11 week old, nurses every 3-4 hours

[Nicole730]

I'm wondering what your opinion or experiences have been. DD (11 weeks) has always nursed every 2-3 hours during the day and every 4-8 hours at night. Now that she is a little older, she will sleep two huge chunks a night, usually 6 hours and 5 hours. During the day, she naps a lot and nurses every 3 hours or so. I nurse on demand and with DS that was every 2 hours or less, around the clock until he was over 9 months. Because she is so different, it has me slightly worried. She was almost a pound more than DS at birth, but at the same point now, he was over a pound more. I want to believe that my body is producing what she needs, but it is still so odd to me. DS would nurse for 5 minutes one side. She nurses 5 minutes on one side most of the time, once in awhile she will take both sides.

She also loves sucking on a pacifier. Like yesterday I tried to get her to go to sleep while nursing her, I knew she was tired by how she was acting. She kept fussing and fussing, but latching on and off and whatnot. I stuck a paci in her mouth and she instantly closed her eyes, relaxed, and fell asleep. I am not a huge fan of pacifiers, but I do think she likes them.

We've attempted bottles twice and she wasn't interested. She actually slept for almost 8 hours, with a break or two while DH attempted the bottle, she just ignored the bottle and went to sleep. When she is hungry, she does nurse very well and I don't think there is nipple confusion, even with her using a paci. I think she just uses my nipples for food and rubber nipples for comfort.

I don't know what exactly I'm looking for, but maybe just that it's normal...

She was 8lb 8oz at birth and at 11 weeks she is just about 12 lbs. She poops 3 times a day and lots of pee diapers.

Thanks!

[PatioGardener]

if my math is correct, she has gained 56 oz in 9 weeks (guessing she was back to birth weight at 2 weeks). 56/9 = 6.2 oz/week

typical wt gain is 5-7 oz/week, so you guys are right on track!

WHO growth chart: http://www.who.int/childgrowth/stand...irls_p_0_6.pdf

[zinemama]

It sounds about right to me re the weight gain.

I had supply issues my first time around and it took a long while for me to feel comfortable that everything was actually working the way it was supposed to with my second baby. I went in for way more weight checks than I needed to. But I don't regret it for a moment. I needed that reassurance. You might, too.

[ramama]

Yeah, sounds normal to me too! I know how it is when nursing habits differ from child to child. DD1 was a monster nurser, seemingly always nursing. With DD2, there would be times when she was in the carrier and I was running errand after errand and then realized that it's been several hours and she hadn't nursed, with no complaint from her at all.

[Nicole730]

Thanks for the responses. It really is weird how different two kids can be, even though they look so much alike. I am thankful she likes to sleep so much and isn't constantly nursing...but still is so odd.