Breastfeeding Support Group Community

Hi Angie! I totally remember you from the 3rd tri boards. How are things going? Glad to hear breastfeeding is going well for you. I'm by no means an expert--I''ve actually been having major issues with breastfeeding myself, but thought I'd chime in nonetheless. My DD does the same thing...it's hard to get her to nurse for 15 minutes Anyway, have you tried pumping and then bottle feeding to get her to take in more at a time? Maybe just in the evenings so you can have a few hours between feedings? That's something my pediatrician actually suggested as a way to help save your sanity. Just a thought... I saw you posted on the first year boards as well, so hopefully you get some other ideas there too. Good luck!

Hi, have you looked at the kellymom.com website? This website has helped me a lot with questions like these. Otherwise the only advice I have for this situation is probably what you do not want to hear (sorry!), but I will share anyway. First of all, I cosleep. Not for everyone I know, but it works for me. When my baby first goes to sleep at night she will sleep by herself for a good 4-7 hours, then I take her to bed with me until the morning because after that she wants to nurse every hour.
Second, I would do a lot of research or talk to a lactation consultant before messing around with trying to get her to eat both sides. With my first baby breastfeeding went beautifully, I ignored what the nurses in the hospital told me, I read a book on it though, but ultimately I let my son do his thing. With my second baby I forgot to reread my book, and I listened to what the nurses told me about having her nurse 15 min on both sides each time. So I started out by making her do this, I would wake her up and put her on the other side. I think it was a huge mistake for us. I started producing so much milk (I think it was because I was having her nurse both sides every time) that she refused to eat and would scream, pull away, arch her back, cough, while milk was spraying in her face. This would go on for hours, even after I changed what I was doing and would only let her nurse one side at a time, its a hard problem to fix. Another thing that might happen if you try to mess with how they feed is that they will get an imbalance of foremilk and hindmilk. This will lead to digestive upset. This has happened to me, and it made my baby verrryyyy crabby.
It is very common for breastfed babies to eat frequently, especially after mom returns to work because they are trying to make up for lost time.

Hi Angie,

My DD did that too in the early days. She cluster fed quite often. Nursing once an hour was pretty common for us. She would sometimes nurse 12 times a day.

If she is acting contented after eating one side, she probably is. Even if you could wake her up to feed her on the other side, my guess is that she would refuse because she isn't hungry anymore. Just remember to switch sides if she is nursing just one side at a time.

One thing that I would do with my DD is this: I would nurse her on one side and then if she fell asleep, I would put her down in her co-sleeper which would wake her up and then I could nurse her on the other side. This was my trick during the night.

And don't worry.... you'll get through this. My DD's night waking subsided to 1-2 times a night through 7 months. At which point, she just started sleeping through the night.

Good luck!