How many times and how long will a newborn feed?

[flower01]

Hi all!

I'm being induced on Monday and plan to exclusively breast feed this baby, I pumped for my other babies and then formula.

I am wondering as I keep hearing different things roughly how many times does a newborn feed in the first few weeks?
The midwife said every 3 hours?

Thanks ladies

Xx

 

[leash27]

I am still very much a novice to BF but so far have learnt that there is no set schedule to begin with! My LO sometimes feeds every 3 hours but will often want feeding sooner and if I let her she would occasionally wait longer too. My MW has advised not to let her go longer than 3 hours in these first few weeks as it's important that she is feeding regularly and building up my supply so I do have to wake her up every now and then to feed.

In terms of length of feeds, we vary from 5 mins to half an hour so again, no set schedule here either! I guess every baby is different so it's difficult to plan how things are going to go until LO is here!

X

 

[patch2006uk]

It'll be much more than every 3 hours. Plan to feed around the clock. Breastfeeding doesn't work like formula - feeds are less defined and won't come to a schedule. Think how often you eat and drink - is it always after a set interval? If you plan and prepare to feed often, then you might be pleasantly surprised if it's less frequent. If you only think you're going to be feeding every 3 hours, then I guarantee you're going to feel disheartened and frustrated when it's more frequent.

https://kellymom.com/bf/normal/newborn-nursing/

 

[ShanandBoc]

^ Guess it depends on the bubba. My dd never fed around the clock. Every 3-4 hours for around 40 mins.

She is now 12 weeks and feeds every 3-4 hours during the day but feeds are around 15 mins and she sleeps 6 hours straight at night, nurses, then sleeps another 4 hours

 

[amy_lou]

It depends on the baby. With my little one, she did cluster-feeding for the first few days (which was brutal, but it helped my milk supply) and would eat almost every hour for about four hours, and then would go for longer stretches in between. After the first few days she ate every 2-3 hours for about a week, then went to every 3 hours. She is a month old now and eats about every 3 hours with a 4-5 hour stretch here and there.

 

[Sarah lo]

Mine fed pretty much all day every day and most of the night too for the first 4-5 weeks before eventually spacing his feeds out to about every 3 hours by around 10 weeks.

I second what patch said, go on the assumption that your LO will want to feed all day every day and then you'll only be pleasantly surprised

 

[armywife11]

I fed on demand and there wasn't a real schedule those early days. In the day time she was all over the place. Night was the only time she would nurse every 3 to 4 hours. I feel like most days (except during cluster feeds) she was an every hour nurser or the most part.

Length was anywhere from 15 min to an hour. Usually the longer nurses happened right before a nap. Bed time she was around 20/25 min.

Every baby is different. My girlfriend exclusively breastfed three babies and they were all different. Her first was a lot like mine, her second was a lazy nurser, and her third is a quick nurser.

 

[Night Flower]

Mine pretty much fed from start to start, every 1-1.5hrs during the day and sometimes going two hours stretches. I practically was always holding her until she was 3 weeks old.

By 3 weeks she was eating every two hours. But hourly cluster feedings in the evening from 4pm-10pm

By 5-6 weeks, she ate every 2hrs or so but started sleeping longer at night. Again, more cluster feedings between 4-10pm

Now at 7 weeks she eats about every 2 hours still. Last feeding at 10pm. A 1am feed. 4am feed. And then starts back up at 7am feed. Then every two hours after that. By 5pm, she's cluster feeding again until 10pm.

 

[pinkpolkadot]

As the others have said, it varies baby to baby!

DD1 was on almost constantly the firstweek or so, she gradually spaced to 2 hours feeding for 30 min ish during the day (with the odd longer gap) but sleeping all night.

DD2 was very sleepy the first few weeks so fed more like every 3 hours in the day every 4 at night with feeds being from 30-60min and is still pretty much like that now but the feeds are shorter (10-20 min) with the odd few days of feeding more often during growth spurts.

When I say 2, 3, 4 hours this is only very rough and on average as it can be quite random feeding on demand!

 

[flower01]

Thank you ladies very helpful to know xx

 

[greekgirl]

throwing my two cents in... mine fed around every 1.5-2 hours at first for about 30 minutes and then we got to a steady every 3 hours 20 minutes. 10 minutes on each breast. now that we are teething he feeds sometimes every hour for 2-5 minutes and then other times it's every 2-3 hours for 10 minutes. we are all over the place but like said above, every baby is different. just no matter what, keep at it till you get a schedule of some sort.