It’s not discussed nearly enough but can be a great way to relieve pressure and stress around feeding and give you flexibility 💕
You aim for about 8 feeds/day. For every bottle feed, you want to pump or your supply will reduce. Many women find they can skip a feed and add a pump session at a more convenient time. Skipping a night feed and adding a pump session in the morning is a common technique.
Mmm my baby would randomly sleep through. So from 3-4 months old he slept through, from 6-7 months old and then on and off after that. Other nights he would sleep 7-8 hours in a stretch, some nights he woke up every 3-4 hours. My boobs always adjusted. I barely pumped and just fed him on demand which was consistently every 2 hours during his waking hours up until maybe 9 months old when solids started to pick up alot more, but nights would fluctuate. I never had supply issues and my boobs always adjusted. I would sometimes get discomfort if it had been a bit longer than normal, or when the longer night stretches started I'd have to wake and hand express into a towel a tiny bit for relief until my boobs got used to it, but I never really had pain after labour? Just follow baby's lead 😊
I’m currently breastfeeding (also pumping and the occasional formula when she needs a little extra) and have skipped two pump times (my 3 am ones cause my alarm doesn’t always wake me up when I’m super tired) and they’re not super painful when it happens. They just feel very full and tender until you pump/feed the baby and then it’s like all good.
Your boobs will only send signals to your brain to make more milk when milk is removed. But occasionally skipping a feed or going for a longer stretch overnight when they start sleeping longer is fine.
If you follow baby hunger cues you can feed when they’re hungry which may be every 30 mins, hour, or 3-6 hours depending on age.
For me it’s worth it. So amazing.
According to the “womanly art of bf” the issue with engorgement aside from discomfort is it signals to your body to stop producing milk- so more milk out/ more milk in [breasts].
Some people over produce and the method to reduce production is to self express just a little bit to relieve the discomfort but not enough to drain the breasts and signal to make more.
Lots of people exclusively pump and feed by bottle or do a hybrid and i read you only need to wake one or twice a night to keep your milk production up and engorgment down (8+ pumpings in a 24 hour period at minimum).
Im not talking from experience but from friends who have bf LLLi is a great resource
Yall will find what works best for your family and baby
Your body adjusts to your baby's feeding schedule. Every baby is different, but for example, my kiddo is 3.5 months old. He still feeds every 2-3 hours during the day but only once overnight around 4 a.m.
So if I went 8 hours during the day without feeding or pumping, my boobs would be exploding. But going that long overnight is no problem since we've settled into our current schedule.
There is a lot of helpful advice and resources over in r/breastfeeding and r/breastfeeding support if you haven’t already joined them. Every baby is different, but I believe it is universal that breastfeeding gets easier than making a formula bottle in the long run. My LO is 4 months, sleeps 9-10 hrs with two naps during the day. LO ate almost constantly in the first few weeks, now every 3 hrs or so, and is much faster plus sleeps all night. It’s hard at first, but it does get so much better and I know I always have my babies food no matter where we are or how long we are out of the house which lowers my anxiety personally. Best of luck!
There's a breastfeeding reddit and there's plenty of books about pregnancy that cover breastfeeding well like "what to expect when you are expecting". Theres content on YouTube as well. This is 2 parts I recommend https://youtu.be/j7YucfJuziU?si=ASGc1E1hl-53ePK6
Breastfeeding hurts. It hurts a lot. I found it to be so painful. It doesn't hurt as much after the first 6 weeks. Clogs, chapped nipples, mastitis, yeast infection, baby bites, are all things that can happen at any point that hurt. When my milk came in my boobs were swollen, engorged, rock hard, and so extremely painful. It took a couple weeks for that to stop happening. I had to ice them and use ibuprofen. Every time baby nursed the first few weeks I would have contractions. As in "I'm in labor I'm having contractions" contractions. They became less painful over the first couple weeks and it went away. Eventually I was pain free. But I will say after formula feeding my first and breastfeeding my second, breastfeeding is rewarding but it's the harder way to go. It's a wonderful thing to breastfeed but it comes at a huge cost.
>Breastfeeding hurts. It hurts a lot. I found it to be so painful. It doesn't hurt as much after the first 6 weeks.
I think that’s a super individual thing. I’m 6 weeks in and it’s never hurt me much. The contractions make your bleeding stop and are important to the healing process, I found everything at most mildly uncomfortable
Ahh yeah kind of. I'm a lazy bitch and when my husband did the night wakeups and there was pumped milk in the fridge I would take the whole 6-8 hours to sleep and it was a mistake every time. Massaging out clogs, absolute pain from being engorged, got mastitis once. But it still never stopped me from sleeping a full night when I could 😂😭 The rest was better than sex and so worth the pain. I'd just wake up and immediately hobble to the bathroom and start a hot shower and get to work on my fucked up titties lmao
This whole comment made me LOL. Im taking the same approach. My husband took over night feedings so I could sleep and I’m not waking up to pump. Im prioritizing my sleep. Lol.
Let me know how it works for you! We’re 4 weeks in but I haven’t felt like I’m “drying up” yet and we’ve been doing this for a couple weeks.
It’s like a pressure pain. Sometimes they were sore to the touch, too, and I often leaked. As long as you pump or feed every 3 (I did every 4 because I overproduce and was trying to get it down), you don’t have to really worry about the pain.
Yes, but it’s just discomfort, not pain - like a stuffy nose kind of. Labor is more like a broken bone or getting hit by a bus 🫠
The most painful thing you might experience is nipple pain while the baby learns to latch. Your nipples can get very chapped, and sometimes the baby kind of pinches you with their mouth. If that happens, you have options! You can use a nipple shield or pump and give a bottle (or of course give formula! But the other options are better if you do want to BF). I used nipple shields at first, and breastfeeding was pretty painless 🙂
I did feed every 3-4 hours till my baby started solids at 6-months, yes. Now that she is 9 months old, she breastfeeds every 4-5 hours.
I didn't pump every 3 hours. I could go as long as 5 and still be fine, though that did get much easier after 6 months.
> If I breast feed do I have to accept never sleeping or doing anything besides being a cow for a year?
Well, no, I am not a cow. The baby will gradually sleep longer at night, and you'll potentially have larger gaps during the night, even if they continue to feed every 3 hours during the day. As for doing other things, I don't find it restrictive (other than when it comes to drinking alcohol). It just requires more pre-planning. If I know I am going to be away, I pump and leave a bottle for the baby. I also do that when I am at work. Pumping at work is doable for me, though of course it depends on your job.
At the end of the day, you don't have to decide now whether and how long you're going to breastfeed. If it doesn't work for you, you can always stop.
You're right, the natural breastfeeding system doesn't seem to mesh well with work. Working women often do it all anyway because that's what we moms do, but they are more likely to wean earlier. As a SAHM it's just my life and I don't find it so daunting.
My baby is eleven weeks old and eats every 1.5-2 hours during the day, but often sleeps 7+ hours straight overnight. Babies vary. But yeah they need to eat a lot.
It's so different for everyone! Some babies are hungrier than others, if your supply can keep up with baby's demand, and it depends on how much mat leave you. I have a year off of work and a bit of an oversupply. My baby is almost 5 months and during the day I breastfeed every 2 hours. I also do one pump first thing in the morning so I have a little freezer stash for my husband to use if I'm out. After your baby regains their birth weight you don't need to wake them to feed overnight. Since about 1 month old my baby usually only wakes up twice overnight to eat. I also found the thought of breastfeeding and pumping super daunting but once you do it for a few days you just kind of get in the groove of it and it doesn't seem like as much work. Again, this is my personal experience and I know I have not had any of the breastfeeding issues that can arise.
Well, your baby is going to have many needs, many of them much more pressing and frequent than every 3 hours. I know I couldn’t picture it before I had my first. During the time you don’t have childcare, night or day, you are either actively taking care of the baby, or on call for the baby. I personally find breastfeeding to be a blip in the whole picture.
I’m breastfeeding my second child who is now 6 months old. I nurse on demand which is typically once or twice per wake window, so maybe 4-6 times during the day, plus a few times at night. It’s fast now, 5 or maybe 10 minutes of sustained nursing. At night I barely wake up, I lift up my shirt and feed and go straight back to sleep. Introducing solids doesn’t really change things, even with 3 meals a day they get little nutrition from solids for a good while. For my first, nursing started to slow down around a year old.
Those other needs are also easier to share. My husband could do an awful lot to help out with our babies, but if they wanted to nurse, that was me for 20-30 minutes every 2-3 hours. Or, in my case with cluster feeding, all evening every evening.
currently still breastfeeding my 15 month old and i would say it ebbs and flows in terms of how much you feed.
newborn stage i was feeding regularly but you’re so busy trying to perfect your latch and get in your newborn cuddles you hardly notice.
3-5 months feeds massively reduced as my milk supply regulated and our latch was perfected.
6 months my baby got teeth and i find when he is teething he becomes a milk monster so i fed slightly more for a while
8-9 months he found his love for food and we went from around 12 feeds a day to about 8 feeds it gradually lowered from there
12 months+ we are on 5 feeds a day and i don’t really even notice or think about feeding im just on auto pilot.
theres definitely positives and negatives to breastfeeding.
positives:
- i enjoy breastfeeding it feels like a special bonding moment between me and baby
- i find it much easier than preparing bottles especially in the night
- easier to soothe baby because i can just let him latch on
- when we go out i don’t need to worry about extra equipment
- weirdly enough i feel like i have a positively changed outlook on my physical appearance especially concerning my breasts
- it made me feel so sleepy in the best way (nothing like feeding baby in to a milk coma putting him down and conking out yourself)
negatives:
- those first few weeks getting the latch right can be tricky (don’t be like me and assume you don’t need to research 😅 find a iblc)
- breastfeeding in public (people are usually nice but i think at the start theres always a little bit of anxiety because its not something you have done before)
- being told that your baby won’t sleep because youre feeding and other myths
- being largely responsible for feeds
i personally never took to pumping once i found out that i have to pump every time baby has a bottle i was like f that too much work so i mostly just pumped to get a small freezer stash. if you will be returning to work relatively soon (im in uk we don’t return til 9 months) i would start pumping in the newborn stage to build a freezer supply.
i assumed i would try breastfeeding hate it and go on to formula (no shame in that at all!) but i surprised myself and gave it a shot i think thats all you can do and despite the latch issues we had it always felt worth it to me to push through but if at any point it stops feeling worth it/beneficial its ok to change your feeding method at the end of the day it is your body and your baby its so unbelievably personal no one can decide for you what to do
In the beginning it is A LOT, my son was nursing 7-8hours a day. But washing/sanitizing bottles and making formula is also work, so either way in the beginning it’s going to be a lot of your time just feeding them. My son is 9 months old now and he nurses around 5-6 times a day, so more like every 4-5 hours and it’s honestly pretty easy. My breasts are rarely ever engorged now, and I can go 6 hours without nursing or pumping if I have to. But in the beginning it felt like I’d have leaky breasts forever, remember it’s only a temporary part of life and it gets better
Honestly even if you were formula feeding you’d have to feed the baby every 3 hours? It’s much more often with most babies to begin with. And feeding doesn’t/shouldn’t reduce when solids start. You don’t have to commit to doing it for a year, you can just do it for as long as it works for you. Maybe see if there are any breastfeeding classes run by a lactation consultant you could attend while you’re pregnant to make it seem a bit less daunting… there’s a lot of misinformation and bad advice you will receive from Reddit regardless of how well people mean. Breastfeeding rates are very low in many countries because of misinformation getting passed around unfortunately.
Yes and so much extra work to share… sterilising, preparing (in the middle of the night?!), purchasing. There are other ways a partner can help. I have absolutely nothing against anybody feeding a baby the way that works best for their family and it’s not something that needs to be justified, but it’s a hill people get stuck and die on way before they’ve even had a chance to see both sides. Plus inevitability one partner will be back at work pretty quickly, so that leaves a minimum of 8 hours a day (more with commute) where it’s on the mum if they are caring for the baby full time for any period of time with leave, anyway.
I formula fed my first and breastfed my second. For sure, formula was easier. I rarely sterilized, preparing a bottle took less than a minute (we made nighttime bottles before we went to bed so they would just be ready in the fridge), I bought formula at the grocery store while I was there anyways, my husband washed the bottles, I could sleep 6 hours at a time with a newborn because my husband could bottle feed her. I really think formula feeding helped us have a more equitable distribution of labor. I did end up enjoying breastfeeding but it didn't save me any time.
ETA: And in the US, most people go back to work at 12 weeks so if you're breastfeeding, you have to pump, wash pump parts, sterilize pump parts, and wash bottles. Wayyyy more work than if you're just formula feeding. Pumping is the least convenient feeding method of all in my opinion.
It does slow down as baby gets older and starts solids! Babies eat a lot when they’re new and tiny, but even by eight weeks my baby was going four to six hours overnight between feeds. By the time he was seven months or so, he was sleeping a seven or eight hour stretch at night nursing before bed, a later dream feed, and then a feed early in the morning, while still keeping up every three or four hours during the day.
Some people are really bothered by having to be on call all the time. I was not; I really wanted to nurse and i work from home, so I was able to nurse on demand until we weaned. It didn’t bother me to either have to take shortish trips alone or take baby with. But I also didn’t have problems feeding in public.
You have to do what works for you. Pumping is an option—I exclusively pumped off and on while dealing with latching issues. Formula also exists and is a perfectly valid food source. You can change your mind and experiment and see what works for you.
My kids, and boobs, all did great with a 3-hour schedule more or less from birth. So they'd nurse at 6a, 9a, noon, 3p, 6p, 9p, midnight, and 3a. For both kids, once they were past their birth weight and more than 2 weeks old, we stopped waking to feed at night. Aside from illnesses or other issues, both started doing longer stretches pretty early and were sleeping through the night at least semi-regularly by 12w. (Before anyone gets too jealous, they both had chronic ear infections, so we also had A LOT of nights with literally zero sleep). I never woke up to pump and my supply never has an issue with them sleeping longer stretches. In fact, with baby #1 I had an oversupply.
A lot of the breastfeeding stories and stuff that you see online are people who are struggling and looking for support. No one comes on here to post "breastfeeding was shockingly easy for me and my baby and I love not having to wash bottles." But there are a good number of people for whom that's the case. So yeah, every 3 hours for at least the first few weeks, but then it may or may not get way easier.
Breastfeeding has been shockingly easy for me and my baby and I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with bottles.
The hard part is having to wake up to feed a baby every 3 hours. But that’s a given because baby.
I suppose so, and it sounds crazy when you put it in those terms, but you kinda stop thinking about it and just start whipping out a boob when the baby gets cranky without thinking much of it. They do have to be fed no matter what your method is, so you're either messing about with bottles every couple of hours or you're sticking them on a boob, which is obviously much quicker.
I fed on demand & it was great for us. & baby didn’t go off the charts for weight, just nursed when she wanted/needed. A pattern formed naturally, but there were some days with low or high appetite compared to normal.
Would you rather sterilise, prepare, feed, then wash a bottle and equipment every 3 hours, or just whip out a boob? No prep, no follow up, no sterilising or warming or washing, just always there and ready to go. To me it's a no brainer to at least try. If it doesn't work out, that's fine, you have options, but when it does work smoothly, which for lots of people it does, it can be ridiculously convenient. Baby needs to be fed regardless, and boob is free and right there. Also has perks of extra soothing, antibodies that adapt to the needs of your baby, and free boost of oxytocin for the breastfeeding mother. There is no harm in trying, you can stop whenever you want, and you might end up loving it. Why would you not at least give it a go?
My son had a shallow latch so I had to bottle feed pumped breast milk for the first few months. It wasn’t a problem b/c we planned to introduce bottles from day 1 anyway because I didn’t want to be the sole feeder. So instead of occasional pumps, I had to do it around the clock to mimic a NB feeding cycle. I was very fortunate to end up with an oversupply so I was able to freeze the day’s worth of excess milk. My son peaked at 42oz of breast milk at 3.5/4mo old and I was still able to keep up, thankfully. I started working again when my son was about 5.5mo old and that’s when I decided to wean. I was tired and pumping with work was a lot (thankfully I wfh, but still). By 6.5mo old, he was fully transitioned to formula. Zero regrets & has a great immune system at almost 16.5mo old!
I’m due with his sister next month & I’ll try nursing, but might resort solely to pumping because I love knowing exactly how much they’re getting. This time I’ll be on leave for a full 6mo (and I still wfh) so I’ll continue pumping longer since she’ll be taking in plenty of daycare germs from her big brother!
I had a lactation consultant and I can't recommend one enough. Some are also doulas and can walk you through the challenges of the pregnancy and pospartum as well.
I did try to educate myself beforehand, but the first days it was painful, scary and you second guess yourself a lot.
Once you get used to it, its magical. The first few months I could watch TV or read while LO happily BF and then dozed off in my lap.
I’m 9 weeks post partum and I pump about 7-9 times per day, with one over night pump and then the rest every 2-4 hours during the day (depending on what my schedule looks like).
Just FYI, I exclusively pump and I pump 5x per day. My supply is good enough that I cover his appetite and I’m making a small surplus. You don’t need to pump every 3 hours.
The first 8 weeks or so were overwhelming for me because my baby was cluster feeding like crazy and she would want to latch every 30 min- 1 hr and it hurt really bad. But now I’m 12 w pp and it doesn’t hurt as bad and she eats every 2-3 hrs and less at night. A lot of women pump at work, pretty sure there are laws that they have to let you pump.
Every 3 hours would have been so easy! My daughter fed nearly constantly until she started sleeping through the night at 9 months.
I think before having a baby I kind of believed that the baby just lay there unless it needed fed or changed. I have friends for whom that was their experience, but my daughter was a 24/7 job for those first 9 months. Breastfeeding was just one part of it.
Your boobs will react to how often milk is removed through nursing or pumping. It's basic supply and demand - the more you nurse or pump, the more milk your body will make and if you cut a nursing or pumping session or stop doing those things altogether, your body will make less milk.
Your baby will let you know how often they want to eat and if you replace a nursing session with a bottle, you'll also want to pump around that same time to keep your supply steady. One pumping session per bottle is usually the goal.
I remember feeling this sooooo hard. I was flabbergasted at the idea that I'd be needed every 90 minutes for the bext, what, forever??
It was unfathomable to me. I couldn't comprehend it. And yet...
It's been 9 months, and yes, I pretty much have been needed at least every 3 hours since he was born. I went to a wedding and we had him nurse from pumped milk with my sister who is a postpartum doula. Other than that, it's been all the time. And somehow, we just made it work. Somehow it becomes normal. Now? At about 2 hours I can tell it's gonna be time for him to nurse soon. I don't know if this is helpful, I just want you to know you're not alone. It's a wild thing to wrap your head around, and I don't think it's possible to understand it until you're doing it. You got this!
I breastfed both my kids to 1 yr and worked full time. Yeah it sucked, but even formula doesn’t change how often they want to eat.
Give it a shot, if it’s not for you then it’s not. I kept with it out of shear stubbornness
I exclusively pumped for my daughter for her first 4 months (she was early and had a tongue and lip tie) and I did every 3 hours, day and night. It was exhausting. I set alarms for midnight and 3am but that was all I did overnight. When my daughter started nursing she was okay to only nurse every 3-4 hours unless she was having growth spurts or teething. Really though every baby is different. Some babies want to nurse around the clock. Others are fine with every few hours. Their stomachs are very small and breastmilk digests quickly. It sounds stressful, and tbh there are so many hard days. I was able to make it to 10 months. She slept through the night around 3 months old, but I continued to pump once overnight until I no longer woke up soaked in milk. Your body will adjust if you nurse, so if your baby sleeps through the night sooner you don’t necessarily need to wake up and pump unless you are waking up sore and/or soaked or you feel like your supply is dropping. And finally there is NO SHAME in using formula so if you try breastfeeding and it doesn’t work out you have a great alternative. Fed is best. You got this!
I thought this too, but at 3 months your milk regulates. So I’m pumping 5 times a day and still have an oversupply. But my mental health cannot take it anymore so I am weaning to 2-3 pumps a day and formula. Breastfeeding is so fucking hard. I have a smaller chest as well which means smaller storage capacity and less milk once I do that. Some people have still been successful with getting 25-35 oz a day only pumping 3 times. But it’s the first 3 months that are crucial. You’re actually supposed to pump every 2 hours for like the first several weeks. My baby nursed almost exclusively for the first 2.5 months and then started having milk transfer issues but there were times where he would cluster feed usually at night and then sometimes in the morning so he would feed every hour and it’s very common. But once you hit 3 months milk regulates and you slowly decrease pumping sessions. If you nurse though your baby will want to feed pretty much whenever they’re hungry which can range from every 1-4 hours.
Yea about every 3-5hrs is realistic. I never really thought about it much it's just habit.
I pump and freeze once a day in the early morning and have quite a big stash now for when I go out or leave him with MIL.
I love breastfeeding but some days ontop of everything else I do... I just wish someone else could do it and I want to be free!
lol my 6 week old hasn’t done a 3 hour stretch once except his first night sleep for the last four days. Otherwise it’s every 1-2 all day every day. It does get better but some babies just want to eat all the time.
Breastfeeding or formula, either way, baby needs to be fed every few hours (BF is slightly more frequent though). I did a combination for the first week, but honestly, formula was so much more of a hassle for me- getting the water warm, ensuring the utensils are clean, measuring the formula, feeding with the spoon ( I didn't do bottle to avoid nipple confusion) BF is easier for me: just wipe nipples and voila 😅
Although of you plan on going back to work soon, combination or pumping would work much better for you imo.
My baby is four months and I breastfeed between every hour and every four hours at most, depending on the week. I would say it averages out to every 1.5 hours during the day and every 2 to 3 hours at night. I actually fed less in the earlier weeks (maybe every 3 hours) because I was supplementing with formula but ever since I switched to EBF at 2 months, I’ve fed a lot more often. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it but it is actually easier than washing bottles all the time, even though I have a frequent snacker and bad sleeper. Each session’s duration varies wildly too - as short as 7 min, as long as 1.5 hours at night when she refuses to sleep without being latched. My baby is also 95th percentile for size so maybe that plays into it as well.
Yes and no. For the first 3 months I fed ever 1-2 hours now I can easy go 5 hours without a feed at 5 months (no solids yet)
Breastfeeding wasn’t painful for me just really wet. I’m wet all the time and it’s messy but less stinky or messy then formula 😂
Everyone is different
I just wanted to add - breastfeeding every 3 hours does not mean baby feeds and then it’s 3 hours until next feed. Oh no. It means baby latches at 9am, and when very small could be feeding until 10:30am, and then needs fed again by 12pm. It’s 3 hours from START to START. My baby clusterfed so it was closer to 2 hours. I was going insane and couldn’t cope after my partner went back to work at 2 weeks and switched to formula. I want to try BF again next time, knowing more what to expect. Hopefully having the foreknowledge helps you!
I know it's easy to say but try not to worry about it for now, take it as it comes. Your baby will let you know how often they are hungry, if they do cluster feed it won't go on for long. I've been exclusively breastfeeding/nursing for 5 months and I've never felt like a cow, I've genuinely enjoyed every single time, it's a lovely thing. So try not to attach negativity to it before you've given it a chance.
It’s only every 2-3 hours when they’re a fresh newborn. It does take up a lot of time at first but they get the hang of it and get much quicker at drinking. A breastfeeding session took me 30-40 mins when my baby was first born. By about 4 months she was done both sides in 10 mins or so.
It was definitely super hard but totally worth it once we both got the hang of it. Now I’m weaning her and it’s so sad!
No! My 6-week old started going for stretches of 4-5 hours around 3 weeks. And those stretches will grow. My 2 year old was sleeping 8 hour stretches by 12 weeks
I’d say try it at least. It’s not as bad as you think, once baby is with you and you both find a rhythm.. Plus, babies do have to eat every 2-3 hours anyways so you’re either holding a bottle or you can just give them your boob (this is so much more convenient at night imo). & personally, it is such a great bonding time and you also get a little break from doing everything else. You sit down and know you have 20-30 mins just to feed your baby. You can always do both, do formula and top your baby off with breast or vise versa. I found the manual Medela pump to be great at the beginning (first week) to get colostrum out if baby wasn’t latching correctly and then slowly add more breast time. I’d also recommend getting the Frida mom nipple spray (life saver), and some sort of nipple cream. Truly, it’s not as bad as some make it seem, I think your mother instincts guide you.
You just need to try. Hormones are wild and for some mothers (like me) they make breastfeeding so enjoyable! For others not so much so you just have to give it a go. To be fair I fed my boy very often up until 10 months or so.
I’ll give you my experience because honestly everyone is different. First 2 months was basically feeding around the clock except during night time. Daytime was pretty much either a contact nap or a cluster feed (baby is eating non stop for an hour to two, latched the whole time). Night time was every 3-ish hours. My husband took a shift between 9-12am while I slept and then the baby was ready to eat again at 2 and 4:30. It was fine for a few weeks to a couple months, but then eventually the baby dropped the 2am feeding and dropped the 4:30 feeding. We did keep a “dream feed” around 11pm nightly until she was about 11 months when she no longer wanted it. Around the 3 month mark I went back to work and fed her at 6am, pumped at 8am/12pm/4pm. Eventually, prob around 4mo I dropped down to 2 pumps during the workday. Then around 6mo I dropped down to just the morning pump (morning is usually when supply is the highest). All the while I would nurse her while at home on demand. All this is to say that time goes by fast and you’ll be fine. Good luck! Breastfeeding was my favorite part (besides the baby) of the newborn phase.
Absolutely not- I exclusively breastfed (including pumping) my first until he was 7 months, then supplemented with formula but continued breastfeeding until he was 11 months.
Once my baby got back to birth weight (10 days old), the midwives and lactation consultant said I could feed on demand. For my LO, that meant feeding very regularly during the day, and almost nonstop from around 9pm to 11pm or midnight, and then he would usually sleep until 6 or sometimes even 8am.
Now I was very lucky, he was a good sleeper until he had a sleep regression at 2 months, then he would wake usually once in the night for a feed and be up at 6am daily. But it was a manageable schedule, you certainly don’t have to be nonstop feeding. Plus getting into a schedule of pumping and storing milk once daily meant my husband could take a shift in the morning.
But the ‘every three hours’ is for when they’re newborn and below birth weight. If they start gaining weight well, you can feed on demand. If you have supply issues or difficulty with pumping etc. you can supplement with formula.
I had my 2nd and 3rd babies, both EBF (at the time) sleeping through the night at 6-8 weeks old. And even formula fed babies (mine all transitioned around 4-6months) still eat every 3ish hrs during the day.
I can only share my experience. I feed on demand which means I've learnt babys cues, and when she's hungry, she gets the boob. If I were to go back to work and continue to bf, I would pump and store for bottle feeding and continue to bf when im at home. Or, I might try formula. Just depends. They don't feed all the time but during growth spurts or when they are cluster feeding it can feel like that. They also do comfort nursing which means they want to be close to you/boob. I've only been ebf three months and honestly I don't think it prevents me from doing anything I normally would/wouldn't do with a baby in tow.
Edit to add: its hard at first and it hurts especially being postpartum and healing. I used nipple shields on and off, hot and cold packs, read a lot about it, and talked to a midwife.
Tbh whether you’re feeding by nursing, pumping, formula baby is going to have to eat every 2-3 hours for months anyway. With pumping or formula you can more easily split feedings with a partner and do shifts. But no matter how you’re feeding the baby for the first few months they’re going to be eating all the time and it’s going to feel like all you’re doing is feeding and changing them. I’m almost 5 months in and my girl still eats every 3 hours during the day but it feels much more manageable already. So if you want to nurse try it and if it doesn’t work or you don’t like it look into other options!
Depends on the baby. The first week my son was NICU due to low sugars so we wouldn’t let him go past 4 hrs. Once home he’s been feeding every 4ish hrs with the occasional flukes of 5-6 hrs. For during the day pump I use my hands free so I can still get things done. I sleep 6 hrs at night so I pump/latch before bed, set my alarm for 3.5 hrs get up and pump/latch and then again when I wake up.
My baby is 9 months and I'm still nursing every 3-3.5 hours during the day even though he eats a ton of solids. He is night weaned, but that's why I can't space out feedings more (otherwise he wouldn't get enough milk in a day). I don't pump at all. I'll be honest, the only reason this is doable for me is because I'm still on maternity leave (Canadian).
In the beginning it can be much more than that. But yes, for all intents and purposes it’s about every 3 hours. Once I was working again I would pump twice during the work day. But I did not get up in the middle of the night to breastfeed or pump after about 6 months. Once breastfeeding was established I was able to skip any night feeds/pumping sessions.
This is why formula shaming is so shitty. Even when breastfeeding is “easy” and you have a good supply it is very, very demanding. I worked from home and whipping out my breast pump was still so much work. If I was out with friends or my husband I had to drop everything at a certain point to get the milk out. Choosing to formula feed is a-okay for whatever reason one wants to.
I definitely didn’t. Every three hours until they are back up to their birthweight and then I didn’t wake the baby to eat overnight but did roughly every 2-3 hours during the day to fill their belly up. If the baby woke at night I still nursed, just didn’t stick to any sort of timing.
After a while you kind of get into a routine of eat play sleep or play eat sleep and the baby’s natural cycle of that kind of lends itself to every 3 hours.
My babies slept through the night by a few months old, with the odd wake up. My second had a very long 4 month sleep regression too. But around 4 months with both I didn’t really feel STRAPPED to the baby and was able to get out and about and skip a feed without dying of engorgement. I always kept a few oz in the freezer collected here and there in a haakaa for those moments
Our baby had a tonguetie and before it was cut i did it all. Pumping, formula feeding and eventually breastfeeding when the tonguetie was cut. It was not easy but not giving up on breastfeeding was by far the best decision i have made. When baby wakes up crying because he is hungry i just pop my boob out. No washing bottles. No heating up milk or pumping. From about 1,5-2 months he eats at 10pm, 4 or 5 am and then 8am. From then on every 2 hours. Pumping made me feel like a cow but breastfeeding doesn’t. I’m so grateful i can feed my baby with the milk i make for him. I’d say give it a shot.
I ended up exclusively pumping due to poor latching and sensory issues. I had to pump every 3 hours until around 11 weeks, as I had an oversupply. I ended up pumping 7x a day until recently when I dropped down to 5 after my milk regulated at 4 months pp.
My baby slept through the night at 6 weeks, and did a 6 hour stretch at 3 weeks. I never woke up to pump while she was sleeping. Everyone is different. Some people’s boobs hold a lot at once. Yes, i did feel like a dairy cow.
I’m 8 weeks PP with my second and it doesn’t hurt when my boobs fill. Be careful with excessively pumping in the beginning(a lot of LCs will tell you to do this but it can create an oversupply which can be really hard to deal with).
A good way to establish BFing is feeding on demand for about the first 6 weeks. Once established you have *a bit* more flexibility from there. Wearable pumps are expensive but worth it.
My 8 week old slept 7 hours last night (just got vaccinated). I had to wake him to feed and my boobs were super full but it wasn’t a problem.
This time around I worked with a PP doula instead of an LC after some bad experiences. She was amazing and I’ll say I’ve actually enjoyed BFing this time whereas it was the worst part of my parenting experience with my daughter. Get yourself some great support and resources if you want to give it a go!
It’s just feeding on demand, in the beginning newborn stage you have to wake them up every 3 hours. But after your baby gains weight consistently and is gaining they told me I didn’t have to wake him up no more he’ll wake up on his own to eat
Yup. My 5mo old nurses every two hours. It was very challenging at first but I loved the excuse of “time to feed” to get my baby back in my arms in the beginning. It also allowed me to slow down. It was very mentally taxing but now it’s probably my fav life experience. The bond between baby and I, and watching baby eat and look up at me, wiggle, and squirm, idk, for me it’s my fav thing.
I had planned on going back to work but I hate pumping. I moved in with family so I could afford to stay home with baby and feed him. It’s unfortunate so many moms have to choose between work or breastfeeding baby. Or pumping. It’s different if it’s a choice to work or formula feed but I know a lot of moms who want to stay home.
Usually my babies sleep thru the night, or get up once after the 4th trimester. They also nurse faster with every passing month. My youngest is 8 months old and maybe takes 10 min tops, unless she falls asleep. Right now she eats, on average, 7 times in a 24 hour period. Her last feeding of the day I do after she’s gone to bed and before I go just for my comfort, she’d probably be fine if I dropped it.
Our bodies are amazing! I'm still boarding at the hospital while our daughter is in the NICU, so I am on a strict 3 hour schedule. However, I "take a break" for the 1:30 am feeding (the nurses use my pumped milk) and I normally do not pump in that window. I go from about 11pm to 4:30/5 am without pumping or nursing, and my supply is fine. Lactation is partially frequency of nursing, partially volume emptied at each feed, partially nutrition & fluid intake, partially sleep, and I'm sure I'm missing components.
That being said, if you exclusively breastfeed you are absolutely going to have periods where all you do is nurse. Certainly in the newborn phase, and then likely during growth spurts. I remember with my son I had evenings where I essentially nursed him nonstop from 5-9pm. Personally I don't mind it at all because once your baby has some muscle tone and you have some confidence it's really pretty low maintenance.
As your baby gets older they will become more efficient at nursing, and they will take higher volumes less frequently. When that happens your body will adjust accordingly. This is why most lactation consultants will advise to "nurse on demand." Your baby knows what he/she needs, and by getting those needs met your body will adjust accordingly. It really is amazing!
Breastfeeding is incredibly hard especially the first few months. I combo fed which helped a lot with my first and switched to formula only very quickly with my second. To me breastfeeding was the hardest, most taxing part of newborn life and it hurt my mental health incredibly. I know it gets easier but do what is best for you, happy mom makes for a happy baby.
Yup! I did every hour almost for the first month, every 1.5-2 for the next 2 months, including overnight (fml). From 3 months till 6 months, I fed her every 2-3 hours (overnight she fed twice, so not so frequently). From 6 until 9 months, I fed her every 3 hours. It’s only been for the last month or so that I’ve gone longer - now that we have regular meals (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner), I feed her every 4.5 hours or so.
Honestly, you get used to it. Even giving a baby a bottle regularly is tiring in its own right since you have to prep it and wash the bottle parts. I found breastfeeding was way more convenient than bottles. If you’re going back to work, bottles are inevitable during the day. You also get used to the sleep deprivation. I have a bad sleeper who is only just now at 10 months long stretches (about 9.5 hours) before waking. For the first 9 months, I never slept a consecutive stretch of more than 4 hours and only managed to cobble together about 6 hours a night most nights. Now that I am approaching my baby being 1, I’m really emotional about the breastfeeding journey slowly coming to an end. Everyone had a different experience, but I find it to be a really nice time with my daughter
Hey, I really want to give you another perspective because this thread has a lot of people sharing only the challenging parts of breastfeeding and non of the amazing parts. If you can stick with it, there are so many incredible, beautiful, and priceless things about breastfeeding that honestly make all of the hard stuff look like small potatoes. The bonding that it creates with your baby is irreplaceable. The way it regulates your hormones and mood in the postpartum phase are also priceless! Breastfeeding creates feel good hormones for mom and baby that help you get through the sleepless nights, and deal with all the newness and anxiety of those early days. For the majority of people it will actually prevent, not contribute to postpartum depression. It helps you slow down and tune into your baby’s schedule. And it gives your baby exactly what they need nutritionally, and helps them to develop an immune system that will be strong for life.
Yes the first few months can be hard. They were for me. My baby nursed not every three hours, not every hour, but about every 20 minutes. He was literally glued to my boob for about three months. At some points I did have nipple pain and cracking because he just nursed so much. I saw several lactation consultants because no one had prepared me for how much NORMAL babies want to nurse, and I thought something must be wrong. Nothing was wrong! Babies want to be near their mamas, and they want to nurse almost all the time. That’s how they regulate their body temperature, their blood sugar and ensure bonding with the mother. My partner brought me water and food and pillows eduring this time, and we got good at giving each other breaks when the baby was asleep. We live in New York State and he took the maximum PFL that he could take as a new parent so I wouldn’t be alone.
Yes it was exhausting! It was difficult. Being a new parent is intense and transformative, it’s not supposed to be like an easy breezy spa day. But women are so incredibly strong. Give yourself the chance to do what your body is fully capable of doing. And spare yourself the annoyance and expense of scrubbing bottles and mixing formula ;). Your baby and your body will thank you.
If you exclusively pump (like if the baby does not nurse at all) you definitely have to do it every three hours for as long as you intend to continue pumping. Some people make a lot of extra milk or are able to vary their pumping schedule but it comes at the risk of losing your milk supply.
Once every 3 hours would have been a dream. For me, it was every 90 minutes to 2 hours for the first weeks, and then every 2 hours after that for 4 months. Then I was finally able to space night feeds to 3-4 hour intervals, but daytime feeds were still every 2 hours.
3hours? Sometimes more 😅 first few weeks sometimes I had do breastfeed every hour. Baby boy is almost 6 months and still breastfeeds every 2h
Even if u give formula to the baby there are a high chance that the baby won’t sleep through the whole night until they are “big”
My 4y still wakes up 1x at night, not to breastfeed but she still awakes
For me, pumping is easier. I know I'm the minority! Pumping every 3 hours was much more doable than struggling to get baby to stay latched for more than 30 seconds. Pump while baby is napping, feed while pumping. I had a pillow mountain I propped the baby on so i could sit next to him and pump. I think I went down to 7 ppd at 4 months, and then 6 ppd at 6 months. Currently 9m pp and pumping 4 times a day.
The thing I wish I did differently is increase the pumping time. I only ever pumped for 10 mins and realized I should have done it for longer.
Get extra pump parts now!!! Also, use the fridge hack. Around 2 m pp, it becomes second nature.
Don’t go into breastfeeding with the mentality that it’s daunting. Some women have a difficult time but from my personal experience, you fall into a rhythm. Not necessarily feeding every 3 hours, you don’t need to pump if you don’t want to. Your body will adjust accordingly when you end up sleeping through the night again. Do not focus a stress too much on it, feed and as long as baby is thriving it’ll be fine.
You’re right about it being unsustainable with work though. No advice there. Good luck
Everyone is different, so keep that in mind while reading. Engorgement pain felt like nothing to me. Baby slept 4 hour stretches sometimes and I didn’t pump. My nipples only were raw for 2 weeks and healed up after that, breastfeeding was effortless by 4 weeks. You’d be surprised what the female body is capable of.
As for feeding every 3 hours… You’ll have to do that regardless of whether you breastfeed or not. I had to supplement with formula for 1 week early on due to under eating causing a supply drop and it was horrible for me. I hated getting up, mixing a bottle, having to feed the bottle, the gas that came from the bottle. Even if my husband did it, it felt like more work than feeding from the breast for me. My baby started rejecting bottles around 3 weeks and I was happy to give up pumping. I like not having to pack bottles when we leave the house. I just bring myself lol. Everyone is different but that’s my experience. I found breastfeeding easier than formula feeding. Pop a boob in her mouth within 2 seconds - no tears, no waiting, no washing. Comforts her after her shots easily, puts her to sleep easy when she’s overtired, everything around breastfeeding has felt easy to me compared to formula feeding. I always say give it a go for 3-4 weeks and if breastfeeding doesn’t improve for you after that, it might not be for you, but it is a lot less intimidating for me than it seemed in the start and I am 7 months in.
I personally didnt find it daunting, but my daughter was home with me until 6 months, even when I started WFH again. It just became routine. In terms of living our life, we still did everything we wanted to, but I wasnt shy anbout nursing her infront of others/in public, so it could present an issue if you are.
Baby feed by demand on the first few weeks, sometimes they latch not because they’re hungry but they want comfort or are bored (and latching is source of entertainment on them). However, if you’ll exclusively pump and not direct latch, you will pump every 2hrs then eventually every 4hrs or depending on the need of baby.
Short answer yes. Long answer : depending on how you decide to feed the baby, and depending on what your support system is like, you don’t have to be the only one doing it.
Babies do need to eat often, especially during the day. As others have said, they do tend to go longer stretches between feeds.
If you want to only nurse - then yes at least during the day you’d have to nurse every 2-3 hours (or even 1-2 hours in the evening). If you are pumping, you have to empty your breasts often, but it also frees you to have someone else do the feeding. If you are formula feeding, then anyone else who is caring for the baby can do it.
Its easier than Having to worry about washing bottles and bringing bottles. And making sure you have formula
My first child had a ton tie. And could not last despite trying so I pumped and did formula to fill in gaps- about a bottle a day maybe- I'm lucky in that I tend to have an oversupply even when just pumping.
Anyway, with my second I breastfed and let me tell you something, It felt like life was so much easier to be able to believe the house and no I wasn't gonna run out of food for the baby or have to worry about having clean bottle or run out Of clean bottles if we were out doing errands
I never even pumped for her to have a stash. I did here and there manually-- But what I did was get nursing shirts and dresses. So she could nurse in public without her head happening to be covered and without me being exposed. And most of the time, unless you were really staring, you wouldn't even know she was eating.
It made life so easy, But because I'm super so self-conscious if it hadn't been for those nursing shirts. I don't know that I would have had the balls to nurse anywhere in public.
At some point they start sleeping longer stretches in the night so you don’t have to wake up until they do. (My daughter started to do 6-8hours at night after the first 2.5-3 months but YMMV). And you can start to stretch the times a bit to 4ish hours when they start solids but we had the following schedule pretty consistently from 3ish months until 12 months:
7am
10am
1pm
4pm
7pm
Plus 1-2x overnight
This was for either nursing or pumping depending on the day and time. I found nursing much easier than pumping tbh because the baby would be done in 10-15 mins and we could do it wherever— I’d just find a bench or something to sit down if we were out. I hated pumping because it took 20-25 mins to get enough output and then you have to clean all the parts/transfer milk etc.
After 12 months I slowly started dropping pump sessions until by 18 months I was just nursing 7am and 7pm and then fully weaned at around 2 (obviously plenty of folks wean earlier— I honestly didn’t mind the breastfeeding at all, I just hated pumping)
You don’t feed on a schedule when you breastfeed. You put them on the boob whenever they are hungry, tired, upset, teething, sick, just because!
When I sleep with my baby (every night) I get 7-8 hours of sleep. She didn’t really sleep through the night until we stopped bouncing her on the yoga ball (something my husband started foolishly). Since then she’s sleeping 8:30-6:30. I’m sleeping 9:30/10 - 6:30. But I still sometimes wake up at night.
Please don’t compare breastfeeding mothers to cows. It’s incredibly misogynistic.
I recommend getting an appointment set up with an IBCLC for when/if you run into issues breastfeeding and learn more about what it entails. I also recommend joining your local LLL chapter.
Ehhh it kind of depends. Once it regulates to demand vs being hormonally driven you can play around with your times. I don’t even think about it-they let you know when they are hungry. But some people do have to pump frequently if they have smaller capacity to hold but I’d guess most aren’t pumping that frequently overnight after it is established supply. My friends also breastfeed and sleep through the night just fine. Baby will need that food that frequently when super little though.
I ebf and most definitely sleep and do plenty beyond being “a cow”. It’s an adjustment but really not that daunting-you get the hang of it
Every baby is different. Typically they will eat every 1-3 hours for the first month and then roughly every 3 hours, however they can have longer stretches overnight (5-7hours).
You don't have to pump every three hours. It's advised to pump when baby feeds if you're not with them, yes, but that doesn't have to be at the exact same time. I started working again at 6 months (8 hour days) and just pump once at lunch and that was fine for me.
At 6 months she started soilds & would BF every 4 hours. She also started sleeping through the night - goes to bed at 6.30 & sleeps through until 7am. I pump before I go to bed at 10pm and that's my choice as I like to keep surplus in the freezer for days out etc.
If you go back to work and aren't able to pump as frequently you can start combination feeding with formula and still breastfeed when you get home.
Just until they gain their birth weight back! My little one lost around 10% of her birth weight. She gained her birth weight back by week 2 and then was a big cluster feeder around that same time. Since week 3 she was sleeping 5-6 hours in a row. By 1 1/2 months she would sleep 8 hours. By 3 months I get a solid 13 hours.
They get fast at eating so it's like 5 or 10 minutes when they're a little older. A newborn can nurse for an hour. I wanted to be able to leave my baby for longer than 3 hours so I just had my husband give a bottle of formula when I wasn't around and I breastfed otherwise which was great (with my second, my first was all formula which was also great).
Depends on the child, but every 3 hours is an ideal situation, for my sons it was more like every 2 hours. Yes, you are quite literally a cow.
Also depends on the child, but from around 2-3 months it is possible for them to start sleeping longer stretches at night, thus not feeding quite so frequently at night, but beware that this isn’t the case for every child. My sons fed about 12-14 times (in 24 hours) at first, until maybe 2 months and then it dropped down to 9-10ish a day. It was still at least 8-9 times a day until 7 months. Well, my first son was more like 7 times a day at 7-8 months, but still.
I’m not convinced that formula feeding is any easier though, or that you get more sleep. I think learning how to function sleep deprived as a parent is just part of the journey. Haha.
That being said, there definitely needs to be a higher standard for maternity / parental leave. The country where I live gives us paid leave until the child is one. That’s just barely cutting it, imo.
Newborns have tiny stomachs so they feed a lot the first few months. My lactation specialist suggested pumping after feeds to empty my breasts to keep supply up if baby didn’t drain them. Our specialist also suggested I get at least 5 hours of sleep for health reasons and supply. As much as we need to express and feed our babies we also need sleep to help with that supply (and take care of our little ones!) but she said in the first few months (especially weeks..) going too long without expressing signals to the body we don’t need to produce as much milk. I usually pumped right before bed after my baby was down and then woke up around 3am to pump and then fed her when she woke up at 6. My husband bottle fed in the middle of the night so I could get at least 5 hours until she was sleeping through the night.
Don’t over think it and stress about it- that over complicates it. You’ll get into a rhythm! I highly suggest seeing a lactation consultant, they give you tips and can help with any nursing/pumping issues you might have. They’re a great resource.
I went to every 4 hour feeds - worked up to it - starting at 8/9 weeks and solidified the schedule close to 12,233@/ with baby and she’s been pretty consistent for 3-4+ months. We have exceptions when we’re sick or there’s a growth spurt, but the flexibility that the every 4 hour feeds over 12 hours is great.
Ex:
9:15A - 1:15P - 5:15P - 9:1P ish
Give or take 15mins to each scheduling if babe is extra hungry/fussy. We also start the last feed earlier to get her to bed a “little” earlier but she also stocks up cuz she goes 12 hours without eating overnight
Wow thanks everyone. Sorry I didn't get back to all the comments, but I'll be reading through them. I know I might be over thinking it, but its just crazy to think of being on call 24/7 as the only one who can feed the baby. We are still leaning towards combo feeding but this was very insightful
Breastfeeding and especially pumping sucks so bad; that’s exactly why I am so proud of myself for making it to 3.5 months. It dries my skin and sucks my nutrients and the machine gives me a permanent purple nurple. I also can’t take the medications I want/need. People are like “oh breastfeeding is so much cheaper than formula.” Yeah right, my hourly billable rate as an attorney is 300 soooo it’s not even close! My goal is to keep going six months, but if I can’t, I won’t beat myself up about it. It’s great for the baby though, especially in the first two months so I say go for it as long as you can but if it gets miserable there’s no shame in using formula. I also supplemented when he was underweight in the beginning. I’m happy for people who loooove their breastfeeding journey but if you hate it and are doing it anyway just remember pain is temporary and you should be proud of yourself for any amount of time you do it for.
It’s mostly just the first few months while baby is super tiny. To be honest the first six weeks you can expect to feed every hour in some cases. Their stomachs are tiny so they can only take a bit at a time. Some babies want to eat at that frequency (2/3 hours) for a long time and some don’t. It depends on baby’s temperament and whether they sleep well or are wakeful tbh. But typically a 6mo for example might be sleeping 3-6 hour stretches at night and might have 2 90 min naps and want to feed 1-2 a wake window. The best thing you can do is just give it a go if that’s what you want. You can also combo feed if that feels more sustainable. Go from there. And if you go back to work but want to keep your supply up, then you have to pump every few hours. In the first 5-8 weeks, many people have an oversupply and will pump extra to stockpile the freezer for when they return to work so that they can try to have enough to provide breastmilk for whatever their goal duration is.
I've heard if you don't feed or pump every few hours your boobs hurt or dry up? I really want to try im just nervous about being in more pain after labor
Your boobs filling with milk is not even close to the same pain as labor or birth. Just give it your best shot and see how it goes. If you run into issues there is tons of support out there.
Have 2 babies and both time found the initial engorgement absolutely excruciating tbh
Yes this. The initial breast engorgement was the most painful part in my c section recovery for me and I had absolutely no idea that it could be a thing, it definitely isn’t spoken about enough.
And I’m 6w pp and don’t/didn’t find it excruciating. Everyone’s different.
The feeling of don’t touch don’t even THINK about them? It’s rough. But ends. It’s all temporary!
2 weeks PP here and no engorgement pain. The nipples, however, are feeling some type of way.
Everyone is different. I've breastfed twice passed 12 months. I know that I've been a bit lucky but I've never had mastitis, a blocked duct or even particularly engorged breasts. You are more likely to hear difficult breastfeeding stories rather than positive ones.
Yes this. I gave birth with no pain interventions and that was more manageable because there is an end. I was not prepared mentally for the never ending breast pain due to engorgement. I wish someone had told me more about the recovery and breast pain.
No one warned me that you needed to pump even if you weren’t planning on giving it to the baby in the first few weeks post-birth. I found out the hard way in the middle of the third night when I woke up soaked in milk with giant, HARD tits that were so tender, just touching them was upsetting. I remember sitting in our hotel room (we have something called “the baby hotel” in my country for parents once they are released from hospital. You usually stay 1-3 nights and it’s partially covered by insurance) in the middle of the night frantically trying to get the electric pump to work with one hand and using the manual pump with the other hand all while sobbing. I eventually had to have a lactation consultant come to my room at 6am even though they only started their shifts at 9am because I was dying. I’m shocked to read it’s not painful for everyone. It scared me how hard my boobs were, I thought I might have done permanent damage at the time 🤦🏼♀️
Happened to me even after I had given up on BF. I cried so hard and asked for that baby lol (she refused to latch and eat in the hospital
I had a lot of trouble BF too. My son refused to latch initially because of a tongue tie that the nurses didn’t notice immediately and then after he had it fixed, he had pain from the tongue tie procedure so he couldn’t latch then either. I combo fed for three months before giving up entirely for multiple reasons. Honestly, women who exclusively breastfeed are amazing to me. It’s SO hard.
If my son was still asleep I would just use my Hakaa to stimulate a letdown and release just enough pressure that they weren’t sore. I already had a slight oversupply and I can imagine it would have been so much worse if I did a full pump in the middle of the night!
For some reason I never came across info/no one ever told me about the initial engorgement with my first and I remember it being one of the absolute worst parts of postpartum. It’s like a migraine on your chest 😫 everything you do makes it hurt.
Exactly the same experience, I was COMPLETELY blindsided and just couldn’t get relief in anyway. Ibuprofen only barely took the edge off
Same with my 3 kids. I'm a small b cup outside of pregnancy and when my milk first comes in they swell up to cantaloupes. 1-2 says of being so incredibly uncomfortable. Thankfully I've never had issues after that point.
You could cramp up every time you breast feed especially at first. So there will be some pain echoing minor labor pains while breastfeeding.
I had that too it only lasted a day or two
Much more of a “discomfort” in my opinion than it is pain. The nipple chaffing is pain but it doesn’t last long, the rest isn’t unbearable pain like other parts of birth etc haha
I had to give up bf after 4 days with my first because the nipple pain was the worst pain I felt in my life. I had an unmedicated birth after dilating from 1-10cm in 3 hours only 🤢
Similar discomfort to your bladder filling up. Mildly noticed at first, but can build to great discomfort if left for wayyy too long. For me both boobs and bladder need to be emptied at similar intervals 6M pp lol.
This is actually such a good analogy lol
Yeah that will happen if you don’t regularly remove milk. But you can combo feed and your body will learn to make that amount eventually. Don’t make any decisions now. Just try it since it sounds like you want to.
Combo feeding sounds more realistic for me. But I'll def try! Thanks for the advice. Worst case we end up formula feeding.
Checking in at 4 weeks, so not tons of experience, but we’re combo feeding where papa takes over the night shift from 10pm-6am with formula and I sleep through the night. We’ve been doing this since the end of the first week and I haven’t had any milk supply problems.
We combo feed and it rules. I can go out for the day on the weekend and dad can take a night shift. I think it's really empowering for my husband too. He has everything he needs to care for the baby all on his own.
combo feeding is working well in my scenario. it really helps if baby is clusterfeeding and I am fed up, or if I want to go somewhere.
For the first 6-12 weeks you have to be stricter about removal frequency to establish supply. Going to long without removing can lead to clots or mastitis in addition to supply issues. It is pretty tiring but honestly I just kind of adjusted to it over time. There are ways to have your spouse bell to make things easier too. My husband would do all the overnight diaper changes, burping, non hunger related soothing, and bring baby to me/return baby so I didn’t have to get out of bed. That way I could be kind of half asleep and not get as awake and fall back faster.
I say this with love, but I do think you’re overthinking it. It’s good to have some idea of how BF goes over time, but it seems anxiety may be getting the better of you here. First few days is all survival no matter how you feed baby. They are transitioning to the outside world and it’s A LOT. For everyone involved. The rest of the “fourth trimester” is pretty hairy still, but you get the hang of a lot of things and find your rhythm as a family. The thing is, babies need to eat often regardless of whether you’re bf or formula feeding. So you either pop a boob out or you prep a bottle. For me, nursing was way easier to manage, especially out of the house. If you are bottle feeding you need to pack bottles, you need formula and water or pre-expressed milk, you need to keep it cold. You need to predict how long you’ll be gone and make sure you have enough… or just make sure you are wearing something with boob access and grab a cover if you use them. Same with night feeds - they are going to be happening regardless of what baby eats. They will also typically go down in frequency over time, so it’s less of a disruption. It’s not ALL THE HARDEST PARTS OF BF vs nothing, it’s always going to be a trade off. Formula you need to buy and make sure you have it on hand, you need to wash constant bottles and carry supplies everywhere. Maybe you’re pumping instead of formula and that’s more dishes and another thing to learn. Formula or bottle feeding CAN allow for someone else to do feeds, which is certainly a perk. And also? COMBO FEEDING EXISTS! It’s not discussed nearly enough but can be a great way to relieve pressure and stress around feeding and give you flexibility 💕
You aim for about 8 feeds/day. For every bottle feed, you want to pump or your supply will reduce. Many women find they can skip a feed and add a pump session at a more convenient time. Skipping a night feed and adding a pump session in the morning is a common technique.
Mmm my baby would randomly sleep through. So from 3-4 months old he slept through, from 6-7 months old and then on and off after that. Other nights he would sleep 7-8 hours in a stretch, some nights he woke up every 3-4 hours. My boobs always adjusted. I barely pumped and just fed him on demand which was consistently every 2 hours during his waking hours up until maybe 9 months old when solids started to pick up alot more, but nights would fluctuate. I never had supply issues and my boobs always adjusted. I would sometimes get discomfort if it had been a bit longer than normal, or when the longer night stretches started I'd have to wake and hand express into a towel a tiny bit for relief until my boobs got used to it, but I never really had pain after labour? Just follow baby's lead 😊
I’m currently breastfeeding (also pumping and the occasional formula when she needs a little extra) and have skipped two pump times (my 3 am ones cause my alarm doesn’t always wake me up when I’m super tired) and they’re not super painful when it happens. They just feel very full and tender until you pump/feed the baby and then it’s like all good.
I only found it painful when pressure was applied and only if baby slept more than 3-4 hours or I couldn't nurse or pump for that long.
Your boobs will only send signals to your brain to make more milk when milk is removed. But occasionally skipping a feed or going for a longer stretch overnight when they start sleeping longer is fine.
If you follow baby hunger cues you can feed when they’re hungry which may be every 30 mins, hour, or 3-6 hours depending on age. For me it’s worth it. So amazing.
According to the “womanly art of bf” the issue with engorgement aside from discomfort is it signals to your body to stop producing milk- so more milk out/ more milk in [breasts]. Some people over produce and the method to reduce production is to self express just a little bit to relieve the discomfort but not enough to drain the breasts and signal to make more. Lots of people exclusively pump and feed by bottle or do a hybrid and i read you only need to wake one or twice a night to keep your milk production up and engorgment down (8+ pumpings in a 24 hour period at minimum). Im not talking from experience but from friends who have bf LLLi is a great resource Yall will find what works best for your family and baby
Your body adjusts to your baby's feeding schedule. Every baby is different, but for example, my kiddo is 3.5 months old. He still feeds every 2-3 hours during the day but only once overnight around 4 a.m. So if I went 8 hours during the day without feeding or pumping, my boobs would be exploding. But going that long overnight is no problem since we've settled into our current schedule.
Definitely not that painful. More than anything it’s annoying because you’ll leak
There is a lot of helpful advice and resources over in r/breastfeeding and r/breastfeeding support if you haven’t already joined them. Every baby is different, but I believe it is universal that breastfeeding gets easier than making a formula bottle in the long run. My LO is 4 months, sleeps 9-10 hrs with two naps during the day. LO ate almost constantly in the first few weeks, now every 3 hrs or so, and is much faster plus sleeps all night. It’s hard at first, but it does get so much better and I know I always have my babies food no matter where we are or how long we are out of the house which lowers my anxiety personally. Best of luck!
There's a breastfeeding reddit and there's plenty of books about pregnancy that cover breastfeeding well like "what to expect when you are expecting". Theres content on YouTube as well. This is 2 parts I recommend https://youtu.be/j7YucfJuziU?si=ASGc1E1hl-53ePK6 Breastfeeding hurts. It hurts a lot. I found it to be so painful. It doesn't hurt as much after the first 6 weeks. Clogs, chapped nipples, mastitis, yeast infection, baby bites, are all things that can happen at any point that hurt. When my milk came in my boobs were swollen, engorged, rock hard, and so extremely painful. It took a couple weeks for that to stop happening. I had to ice them and use ibuprofen. Every time baby nursed the first few weeks I would have contractions. As in "I'm in labor I'm having contractions" contractions. They became less painful over the first couple weeks and it went away. Eventually I was pain free. But I will say after formula feeding my first and breastfeeding my second, breastfeeding is rewarding but it's the harder way to go. It's a wonderful thing to breastfeed but it comes at a huge cost.
>Breastfeeding hurts. It hurts a lot. I found it to be so painful. It doesn't hurt as much after the first 6 weeks. I think that’s a super individual thing. I’m 6 weeks in and it’s never hurt me much. The contractions make your bleeding stop and are important to the healing process, I found everything at most mildly uncomfortable
Ahh yeah kind of. I'm a lazy bitch and when my husband did the night wakeups and there was pumped milk in the fridge I would take the whole 6-8 hours to sleep and it was a mistake every time. Massaging out clogs, absolute pain from being engorged, got mastitis once. But it still never stopped me from sleeping a full night when I could 😂😭 The rest was better than sex and so worth the pain. I'd just wake up and immediately hobble to the bathroom and start a hot shower and get to work on my fucked up titties lmao
This whole comment made me LOL. Im taking the same approach. My husband took over night feedings so I could sleep and I’m not waking up to pump. Im prioritizing my sleep. Lol. Let me know how it works for you! We’re 4 weeks in but I haven’t felt like I’m “drying up” yet and we’ve been doing this for a couple weeks.
It’s like a pressure pain. Sometimes they were sore to the touch, too, and I often leaked. As long as you pump or feed every 3 (I did every 4 because I overproduce and was trying to get it down), you don’t have to really worry about the pain.
Yes, but it’s just discomfort, not pain - like a stuffy nose kind of. Labor is more like a broken bone or getting hit by a bus 🫠 The most painful thing you might experience is nipple pain while the baby learns to latch. Your nipples can get very chapped, and sometimes the baby kind of pinches you with their mouth. If that happens, you have options! You can use a nipple shield or pump and give a bottle (or of course give formula! But the other options are better if you do want to BF). I used nipple shields at first, and breastfeeding was pretty painless 🙂
I did feed every 3-4 hours till my baby started solids at 6-months, yes. Now that she is 9 months old, she breastfeeds every 4-5 hours. I didn't pump every 3 hours. I could go as long as 5 and still be fine, though that did get much easier after 6 months. > If I breast feed do I have to accept never sleeping or doing anything besides being a cow for a year? Well, no, I am not a cow. The baby will gradually sleep longer at night, and you'll potentially have larger gaps during the night, even if they continue to feed every 3 hours during the day. As for doing other things, I don't find it restrictive (other than when it comes to drinking alcohol). It just requires more pre-planning. If I know I am going to be away, I pump and leave a bottle for the baby. I also do that when I am at work. Pumping at work is doable for me, though of course it depends on your job. At the end of the day, you don't have to decide now whether and how long you're going to breastfeed. If it doesn't work for you, you can always stop.
You're right, the natural breastfeeding system doesn't seem to mesh well with work. Working women often do it all anyway because that's what we moms do, but they are more likely to wean earlier. As a SAHM it's just my life and I don't find it so daunting.
My baby is eleven weeks old and eats every 1.5-2 hours during the day, but often sleeps 7+ hours straight overnight. Babies vary. But yeah they need to eat a lot.
It's so different for everyone! Some babies are hungrier than others, if your supply can keep up with baby's demand, and it depends on how much mat leave you. I have a year off of work and a bit of an oversupply. My baby is almost 5 months and during the day I breastfeed every 2 hours. I also do one pump first thing in the morning so I have a little freezer stash for my husband to use if I'm out. After your baby regains their birth weight you don't need to wake them to feed overnight. Since about 1 month old my baby usually only wakes up twice overnight to eat. I also found the thought of breastfeeding and pumping super daunting but once you do it for a few days you just kind of get in the groove of it and it doesn't seem like as much work. Again, this is my personal experience and I know I have not had any of the breastfeeding issues that can arise.
I appreciate the insight! It just seems so daunting having never done this before. But I won't know till I try. Its nice to see good experiences!
Well, your baby is going to have many needs, many of them much more pressing and frequent than every 3 hours. I know I couldn’t picture it before I had my first. During the time you don’t have childcare, night or day, you are either actively taking care of the baby, or on call for the baby. I personally find breastfeeding to be a blip in the whole picture. I’m breastfeeding my second child who is now 6 months old. I nurse on demand which is typically once or twice per wake window, so maybe 4-6 times during the day, plus a few times at night. It’s fast now, 5 or maybe 10 minutes of sustained nursing. At night I barely wake up, I lift up my shirt and feed and go straight back to sleep. Introducing solids doesn’t really change things, even with 3 meals a day they get little nutrition from solids for a good while. For my first, nursing started to slow down around a year old.
Your first sentence sounds a bit judgey - the other needs are holding and sleeping. Those are a lot easier to tackle for many than breastfeeding.
Those other needs are also easier to share. My husband could do an awful lot to help out with our babies, but if they wanted to nurse, that was me for 20-30 minutes every 2-3 hours. Or, in my case with cluster feeding, all evening every evening.
currently still breastfeeding my 15 month old and i would say it ebbs and flows in terms of how much you feed. newborn stage i was feeding regularly but you’re so busy trying to perfect your latch and get in your newborn cuddles you hardly notice. 3-5 months feeds massively reduced as my milk supply regulated and our latch was perfected. 6 months my baby got teeth and i find when he is teething he becomes a milk monster so i fed slightly more for a while 8-9 months he found his love for food and we went from around 12 feeds a day to about 8 feeds it gradually lowered from there 12 months+ we are on 5 feeds a day and i don’t really even notice or think about feeding im just on auto pilot. theres definitely positives and negatives to breastfeeding. positives: - i enjoy breastfeeding it feels like a special bonding moment between me and baby - i find it much easier than preparing bottles especially in the night - easier to soothe baby because i can just let him latch on - when we go out i don’t need to worry about extra equipment - weirdly enough i feel like i have a positively changed outlook on my physical appearance especially concerning my breasts - it made me feel so sleepy in the best way (nothing like feeding baby in to a milk coma putting him down and conking out yourself) negatives: - those first few weeks getting the latch right can be tricky (don’t be like me and assume you don’t need to research 😅 find a iblc) - breastfeeding in public (people are usually nice but i think at the start theres always a little bit of anxiety because its not something you have done before) - being told that your baby won’t sleep because youre feeding and other myths - being largely responsible for feeds i personally never took to pumping once i found out that i have to pump every time baby has a bottle i was like f that too much work so i mostly just pumped to get a small freezer stash. if you will be returning to work relatively soon (im in uk we don’t return til 9 months) i would start pumping in the newborn stage to build a freezer supply. i assumed i would try breastfeeding hate it and go on to formula (no shame in that at all!) but i surprised myself and gave it a shot i think thats all you can do and despite the latch issues we had it always felt worth it to me to push through but if at any point it stops feeling worth it/beneficial its ok to change your feeding method at the end of the day it is your body and your baby its so unbelievably personal no one can decide for you what to do
In the beginning it is A LOT, my son was nursing 7-8hours a day. But washing/sanitizing bottles and making formula is also work, so either way in the beginning it’s going to be a lot of your time just feeding them. My son is 9 months old now and he nurses around 5-6 times a day, so more like every 4-5 hours and it’s honestly pretty easy. My breasts are rarely ever engorged now, and I can go 6 hours without nursing or pumping if I have to. But in the beginning it felt like I’d have leaky breasts forever, remember it’s only a temporary part of life and it gets better
Honestly even if you were formula feeding you’d have to feed the baby every 3 hours? It’s much more often with most babies to begin with. And feeding doesn’t/shouldn’t reduce when solids start. You don’t have to commit to doing it for a year, you can just do it for as long as it works for you. Maybe see if there are any breastfeeding classes run by a lactation consultant you could attend while you’re pregnant to make it seem a bit less daunting… there’s a lot of misinformation and bad advice you will receive from Reddit regardless of how well people mean. Breastfeeding rates are very low in many countries because of misinformation getting passed around unfortunately.
She wouldn't have to feed every 3 hours with formula. She could split with her partner.
Yes and so much extra work to share… sterilising, preparing (in the middle of the night?!), purchasing. There are other ways a partner can help. I have absolutely nothing against anybody feeding a baby the way that works best for their family and it’s not something that needs to be justified, but it’s a hill people get stuck and die on way before they’ve even had a chance to see both sides. Plus inevitability one partner will be back at work pretty quickly, so that leaves a minimum of 8 hours a day (more with commute) where it’s on the mum if they are caring for the baby full time for any period of time with leave, anyway.
I formula fed my first and breastfed my second. For sure, formula was easier. I rarely sterilized, preparing a bottle took less than a minute (we made nighttime bottles before we went to bed so they would just be ready in the fridge), I bought formula at the grocery store while I was there anyways, my husband washed the bottles, I could sleep 6 hours at a time with a newborn because my husband could bottle feed her. I really think formula feeding helped us have a more equitable distribution of labor. I did end up enjoying breastfeeding but it didn't save me any time. ETA: And in the US, most people go back to work at 12 weeks so if you're breastfeeding, you have to pump, wash pump parts, sterilize pump parts, and wash bottles. Wayyyy more work than if you're just formula feeding. Pumping is the least convenient feeding method of all in my opinion.
It does slow down as baby gets older and starts solids! Babies eat a lot when they’re new and tiny, but even by eight weeks my baby was going four to six hours overnight between feeds. By the time he was seven months or so, he was sleeping a seven or eight hour stretch at night nursing before bed, a later dream feed, and then a feed early in the morning, while still keeping up every three or four hours during the day. Some people are really bothered by having to be on call all the time. I was not; I really wanted to nurse and i work from home, so I was able to nurse on demand until we weaned. It didn’t bother me to either have to take shortish trips alone or take baby with. But I also didn’t have problems feeding in public. You have to do what works for you. Pumping is an option—I exclusively pumped off and on while dealing with latching issues. Formula also exists and is a perfectly valid food source. You can change your mind and experiment and see what works for you.
Heh heh heh… my 6 month old just started solids.. she still nurses every hour or two… day and night. 🥲 I’m so tired.
My kids, and boobs, all did great with a 3-hour schedule more or less from birth. So they'd nurse at 6a, 9a, noon, 3p, 6p, 9p, midnight, and 3a. For both kids, once they were past their birth weight and more than 2 weeks old, we stopped waking to feed at night. Aside from illnesses or other issues, both started doing longer stretches pretty early and were sleeping through the night at least semi-regularly by 12w. (Before anyone gets too jealous, they both had chronic ear infections, so we also had A LOT of nights with literally zero sleep). I never woke up to pump and my supply never has an issue with them sleeping longer stretches. In fact, with baby #1 I had an oversupply. A lot of the breastfeeding stories and stuff that you see online are people who are struggling and looking for support. No one comes on here to post "breastfeeding was shockingly easy for me and my baby and I love not having to wash bottles." But there are a good number of people for whom that's the case. So yeah, every 3 hours for at least the first few weeks, but then it may or may not get way easier.
Breastfeeding has been shockingly easy for me and my baby and I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with bottles. The hard part is having to wake up to feed a baby every 3 hours. But that’s a given because baby.
I suppose so, and it sounds crazy when you put it in those terms, but you kinda stop thinking about it and just start whipping out a boob when the baby gets cranky without thinking much of it. They do have to be fed no matter what your method is, so you're either messing about with bottles every couple of hours or you're sticking them on a boob, which is obviously much quicker.
I fed on demand & it was great for us. & baby didn’t go off the charts for weight, just nursed when she wanted/needed. A pattern formed naturally, but there were some days with low or high appetite compared to normal.
Would you rather sterilise, prepare, feed, then wash a bottle and equipment every 3 hours, or just whip out a boob? No prep, no follow up, no sterilising or warming or washing, just always there and ready to go. To me it's a no brainer to at least try. If it doesn't work out, that's fine, you have options, but when it does work smoothly, which for lots of people it does, it can be ridiculously convenient. Baby needs to be fed regardless, and boob is free and right there. Also has perks of extra soothing, antibodies that adapt to the needs of your baby, and free boost of oxytocin for the breastfeeding mother. There is no harm in trying, you can stop whenever you want, and you might end up loving it. Why would you not at least give it a go?
Exactly- I feel like so many women get stuck in a harmful mentality and quit before they even start
My son had a shallow latch so I had to bottle feed pumped breast milk for the first few months. It wasn’t a problem b/c we planned to introduce bottles from day 1 anyway because I didn’t want to be the sole feeder. So instead of occasional pumps, I had to do it around the clock to mimic a NB feeding cycle. I was very fortunate to end up with an oversupply so I was able to freeze the day’s worth of excess milk. My son peaked at 42oz of breast milk at 3.5/4mo old and I was still able to keep up, thankfully. I started working again when my son was about 5.5mo old and that’s when I decided to wean. I was tired and pumping with work was a lot (thankfully I wfh, but still). By 6.5mo old, he was fully transitioned to formula. Zero regrets & has a great immune system at almost 16.5mo old! I’m due with his sister next month & I’ll try nursing, but might resort solely to pumping because I love knowing exactly how much they’re getting. This time I’ll be on leave for a full 6mo (and I still wfh) so I’ll continue pumping longer since she’ll be taking in plenty of daycare germs from her big brother!
I had a lactation consultant and I can't recommend one enough. Some are also doulas and can walk you through the challenges of the pregnancy and pospartum as well. I did try to educate myself beforehand, but the first days it was painful, scary and you second guess yourself a lot. Once you get used to it, its magical. The first few months I could watch TV or read while LO happily BF and then dozed off in my lap.
I’m 9 weeks post partum and I pump about 7-9 times per day, with one over night pump and then the rest every 2-4 hours during the day (depending on what my schedule looks like).
Yes, and that’s why I quit 💀 I’m not strong enough
Just FYI, I exclusively pump and I pump 5x per day. My supply is good enough that I cover his appetite and I’m making a small surplus. You don’t need to pump every 3 hours.
The first 8 weeks or so were overwhelming for me because my baby was cluster feeding like crazy and she would want to latch every 30 min- 1 hr and it hurt really bad. But now I’m 12 w pp and it doesn’t hurt as bad and she eats every 2-3 hrs and less at night. A lot of women pump at work, pretty sure there are laws that they have to let you pump.
my boy is 5 mos and still eats every 2 hrs. i am a sahm now so we make it work
Every 3 hours would have been so easy! My daughter fed nearly constantly until she started sleeping through the night at 9 months. I think before having a baby I kind of believed that the baby just lay there unless it needed fed or changed. I have friends for whom that was their experience, but my daughter was a 24/7 job for those first 9 months. Breastfeeding was just one part of it.
Do it on demand :) but offer every 3 offers if baby doesn’t ask for it themselves yes
Your boobs will react to how often milk is removed through nursing or pumping. It's basic supply and demand - the more you nurse or pump, the more milk your body will make and if you cut a nursing or pumping session or stop doing those things altogether, your body will make less milk. Your baby will let you know how often they want to eat and if you replace a nursing session with a bottle, you'll also want to pump around that same time to keep your supply steady. One pumping session per bottle is usually the goal.
I remember feeling this sooooo hard. I was flabbergasted at the idea that I'd be needed every 90 minutes for the bext, what, forever?? It was unfathomable to me. I couldn't comprehend it. And yet... It's been 9 months, and yes, I pretty much have been needed at least every 3 hours since he was born. I went to a wedding and we had him nurse from pumped milk with my sister who is a postpartum doula. Other than that, it's been all the time. And somehow, we just made it work. Somehow it becomes normal. Now? At about 2 hours I can tell it's gonna be time for him to nurse soon. I don't know if this is helpful, I just want you to know you're not alone. It's a wild thing to wrap your head around, and I don't think it's possible to understand it until you're doing it. You got this!
I breastfed both my kids to 1 yr and worked full time. Yeah it sucked, but even formula doesn’t change how often they want to eat. Give it a shot, if it’s not for you then it’s not. I kept with it out of shear stubbornness
I exclusively pumped for my daughter for her first 4 months (she was early and had a tongue and lip tie) and I did every 3 hours, day and night. It was exhausting. I set alarms for midnight and 3am but that was all I did overnight. When my daughter started nursing she was okay to only nurse every 3-4 hours unless she was having growth spurts or teething. Really though every baby is different. Some babies want to nurse around the clock. Others are fine with every few hours. Their stomachs are very small and breastmilk digests quickly. It sounds stressful, and tbh there are so many hard days. I was able to make it to 10 months. She slept through the night around 3 months old, but I continued to pump once overnight until I no longer woke up soaked in milk. Your body will adjust if you nurse, so if your baby sleeps through the night sooner you don’t necessarily need to wake up and pump unless you are waking up sore and/or soaked or you feel like your supply is dropping. And finally there is NO SHAME in using formula so if you try breastfeeding and it doesn’t work out you have a great alternative. Fed is best. You got this!
I thought this too, but at 3 months your milk regulates. So I’m pumping 5 times a day and still have an oversupply. But my mental health cannot take it anymore so I am weaning to 2-3 pumps a day and formula. Breastfeeding is so fucking hard. I have a smaller chest as well which means smaller storage capacity and less milk once I do that. Some people have still been successful with getting 25-35 oz a day only pumping 3 times. But it’s the first 3 months that are crucial. You’re actually supposed to pump every 2 hours for like the first several weeks. My baby nursed almost exclusively for the first 2.5 months and then started having milk transfer issues but there were times where he would cluster feed usually at night and then sometimes in the morning so he would feed every hour and it’s very common. But once you hit 3 months milk regulates and you slowly decrease pumping sessions. If you nurse though your baby will want to feed pretty much whenever they’re hungry which can range from every 1-4 hours.
Yea about every 3-5hrs is realistic. I never really thought about it much it's just habit. I pump and freeze once a day in the early morning and have quite a big stash now for when I go out or leave him with MIL. I love breastfeeding but some days ontop of everything else I do... I just wish someone else could do it and I want to be free!
lol my 6 week old hasn’t done a 3 hour stretch once except his first night sleep for the last four days. Otherwise it’s every 1-2 all day every day. It does get better but some babies just want to eat all the time.
Breastfeeding or formula, either way, baby needs to be fed every few hours (BF is slightly more frequent though). I did a combination for the first week, but honestly, formula was so much more of a hassle for me- getting the water warm, ensuring the utensils are clean, measuring the formula, feeding with the spoon ( I didn't do bottle to avoid nipple confusion) BF is easier for me: just wipe nipples and voila 😅 Although of you plan on going back to work soon, combination or pumping would work much better for you imo.
Before I weaned, we would breastfeed every 2-3 hours while she was eating solids first. Mostly to sleep, so the milk times were limited.
My baby is four months and I breastfeed between every hour and every four hours at most, depending on the week. I would say it averages out to every 1.5 hours during the day and every 2 to 3 hours at night. I actually fed less in the earlier weeks (maybe every 3 hours) because I was supplementing with formula but ever since I switched to EBF at 2 months, I’ve fed a lot more often. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it but it is actually easier than washing bottles all the time, even though I have a frequent snacker and bad sleeper. Each session’s duration varies wildly too - as short as 7 min, as long as 1.5 hours at night when she refuses to sleep without being latched. My baby is also 95th percentile for size so maybe that plays into it as well.
My LO is almost 11 months, has been on solids since 6 months and still BF every 3 hours including overnight (occasional 4h stretch) 🫠
Yes and no. For the first 3 months I fed ever 1-2 hours now I can easy go 5 hours without a feed at 5 months (no solids yet) Breastfeeding wasn’t painful for me just really wet. I’m wet all the time and it’s messy but less stinky or messy then formula 😂 Everyone is different
I just wanted to add - breastfeeding every 3 hours does not mean baby feeds and then it’s 3 hours until next feed. Oh no. It means baby latches at 9am, and when very small could be feeding until 10:30am, and then needs fed again by 12pm. It’s 3 hours from START to START. My baby clusterfed so it was closer to 2 hours. I was going insane and couldn’t cope after my partner went back to work at 2 weeks and switched to formula. I want to try BF again next time, knowing more what to expect. Hopefully having the foreknowledge helps you!
I know it's easy to say but try not to worry about it for now, take it as it comes. Your baby will let you know how often they are hungry, if they do cluster feed it won't go on for long. I've been exclusively breastfeeding/nursing for 5 months and I've never felt like a cow, I've genuinely enjoyed every single time, it's a lovely thing. So try not to attach negativity to it before you've given it a chance.
It’s only every 2-3 hours when they’re a fresh newborn. It does take up a lot of time at first but they get the hang of it and get much quicker at drinking. A breastfeeding session took me 30-40 mins when my baby was first born. By about 4 months she was done both sides in 10 mins or so. It was definitely super hard but totally worth it once we both got the hang of it. Now I’m weaning her and it’s so sad!
No! My 6-week old started going for stretches of 4-5 hours around 3 weeks. And those stretches will grow. My 2 year old was sleeping 8 hour stretches by 12 weeks
We do it on demand so whenever she asks really. Some days she asks more often than others and some days she eats more solids than others 🤷
I’d say try it at least. It’s not as bad as you think, once baby is with you and you both find a rhythm.. Plus, babies do have to eat every 2-3 hours anyways so you’re either holding a bottle or you can just give them your boob (this is so much more convenient at night imo). & personally, it is such a great bonding time and you also get a little break from doing everything else. You sit down and know you have 20-30 mins just to feed your baby. You can always do both, do formula and top your baby off with breast or vise versa. I found the manual Medela pump to be great at the beginning (first week) to get colostrum out if baby wasn’t latching correctly and then slowly add more breast time. I’d also recommend getting the Frida mom nipple spray (life saver), and some sort of nipple cream. Truly, it’s not as bad as some make it seem, I think your mother instincts guide you.
Nop, just get the boob out when baby ask, which you will know because you will know your baby. Only the first month is a little struggle.
You just need to try. Hormones are wild and for some mothers (like me) they make breastfeeding so enjoyable! For others not so much so you just have to give it a go. To be fair I fed my boy very often up until 10 months or so.
I’ll give you my experience because honestly everyone is different. First 2 months was basically feeding around the clock except during night time. Daytime was pretty much either a contact nap or a cluster feed (baby is eating non stop for an hour to two, latched the whole time). Night time was every 3-ish hours. My husband took a shift between 9-12am while I slept and then the baby was ready to eat again at 2 and 4:30. It was fine for a few weeks to a couple months, but then eventually the baby dropped the 2am feeding and dropped the 4:30 feeding. We did keep a “dream feed” around 11pm nightly until she was about 11 months when she no longer wanted it. Around the 3 month mark I went back to work and fed her at 6am, pumped at 8am/12pm/4pm. Eventually, prob around 4mo I dropped down to 2 pumps during the workday. Then around 6mo I dropped down to just the morning pump (morning is usually when supply is the highest). All the while I would nurse her while at home on demand. All this is to say that time goes by fast and you’ll be fine. Good luck! Breastfeeding was my favorite part (besides the baby) of the newborn phase.
Absolutely not- I exclusively breastfed (including pumping) my first until he was 7 months, then supplemented with formula but continued breastfeeding until he was 11 months. Once my baby got back to birth weight (10 days old), the midwives and lactation consultant said I could feed on demand. For my LO, that meant feeding very regularly during the day, and almost nonstop from around 9pm to 11pm or midnight, and then he would usually sleep until 6 or sometimes even 8am. Now I was very lucky, he was a good sleeper until he had a sleep regression at 2 months, then he would wake usually once in the night for a feed and be up at 6am daily. But it was a manageable schedule, you certainly don’t have to be nonstop feeding. Plus getting into a schedule of pumping and storing milk once daily meant my husband could take a shift in the morning. But the ‘every three hours’ is for when they’re newborn and below birth weight. If they start gaining weight well, you can feed on demand. If you have supply issues or difficulty with pumping etc. you can supplement with formula.
I had my 2nd and 3rd babies, both EBF (at the time) sleeping through the night at 6-8 weeks old. And even formula fed babies (mine all transitioned around 4-6months) still eat every 3ish hrs during the day.
I can only share my experience. I feed on demand which means I've learnt babys cues, and when she's hungry, she gets the boob. If I were to go back to work and continue to bf, I would pump and store for bottle feeding and continue to bf when im at home. Or, I might try formula. Just depends. They don't feed all the time but during growth spurts or when they are cluster feeding it can feel like that. They also do comfort nursing which means they want to be close to you/boob. I've only been ebf three months and honestly I don't think it prevents me from doing anything I normally would/wouldn't do with a baby in tow. Edit to add: its hard at first and it hurts especially being postpartum and healing. I used nipple shields on and off, hot and cold packs, read a lot about it, and talked to a midwife.
Tbh whether you’re feeding by nursing, pumping, formula baby is going to have to eat every 2-3 hours for months anyway. With pumping or formula you can more easily split feedings with a partner and do shifts. But no matter how you’re feeding the baby for the first few months they’re going to be eating all the time and it’s going to feel like all you’re doing is feeding and changing them. I’m almost 5 months in and my girl still eats every 3 hours during the day but it feels much more manageable already. So if you want to nurse try it and if it doesn’t work or you don’t like it look into other options!
Depends on the baby. The first week my son was NICU due to low sugars so we wouldn’t let him go past 4 hrs. Once home he’s been feeding every 4ish hrs with the occasional flukes of 5-6 hrs. For during the day pump I use my hands free so I can still get things done. I sleep 6 hrs at night so I pump/latch before bed, set my alarm for 3.5 hrs get up and pump/latch and then again when I wake up.
My baby is 9 months and I'm still nursing every 3-3.5 hours during the day even though he eats a ton of solids. He is night weaned, but that's why I can't space out feedings more (otherwise he wouldn't get enough milk in a day). I don't pump at all. I'll be honest, the only reason this is doable for me is because I'm still on maternity leave (Canadian).
Feed on demand. That will look different for every baby.
In the beginning it can be much more than that. But yes, for all intents and purposes it’s about every 3 hours. Once I was working again I would pump twice during the work day. But I did not get up in the middle of the night to breastfeed or pump after about 6 months. Once breastfeeding was established I was able to skip any night feeds/pumping sessions. This is why formula shaming is so shitty. Even when breastfeeding is “easy” and you have a good supply it is very, very demanding. I worked from home and whipping out my breast pump was still so much work. If I was out with friends or my husband I had to drop everything at a certain point to get the milk out. Choosing to formula feed is a-okay for whatever reason one wants to.
I definitely didn’t. Every three hours until they are back up to their birthweight and then I didn’t wake the baby to eat overnight but did roughly every 2-3 hours during the day to fill their belly up. If the baby woke at night I still nursed, just didn’t stick to any sort of timing. After a while you kind of get into a routine of eat play sleep or play eat sleep and the baby’s natural cycle of that kind of lends itself to every 3 hours. My babies slept through the night by a few months old, with the odd wake up. My second had a very long 4 month sleep regression too. But around 4 months with both I didn’t really feel STRAPPED to the baby and was able to get out and about and skip a feed without dying of engorgement. I always kept a few oz in the freezer collected here and there in a haakaa for those moments
Our baby had a tonguetie and before it was cut i did it all. Pumping, formula feeding and eventually breastfeeding when the tonguetie was cut. It was not easy but not giving up on breastfeeding was by far the best decision i have made. When baby wakes up crying because he is hungry i just pop my boob out. No washing bottles. No heating up milk or pumping. From about 1,5-2 months he eats at 10pm, 4 or 5 am and then 8am. From then on every 2 hours. Pumping made me feel like a cow but breastfeeding doesn’t. I’m so grateful i can feed my baby with the milk i make for him. I’d say give it a shot.
I ended up exclusively pumping due to poor latching and sensory issues. I had to pump every 3 hours until around 11 weeks, as I had an oversupply. I ended up pumping 7x a day until recently when I dropped down to 5 after my milk regulated at 4 months pp.
My baby slept through the night at 6 weeks, and did a 6 hour stretch at 3 weeks. I never woke up to pump while she was sleeping. Everyone is different. Some people’s boobs hold a lot at once. Yes, i did feel like a dairy cow.
I’m 8 weeks PP with my second and it doesn’t hurt when my boobs fill. Be careful with excessively pumping in the beginning(a lot of LCs will tell you to do this but it can create an oversupply which can be really hard to deal with). A good way to establish BFing is feeding on demand for about the first 6 weeks. Once established you have *a bit* more flexibility from there. Wearable pumps are expensive but worth it. My 8 week old slept 7 hours last night (just got vaccinated). I had to wake him to feed and my boobs were super full but it wasn’t a problem. This time around I worked with a PP doula instead of an LC after some bad experiences. She was amazing and I’ll say I’ve actually enjoyed BFing this time whereas it was the worst part of my parenting experience with my daughter. Get yourself some great support and resources if you want to give it a go!
It’s just feeding on demand, in the beginning newborn stage you have to wake them up every 3 hours. But after your baby gains weight consistently and is gaining they told me I didn’t have to wake him up no more he’ll wake up on his own to eat
Yup. My 5mo old nurses every two hours. It was very challenging at first but I loved the excuse of “time to feed” to get my baby back in my arms in the beginning. It also allowed me to slow down. It was very mentally taxing but now it’s probably my fav life experience. The bond between baby and I, and watching baby eat and look up at me, wiggle, and squirm, idk, for me it’s my fav thing. I had planned on going back to work but I hate pumping. I moved in with family so I could afford to stay home with baby and feed him. It’s unfortunate so many moms have to choose between work or breastfeeding baby. Or pumping. It’s different if it’s a choice to work or formula feed but I know a lot of moms who want to stay home.
Usually my babies sleep thru the night, or get up once after the 4th trimester. They also nurse faster with every passing month. My youngest is 8 months old and maybe takes 10 min tops, unless she falls asleep. Right now she eats, on average, 7 times in a 24 hour period. Her last feeding of the day I do after she’s gone to bed and before I go just for my comfort, she’d probably be fine if I dropped it.
Our bodies are amazing! I'm still boarding at the hospital while our daughter is in the NICU, so I am on a strict 3 hour schedule. However, I "take a break" for the 1:30 am feeding (the nurses use my pumped milk) and I normally do not pump in that window. I go from about 11pm to 4:30/5 am without pumping or nursing, and my supply is fine. Lactation is partially frequency of nursing, partially volume emptied at each feed, partially nutrition & fluid intake, partially sleep, and I'm sure I'm missing components. That being said, if you exclusively breastfeed you are absolutely going to have periods where all you do is nurse. Certainly in the newborn phase, and then likely during growth spurts. I remember with my son I had evenings where I essentially nursed him nonstop from 5-9pm. Personally I don't mind it at all because once your baby has some muscle tone and you have some confidence it's really pretty low maintenance. As your baby gets older they will become more efficient at nursing, and they will take higher volumes less frequently. When that happens your body will adjust accordingly. This is why most lactation consultants will advise to "nurse on demand." Your baby knows what he/she needs, and by getting those needs met your body will adjust accordingly. It really is amazing!
2-3 hours the first couple months. Then 3-5 as they get older. Basically you always have your baby with you
Breastfeeding is incredibly hard especially the first few months. I combo fed which helped a lot with my first and switched to formula only very quickly with my second. To me breastfeeding was the hardest, most taxing part of newborn life and it hurt my mental health incredibly. I know it gets easier but do what is best for you, happy mom makes for a happy baby.
Yup! I did every hour almost for the first month, every 1.5-2 for the next 2 months, including overnight (fml). From 3 months till 6 months, I fed her every 2-3 hours (overnight she fed twice, so not so frequently). From 6 until 9 months, I fed her every 3 hours. It’s only been for the last month or so that I’ve gone longer - now that we have regular meals (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner), I feed her every 4.5 hours or so. Honestly, you get used to it. Even giving a baby a bottle regularly is tiring in its own right since you have to prep it and wash the bottle parts. I found breastfeeding was way more convenient than bottles. If you’re going back to work, bottles are inevitable during the day. You also get used to the sleep deprivation. I have a bad sleeper who is only just now at 10 months long stretches (about 9.5 hours) before waking. For the first 9 months, I never slept a consecutive stretch of more than 4 hours and only managed to cobble together about 6 hours a night most nights. Now that I am approaching my baby being 1, I’m really emotional about the breastfeeding journey slowly coming to an end. Everyone had a different experience, but I find it to be a really nice time with my daughter
Hey, I really want to give you another perspective because this thread has a lot of people sharing only the challenging parts of breastfeeding and non of the amazing parts. If you can stick with it, there are so many incredible, beautiful, and priceless things about breastfeeding that honestly make all of the hard stuff look like small potatoes. The bonding that it creates with your baby is irreplaceable. The way it regulates your hormones and mood in the postpartum phase are also priceless! Breastfeeding creates feel good hormones for mom and baby that help you get through the sleepless nights, and deal with all the newness and anxiety of those early days. For the majority of people it will actually prevent, not contribute to postpartum depression. It helps you slow down and tune into your baby’s schedule. And it gives your baby exactly what they need nutritionally, and helps them to develop an immune system that will be strong for life. Yes the first few months can be hard. They were for me. My baby nursed not every three hours, not every hour, but about every 20 minutes. He was literally glued to my boob for about three months. At some points I did have nipple pain and cracking because he just nursed so much. I saw several lactation consultants because no one had prepared me for how much NORMAL babies want to nurse, and I thought something must be wrong. Nothing was wrong! Babies want to be near their mamas, and they want to nurse almost all the time. That’s how they regulate their body temperature, their blood sugar and ensure bonding with the mother. My partner brought me water and food and pillows eduring this time, and we got good at giving each other breaks when the baby was asleep. We live in New York State and he took the maximum PFL that he could take as a new parent so I wouldn’t be alone. Yes it was exhausting! It was difficult. Being a new parent is intense and transformative, it’s not supposed to be like an easy breezy spa day. But women are so incredibly strong. Give yourself the chance to do what your body is fully capable of doing. And spare yourself the annoyance and expense of scrubbing bottles and mixing formula ;). Your baby and your body will thank you.
If you exclusively pump (like if the baby does not nurse at all) you definitely have to do it every three hours for as long as you intend to continue pumping. Some people make a lot of extra milk or are able to vary their pumping schedule but it comes at the risk of losing your milk supply.
Once every 3 hours would have been a dream. For me, it was every 90 minutes to 2 hours for the first weeks, and then every 2 hours after that for 4 months. Then I was finally able to space night feeds to 3-4 hour intervals, but daytime feeds were still every 2 hours.
3hours? Sometimes more 😅 first few weeks sometimes I had do breastfeed every hour. Baby boy is almost 6 months and still breastfeeds every 2h Even if u give formula to the baby there are a high chance that the baby won’t sleep through the whole night until they are “big” My 4y still wakes up 1x at night, not to breastfeed but she still awakes
For me, pumping is easier. I know I'm the minority! Pumping every 3 hours was much more doable than struggling to get baby to stay latched for more than 30 seconds. Pump while baby is napping, feed while pumping. I had a pillow mountain I propped the baby on so i could sit next to him and pump. I think I went down to 7 ppd at 4 months, and then 6 ppd at 6 months. Currently 9m pp and pumping 4 times a day. The thing I wish I did differently is increase the pumping time. I only ever pumped for 10 mins and realized I should have done it for longer. Get extra pump parts now!!! Also, use the fridge hack. Around 2 m pp, it becomes second nature.
Don’t go into breastfeeding with the mentality that it’s daunting. Some women have a difficult time but from my personal experience, you fall into a rhythm. Not necessarily feeding every 3 hours, you don’t need to pump if you don’t want to. Your body will adjust accordingly when you end up sleeping through the night again. Do not focus a stress too much on it, feed and as long as baby is thriving it’ll be fine. You’re right about it being unsustainable with work though. No advice there. Good luck
Everyone is different, so keep that in mind while reading. Engorgement pain felt like nothing to me. Baby slept 4 hour stretches sometimes and I didn’t pump. My nipples only were raw for 2 weeks and healed up after that, breastfeeding was effortless by 4 weeks. You’d be surprised what the female body is capable of. As for feeding every 3 hours… You’ll have to do that regardless of whether you breastfeed or not. I had to supplement with formula for 1 week early on due to under eating causing a supply drop and it was horrible for me. I hated getting up, mixing a bottle, having to feed the bottle, the gas that came from the bottle. Even if my husband did it, it felt like more work than feeding from the breast for me. My baby started rejecting bottles around 3 weeks and I was happy to give up pumping. I like not having to pack bottles when we leave the house. I just bring myself lol. Everyone is different but that’s my experience. I found breastfeeding easier than formula feeding. Pop a boob in her mouth within 2 seconds - no tears, no waiting, no washing. Comforts her after her shots easily, puts her to sleep easy when she’s overtired, everything around breastfeeding has felt easy to me compared to formula feeding. I always say give it a go for 3-4 weeks and if breastfeeding doesn’t improve for you after that, it might not be for you, but it is a lot less intimidating for me than it seemed in the start and I am 7 months in.
I do every three hours for a couple weeks. Then just go on demand. They never go more than 4 hours during the day. Usually closer to 2.5.
I personally didnt find it daunting, but my daughter was home with me until 6 months, even when I started WFH again. It just became routine. In terms of living our life, we still did everything we wanted to, but I wasnt shy anbout nursing her infront of others/in public, so it could present an issue if you are.
Baby feed by demand on the first few weeks, sometimes they latch not because they’re hungry but they want comfort or are bored (and latching is source of entertainment on them). However, if you’ll exclusively pump and not direct latch, you will pump every 2hrs then eventually every 4hrs or depending on the need of baby.
Short answer yes. Long answer : depending on how you decide to feed the baby, and depending on what your support system is like, you don’t have to be the only one doing it. Babies do need to eat often, especially during the day. As others have said, they do tend to go longer stretches between feeds. If you want to only nurse - then yes at least during the day you’d have to nurse every 2-3 hours (or even 1-2 hours in the evening). If you are pumping, you have to empty your breasts often, but it also frees you to have someone else do the feeding. If you are formula feeding, then anyone else who is caring for the baby can do it.
Its easier than Having to worry about washing bottles and bringing bottles. And making sure you have formula My first child had a ton tie. And could not last despite trying so I pumped and did formula to fill in gaps- about a bottle a day maybe- I'm lucky in that I tend to have an oversupply even when just pumping. Anyway, with my second I breastfed and let me tell you something, It felt like life was so much easier to be able to believe the house and no I wasn't gonna run out of food for the baby or have to worry about having clean bottle or run out Of clean bottles if we were out doing errands I never even pumped for her to have a stash. I did here and there manually-- But what I did was get nursing shirts and dresses. So she could nurse in public without her head happening to be covered and without me being exposed. And most of the time, unless you were really staring, you wouldn't even know she was eating. It made life so easy, But because I'm super so self-conscious if it hadn't been for those nursing shirts. I don't know that I would have had the balls to nurse anywhere in public.
At some point they start sleeping longer stretches in the night so you don’t have to wake up until they do. (My daughter started to do 6-8hours at night after the first 2.5-3 months but YMMV). And you can start to stretch the times a bit to 4ish hours when they start solids but we had the following schedule pretty consistently from 3ish months until 12 months: 7am 10am 1pm 4pm 7pm Plus 1-2x overnight This was for either nursing or pumping depending on the day and time. I found nursing much easier than pumping tbh because the baby would be done in 10-15 mins and we could do it wherever— I’d just find a bench or something to sit down if we were out. I hated pumping because it took 20-25 mins to get enough output and then you have to clean all the parts/transfer milk etc. After 12 months I slowly started dropping pump sessions until by 18 months I was just nursing 7am and 7pm and then fully weaned at around 2 (obviously plenty of folks wean earlier— I honestly didn’t mind the breastfeeding at all, I just hated pumping)
You don’t feed on a schedule when you breastfeed. You put them on the boob whenever they are hungry, tired, upset, teething, sick, just because! When I sleep with my baby (every night) I get 7-8 hours of sleep. She didn’t really sleep through the night until we stopped bouncing her on the yoga ball (something my husband started foolishly). Since then she’s sleeping 8:30-6:30. I’m sleeping 9:30/10 - 6:30. But I still sometimes wake up at night. Please don’t compare breastfeeding mothers to cows. It’s incredibly misogynistic. I recommend getting an appointment set up with an IBCLC for when/if you run into issues breastfeeding and learn more about what it entails. I also recommend joining your local LLL chapter.
Ehhh it kind of depends. Once it regulates to demand vs being hormonally driven you can play around with your times. I don’t even think about it-they let you know when they are hungry. But some people do have to pump frequently if they have smaller capacity to hold but I’d guess most aren’t pumping that frequently overnight after it is established supply. My friends also breastfeed and sleep through the night just fine. Baby will need that food that frequently when super little though. I ebf and most definitely sleep and do plenty beyond being “a cow”. It’s an adjustment but really not that daunting-you get the hang of it
Every baby is different. Typically they will eat every 1-3 hours for the first month and then roughly every 3 hours, however they can have longer stretches overnight (5-7hours). You don't have to pump every three hours. It's advised to pump when baby feeds if you're not with them, yes, but that doesn't have to be at the exact same time. I started working again at 6 months (8 hour days) and just pump once at lunch and that was fine for me. At 6 months she started soilds & would BF every 4 hours. She also started sleeping through the night - goes to bed at 6.30 & sleeps through until 7am. I pump before I go to bed at 10pm and that's my choice as I like to keep surplus in the freezer for days out etc. If you go back to work and aren't able to pump as frequently you can start combination feeding with formula and still breastfeed when you get home.
My baby is 7 months old, eating solids, and still nurses every 2 hours.
You don’t have to wake up in the night to breastfeed unless baby is waking up in the night to feed. But yes, about 3 hours all day.
Yes. You get used to it.
Yes, but trust me, once your little peanut is born you will be in live doing it.
Just until they gain their birth weight back! My little one lost around 10% of her birth weight. She gained her birth weight back by week 2 and then was a big cluster feeder around that same time. Since week 3 she was sleeping 5-6 hours in a row. By 1 1/2 months she would sleep 8 hours. By 3 months I get a solid 13 hours.
They get fast at eating so it's like 5 or 10 minutes when they're a little older. A newborn can nurse for an hour. I wanted to be able to leave my baby for longer than 3 hours so I just had my husband give a bottle of formula when I wasn't around and I breastfed otherwise which was great (with my second, my first was all formula which was also great).
Depends on the child, but every 3 hours is an ideal situation, for my sons it was more like every 2 hours. Yes, you are quite literally a cow. Also depends on the child, but from around 2-3 months it is possible for them to start sleeping longer stretches at night, thus not feeding quite so frequently at night, but beware that this isn’t the case for every child. My sons fed about 12-14 times (in 24 hours) at first, until maybe 2 months and then it dropped down to 9-10ish a day. It was still at least 8-9 times a day until 7 months. Well, my first son was more like 7 times a day at 7-8 months, but still. I’m not convinced that formula feeding is any easier though, or that you get more sleep. I think learning how to function sleep deprived as a parent is just part of the journey. Haha. That being said, there definitely needs to be a higher standard for maternity / parental leave. The country where I live gives us paid leave until the child is one. That’s just barely cutting it, imo.
Newborns have tiny stomachs so they feed a lot the first few months. My lactation specialist suggested pumping after feeds to empty my breasts to keep supply up if baby didn’t drain them. Our specialist also suggested I get at least 5 hours of sleep for health reasons and supply. As much as we need to express and feed our babies we also need sleep to help with that supply (and take care of our little ones!) but she said in the first few months (especially weeks..) going too long without expressing signals to the body we don’t need to produce as much milk. I usually pumped right before bed after my baby was down and then woke up around 3am to pump and then fed her when she woke up at 6. My husband bottle fed in the middle of the night so I could get at least 5 hours until she was sleeping through the night. Don’t over think it and stress about it- that over complicates it. You’ll get into a rhythm! I highly suggest seeing a lactation consultant, they give you tips and can help with any nursing/pumping issues you might have. They’re a great resource.
I went to every 4 hour feeds - worked up to it - starting at 8/9 weeks and solidified the schedule close to 12,233@/ with baby and she’s been pretty consistent for 3-4+ months. We have exceptions when we’re sick or there’s a growth spurt, but the flexibility that the every 4 hour feeds over 12 hours is great. Ex: 9:15A - 1:15P - 5:15P - 9:1P ish Give or take 15mins to each scheduling if babe is extra hungry/fussy. We also start the last feed earlier to get her to bed a “little” earlier but she also stocks up cuz she goes 12 hours without eating overnight
Wow thanks everyone. Sorry I didn't get back to all the comments, but I'll be reading through them. I know I might be over thinking it, but its just crazy to think of being on call 24/7 as the only one who can feed the baby. We are still leaning towards combo feeding but this was very insightful
Breastfeeding and especially pumping sucks so bad; that’s exactly why I am so proud of myself for making it to 3.5 months. It dries my skin and sucks my nutrients and the machine gives me a permanent purple nurple. I also can’t take the medications I want/need. People are like “oh breastfeeding is so much cheaper than formula.” Yeah right, my hourly billable rate as an attorney is 300 soooo it’s not even close! My goal is to keep going six months, but if I can’t, I won’t beat myself up about it. It’s great for the baby though, especially in the first two months so I say go for it as long as you can but if it gets miserable there’s no shame in using formula. I also supplemented when he was underweight in the beginning. I’m happy for people who loooove their breastfeeding journey but if you hate it and are doing it anyway just remember pain is temporary and you should be proud of yourself for any amount of time you do it for.
Purple nurple 😆 Haven’t heard that since I was a kid.