It has always been my understanding that babies are supposed to nursed on demand - as an adult, I don't even find myself eating on a schedule, let alone force my 3-month-old baby onto one. DD has been sleeping through the night of her own volition since she was seven weeks old - at least five hours, but more often seven or eight. She also nurses anywhere from every hour (from the start of one feeding to the start of the next) to every two and a half.
I went into see her new pediatrician yesterday and ended up seeing her assistant physician who seemed surprised that I wasn't bothered at all about how often/much I feed DD and that I don't keep track of feedings and can only guess how often they are, because I keep track of diapers instead. She asked me if DD was "well hydrated" and I stared blankly at her, confused, until she said, "How often do you give her water?"
I told her, "Not at all because she's exclusively breastfed" and then she told me I needed to space out the feedings to at least every two hours so DD didn't become overweight. I was under the impression that weight was not something you worried about infants unless it was a failure-to-thrive scenario. I see online the recommendation is "6-9 feedings per day", but it just seems kind of silly to have to count them and space them out instead of just... I don't know, feeding her when she's hungry. Am I being too flippant about this? She also seemed surprised I had no problems to complain about at all, asked me if she was gassy, colicky, excessively hungry, etc. and all I could think was no, she's such a perfect baby and no trouble at all (and this coming from a woman dealing with anxiety and a very stressful financial situation).
FWIW, DD is 24.5 inches tall (5.5 inches in height growth since birth) and 12 lbs, 8 oz (6 lbs in weight gain since birth).
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