Baby falling asleep on breast

[carang]

my 4 month old would only ever feed for 10 mintues at a time, still hard to get her to feed more. i, too, was worried until the first check up and i found that she was gaining very well. then by the 2 month check up she'd doubled her birth weight.

the best advice i can off is RELAX!!! getting all stressed out is NOT going to help, only hinder you.

so, RELAX and ENJOY!

 

[carang]

ps. forget to say that to keep my girl awake for longer, i'd actually undress her, so she was a little on the cool side. (she was also 4 weeks early and 2.47kg at birth)

 

[Susannie]

Carang,
I'm in similar situation like you are...my 2-month-old baby only sucks no longer than 10 mins each time ever, but is gaining weight healthily. But i wonder what's your feeding time gaps? For me, during the day, baby feeds like every hourly or so!!! it's killing me. and at night, she feeds between 3-5 hrs, much better than during the day.

 

[carang]

generally during the day it can be every 1.5-3 hours. she goes to sleep by 8pm every night and wakes between 3-5am for 15 minute feed and back to sleep until 7-9am...has been this way for at least a month

 

[becs]

Mintycat, you are doing really well! If you are determined to BF then it will all work out fine, your baby must almost be 3 weeks now and will start taking in more at each feed and last longer inbetween.

My boy was also sleepy and jaundiced and needed phototherapy, I had to supplement with a bottle but cut it out as soon as his weight was back up, the breasts take about 2 days to adjust to a new feeding requirement, and thus after 2 days of feeding every 1.5-2 hrs, he was back to needing to be woken for feeding (at least every 3 hrs to get your milk supply going initially, but if you are able to give so much EBM your supply sounds fine).

At 3 weeks, he took 7-15mins each feed, with the exception of one 30-40 min feed each day, took 8 feeds/day, gained wgt well, and still prefers the breast to bottle (much to my dismay as I am back at work and want him to take the bottle). It was a struggle for me and I don't think at your stage I was able to pump out nearly so much milk, so well done!

One good way to get up supply is after that feed, to pump from the breast your babe fed on first for that meal, just an extra 1/2 oz is good enough to stimulate more milk

 

[virginiayue]

Mintycat, don't worry, you are doing fine. One tip is make sure your baby is taking not only the front part of your breast milk, because he will get very hungry very quicky as the front milk are water and less fat. During the night if you are tired, it is important for you to get good rest in order to produce milk, so EBM during the night is a good idea if you have someone helps you. Babies get tired easier on the breast because they need more energy, so top up by bottle is also fine. It is much less work for a baby to have the bottle. However, they do fall in sleep a lot, so don't worry. I have twins and they are 13 months now and I have been breastfed both of them until 6 months and EBM aftter until now. They have not taken any formula so far.