Breastfeeding moms

I have a couple of questions:

My daughter latches on great, our feedings go well. She'll go about 40 minutes total, sometimes a little less other times longer. But sometimes after feeding she'll make the motions that she wants to eat again after an hour. Other times she can go about 3 hours without making any motion of wanting to eat. If I feed her right away sometimes she'll only go for about 10 minutes.

Did anyone else have the same kind of response? If so what did you do? They say to feed a newborn whenever they are hungry but I'm not sure if she's hungry or if she's just looking for the closeness. We are trying to give her a pacifier every now and then but she doesn't seem to want it yet.

TIA

Re: Breastfeeding moms

I nursed Emma whenever she seemed hungry in the beginning. Its a great way to build your supply. Their little tummies take a while to fill and once they start to empty they think they need to eat... they've never felt hunger before. Id nurse her then when you get her signals for true hunger down then Id stop and offer her something else.

Re: Breastfeeding moms

I did the same. You feed them when they're hungry in the beginning. As for the pacifier, we didn't introduce it until he was at least a month old. We tried not to give him one, but it helps soothe him. They also say that it's not good to give a baby a pacifier or bottle in the beginning if you are breastfeeding, so it doesn't confuse the baby. I'm not sure that's true, but we didn't do the bottle either until he was 5 weeks old. He had to start daycare when he was 6 weeks old, so we gave him a bottle a week before to make sure he liked it.

Re: Breastfeeding moms

I thought that about the pacifer and I'm really not crazy about giving it to her. I already told DH that I only want to give it to her when she's really trying for one.

I'm glad to hear though that I'm not the only one that had this kind of thing happen.

Re: Breastfeeding moms

I never gave Emma a pacifier. She was ok without it. I didnt want to have a habit to break. I see kids who are like 3-4 with them and I didnt want to see Emma that way, plus I was concerned with her teeth. I didnt want her to become dependant on it to fall asleep.

Re: Breastfeeding moms

Molly has NEVER had a pacifer...and she will be a year old next month. I saw no reason to give her one. I tried once when she was really crying and she spit it out and that was the end of that.

Re: Breastfeeding moms

hi my son anthony is 1 month and i feel like he is always hungry. he eats 40-60 min at a time every 2-3 hours at night he sleeps for5 hours. i feel like when he is awake all he wants is to eat. i have often wondered about the closeness also. he will take the pacifier sometimes but most of the time the only thing that will calm him is the breast. i understand how u feel.

Re: Breastfeeding moms

It takes 6 weeks for your milk to really establish which is why the baby is eating so often. It is nature's way of making sure your supply is up and ready.

Enjoy this time. I wish Molly has latched and since she didn't I had to 'bond' with a breast pump which is NOT the same as your little one.